SEO for Car Dealers: How to Rank #1 in Local Searches
We wanted to outline some core strategies and tips to help you with some immediate improvements to your visibility, but also explain how we can potentially help your business grow.
Jon here from Ality Advertising & SEO agency based in the heart of London. Over the years, we’ve guided countless businesses in enhancing their online visibility, and today, I’m focusing on a niche that’s dear to our hearts: car dealerships.
SEO for car dealers isn’t just about boosting your website’s position on a global scale. The real game-changer? Local SEO. As a dealership, your primary customers are in your vicinity, and tapping into local searches can bring a dramatic uptick in both foot traffic and leads.
Google My Business: Your Local SEO Powerhouse
Perhaps the most potent tool in the local SEO for car dealers’ arsenal is Google My Business (GMB). If you haven’t claimed your GMB profile yet, one it’s free and two, it’s a must-do for any business – now’s the time!
How to Optimise and Claim Your GMB Profile:
Claim Your Listing
Search for your business on GMB. If it exists, click on “Claim this business.” If it doesn’t, create a new listing.
Complete Every Section
Fill in every detail – from your business hours to the brands of cars you sell. The more information you provide, the better. It shouldn’t have to be said, but ensure that your local businesses include your address and phone number.
Upload High-Quality Photos
Showcase your dealership, available cars, and any special facilities. Regularly update your images.
Get Reviews
Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews. Respond to reviews, both good and bad, to show engagement. Trust for a new customer is an absolute must, as over the years the car dealership’s reputation hasn’t been the best.
Maybe I’m being a little unfair and that’s long gone now, but still, it’s super important to build those relationships and drive home online reviews. Get on Trust Pilot early doors and Google Reviews.
Post Regularly
Use GMB as a social media platform. Share news, promotions, or updates about new stock.
Beyond GMB: Holistic Local SEO Strategies and Tactics
This is how we could help you grow your business, drive traffic to your website landing pages and generate more leads and customer enquiries.
1. Keyword Research
Understand the terms your potential customers are using. Are they looking for “luxury cars in London” or “affordable family cars near me”? Utilize tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or SEMrush to unearth local keywords. This is fairly difficult if you don’t know how to do this, but we are on hand to help don’t worry.
2. Competitive Analysis
Identify the top-ranking car dealers in your area. What are they doing right? Analyze their content, backlinks, and keywords to get insights. There are great ways to steal your competitors’ traffic and you can (we can) spy on their PPC advertising campaigns through the use of specific software.
If a competitor is willing to pay Google Adwords for traffic, then why not rank for these keywords organically? We’ve done this time and time again, such a great tactic to beat your competition.
3. Site Audits
Regular site audits help in finding issues that might be hindering your site’s performance. This could range from broken links, and duplicate content, to slow-loading pages.
4. Technical SEO
Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, has a fast loading speed, uses secure HTTPS, and has structured data markups. This ensures Google can crawl and index your site efficiently. It’s important to make sure you have Google’s Search Console set up, we can help you with this.
5. Mobile Optimisation & Page Speed
Over 75% of the UK public browse online via their mobile devices, which includes local area searches and millions of people use Google Maps to find services, so again a nudge to ensure your Google business profile is totally up to speed.
6. Content Marketing
Regularly publish content relevant to your target audience. It could be blogs about car maintenance tips, new car reviews, or financing advice. Use your researched keywords naturally within this content. Obviously, we can handle all this for you as part of a monthly package, so if you don’t have the resources, don’t worry, we’ve got your back.
7. Digital Marketing
In general, we can review and discuss your business as a whole, look at your current marketing strategy (if you have one) and how you work across the automotive market, attract car buyers and manage your online presence.
Why Partner with an SEO Agency like Ality?
Sure, you could attempt to navigate the SEO landscape independently. But when you’re juggling sales, customer relations, and inventory, SEO might not get the attention it deserves. That’s where we come in.
By partnering with Ality, you gain access to:
– Expertise in the ever-evolving world of SEO
– Dedicated professionals conducting regular site audits and implementing necessary changes
– A team constantly updated with the latest SEO trends and Google algorithm shifts
– More time for you to focus on what you do best: selling cars
Final Thoughts
“SEO for Car Dealerships” isn’t just a trendy buzz phrase—it’s a necessary strategy in today’s digital age. By prioritizing local SEO combined with PPC and national SEO (if you have multiple dealerships) you can stand a chance to tap into a vast pool of potential customers online.
Remember, while the journey might seem daunting, with the right strategies and partners like Ality, the road to the top of local & national searches becomes much smoother.
Here’s to driving more traffic to your website and cars off your garage lot! Jon, Ality Advertising Agency delivers SEO and content marketing for your business.
