As an award-winning automotive digital agency we take pride in being a certified digital partner of manufacturers like Kia, especially when it comes to making the best possible websites. One aspect that allows these websites to thrive is the carefully crafted SEO content. So, we want to briefly discuss why car dealerships benefit from the same SEO practices regular websites use.
Car Dealerships need to pay close attention to their SEO because their websites are far more elaborate than a regular E-Commerce or portfolio site. It is true that your website can rank either nationally or
locally. While a national rank sounds like the better option, Dealerships should actually be focusing on local SEO to rank locally (which allows them to target a more specific audience). With thousands of links, images, ads, and web copy, making the best use of local geographic keywords, tags, and optimized pages can make the difference when trying to reach the top 3 spots on Google or other web browsers.
In today’s digital climate, it’s hard enough for any business to rank high on Google due to heavy and growing competition. When it comes to car dealerships, the battle for top ranks is far more competitive due to the endless list of car suppliers. While some car buyers might have a general idea of what they are looking for, the majority of people are going to research cars online before making a decision. To this point, Google states,
The average car shopper today makes just two dealership visits in the search for the perfect vehicle. That's because today, car shoppers turn to mobile to research models, find deals, and get real-time advice.
Because of this low number of physical visits, the endeavor to be seen online becomes even more challenging. In addition to all of the links, ads, and images, many dealerships may have multiple family-owned locations in the same city or the surrounding cities, which means multiple websites need to have shared media and content. To further the complexity, each dealership website most likely has a separate website that is required by the auto manufacturer. Now the amount of websites has doubled, along with everything that is included on each site.
There is a lot to manage when coming up with a marketing strategy and SEO package for all of these websites. Thankfully, Sokal can manage your site’s SEO for you so you don’t have to. We offer many ways to increase the SEO value of your site, and a few major points are listed for you below. Whether you are thinking about partnering with us or wanting to manage things yourself, these tips and tools can help you.
(1) Utilize Custom Home Page Content To Inform Readers
Customized local content is essential for web visibility. Many dealerships may neglect having information about their location on their homepage for viewers to read. While having information on the About page is helpful, home page content is an opportunity to welcome visitors and explain the nature of the dealership.
This space on your website can also be used to implement more keywords, which helps boost the rank of your site. Since Sokal’s websites are modular, creating and updating home page content is taken care of with no hassle. Learn more about custom content by checking out our SEO page!
(2) Directory Listing Synchronization Is Vital
While this sounds like a mouth-full, it is actually a pretty easy concept to understand. It is essential that your Google and other directory listings match the content on your website. Important information like phone numbers, a company address, and website URL should match on both your website and directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc. For example, if your dealership were to move from one location to another, updating your directory location should be a main priority. Otherwise, buyers might end up in an old location, causing you to potentially lose a client.
In addition, always try to respond to both positive and negative reviews that you receive. When you acknowledge and respond to a review, Google has more data to use for ranking, and it also allows crawlers and bots to see that you are an active account. Sokal can help manage your directory listings to make sure they are always up to date and match accordingly.
(3) Behavioral Tracking Is Valuable Information For Making Improvements
It is important to know what kind of traffic your website is receiving monthly and even daily. Our behavioral tracking methods can help diagnose where visitors are coming from, how long they are staying on your site, which buttons they click the most, and a number of other useful statistics.
Sokal uses the Google suite of analytic tools in addition to other leading SEO program tools to strengthen your web presence. If you choose to partner with us, we can provide you with a monthly user behavior report that will help you craft and revise your marketing plan.
(4) Blog Posts Inform Your Customers And Strengthen Your Site
Blog posts increase your opportunity to share valuable content about vehicles and they can increase the visibility of your site. As stated before, the more content the better, as long as it is meaningful, has a purpose, and is well-thought-out. Blog posts are yet another opportunity to include more keywords, more links, and ways to highlight specific information you deem valuable.
Some dealerships may neglect including a blog due to low page views or low engagement, but Google can still use the content to index information when crawling through your site. We offer several Blog options at Sokal, starting at 2 Blogs per month up to 4 Blogs per month depending on your need. Check out our own blog post on blogging here!
(5) Don't Forget About Google My Business
Just like the regular directories, making sure that dealership website information matches your Google My Business listing is imperative. It is also necessary to include some extra information that viewers might find helpful, like photos and reviews, which increases their chances of clicking through to your site. Google My Business also allows users to post videos and even set up a Q&A section to correspond with the community of viewers.
Google My Business is proven to have a direct correlation to local SEO, so use it to your advantage. Consider partnering with Sokal so that you have one less media to worry about. Reach out to us and we can put together a posting schedule that works for you.
Things To Remember:
Dealership websites are much more complex than an average site, so making use of every tool available will help increase the rank of your site quicker than only using metadata and a few alternate text tags.
Make sure that all of your company directories and listings have the correct information that resembles what is on your site, including Google My Business. This is a good place to start if you are unsure about whether investing in SEO is right for your company.
While this article is not extensive, MOZ, one of our trusted partners and helpful tools, has published their own Blog about why Car Dealerships need to optimize their websites. If you are not already using an SEO strategy, we hope that you will start using one soon. If you have further questions about various SEO methods, or if you are ready to start a work conversations, send us a message and we will respond by the end of the day. We’ve got your back.
