Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most popular yet misused digital marketing strategies for car dealerships. Much more than simply loading content with keywords that rank highly. SEO is a strategic approach that optimizes resources for people and computers. Yes, people and computers. Search engines need to be able to understand and easily crawl through content to find keywords, ensure the content makes sense, verify links, and verify domain authority.
Once content is created, it needs to be monitored for performance. If it is performing well and generating lots of traffic, leave it be. Search engines have recognized it as a high-performing, authoritative piece of content and rank it highly. If the content performs poorly, there is still work that needs to be done. Adding keywords, more authoritative links, and adjusting the layout.
SEO is an art form that many dealerships just cannot seem to get right. They think that by loading their websites with high-quality links, keywords, and because they are part of a national car brand, their website will instantly generate higher traffic and leads.
These five strategies can help your car dealership’s SEO efforts and generate higher-quality leads for your sales department.
Five SEO Tips for Car Dealerships
Implement Technical SEO
Another type of SEO? On the contrary. Technical SEO is the process of auditing and optimizing your website that helps search engines do their job. Ensuring that your website is easily crawlable and indexable by search engines while still performing highly for humans to navigate.
Checking for broken links, proper redirects, meta descriptions are set, internal linking exists, and images have alt-text. Small and relatively easy elements to fix that make a huge impact on your overall SEO strategy.
Real Content for Real Problems
Content is king, or queen, but that does not mean that just because you created something you are set. Your content needs to be relevant, solve problems, and provide good information. If human beings are not reading your content, neither will search engines. Although search engines crawl every page imaginable, if humans are not visiting those pages, engines will rank those pages lower because they are not relevant to the search.
This is why loading content with keywords is an ineffective strategy. Search engines will recognize that the content is not relevant, even if you think it is because of the keywords. If it cannot solve or answer a human’s question, it is utterly useless.
Your Website Platform Matters
While there are many outside factors that impact your SEO effectiveness, your website provider is just as important. Your website’s backend interface needs to be easily accessible to implement best practices. This involves the site structure, the mobile site, and the code the website is built on. In short, this is why computer engineers make the big bucks! This is the technical element that impacts an SEO strategy that many people are not able to update on their own without an outside service or professional.
Local SEO Matters
When your local audience searches for a “car dealership near me” and you do not show up, that is a gigantic problem that needs to be addressed. When a search term includes “local”, search engines implement a different set of criteria to ensure the best results are provided. It does not necessarily look at which business is closest to the individual searcher, it looks at a handful of elements.
- NAP consistency ensures that your online presence is consistent across different mediums. Is your address right, is your phone number updated, and are your URLs working properly?
- Consumer engagement is when search engines check to make sure you are active online. Are you responding to customer reviews? Are you doing so in a timely manner?
- Geotargeting is when you can target a specific location. Maybe you want to target specific cities or counties, and geotargeting allows you to do so.
Google Business Profile
What is one of the best marketing tools available that is also free? Google Business Profile. This allows you to update your dealership’s information, identify which categories you are classified under, share customer reviews (good and bad), and answer questions that are commonly asked.
It is an extremely important and powerful tool that far too many dealerships do not utilize. It is extremely easy to do and once again, free!
Handing it All
When it comes to managing all of these SEO strategies for your car dealership, it may seem overwhelming. This is why at Market Doctors, we help break it down in a more manageable way so you can bite off the right amount. We take you step by step through each process to help build a customized SEO strategy that drives results and most importantly, high-quality leads to your website.
For over 25 years we have been providing car dealerships across the country with our premium car dealership marketing services and we would love to get in touch with you too.
Contact us today to learn more about Market Doctors and get your customized SEO strategy for free.
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