Digital marketing strategies
One of the most important strategies you can do for your website is search engine optimization (SEO), but ranking on Google is becoming increasingly difficult. While this is true for all businesses, car dealerships are probably the most complex. Today’s shoppers, regardless of what product they are shopping for, do a lot of their research online before going to the store, if at all.
However, car dealerships are more complex than the average local business, which means their digital marketing strategies are also more complex.
Why?
First, dealerships often sell from many different manufacturers. They also sell a wide variety of used vehicles from even more different manufacturers. Second, they have a service department that offers maintenance, repairs and detailing. Finally, most of them (if not all) offer financing services for 1st, 2nd and 3rd chance credit.
A car dealership is therefore the equivalent of four businesses in one: they sell new vehicles, used vehicles, do maintenance and offer financing to their customers.
This means that your SEO strategy must also be multidimensional. Plus, some dealerships have multiple locations and perhaps different websites for each location. So, if you want to do SEO for your car dealership (in fact, you have no choice but to do it to stay competitive), you need to think about all of these elements.
Now that the why is established, what search optimization strategies should you use?
Here are our Nerd recommendations.
Google My Business
Google My Business has a direct correlation to local SEO – especially when it comes to showing up in the Google Local 3-pack.An important factor with Google My Business is to make sure the information is up to date and contains information that those searching on Google will find useful.
This is especially important for highly competitive markets, especially when only a few sites appear on the first page of search results.
Here are some key features of Google My Business to get the most out of it:
Name, address and phone number
Make sure that all of your contact information is up to date and that it is written exactly the same way on every directory you are listed in. Also important: Make sure your LOCAL phone number is the one listed in your listing first.
Categories
Google My Business allows you to select categories to describe your dealership’s offerings. These categories help you reach potential customers who are looking for what your dealership offers. You can select a main category and additional categories – but don’t choose too many either.
Photos
Google uses photo interaction on Google My Business to rank businesses in local search. Show photos of your vehicles that you have in the field and update them often. Ask your happy customers if you can take their picture with their new vehicle and post it on Google My Business (and your other social media platforms). With a consent form, it’s even better.
Videos
Google recently allowed businesses to upload short videos to their Google My Business listing. Videos are the best way to show what makes you different from others. If this option is still not available for your business, don’t worry, Google often runs tests before making a feature available to everyone. So be patient and check back in a few weeks.
Reviews
Online reviews are crucial when someone is looking for a new vehicle and trying to find the right dealership to buy it from. Very important: Ask your satisfied customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing and/or on your social media pages. Respond to any reviews you receive, good or bad. This is what shows that you care about your customers.
Questions and answers
The Google My Business Q&A feature has been around for several months, but many businesses still don’t know about it or why it exists. Go to your listing frequently and check out the questions asked of your dealership and quickly answer those questions with the right answer.
Here are some other strategies to adopt:
Online directories (especially car directories)
Many online directories appear on the first page of Google results, which is why it is important to list your dealership there. The more often you appear in (car) directories, the more Google will be aware of the importance of your business.
Note: List mainly on automotive directories, as Google will associate you with this category in the long run rather than something more general. And to rank well in the search results, you need to be in the right category in the eyes of the search engine. You can still register on popular sites like Yellow Pages or Yelp.
Online reviews
Just like your Google My Business reviews, online reviews are important. If your dealership has bad reviews, people are less likely to trust you and if a customer has a negative experience with your dealership, there is a very good chance they will leave a review. Good or bad you must respond to all and if it is a fixable problem, fix it!
NOTE: Some of the software available allows only positive reviews to be published. Google no longer approves them, so be honest and accept that you will sometimes receive negative reviews. What matters is how you handle them.
Keywords
Selecting the right keywords has always been a part of SEO. In short, you should go for keywords that have a high search frequency and are directly related to your website content. Choose key phrases that your potential buyers use to search for the cars and services you offer.
Optimize images
Google recognizes the text associated with images on your site. These texts are called “alt-title” and “alt-description”. So to stay consistent in your SEO, you need to give text to your images. According to Google, searches for “photos of [car brand]” are up 37% year over year. This means that when you upload multiple photos of cars for sale, you can include the words “photos of” and the make and model name.
Optimize for local searches
This is often a difficult point to implement at car dealerships, but when you do, it brings in a lot of results.
Local connections are important for local SEO purposes of course, but also for the trust and support the community gives you.
Link to at least one page on your site that relates to what’s happening in your local city. In addition, you can link to various charities and ask that they, in turn, link to your site. Local backlinking at its best!
