Rock Your Organic Traffic with Google My Business for Car Dealerships
If you’ve spent any time at all online, you know that nearly every search starts with Google. And, naturally, you want the search to end at your dealership, with a happy customer driving home in the car of their dreams.
How do you get from Point A (Google) to Point B (Happy Customer)? By building a killer Google My Business profile.
Your Most Potent Digital Marketing Asset: And It’s Free to Set Up!
Your Google My Business for car dealerships profile is the key to putting your car dealership front and center in search results. Many SEO and marketing experts claim that a complete GMB profile is second only to your website in your digital marketing toolkit.
Unfortunately, many businesses—if they bother to set up their Google My Business profile at all—just fill in the basic information and then let it lie fallow. That’s like unlocking your showroom doors but leaving the lights off and sending most of your staff to a back office.
Turning the lights on in your GMB profile increases traffic to your website and your dealership. Here’s how.
You Get in on the Hottest Real Estate on Google
We’re talking about the Local Pack. That’s the space you see on a Google search results page that displays up to three local businesses with important information, including the website, phone number, address, hours of operation, and even a map.
Did we mention it’s free?
How does Google get this information? By pulling it from your Google My Business profile. The more complete your profile, the more information gets displayed. And there’s a link that drives organic traffic right to your website.
The best way to plant your stake in this prime Real Estate is to make sure your GMB profile is complete, accurate, and active. And be sure that the information in your profile matches the information on your website. This boosts your SEO value and increases your chances of snagging a coveted spot in the Local Pack.
Build Awareness and Trust in Your Brand
People are creatures of ease. They’re more likely to click through to your car dealership’s website if it appears on the first page of the search results—especially if it’s “above the fold.”
It’s clear how that affects your brand awareness, but how does it impact brand trust? Think of it this way: when Google (or, more accurately, its algorithm) puts enough trust in your business to include it on the first page of search results—or, even better, in the Local Pack—that’s like getting an endorsement from the entire internet.
So, let’s dig into the ways that you can make your profile on Google My Business your most cost-efficient digital marketing asset.
Google My Business has so many capabilities to promote your dealership.
Make Your Profile Pop
We already talked about making sure you get your NAP (that’s Name, Address, and Phone, not catching 40 winks). But there are several other things you can do to make your Google My Business profile stand out from the crowd.
Bonus: you can reuse a lot of content you’ve created for your website and social media, even your YouTube videos.
Serve Up Fresh Content
Is your automaker coming out with a brand-new vehicle next year? Write a short “first look” article about it. Did the new crop of SUVs get a style refresh and some new standard features? Do a video walkthrough showcasing the changes and a virtual test drive. Post photos of your dealership and highlight a department or an employee.
Make sure your content is fresh, engaging, and professional. While a few candid snaps are fun to have on the website, it’s worth the money to hire a professional photographer for staff headshots and team photos.
You’ll also want to spend money on a copywriter with a solid SEO background. Look at different car dealership websites, and it’s easy to spot professionally written content using SEO best practices versus copy that has a bunch of keywords awkwardly stuffed into every paragraph.
Get Your Customers to Leave Reviews
Remember how we mentioned that people are creatures of ease? Well, nothing grabs their attention like a bunch of shiny, gold stars.
At the end of every visit and in follow-up messages, ask your customer to write a review of your dealership. And when someone does leave a review, respond to it, especially if a reviewer had a bad experience. How you respond to a negative review can motivate a potential customer to visit your dealership just as much as a five-star review can.
Gif Courtesy of Tenor.
Dealer Authority Gets Results: A Client Case Study
When you want to increase organic traffic to your car dealership’s website, you have got to have an optimized Google My Business profile. The team at Dealer Authority has the experience and expertise you need to set up and optimize your profile on Google My Business. Since we work solely with car dealerships, we know what it takes to boost your website’s ranking in search engine results.
In just 30 days of working with Dealer Authority on our Google My Business solution, our dealer client saw:
➡️ 32% increase in search views
➡️ 29% increase in website visits
➡️ 24% increase in phone calls
➡️ 39% increase in photo views
➡️ 73% increase in requests for directions
Learn More About Digital Marketing for Car Dealerships by Department:
The Future of Car Buying is Here
If you’ve stuck with the old tried-and-true methods of advertising for your car dealership, it’s time to expand your efforts to include digital marketing.
The team at Dealer Authority has years of experience working with car dealerships across the United States. We can help you craft a comprehensive digital marketing strategy or walk you through Pay-Per-Click and SEO.
Take a look at the services we offer online or give us a call at 888.963.9617.
Contact Us.
Still have questions? Drop us a line anytime!