SEO for the Automotive Industry
Let the Pros Help You with This Complicated—Yet Crucial—Part of Your Marketing Strategy
Odds are you’ve heard the terms “SEO” and “digital marketing” thrown around the past few years, and while you probably already know that these are important to the online success of your dealership, you may still be fuzzy on the details. We’re here to help you understand what SEO for the automotive industry is and why it’s important for your dealership to have a strong SEO strategy—once and for all.
What is automotive SEO, exactly?
Basically, SEO for the automotive industry is the process of building a website tailored for your dealership through: optimization, link-building, content customization, and other efforts relevant to customers who want to purchase a car or simply gain information about a particular make or model.
Automotive SEO modifies the relevancy of navigation links, meta-tags, headlines, content, and keywords to help your dealership website rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs).
Search Engine Optimization has a lot of moving parts that can intimidate even experienced marketing professionals. The team at Dealer Authority has bumper-to-bumper knowledge of automotive SEO. Give us a call, and we’ll get started right away on a strategy that will deliver customers to your showroom.
SEO vs Traditional Marketing
SEO is an incredibly powerful, precision marketing tool. Unlike other broadcast marketing (mailers, television, radio, newspapers), you can reach potential new customers with pinpoint accuracy.
For example, a television advertisement for your dealership is broadcast across a wide area. While it has a broad reach, not everyone watching TV is interested in buying a car, so you’re trying to grab that elusive needle in the haystack.
However, an effective automotive SEO strategy can target people who are actively searching for a specific vehicle through the use of keywords.
Your dealership is more likely to attract shoppers who convert to buyers through content when you give them what they’re looking for. Content that includes keywords such as “BMW X5 for Sale Richmond VA” is going to make your dealership’s website infinitely easier for a shopper in your market area who is looking for their dream car.
But one thing you’ll need to keep in mind is SEO is an ever-changing playing field. While traditional advertising mediums have remained relatively unchanged for decades, search engines such as Google continually make adjustments to their algorithms. These changes are intended to make search engine results more relevant to users but can be a challenge for busy marketing professionals to keep up with.
At Dealer Authority, we make it our business to stay on top of every new tweak search engines make to their algorithm, so our dealerships don’t get left in the dust.
Why Should Dealers Use SEO?
SEO for the automotive industry is designed specifically to increase the likelihood that your dealership will be found by consumers who are actually in the market for a new or used car by targeting the keywords used throughout the research and buying process.
Google has very strict and specific guidelines for ranking websites. By using SEO, dealers can improve the chances of their dealership ranking in SERPs. By following Google’s protocols, you can also improve the relevance and quality of your website.
This, in turn, helps boost your exposure to your target audience, resulting in increased website traffic and more sales and conversions.
Remember: only one dealer can show up for the #1 spot for any specific query on Google and other search engines. That spot (and the following spots on Page 1 of Google) will receive the bulk of the traffic from consumers, and thus more sales when compared to the competition.
Our team of SEO experts here at Dealer Authority has the knowledge and experience to rank your dealership on that first page.
Keywords are the Key
When crafting a strategy revolving around SEO for the automotive industry you have to begin with a target in mind. What separates one automotive SEO company from another is knowing what short- and long-tail keywords to use to make your dealership stand out from the crowd.
At Dealer Authority, each of our clients receives a custom set of target keywords based on in-depth local market research. We don’t just pick any set of keywords to target—we pick the ones most relevant to your area.
These keywords are intent-based to ensure that our work is focused on driving targeted traffic made up of ready-to-buy customers to your site. After finalizing your keyword targets, Dealer Authority creates custom content to build authority around those target keywords.
We don’t just mention them on a page over and over in hopes Google will associate your site with them; no. Our content is specifically crafted to be valuable to your potential customers.
Organic Search vs Paid Search
Here’s something to think about: in the second or two it took for you to read the first part of this sentence, tens of thousands of people performed searches on Google. Many of those people were searching for goods and services locally.
Nearly all of those searchers clicked on one of the first links they found on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
You want your dealership to be among those top links.
One way to make sure your website appears in one of the coveted top placements on the page is through the use of paid search.
Through Google Ads, you set up a campaign based on your goal (brand awareness, conversion, etc.) and what search terms you want to be ranked for. Set your budget, and Google will serve your ad at or near the top of relevant SERPs.
But you don’t necessarily have to buy your way to the top. Your dealership can benefit from both paid and organic search, and Dealer Authority can help by crafting a well-tuned automotive search strategy that can lift your site toward the top of the search engine rankings.
Looking for a DIY Automotive SEO Strategy?
Or maybe you’re just wondering what goes into putting together an effective automotive strategy…? Either way, we’ve got you covered!
Originally written for the New Years’ resolution types, our resource on how to build SEO goals for your dealership gives you a play-by-play on how to strategize for new content, update the old, and conduct backlink outreach. Check it and get ready to crush your automotive SEO goals!
The Importance of Content Marketing
Content Marketing is all about creating content and context for a target audience in order to create a connection between the individual consumer and the products or services your business provides.
This content can be video, imagery, or written content based on the audience and budget. Dealer Authority works hard to create custom landing pages with vehicle content aimed specifically at your potential customers.
We add in links to local attractions (such as parks, historic sites, and nature reserves) in your area to further build credibility and to relate to your customers. This is crucial when strategizing around SEO for the automotive industry.
Through our social media services, we also promote brand-focused content to users in your dealership’s local area to people who are specifically interested in buying your brand. Our trained social strategists utilize advanced targeting on Facebook, and even re-market to your customers in order to build more interest in your inventory through high-quality, entertaining content.
Link-Building for the Win
If you want to expand your dealership’s SEO, link-building is a great way to cover all of your bases and add more authority to your site. In a nutshell, link-building is the art of acquiring high-quality links to your site in order to receive a better reputation in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
Google uses links as a signal of quality, reputation, and authority in order to best rank sites. Having quality links is one of the original signals that search engines were able to use in advanced ranking algorithms.
Dealer Authority only targets relevant, authoritative sites with content related to the auto industry (or interesting locales in your area). This ensures your dealership’s site is not getting mixed in with spam, and that we’re helping to create advanced relevancy between your site and the sites that link to you. And the team here at Dealer Authority knows that not all links are created equal.
Google is able to tell when a link does not belong and may disregard it altogether. This leaves your site open to penalties that specifically target irrelevant, artificially-created links. We make sure that we’re only linking to the highest quality links on your site.
See What All the Fuss is About
Our automotive SEO product is always being refined to provide clients with the absolute best service in the automotive industry. Our experienced team never takes shortcuts and we are available whenever you need us. Our product follows Google’s guidelines and adapts in order to best serve our clients. In the end, we know that your success is our success. We love working hard to see you grow! Contact us today and let’s start working on a plan for you to get ahead of—and stay ahead of—your competition online. Request Your SEO DemoSix Reasons Why Automotive SEO is an Integral Part of Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing Strategy
1. SEO integrates with your social media and pay-per-click advertising to form an effective, cohesive digital marketing strategy.
2. Automotive SEO ties in with all of the content on your website (landing pages, blog posts, videos) and social media to boost your site’s rankings and keep your dealership top of mind when someone is ready to shop for their next car.
3. Did you know that people are more likely to browse and shop using their tablets and smartphones than their computers? If your dealership website isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be losing valuable customers to your competition. Our experts can evaluate your Mobile SEO and offer solutions to make sure your site is fast and responsive on mobile devices.
4. Your dealership team prides itself on its involvement in the community. Make it easy for your neighbors to find you when they want to buy a car! We’ll help you up to your Local SEO game by making sure all of your online business listings are claimed and optimized.
5. Site crawling sounds creepy, but it is an essential component of your site’s ranking. Search engines crawl websites and index that information to use on search engine results pages (SERPs). Broken links and missing pages can tank your site’s ranking. We’ll help you identify and fix these problem areas so your site is in tip-top shape the next time the crawlers come around.
6. Visibility. That’s really the name of the game. With a well-thought automotive SEO strategy, your dealership’s website can move from page two or three of organic search results (users typically don’t click that far) to the first page. With quality content that boosts your Page and Domain Authority, you can even show up in the coveted Snippet area on the SERP.
Let’s Get Going!
If you’re not making it easy for your customers to find your dealership, you’re leaving piles of money on the table!
Automotive SEO is a critical piece of any effective digital marketing plan. But you don’t have to go it alone: let Dealer Authority take the wheel of your automotive SEO strategy. We’ll work with your dealership to create a plan that will drive customers right to your showroom.
Contact us today, and let’s get started!