What Is Automotive SEO?

If your marketing strategy has focused on traditional methods like TV, radio, and print ads, you may be wondering why you should switch to SEO for car dealers. Do you want to reach more targeted customers and see a better Return on Investment? If the answer is yes, then you should give automotive SEO a try. 

Automotive SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a digital marketing strategy that helps car dealerships and automotive shops become more visible online. The goal is to attract more relevant, local customers to your website by ranking higher in search results for keywords related to cars and automotive services. This is usually done by focusing on keywords that potential customers are likely to search, optimizing web pages, creating content, building links, managing reputations, and focusing on local SEO.

Benefits of Automotive SEO

Automotive SEO has tons of benefits. It helps dealerships target customers who are actively searching for specific terms like “new SUVs near me” or “used Toyota dealership.” But why is this so important? Well, according to Think with Google, 95% of people who buy a car search online before going to the dealership. By using the terms these potential buyers are searching for, you can catch their attention when they’re in the market to buy. 

Other benefits of SEO for car dealers include:

• Cost-effective: Unlike paid ads, which stop bringing traffic when your budget is gone, SEO continues to attract visitors without ongoing costs. Once your site ranks highly in search results, it will keep attracting organic traffic (rather than paid) for months or years with minimal maintenance. 
• Capture leads: Automotive SEO helps you capture high quality leads. By creating targeted content, you bring more targeted traffic to your website that in turn generates leads. In fact, according to HubSpot, 60% of marketers said that content creation and SEO provides their highest-quality leads. 
• Return on Investment (ROI): Advertising can be expensive, but it’s usually worth it if you get a return on your investment. According to HubSpot, 53% of marketers said that inbound strategies offer the highest ROI compared to paid ads. 
• Higher credibility: Customers tend to trust organic search results more than paid ads. When a dealership appears in the top organic results, it builds credibility and brand authority. This trust is particularly important in high-stakes purchases like cars, where customers tend to research thoroughly. 
• Local visibility: Automotive SEO uses local SEO strategies that help car dealerships appear in local searches. This is crucial since car buying is usually a local process. By optimizing for local searches, you can attract buyers looking for nearby options. And according to Think with Google, 28% of searches for something nearby lead to a purchase. 
• Competitive edge: Many car dealerships still rely heavily on traditional advertising methods. A strong SEO strategy can give you a competitive advantage in outperforming competitors who aren’t as visible in search results. 
• Less intrusive: SEO meets customers where they are, rather than pushing ads to them. For many people, organic results feel less intrusive than standard advertising. This can in turn create a more favorable perception of your dealership that helps you build a stronger customer relationship from the beginning. 

By prioritizing automotive SEO, your dealership can create a steady flow of targeted, organic leads, build trust with potential buyers, reduce advertising costs, and increase your ROI. 

Tips for Automotive SEO

Now that you’re sold on the benefits of SEO for car dealers, you’re probably wondering what to do. SEO involves a lot more than just placing the right words in your content. 

The easiest route is to work with an automotive SEO agency like Blaze Digital Marketing. We provide the skills and insights needed to create an SEO strategy that works. 

But if you’d like to try it on your own, here are some of our best tips for automotive SEO that works.

Make Your Website User Friendly and Appealing

The way you design your website matters. Your website is more than just a bit of text and code floating in cyberspace. It’s an extension of your business that can draw customers into the dealership. By making your website both appealing and easy to navigate, you’ll keep visitors on page longer. 

Some tips for making your website user friendly and appealing include:

• Create a straightforward navigation menu that helps potential leads find what they need quickly. Organize your content into clear categories and use drop-down menus sparingly to avoid clutter. 
• Use title tags, H1, meta descriptions, and image alt text on all pages. These elements of HTML help search engines better index your site, which in turn helps your website appear higher in search rankings. 
• The visual aspects of your website matter too. Choose color combinations that are both appealing and accessible. Don’t crowd the page with too much text, and make sure to use high-quality photos and videos. 

Optimize Your Website for Mobile

One part of creating a website that you’ll want to consider is making it mobile friendly. That’s because, according to Oberlo, over 60% of searches are done on a mobile device. And when it comes to buying a car, that number shoots up to 71%. If your website is beautiful on a PC but difficult to navigate on a smartphone, you’re going to turn away potential customers. 

Create Useful Content

One of the core elements of automotive SEO is creating useful content for your website. By publishing relevant content, your dealership can answer common questions, showcase inventory, and position itself as a trusted resource in the car-buying process. It’s a powerful way to attract and engage potential buyers. Creating good content ranks your website higher in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and also helps potential customers stay around for longer. 

Some of the content you should be creating includes:

• Buyer guides and how-to content: Buying a car is a big decision, and many customers look for guidance on choosing the right vehicle, understanding financing, or the pros and cons of leasing vs buying. Create content that answers these questions to build trust. 
• Seasonal and lifestyle content: Aligning your content with seasons or lifestyle needs can engage a broader audience. For example, a “Top 5 Cars for Winter Driving” guide in colder months or “Best Family Cars for 2024” appeals to people’s needs and helps them envision how the dealership’s cars fit into their lives. 
• Video content: Video tours of new arrivals, “walkaround” videos highlighting key features, and maintenance tutorials engage audiences that prefer visual content. Test drive videos can be an especially important way to reach your audience. According to Think with Google, the watch time of test drive videos has gone up by 64% since 2016.
  

Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

It may seem like a small thing, but one critical part of any automotive SEO strategy is to claim your Google Business Profile. A well-managed Google Business Profile can help your dealership appear in more local search results, especially in the Google Map Pack (the top three local results) and on Google Maps. 

So how do you optimize your listing? First, you’ll want to make sure all your business information is accurate, including the dealership’s name, address, phone number (NAP), website, and hours of operation. The information needs to be consistent across all platforms, as it signals reliability to Google and potential customers, and you should update it as it changes. For example, you might update holiday or special event hours. 

Use Google Business Profile’s “Products” or “Services” sections to highlight specific vehicles, specials, financing options, and services. For example, you could list available models, including brief descriptions. This helps customers find relevant info quickly and can help improve local rankings. 

Add Schema

Schema markup, or structured data, is a form of microdata that you can add to your website’s HTML to help search engines better understand the content on each page. For car dealerships, schema can make website content appear more prominently in search results, often in enhanced formats like rich snippets. This means that certain pieces of information, like vehicle prices, availability, or reviews, can show up directly in search results. In fact, websites that use schema tend to rank four places higher than those that don’t. 

To add schema to your website, you can use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or AutoDealer. Alternatively, if you have coding experience, you can add schema tags using JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data), which is the preferred format for schema markup. Once the schema is added, use Google’s Rich Results Test to confirm it’s working correctly.

Build Local Citations

Something any automotive SEO agency will suggest is getting local citations. These are online mentions of a business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) on websites, directories, and platforms. For car dealerships, building local citations can help improve your visibility in local search results. Citations are especially important for “near me” searches, where Google prioritizes local relevance. 

To build local citations, you need to:

• Claim and optimize key business listings like Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and Yelp. Provide accurate and consistent NAP info, and add as many details as possible. 
• Utilize automotive-specific directories like Cars.com, Autotrader, Edmunds, and CarGurus. 
• Submit to local business directories like Yellow Pages, Better Business Bureau, and Chamber of Commerce websites. 
• Consider using data aggregators like Neustar Localeze, Factual, Acxiom, and Infogroup, which help you distribute your business data across multiple directories. 

Acquire Local Links

Another powerful strategy to improve your automotive SEO is acquiring local links. Local links are backlinks from other reputable websites within your community or industry. They signal to search engines that your business is relevant and trusted. Building solid local links increases your rankings in local search results. 

Some ideas for building local links include:

• Partnering with local businesses and organizations. You can reach out to local businesses to collaborate on a blog post or co-host a community event. Many local businesses have websites with community sections or blogs where they can link back to your dealership. 
• Sponsorships for local events like charity runs or festivals are another effective way to build local links. Event organizers often create web pages listing their sponsors with links back to their websites. 
• Share newsworthy stories, such as dealership milestones or special promotions with local journalists and editors. These are valuable link sources because of their high authority. 
• Look at the websites that backlink your competitors to find prospects for yourself. You can use Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool to figure out where your competitors have backlinks.

Local links not only improve your search rankings but also drive targeted referral traffic from the local community. Each local link acts as an endorsement that enhances your reputation and visibility within the local market. 

Utilize Analytics Tools

Using analytics tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console is another key strategy in SEO for car dealers. Google Analytics offers insights into user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion paths. This will help you understand which pages and actions are driving leads so you can continue doing what works. 

Google Search Console can complement this by providing valuable search data, keyword rankings, and alerts for technical issues that could affect your visibility in search results. Together, these tools give you a comprehensive view of how visitors find and interact with the site so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. 

Earn Positive Reviews

Positive reviews from customers on Google, Yelp, and similar sites provide valuable social proof that can influence new buyers. If you think you don’t have any control over those reviews, you’re wrong. While you can’t exactly force customers to leave a review, simply asking for reviews on Google or Yelp can go a long way in managing your online reputation. 

The easier you can make it for your customers to leave a positive review, the better. You might create a page on your website that tells customers how to leave a review or send a survey after each sale. Some survey vendors provide a service that automatically posts positive reviews on review sites and social media. 

Additionally, you’ll want to respond to reviews, both positive and negative. Thanking satisfied customers builds loyalty, while addressing negative reviews in a professional way can allow you to resolve issues. This may even turn an unhappy customer into one that will return. 

Create Location Pages

If your dealership has multiple locations, one effective strategy is to create pages for each location. This will help you target specific local markets and improve your SEO. Each location page should be tailored to the dealership’s unique offerings, with NAP, business hours, and location-specific promotions up-to-date. Location pages improve your dealership’s visibility in local search results to help you target customers in each service area. 

Manage Your Website Speed

Almost nothing is more of a turn off for potential buyers than a website that loads slowly. For car dealers, this can be a major issue since dealership websites rely on videos and high-quality pictures. 

In order to prevent customers from leaving before they load your site, make sure you manage your website speed. You can do this by compressing images, minimizing JavaScript and CSS files, enabling browser caching, and using a content delivery network (CDN) to reduce loading times. You’ll also want to test your site regularly with tools like PageSpeed Insights to catch and address any issues as quickly as possible.

Make It Easy for Customers to Contact You 

If you want customers to contact you, it’s essential that you make it as easy as possible. But not every customer will want to hop on the phone to ask a simple question. Providing multiple ways for customers to contact your dealership ensures that customers will be able to reach you through their preferred channel. 

However, not all channels are created equally. So which ones should you focus on for your website? Our top picks include:

• Webforms: Webforms are convenient for customers who prefer written communication or may be reaching out after hours. You can customize webforms to collect specific details, such as preferred contact times or service needs. This helps your dealership provide a more tailored response. 
• Phone number: Your phone number should be displayed prominently across your website so that customers can easily find it to contact you. If you want to make it even easier, you can add an HTML link that lets customers call you simply by clicking on the phone number. 
• Website chat: Website live chat offers real-time communication and allows visitors to get quick answers to questions. A chat feature can improve engagement, provide instant support, and even be automated to answer common queries. 
• Text: Adding a way to text your dealership is an easy way to meet customers where they are. Many people prefer the convenience of SMS for quick questions. Texting lets your dealership respond quickly to answer questions about vehicle availability, service appointments, or promotions. And, of all the text-based communication channels, texting offers the highest rate of engagement at 89%. 

Automotive SEO Agency

Automotive SEO is a powerful, cost-effective way to drive organic traffic to your dealership’s website and generate leads. From optimizing your website to building local links, there’s a lot that goes into improving your rankings. 

While you certainly can manage it on your own, it’s even easier to hire Blaze Digital Marketing as your automotive SEO agency. Our SEO for car dealer services are tailored to you to help you rank higher and elevate your online presence. We use proven strategies that get long-lasting results. Contact us today for a free SEO audit!