As the internet becomes increasingly crowded and competition intensifies online in the automotive sector, implementing a thoughtful and robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for your dealership is more imperative than ever.
Simply put, SEO is the process of growing a dealership’s visibility in the organic (non-paid) search results of search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. With the end-goal of increasing website traffic, dealerships want to be visible when local customers search online for terms that apply to their business. Whether for the brand of vehicle they sell, common service department offerings or even new tires for an off-brand car, SEO is a long-term marketing tactic that compounds its effectiveness over time.
As we discuss, it is imperative to keep in mind that the prime motivator of search engines is to provide a positive experience for their users, not to please businesses. That means showing users results that are as relevant and appropriate to that individual’s search. Search engines know that the more positive the user experience, the more likely a user is to use that search engine in the future, so they build their search algorithms around that core goal. So, as we explore a few areas and how they apply to good SEO, always remember that the question of whether your proposed change would improve or harm a user’s experience should remain front and center in your mind.
On-Site SEO
When people talk about SEO, they’re typically discussing its technical aspects as it applies on your website. For your dealership, this means making your website as friendly and relevant as possible for the “spiders” that search engines utilize to categorize the entire internet. This form of SEO ensures that the structure and content of your website lend itself well to these robot visitors, allowing them to easily navigate the site and categorize it to appear in search engine results. Appropriate page titles, “H” tags, schema markup; all critical from a technical standpoint and not to be ignored, but let’s look at the commonly overlooked areas of page load time and duplicated or missing content.
A common issue holding dealerships back from maximizing their on-site SEO efforts is a slow site load time. With a positive user experience being the goal, forcing customers to wait for a site to load is a big no-no. With 41% of mobile users saying their phone is their primary research device and 64% of all automotive queries on Google coming from mobile devices, a positive mobile website experience must be a top priority for auto dealers. Data shows that a majority (53%) of consumers will abandon a mobile site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Want to check your website? Click here!
Unique and meaningful content creation is another issue plaguing automotive dealership websites, especially those of franchised dealers. The importance of having unique website content often goes ignored or forgotten because virtually every dealership website in the country begins as a template put in place by the manufacturer. As a result, content on these templated websites is limited to basic make and model terms, with cookie-cutter phrases duplicated word-for-word across thousands of sites with the only variance being that dealer’s name, and location. Websites are not built from scratch one at a time, and many dealerships do not realize that their website looks precisely like everybody else’s.
While duplicate content is not the doomsday problem that it is occasionally made out to be, it is, at the very least, a missed opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition. Cookie-cutter content doesn’t matter to a national brand that merely wants to sell more vehicles, but the duplicated text is detrimental to a dealership trying to compete with other nearby stores selling the exact same inventory. Differentiation is key to ensuring customers select your dealership over your competition, and it starts with your website content. Instead of telling the unique story of your dealership and emphasizing why it stands out from the pack, you might be doing just the opposite and blending in with your direct competition. Every dealership is unique, and the content on your site should reflect this.
Once duplicate content is eliminated, the next step is filling in all of the content holes left by the manufacturer’s website templated approach. It is essential to think like a regular person and keep in mind that most people cannot recite every make and model that has ever existed as many of us within the automotive industry can. If they search for a specific make and model, you have a page for that, but what if a customer searches for a more general body style? If you are a Ford store, do you want to show up when someone searches for Ford SUVs? If so, there should be a page on your website with all crossover and SUV models laid out in one place for a customer to compare and contrast before they have landed on a specific model (and no, an SRP sorted by body style does not count).
If you want your dealership to show up for more general searches–such as “oil changes near me”–you must create pages that cater to these kinds of searches. Information on financing versus leasing, your inspection process for your pre-owned inventory… all common questions, and each one an opportunity to inform a customer and keep them engaged on your site with your dealership. Franchise websites are built with on-brand new vehicles sales, service, and parts in mind, but there is more affecting a dealership’s bottom line than just those narrow focuses. Dealership website templates are not built with these general terms in mind, and all would benefit from adding that content.
Off-Site SEO
There also needs to be work done off-site to improve your dealer’s organic rankings. Link-building (AKA back-linking) is a well-known component of off-site SEO and deserving of its own article. A second major, though less-discussed, part of off-site SEO is ensuring that your basic dealership info is 100% consistent across various local and national business directories. Search engines want to be sure that they are displaying accurate information to those using their services, so because of that, they have an aversion to any inconsistencies in how your dealership shows up online. As such, your dealership’s name, address, and phone number (referred to as NAP) must be entirely consistent wherever found online. A 100% consistent NAP alignment is, however, easier said than done. Even small differences in format, such as spelling out “West” in one place and abbreviating “W” in another, can be seen as an inconsistency. To improve off-site SEO, correct all local and national directories as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure consistency of information as well as ubiquity across the internet.
The Bottom Line
If your website content, page load speed, or NAP alignment are lacking in any of the ways outlined above, it’s time to examine your dealership’s SEO strategy. Formulating a strong SEO strategy, with the help of a trusted marketing partner dedicated to building custom-tailored digital solutions that work for you, will spread greater awareness of your unique differentiators and ultimately grow your local, online visibility and drive long-term sales.
