SEO for Car Dealers: 2024 Guide

Ever heard people joke about how every new construction project is probably another bank or car dealership? With nearly 70,000 new car dealerships in the United States, the amount of competition is no laughing matter for business owners. Getting noticed among the sea of competitors is critical for your success. Fortunately, SEO for car dealers can give you a leg up on the competition.

What Is SEO for Car Dealers?

SEO for car dealerships is optimizing your website and other content to rank higher on search engine result pages. Because most people don’t go past the first few results on the page, higher rankings translate into more traffic to your website.

What Are the Benefits of SEO for Car Dealerships?

More than 90% of car buyers research cars and dealerships online before buying. If your page isn’t one of the top results, you could be losing sales. SEO helps you land one of those coveted top spots, which can:

• Increase traffic to your website
• Boost sales
• Drive up targeted and qualified leads
• Improve brand awareness and trust
• Translate into better conversion rates

The better your SEO strategy is, the more likely you are to stand out in a competitive industry.

What Is a Good SEO Strategy for the Automotive Industry?

SEO for car dealers focuses on improving your website rankings in both national and local searches. A successful strategy incorporates several components.

Keyword Optimization

The key to ranking well in both national and local search results is to build your content around the words and phrases your customers are searching for. Examples of keywords include specific car models, financing offers, automotive features, and geographic areas.

To discover the best keywords to use, you need to do keyword research. You can start by brainstorming the words and phrases you think your customers will look for. You can also analyze your competitors’ pages to identify the keywords they are targeting.

Additionally, you can use keyword tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, or work with an SEO expert like BKA Content. Don’t forget to include keywords that are unique to your local area.

For example, customers in some parts of the United States might search for “car lots near me,” while in other areas “auto dealers near me” might be more commonly used. You should also consider the unique needs local customers may have.

For example, if your dealership is in an area that gets a lot of snow, your customers may be looking for four-wheel drive vehicles or have questions about the best snow tires to purchase. Customers in warmer places might be looking for a convertible or want to know how to protect their car from the sun.

Long-Tail Keywords

Local SEO is an important component of SEO for car dealers, but it can be difficult to get on the first page for local keywords in places with many car dealerships. Prioritizing long-tail keywords can help.

Long-tail keywords are more specific than other types of keywords. As a result, not as many people are searching for them, but there is less competition. This gives you a better chance of getting seen by the people who are making that particular search. Examples of long-tail keywords include specific vehicle features, such as “one owner used Ford pickup” or geographic information, such as “new Chevy Tahoe in St. Louis.”

Local SEO Optimization

While shopping for cars online is more common than it used to be, most customers still come into the dealership to test-drive a vehicle or make a purchase. Because many start their search for a dealership online, ranking well in local searches will help you get more foot traffic.

If you haven’t already claimed your Google My Business listing, do so. Make sure your business name, address, phone number, website URL, hours of operation, and other information is correct. Choose an enticing image for your profile and page header.

Include important information, such as the types of vehicles you sell and the expertise of your staff in your business description. Make sure customers know why they should come to you instead of a competitor.

Another good strategy is to build localized pages on your website for your key products. For example, if the Ford F-150 is your best seller at your Denver, Colorado, location, you might create a page specifically for customers searching for a Ford F-150 in Denver.

Backlink Building

Backlinks are links from other relevant and authoritative sites to your website. Search engines consider how many quality backlinks you have when determining how authoritative and trustworthy your site is.

The more the algorithm thinks customers can trust your site, the better your site will rank. Additionally, getting other relevant sites to link to you can increase your reach by directing the audience of those other sites to yours.

There are three main ways you can obtain more quality backlinks. You can get backlinks organically by creating high-quality content that other sites will naturally want to link to. Content that provides useful information, such as tips on choosing a used vehicle, will naturally attract links from other sites.

You can also reach out to local businesses, organizations, business directories, bloggers, and influencers and ask them to link to your content. For example, if you sponsored a local charity event, you could ask the charity you worked with to link to your site.

Finally, you can work with a white-hat link-building agency, such as BKA Content, to help you acquire high-quality backlinks.

Content Optimization

SEO for car dealers requires more than creating a simple website that just has your business name and address and a bit of information. Vehicles are major purchases and most buyers want to know as much as possible about the car they are considering before they buy it. Pack your inventory pages with as many details about the vehicles you sell as possible.

Include an FAQ section with answers to commonly asked questions. Write a blog with information about how to choose a car, vehicle maintenance, auto financing, product reviews, and other relevant topics.

Focus all of your content around the keywords your customers will be searching for. Because Google indexes the mobile version of websites and many customers search for car dealerships on their phones, make sure your content reads and navigates well on mobile devices.

Many shoppers don’t start with a specific car model in mind. Include user-friendly navigation on all your pages and internal links to help shoppers navigate from more general topics to specific products.

SEO Audit

Regular audits to check your site for problems, such as broken links, slow load times, and underperforming content, are an essential component of SEO for car dealers. Without regular maintenance, your rankings will decline because Google penalizes sites for technical errors.

Additionally, changing customer preferences, market conditions, and products can impact the effectiveness of your keyword and content strategy. You can use your SEO audit to identify aspects of your SEO strategy that are performing well so that you can duplicate that success.

How Do I Market My Dealership Online?

The best way to market your dealership online is to combine organic SEO with paid content and social media promotion to drive more traffic to your website.

Organic SEO

Organic SEO campaigns center around your company website, so it is important to make sure your site is SEO-optimized. Include lots of useful information, high-quality images and videos, and make sure your site loads quickly and is easy to navigate on desktop and mobile devices.

Enhance your website with useful content, such as detailed product description pages, blogs on relevant topics, and video content, such as virtual test drives.  Frequently update your content and refresh it with relevant keywords.

Paid Search

Organic SEO is the best way to generate long-term results, but it takes time to improve your rankings. You can supplement your organic SEO efforts by purchasing pay-per-click ads from networks such as Google Ads.

Paid ads expand your reach because they show up on platforms your potential customers are already using, such as Google search and blogs and websites that display ads along with their content. Because you only pay when a user clicks on the ad, PPC ads can be cost-effective.

Social Media Promotion

Social media provides a low-cost way to reach potential customers by sharing your content and engaging with people who follow your social media channels. By sharing engaging content, you can get your followers to advertise for you by sharing your content with their followers.

Where Can I Get Help With SEO for Car Dealers?

SEO is a valuable tool for any business owner wanting to improve brand visibility and sales. However, many dealerships do not have the resources required to run an effective SEO campaign. BKA Content offers a range of services, such as white hat link building, keyword research, and SEO content creation, that get results while saving you time and money. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you with SEO for car dealers.