We’re going to define the question, “what is automotive SEO?” If you have an automotive business, then you should have a keen interest in topics like this.
Search engine optimization is crucial for automotive companies that want to improve their online visibility. With SEO, you can create massive brand awareness and make it easier for people searching with buying intent to find you online.
The automotive industry is highly competitive and will become even more competitive in the future. For that reason, any automotive company seeking to gain a competitive edge can start laying the groundwork by investing in SEO.
You can run your SEO campaign by yourself. The most important thing is starting and having SEO knowledge. However, if you’re too busy or lack in-depth knowledge to manage your automotive search engine marketing campaign, then get help from a reliable SEO agency.
Automotive SEO Services has been helping automotive companies with search engine marketing since 2014. Get in touch to kick-start your SEO campaign.
What Is Automotive SEO?
Automotive search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of using diverse online marketing strategies to improve an automotive business website’s ranking in search engine results pages. By improving your search engine rankings, you’re automatically making it easier for potential car buyers to find you.
An improvement in your automotive company website’s search rankings can lead to an increase in organic traffic and brand awareness. You’ll find your business generating more leads and recording more sales.
According to a Google study, 92% of car buyers conduct research online before making a buying decision.
This research is enough to convince automotive business owners to start investing in search engine optimization. The reason is not because Google conducted it but because we’re in the digital era. People prefer searching for a product or service online to driving around town. They save time, money, gas, and energy.
You can gain online popularity with SEO and become the number one car dealer, car wash, car rental, or accessories seller on the minds and lips of prospects in your location. This brings us to local SEO, another important digital marketing strategy.
Local SEO is a crucial marketing strategy for automotive companies targeting a local market. By implementing effective local SEO tactics, your business will become visible to local customers actively searching for a car to purchase.
The Benefits of Automotive SEO For An Automotive Business
Automotive SEO is a search engine marketing technique focused on helping automotive organizations to improve their online presence. It is an important marketing strategy that can make your car dealership business successful. But what are the real benefits that should convince anyone to start investing in search engine marketing? Here’s a quick breakdown of the benefits of SEO for car dealership companies.
- Improves website search engine rankings
- Increase organic traffic to your website.
- Helps your automotive business to generate leads
- SEO is more cost-effective than traditional and other online marketing strategies
- Search engine optimization helps you generate sustainable traffic.
- You can build online reputation and credibility with SEO
- SEO has a higher click-through and conversion rate
- SEO levels the playing field. A small car dealer can compete with established brands. You can outrank top auto dealers and even get more traffic.
These are some of the benefits of SEO. They are reasons every automotive business should consider investing in search engine optimization.
Automotive SEO Challenges You Should Know
Automotive search engine optimization can deliver massive dividends to your business. You can even obtain a high ROI with SEO. However, there these benefits come with their fair share of challenges. Check them out below.
- The automotive industry is highly competitive:
You can achieve online marketing success with SEO, but one of the things you must be wary of is the competition. In the US alone, there are over 130,152 used car dealers and 69,865 new car dealers. So, you have to fight for every keyword. Implement effective SEO strategies to rank high in search engine result pages and watch your revenue increase.
- Car dealership websites are image-heavy:
To capture attention and convince prospects to make buying decisions, auto dealers must ensure images of every single vehicle available for sale are uploaded on their website.
You’ll find tons of images of a single vehicle, revealing the different sides and accessories. Additionally, the car photos automobile dealers upload online have to be top-quality. That is why the loading speed of automotive dealership websites is usually slow.
Website speed is crucial in SEO. Site loading speed affects ranking, click-through rate, conversion rate, and even engagement. An automotive company’s website that takes more time to load will likely experience a significant drop in organic traffic.
You have to improve your website loading speed. You can handle it yourself or let a competent technical SEO provider like Automotive SEO Services do a thorough job for you.
In project one of the projects we did for Honda of South Maimi, an automobile dealership, our SEO experts conducted an SEO audit (content and technical SEO audit). It was made clear that the client’s website takes longer to load, and that caused a significant drop in rankings and traffic. Using technical SEO strategies, we were able to improve the site loading speed, which led to a corresponding increase in rankings and organic traffic.
- Local SEO:
An individual who wants to search for information about a car or purchase a car will consider patronizing a local dealership. The reason is simple. Buying the same car from a dealership in another state or city would cost more and be more stressful.
This makes local SEO an important digital marketing strategy for automobile businesses. By implementing an effective and result-driven local SEO strategy, your dealership website will rank high in the search results of local customers.
These challenges shouldn’t give you a scare. By deploying custom automotive SEO tactics and adhering to search engine optimization best practices, you can overcome the challenges discussed above.
Without further ado, let’s delve into the various automotive search engine marketing strategies. Here, you’ll learn how you can use SEO to make your car dealership more profitable.
1: Take advantage of local SEO:
People seeking cars to purchase will consider dealerships in their local area. But then, the majority won’t have the patience to visit all the car dealerships’ brick-and-mortar stores. Instead, they’ll prefer checking out the various collections online before making the final decision to visit in person.
If your dealership business targets the local market (people in your city), pay more emphasis on local SEO. If executed properly, you can rank high in local search results of people looking for cars to purchase in your local area.
How does local SEO start? The first step is to find the ideal local keywords. In this case, you have to conduct keyword research using premium tools (there are free keyword research tools, too).
Location-based or local keywords are those that have your location, for instance (the best Honda car dealership [your city]).
Once you have the keywords, you can optimize your content while adhering to SEO best practices. Place the keywords strategically in the title tags, meta description, and body of the content. Avoid keyword stuffing and cannibalization.
Here’s another important local SEO strategy.
This SEO strategy involves setting up a professional-looking and well-optimized Google Business Profile for your car dealership. Include your name, address, and phone number (NAP) to make it easier for Google to identify your location and rank your profile accordingly.
A Handy Tip: It’s important to ensure NAP consistency when creating a Google My Business Profile. In other words, ensure the name, address, and phone number on your Google Business Profile matches what you have on your other platforms.
Your business description should be fluff-free and captivating. Provide the necessary details about your business and make prospects desperate to meet you after reading about your business.
Furthermore, avoid incorporating a keyword in your business name. Instead, endeavor to write the name the way it is. It’s against Google’s rules to add keywords to the business name.
Benefits of Google Business Profile (GBP)
- It’s free. You won’t pay anything to own a profile.
- GBP listings improve your online presence. They get priority for first-page rankings in search engines.
- Improves search engine optimization (SEO)
- It gives you the ability to showcase your business location on Google Maps, making prospects trust you more and locate you with ease.
- Allows people to leave reviews for your business
2: Local link-building for automotive businesses:
Backlinks are important in any automotive search engine marketing campaign. A web page with quality content and backlinks has a better chance of ranking high in search engine result pages (SERPs) than another with high-quality content but no backlink.
Backlinks are one of Google’s major ranking factors. Google considers over 200+ factors when ranking a website. Therefore, you must build a strong backlink profile. Get quality backlinks to improve your search rankings.
Local backlinks can improve your local search rankings, so target them. But how can you build local backlinks? Follow the tips below:
- Approach local automotive event organizers. You can solicit quality backlinks. In return, you can offer to write content about their organizations and publish it on your website.
- Approach non-automotive competitors for backlinks. These include businesses in the automotive industry that aren’t direct competitors to you but are based at your business location. For instance, assuming you only sell cars, you can approach auto parts accessory sellers or car wash. You can even approach car rental businesses, as they aren’t direct competitors.
- Solicit for backlinks from local newspapers and publications. You can also get backlinks from authoritative automotive websites.
Focus your attention on securing niche-relevant backlinks. You can see that we clearly considered that in the options discussed. A backlink from a niche-relevant website will have a greater impact on your website’s search engine rankings.
How do you build backlinks? Different strategies exist.
You can build backlinks via guest posting, where you write and publish articles on other websites. In return, you’ll have the opportunity to insert a link to your website in the article you published on other websites.
In addition to guest posting, other link-building strategies you can use include niche edits, brand mentions, broken links, and press releases. The target is to acquire high-quality and niche-relevant backlinks. Avoid backlinks from spammy websites.
3: Focus on long-tail keywords:
Automotive SEO is competitive because of the number of businesses in the industry. However, the competition is higher for auto businesses operating in city centers, which are densely populated. So, how can you achieve first-page rankings in this scenario? The idea is to leverage long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords boast lower search volumes than short-tail keywords. However, they have lower competition and offer you a great opportunity to rank high in search engine result pages.
Here is a quick example. It can be difficult to rank for keywords like “Ford Dealer Houston.” The reason is that it’s a short-tail keyword. If you use a premium keyword research tool to check, you’ll discover that the keyword has a high search volume and massive competition.
To boost your chance of ranking high, you can create model-specific pages and target similar long-tail keywords, for example, a long-tail keyword such as “New Ford Explore Miami” will have less competition than “Ford Cars Miami.”
Conclusion
We have explained the question, “What is automotive SEO?” We defined it as a combination of techniques implemented to improve an automotive business website’s rankings and organic traffic.
Implemented properly, automotive SEO can deliver great dividends to your business. By improving your search engine rankings, your business will become visible to potential customers looking for the services or products you’re selling.
So, whether you own a car dealership, car rental, car wash, or accessories business, prioritize automotive SEO. The benefits of SEO are enormous. Besides helping you to rank high on search engine result pages, SEO is cost-effective and can help you generate qualified leads.