Because you’re targeting the local market, that’s why your car dealership needs local SEO. You want more local consumers to learn about your business and patronize you. You want to record more sales and be the go-to car dealership for people in your location who are looking for good quality cars to purchase.
With an effective local SEO strategy, you can achieve your desired marketing goals. In other words, you’ll rank high in local search results, making it easier for local prospects to find you online.
Here, we’ll discuss the reason car dealerships should invest in local search engine optimization. Keep reading to learn more!
Reason Your Car Dealership Needs Local SEO
Research by Cox Auction Inc. shows that people interested in buying cars spend 60% of their time online than in-store. What is the implication of this? Making it easier for prospects to find you online is a crucial step you must take to succeed in the automotive industry. That is where local SEO comes in.
Here, we’ll discuss the importance of local search engine optimization to your car dealership business. If you haven’t been paying attention to SEO, this post should make you change your mind.
1: Improve your car dealership’s online visibility in your local market:
Assuming you established your car dealership business in Houston (or any other city in the U.S. or other parts of the world), for example. In this case, Houston is your local market. You can target people from other parts of Texas if you like. But targeting your local market, which happens to be Houston, will boost your chances of ranking high in local searches of prospects near your business.
Making your car dealership popular online is a great way to position your business for success. It will be easier for prospects to find your business when searching online.
2: Local SEO will help your car dealership to generate quality leads:
If you’re looking for more car buyers, investing in local SEO is a great way to achieve your online marketing goals. By improving your ranking in local search, more potential customers will find you and may register their interest in what you’re selling.
Search engine optimization generates quality leads, consisting of individuals who are actively looking for information or the sort of products you’re selling. And even though some of your visitors may be seeking information about specific brands of vehicles, finding the information they need on your website might convince them that you’re an authority in automobiles.
Local SEO brings customers who have an interest in your products. You need an experienced and reliable SEO agency like Automotive SEO Services that can implement effective local SEO services to make your car dealership online marketing campaign successful. In other words, you’ll experience improvement in your local search rankings, organic traffic, leads generation, and sales. Find an agency that can go the extra mile to ensure you achieve a far better ROI.
3: Your car dealership business will face less competition in search rankings:
With local SEO, you’re targeting a specific audience. In other words, if your business is in Chicago, you’re targeting potential car buyers in Chicago specifically. It will be easier to rank in local search results for Chicago than the entire state of Illinois. So, local SEO reduces the competition and improves your chances of ranking high in search results of prospects in your local market.
4: Local SEO is a cost-effective online marketing strategy for car dealerships:
Local search engine optimization is a cost-effective online marketing strategy. It has a lower CAC (customer acquisition cost) than any other digital marketing strategy.
Although the initial cost of search engine optimization might seem high, you’ll find that it’s lower in the long run compared to traditional and other marketing strategies. When your car dealership starts to rank high in local search results, you can decide to stop investing in SEO for a while or lower your marketing efforts.
Even when you stop investing in local SEO, your competitors can’t outrank you immediately. It will take time, and they have to put in more effort to overtake you in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Additionally, even when you stop investing in SEO for a while, you’ll still be receiving organic traffic to your official website or local listings.
A Handy Tip: Treat your local SEO campaign as a continuous online marketing strategy if you want to gain a competitive edge and achieve your marketing goals with SEO. Search engine optimization isn’t a one-off and shouldn’t be treated as such.
5: Local SEO will give your car dealership sustainable traffic
In addition to delivering qualified leads, local SEO can help you generate sustainable traffic. In other words, even if you stop investing in SEO or putting more effort into your search engine marketing campaign, you’ll still be getting organic traffic and recording sales. That is how effective search engine marketing can be.
6: Build solid social proof:
In the business world today, trust has become something many businesses struggle to build. It takes a lot for prospects to trust a brand. In the business world, trust is earned.
How do you earn trust via local SEO? One simple way is to have a well-optimized and professional-looking Google Business Profile (GBP), but it doesn’t end there; you have to solicit reviews from your satisfied customers.
Having a sizable number of positive reviews can help you build solid social proof. When prospects read the positive and unbiased reviews of people who have patronized you, they’ll feel more confident when doing business with you. The positive reviews they have seen have gotten rid of every doubt they had before approaching you.
Having positive reviews is great and will easily convince prospects that you’re a trustworthy car dealership. But that doesn’t mean negative reviews will stop you from making sales. Though it can, prospects will consider your response to the unsatisfied reviewer.
That is why we always advise car dealership business owners to respond to every review they get, whether positive or negative. For the positive reviews, show appreciation to your customers. Meanwhile, for the negative ones, if any, let your response show empathy and your willingness to resolve the issue.
When you respond to negative reviews professionally, you’re showing potential customers that you’re customer-centered. Reviews are powerful and can make or break a business.
7: Generate more revenue and better ROI:
How can local SEO help your car dealership to generate more revenue and better return on investment? Firstly, SEO is a cost-effective digital marketing strategy. SEO is also an effective marketing strategy.
The majority of the visitors that will land on your website are individuals who want to purchase a car. If your website appears in their search result, they may contact you by phone and eventually visit your brick-and-mortar store. If your website doesn’t appear in the prospects’ search results, they won’t even know that your business exists.
Because local SEO is cost-effective and generates high conversion rations compared to other traffic sources, you’ll get a better return on your investment.
Car Dealership Local SEO Strategies And Best Practices
We have discussed the benefits of local SEO for your car dealership business. You can make your business more successful online by implementing effective local search engine marketing strategies.
Here, we will discuss the various local SEO strategies you can implement to improve your search ranking and organic and get other benefits that SEO offers.
1: Take possession of your Google Business Profile:
Do you have a Google Business Profile (GBP)? If not, there is still time to claim yours. With a well-optimized and professional-looking Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), you can improve your car dealership’s online presence and make it a breeze for potential car buyers to find you online.
The platform, Google Business Profile, belongs to the Google search engine. On top of that, it is free to create a profile for your business on the platform. You won’t pay a dime to Google.
Find an SEO expert who can create and optimize your Google My Business profile while following Google’s rules. You need an expert who can provide a captivating description for your business, place primary keywords strategically, and ensure NAP consistency.
Tips for Google Business Profile:
- Write your business name as it is. Avoid adding a keyword to your business name.
- Ensure NAP consistency. In other words, the name, address, and phone number on your Google My Business Profile should match the name, address, and phone number you have on other platforms online.
- Add high-quality images to your profile. Use captivating images to blow visitors’ minds away and convince them to choose you.
- Get reviews from your customers and respond to every review. These include the positive and negative ones.
2: Use location-based keywords:
Keywords are everything in local SEO. Even when you create a Google Business Profile, you need to incorporate your target keywords. The reason is to ensure that your page or business appears in the search results of potential customers actively searching for car dealers to patronize. So, you’ll have to conduct some local keyword research.
Local keywords are search terms that target a specific location. An example is (a car dealership in [your City]). It is better to use local keywords if you’re targeting local customers than to use generic ones.
Keyword placement is another important process in SEO. Avoid keyword cannibalization and stuffing. These are against Google’s rules and may ruin your SEO efforts.
Place your local keywords in your title tags, meta description, and body of the content. Optimize your content properly so that your web page might appear in the search results of potential customers.
3: Take advantage of other local online directories:
Google Business Profile is a huge platform. It is also massively popular and important to your car dealership’s local SEO campaign. Additionally, you don’t need to pay to have a GMB account. It’s free.
Google My Business will increase your chances of appearing in local search results of prospects. However, it’s not the only online directory. Several online directories you can take advantage of to improve your online presence exist.
A Handy Tip: Only list your car dealership business on reputable and high-quality online directories. Note also that while some online directories are free, some are paid.
4: Take advantage of social media:
Social media offers a great opportunity to showcase your products to a wider audience. You can also get more traffic to your website and generate leads via social media.
To improve your online presence via social media, you need to publish captivating posts regularly. Another way you can effectively use social media to boost your online visibility and client base is by engaging your followers. Respond to their inquiries, complaints, and questions. Make them feel like a part of your social community.
A Handy Tip: You can use your car dealership’s social media account to promote your business in diverse ways. You can create promotions, events, and sales. Come up with creative ideas that will captivate social media users and your followers and generate a massive buzz around your car dealership business.
Conclusion
We have explained why your car dealership needs local SEO. By implementing effective local SEO strategies, you can improve your business’s local search rankings, making it easier for potential car buyers to find you.
Local SEO can help you generate quality leads and record sales. However, you’ll need an SEO expert who possesses in-depth knowledge and experience to manage your car dealership’s local search engine marketing project. You need an expert who can help you gain a competitive edge and generate record sales.
Automotive SEO Services has been offering local SEO services for over a decade and has helped several businesses achieve their desired SEO goals. Get in touch to kick-start your automotive business’ local search engine optimization campaign.