Hello, Is It Me You’re Looking For?
Probably not, that’s why SEO is vital for car dealerships.
It probably seems obvious, but there’s a hierarchy of ways to communicate with potential customers. And it’s graded by money.
Ideally, you want to speak to your customers as cheaply as possible, so emails and social media posts, rather than direct mail and adverts. But what often gets left behind is the easiest of all, and that’s when your customers come and find you.
Your website and digital properties are not a dragnet, instead, they’re carefully baited. Or, rather, they are if you’re doing it right.
You’ll have content well placed to attract potential new car buyers, en masse, as well as relevant follow up pieces to pique their interest.
For the sake of this guide, we’ll assume you’ve got a reasonable content marketing strategy in place, and your social media presence is up to scratch (if not, that’s another conversation, so do feel free to reach out).
So how do you actually do good SEO in 2019?
Let us take a second to reference one of our earlier articles, ‘Automotive Marketing Is Changing Faster Than You Are’.
“There is no ‘front page of Google’ now, there are, instead, 40,000,000 different front pages of Google. Search engines now take huge swathes of context into account when you search for something as simple as ‘new car deals’ into the bar.
They now factor in your location, age, history, prior searches, your theoretical income levels, whether you like watching videos or reading blogs, whether your previous search was ‘how much is a 1 series?’ or ‘How fast is a Ferrari?’. They look for your exact location based on GPS, to see who you’re near, and what online presence that dealership might have. All of this, and a thousand other things, happens in the blink of an eye.”
What we were trying to get across with this reference is simply how much more complicated it is to try and get on that front page at Google, Bing and, at a push, Yahoo.
However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t both possible and profitable.
So here’s our follow up guide on how to become a better automotive SEO expert, with our pick of external resources, tools and guides.
First, Do Your Homework.
Google is, of course, the big dog when it comes to search, so it should be the first port of call on your SEO journey.
One of the best tools is Google Search Console, because it’s a direct line into what searches are being made, who by, and in what areas.
The steps you’re going to need to do to get the most from Search Console are:
- Add all your domains, the HTTP and HTTPS versions as well as WWW. and non WWW. versions as well. So for typical website, you’ll have 4 entries
- Link your main domain up to your Google Analytics account. See how to do that here
- After a couple of days, check back into your console and review your keywords to see which ones you rank for already
- Decide if they’re of use to you and, if not, pick some new ones to start seeding your content with
- If you’re not sure what words to use, there are tools like UberSuggest
- Finally, don’t just ‘set it and forget it’. Come back as part of your weekly, monthly or quarterly reporting
We’ll be writing more detailed how to guides for Google Search Console in the future, so be sure to subscribe to our email list to be first to receive them.
Make Sure Google Thinks Your Business is a Business
It sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly easy to miss. Google Business listings are very powerful and boost you up the SEO rankings just for being involved, let alone for having reviews, images, opening times, contact details etc. The more you put in the more you’ll get back.
What are you going to do with it? Don’t worry we’ve got you covered here, too.
- Create an account
- Fill out your essential contact information (e.g. address, phone numbers, emails, social media)
- Add content – opening hours, accessibility information, services, interior photos and so on
- Encourage reviews from your customers – and respond to them. Don’t just leave them to fester if they’re negative, respond honestly and openly, and if they’re positive thank them for their input and guidance
- If you have news updates, push them out via the My Business update service so they appear directly in search results
- Use the in-built analytics to find out where people search for you and your sources of traffic, too
Test, Learn, Adapt.
This isn’t something you’ll get right first try, but you will improve. A big part of success online is challenging your own work, go through your analytics, run speed tests on your site and see where you can improve.
We often talk about the leaky bucket philosophy. It applies perfectly to digital marketing.
If you need customers in your bucket, it’s more efficient to patch the holes before pushing (or paying money to attract) more who are just going to fall out.
Once more, we’ve got some suggestions for you.
- Use a service like SEOptimer to test your site and, of course, fix any errors
- Speed test your site. Especially for mobile as over 50% of all web traffic is on small devices. PageSpeed Insight from Google or GTmetrix are both great tools to use for this
- Hubspot’s WebsiteGrader can be useful too for an overall summary
Follow those three steps and you’ll be a long way towards being in a better place for your SEO. Remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
So keep working at it, check your stats, make small changes, and move ever onwards.
If you’re looking for consultancy or a full-service approach to your SEO, 8Cats Automotive is here to help.
Why not join our free Facebook Group for automotive digital marketing?
