Driving traffic to a car dealership takes more than just a good location and an attractive inventory — it also requires an effective local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Implementing local SEO for car dealers involves optimizing Google Business Profile and other online assets to ensure high visibility in local search results ("near me" type searches) and outrank nearby competitors.
While many general local search engine optimization best practices can be applied to car dealerships, there are also some unique car dealership SEO considerations to take into account.
How Important Is Local SEO for Car Dealerships?
The majority of car buyers start their buying journey online (usually on Google), making it crucial for car dealers to leverage local SEO strategies to stand out in search results and attract potential customers to their lot.
Local SEO helps your car dealership appear in local searches when customers are looking for places to buy new or used vehicles in their area (think searches like "car dealership near me" and "car dealer in [City]"), making it easier for them to find you over the competition.
By not only appearing in local searches, but also appearing high up in local search results (in what's known as the "local pack"), you are automatically building trust with potential customers and starting to influence their decision to purchase a new car from your dealership.
Whether you're an established car dealer looking to improve your digital marketing strategies or a new dealership trying to establish strong roots in the local market, the car dealership SEO strategies covered below will help you boost your visibility and reach in the local community, ultimately attracting more foot traffic and helping you sell more cars!
Local SEO Tips for Car Dealers
- Optimizing Google Business Profile for Car Dealers
- Boosting Local SEO for Car Dealerships with Review Analysis
- Building Local Citations on Industry Directories
- Creating Location-Specific Landing Pages
- Doing Content Marketing for Car Dealers
- Acquiring Highly Relevant Backlinks
Optimizing Google Business Profile for Car Dealers
Google Business Profile optimization should be the top priority when it comes to local automotive dealership SEO, as the majority of people searching for car dealers near them are doing so via Google Search or Google Maps, and choosing one of the top GBP listings to call or visit.
Here's how to optimize Google Business Profile for a car dealership:
- Start by claiming and verifying your GBP if you haven't already.
- Ensure that all information is accurate and up-to-date, including your dealership's name, address, phone number (NAP), business hours, and website URL.
- Use high-quality images of your dealership, showroom, and inventory to make your profile visually appealing and improve engagement.
- Take advantage of the product and services sections to list the types of vehicles you offer, as well as any special services like financing or maintenance.
- Regularly post updates and promotions to keep your profile active and engaging.
- Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews and respond to them promptly to build trust and demonstrate excellent customer service.
Additionally, depending on the size of the dealership and whether it has multiple departments within it, you may want to claim and optimize multiple Google Business Profiles, creating unique listings for each department.
For example, many dealerships have parts and services departments that are separate from the sales department, and some dealerships may be authorized to sell various brands, in which case they might have separate listings for each one (as long as they meet Google's requirements for distinct department listings).
In this case, you'll need to follow best practices for optimizing Google Business Profile for a campus. These will help you ensure Google sees each department's listing as a separate entity from the dealership as a whole, ensuring they appear in the most relevant local searches.
Boosting Local SEO for Car Dealerships with Review Analysis
As a direct ranking factor for local search results, customer reviews play a significant role in local SEO, not to mention they can greatly influence potential buyers to choose your dealership over the competition.
To boost your local SEO, encourage satisfied customers to leave detailed reviews mentioning specific aspects of their experience.
Actively monitor and analyze all the reviews left on your GBP, as well as other review platforms like Yelp and DealerRater, and pay attention to feedback. Use insights from review analysis to identify common themes or areas for improvement, and implement changes to improve your services and get more positive reviews.
Positive reviews not only improve your search rankings, allowing you to outrank more nearby competitors, but also build your dealership's credibility, helping you close more deals.
Local Falcon's AI-powered Reviews Analysis tool drastically speeds up review analysis for car dealerships. The AI provides lightning-fast insights pulled from hundreds of reviews at once (for both your business and its top competitors), making it easy to act fast to improve your reviews and rankings!
Try Local Falcon's Reviews Analysis Tool
Building Local Citations on Industry Directories
Local citations, or mentions of key business information across the internet, can help boost local SEO for car dealers, but only if they are high-quality local citations.
In other words, you shouldn't just list your business information anywhere and everywhere — search engine algorithms don't like this anymore. Instead, focus on listing your car dealership on relevant industry directories. This will demonstrate the relevance of your business to Google and help it show up in more local searches.
Start by listing your dealership on major automotive directories such as AutoTrader, Cars.com, Edmunds, CarGurus, Kelley Blue Book, and TrueCar. Additionally, look for opportunities to get listed on local business directories and regional automotive websites.
Ensure that your information is accurate and consistent across all directories to avoid confusion and improve search engine trust and relevance.
These citations not only help search engines verify your business's legitimacy, but also provide additional channels for potential customers to discover your dealership.
Creating Location-Specific Landing Pages
If your car dealership has multiple locations, creating location-specific landing pages can significantly improve your local SEO by targeting customers in your area more effectively.
Each landing page should be optimized for a specific location, such as a city or neighborhood, and include relevant geo-modified keywords that potential customers might use when searching for a dealership in that area.
Here are some local SEO tips for car dealership landing pages:
- Include detailed information about each dealership, the types of vehicles it offers, and any other location-specific info.
- Use high-quality images and videos to boost engagement.
- Showcase testimonials to build credibility and take advantage of user-generated content.
- Embed a Google Map with your dealership's location and provide clear directions.
- Ensure pages are well-integrated into your website's navigation to ensure a seamless user experience.
Doing Content Marketing for Car Dealers
Content marketing is a powerful tool for attracting and engaging potential customers while improving your dealership's local SEO.
Start by creating a blog on your website where you can publish informative and engaging content related to the automotive industry. Topics might include car buying guides, maintenance tips, model comparisons, and local automotive news. Use local keywords naturally within the content to improve its relevance to local searches.
Additionally, create video content showcasing your inventory, customer testimonials, staff, and dealership events to enhance user engagement — videos keep users on the page longer, which search engine algorithms like!
To increase its reach, traffic, and engagement, share your content across social media platforms and encourage your audience to interact with it.
By providing users with valuable and relevant content, you can establish your dealership as an authority in the local market and attract more organic traffic to your website through SEO.
Acquiring Highly Relevant Backlinks
Backlinks from reputable websites can also significantly boost your car dealership's local SEO by signaling to search engines that your site is trustworthy and authoritative.
To acquire highly relevant backlinks, try reaching out to local automotive bloggers, news sites, and industry influencers for opportunities to collaborate, such as guest posts or features. You can also participate in local events or sponsor community activities to get mentioned on event websites and local news outlets.
Additionally, press releases about significant dealership milestones, new inventory, or community involvement can also attract backlinks from news websites.
Wrapping It Up
So you've got the car lot, the vehicle inventory, and the salespeople. What's next?
As the majority of car buyers begin their search for a new vehicle online, ensuring your dealership is prominently displayed in local searches is crucial for driving traffic to your automotive dealership where you can actually close the deal!
The local SEO tips for car dealers covered in this guide will not only help you stand out in local search results, but also build credibility and trust with potential customers, encouraging them to choose your dealership for their big purchase.
Start incorporating these tips into your digital marketing strategy today to see a noticeable improvement in your dealership's online presence and get more calls and foot traffic!