Automotive SEO Services for Car Dealerships

8 Automotive SEO Tips to Help Grow Your Local SEO Rankings

Quick answer: Automotive SEO helps a dealership or auto shop appear when people search for vehicles, parts or service nearby. Focus on a verified Google Business Profile, a page for each model and service, fast inventory pages, reviews and local links.

Automotive SEO helps car dealerships and auto shops appear when people search for vehicles, parts and service near them. These eight tips cover your website, Google Business Profile, listings, reviews, content, local ties, analytics and parts keywords. If you want help, see our local SEO, keyword research and SEO content services.

1) Create a User-Friendly Website

Your website is the center of your online presence. It keeps your business information in one place and gives search engines something to rank. A user-friendly site helps you stand out and helps new and local customers find you. Our website development service can build one.

Along with having a website for your automotive business, it’s important to keep up with it and make it the best that it can be for your customers. Whether that’s making your website easy and accessible, having your services and products accessible and available, or having information present that your customers might be interested in knowing. All of these factors can be incorporated into the content and optimization of your automotive website.

2) Create or Claim Your Google Business Profile

Along with having information on your automotive website, there are additional profiles your business can make for customers to find information. Creating or claiming a Google Business Profile is one of the most important ways in which your business can be seen in your local area. Claiming or creating a GBP is simple and easy to do and set up. It also helps:

• Find your business online
• Improve search and user intent 
• Help your business be found on Google Maps
• Provide a place for customers to review your business

A Google listing lets customers find your information quickly and builds trust with customers and search engines. A complete, active profile can support your local rankings over time.

Especially with a local perspective in mind, creating a GBP will help you stand out against your competitors in your area. One of the best ways to help your automotive business stand out is by being active on your GBP. What we mean by this is to constantly make sure your business information is correct and up to date, add photos and videos about your business, respond to reviews when they are submitted, enhance the services and products you offer, etc. There are lots of ways to stay active on your GBP. Be sure to always be active, especially in your local area.

3) Get Your Automotive Business Listed in Relevant Directories

Think about where your customers look for businesses like yours: search engines, word of mouth, Google Maps or local and industry directories. Claiming your business in the right directories can help you reach new customers.

You can list your business in local, niche and industry directories, and many are free to add. Consistent listings give your business exposure and support your local relevance, though directory links alone will not guarantee higher rankings. See our small business directory guide.

4) Ask for Authentic and Positive Reviews

Receiving and managing reviews can be one of the most influential digital marketing tasks your automotive business needs to seek out. With people relying more on reviews about your automotive business, it’s important to be wary and responsive to the reviews you receive. Negative reviews are never fun to receive. However, it’s important to respond to them and follow up with ways to improve their situation or issue. It helps build credibility and shows that your business cares about its customers. From a local perspective, this can be extremely helpful.

Respond to the reviews you receive, and keep asking for reviews too. You can ask about their experience, ask for feedback, or ask them to mention a team member who helped. Detailed reviews help future customers decide, and review quantity, quality and recency are among the signals Google can use for local rankings. Do not offer rewards for reviews, because Google’s policy does not allow it.

5) Provide Useful Content

One of the best ways for your automotive business to gain organic traffic is through the original content your automotive business could produce. Now more than ever, individuals are searching online for resources and credible information to help them learn or understand certain topics. 

Within the automotive industry, there are countless opportunities for your business to take action and create different types of content for your audience. You could create a step-by-step guide or how-to tutorials on automotive topics. These topics could be patching a tire, fixing a flat tire, or how to change your car’s oil. Providing this useful information helps customers fix an issue they might have while also looking to your automotive business for more information. You can choose to create videos, blog posts, or informative guides to help create useful content for your customers. 

You can also use content to showcase your products and services. Having descriptive details or a video that gives more light on your automotive products and services helps customers choose and find what they’re looking for. People are more likely to engage and stay with your automotive business when these different types of content are resourceful to them.

6) Increase Local Organizations Ties

Local connections can build trust within your community and industry. Support other local businesses, link to them in blog posts where it helps readers, and join community events. Mentions and links from relevant local sites can support your local visibility over time, but they should be earned naturally. See our white hat link building service.

7) Check Automotive Analytics

One valuable asset that your automotive business should capitalize on is your analytics. Your analytics can help give you the direction you’re looking for in your content, media, and maybe even operations. Your analytics can help you see what’s trending on your website or within your industry. You can find the things your customers enjoy and capitalize on it! For example, if your customers are enjoying a step-by-step video on how to fix a flat tire, that could motivate your small business to create more step-by-step guides. You should find what your customers are drawn to and provide resources to them.

8) Automotive Keyword Strategy with Specific Product Numbers

Your automotive business can improve your local automotive SEO strategy through keywords, especially with your specific products or services. With the specific automotive parts your business sells, you should learn to optimize the specific product numbers by making them keywords. When someone types in the specific automotive product number, you should want your business to show up in SERPs for them to buy it from you. It also lets customers know the specific products your business has available for them. Optimizing your specific products into keywords can help your automotive business gain more traffic and revenue over time when your products are able to appear high in SERPs.

Shift Your SEO Into High Gear

These eight tips are a good starting point for ranking higher online. If you need help with the next steps, GreatInflux can support your digital marketing, local listings and SEO. See our affordable local SEO and PPC consulting services, and our guide to automotive digital marketing. Read more: getting more showroom visits.