Local SEO Tips for Car Dealers

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As a car dealer, you are in one of the most competitive niches in the market. Local SEO is a powerful way to attract more visitors to your car dealer webpage. It can give you an advantage against your competitors. And the benefit of local SEO is that it doesn't have to break your bank.
Local SEO is a good way to go about it if you want to expand your car dealership services into new areas.
A local SEO campaign will help you find out which keywords are relevant to your car dealership and what pages on your site they lead to. It will also let you know which keywords you should target for other parts of your business.

10 Proven Local SEO Tips for Car Dealers

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1. Focus On Advanced Local SEO

As a car dealer, the chances are high that your competitors are already carrying out local SEO. This means you need something extra to add to your website to get noticed in the niche.
Advanced local SEO methods and techniques can help your car dealer website outperform your competition.
Local SEO is something that many car dealers take very little time with. You can use this to your advantage. Opting for more advanced SEO solutions like proximity, location, and location-based content can be just as, if not more, important.
Advanced Local SEO Strategies And Tools
Most people don't realize that local SEO is more involved than just filling out your local business listing information. Here are several more advanced local SEO strategies that you can use to boost your car dealer website's rankings.

• Running a detailed competitive keyword analysis with tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs.
• Optimize your GMB listing to feature on the local 3-pack.
• Ensure that you audit and update your citations on popular directories like Yelp.

Here’s what a local 3-pack looks like:

2. Build A Powerful Website

Building a strong website seems to be the first thing several professional SEO companies say. But what is a powerful website?
The answer involves many factors.
In addition to great features, a good website should be user-friendly. It should offer a simple interface, and it should be easy to navigate through the website.
Another aspect to consider is opting for mobile apps for business. Building a companion app for your website is a great idea and can pay dividends.
Tools To Build A Powerful SEO-Friendly Website
Car dealers should take a multi-pronged approach to market and sell cars to be more successful. The reason is that this is a highly competitive field. The average attention span of a customer is hardly a few seconds.

• Google Analytics is one of the most used packages and is free.
• One of the best tools to build local citations is MOZ Local and Whitespark.
• Audit backlinks regularly on your website with Majestic SEO and Serpstat.

Here’s a screenshot of Serpstat auditing a website’s backlinks:

3. Integrate Website Design With Functionality

While web design can be a great marketing tool, a well-designed site won't attract more visitors. To get the most out of your web design, you need to integrate the design elements with the website's functionality.
Ensure that the design is easy to navigate, intuitive, and user-friendly. Also, make sure that the design is cohesive and attractive.
Aligning Website Design With Functionality
For the car dealership website to rank high in search engines, it needs to be optimized for functionality. It should contain features that are user-friendly, useful, and informative.
A beautiful website can help you in this respect. But, if it's not built to be functional in the way they expect it to be, then it won't drive people to your site.

• Use powerful web design tools like Adobe XD and Figma.
• Check where your users are clicking with tools like HotJar heatmap.
• Website Grader is another tool that can evaluate your performance.

Here’s an example of how HotJar heatmap shows you where visitors are clicking on your website:

4. Create Email Marketing Funnels

An email campaign is a critical part of the local SEO experience. Car dealers tend to skip on putting too much detail here. This can be detrimental to their website performance.
A strong email marketing funnel is key to a successful auto dealership's marketing strategy.
There are two types of email funnels that you can create. One is a "leads" funnel that focuses on the SEO process's more technical aspects. The second is the "sales" funnel which has to do with on-page elements like content and ads. You need to focus on both to achieve success for your website.
Tools And Tips To Create Email Marketing Funnels
Effective email marketing will ensure that your prospects are brought to the next stage of your sales process. This is important for car dealers because they need to close quickly.

• One of the most popular paid options on this list is Mailchimp.
• Check out Sender for a free and powerful tool in this niche.
• HubSpot Email Marketing is a great module for email.

In addition to creating and sending emails, Hubspot Email Marketing also shows you email insights:

5. Include Social Media Marketing

Social media works well to drive traffic and improve local SEO performance in your geographic area. You can also use social media to help your business grow and find new customers.
The biggest challenge with social media marketing is time-consuming and requires constant maintenance. That's why most people fail with it. But the right kind of social media marketing can be highly beneficial to your business. This is especially true when trying to rank high on local search results.
Social Media Strategies To Rank Well On Local SEO
With more than a billion people on it, social media has become a major player in marketing. Car dealers worldwide use their SM profiles to generate sales and local SEO profiles.

• Opt for paid ads for better performance on SM platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
• Ensure that your NAP details are consistent across all platforms.
• Social listening tools like HootSuite and Mention can help.

Here’s an example of what an ad on Instagram will look like:

6. Use Relevant Content Frameworks

Search engine optimization is only one-half of the equation. The other part of the solution is high-quality content. Content marketing can be used across various online media platforms, like social media, blogs, and inbound marketing.
Having relevant content on your site optimized for search engines will always help. But, it is not sufficient to just have the right content on your site. You also need to have it in the right places.
Content Frameworks And Local SEO Performance
As far as content marketing is concerned, there are a variety of frameworks that you can opt for to improve local SEO. Here are a few popular ones for your reference.

• The Spaghetti Blogging Framework is a great way to create powerful content.
• The Skyscraper Technique - find the best content pieces on your website and improve them.
• Tofu-Mofu-Bofu creates top, middle, and bottom-funnel content, respectively.

Here’s an illustration of the Skyscraper Technique:

7. Improve Online Brand Reputation

The reputation of a brand has a significant bearing on generating more business. Your customers are going to measure your reputation up against your competition. And to get their business, you need to project better numbers.
The key is to use mechanics to improve your niche's reputation. Customers are a lot more discerning now of brands in the market. Every company has its reputation management process that they follow.
Reputation Management Tools And Strategies
Reputation management allows you to control and manage your online presence and reputation. It can build your online credibility and protect your good name and brand. Social media, reviews, and testimonials are great for building your reputation.

• Popular inclusive SEO suites like Ahrefs and SEMrush have reputation management.
• Reputology is the most powerful standalone reputation management tool.
• HootSuite improves social intelligence for your SEO campaign.

Here’s a glimpse of how Reputology helps you manage your online reputation across multiple platforms:

8. Build Trust For Your Brand

Today's trust mechanic is a powerful way of driving more sales to your website. And this is especially important for car dealers as there are so many of them. Customers are known to prefer car dealers with high trust scores.
While increasing trust is not easy, it is something that you need to do as part of your marketing. It pays dividends later on during the marketing journey.
Strategies For Building Trust For Your Car Dealer Website
Trust is the most powerful of all sales sentiments. It can mean the difference between a customer for life and a person who opts for your competition. There are several ways you can build trust for your website.

• Ensure your website has zero warnings - check with Google Search Console.
• Content should be accurate and free from plagiarism and errors. Copyscape and Grammarly can help.
• Ensure your NAP is consistent across all platforms.

Here’s an example of Google Search Console showing a website has zero warnings:

9. Optimize For Better Online Advertising

Companies often opt for the easiest advertising strategy because of high costs and effort. Better SEO isn't about changing every page of your website to optimize it. It's about taking a few simple steps to make your website as visible as possible in search results.
If you want to rank higher in local searches, there are certain things that you need to keep in mind. The conversation is not just about organic versus paid advertising. You need both to do well.
Choosing The Right Tools To Optimize Advertising Funnel
It's important to understand the difference between local SEO, Google Ads, and PPC before beginning your marketing strategy. The right decision is to choose different options as part of your advertising.

• Research your keywords extensively with tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer.
• Remember to optimize your advertising for people and not Google.
• Use multiple platforms to carry you advertising at the same time.

Here’s what the Moz Keyword Explorer looks like. Enter a keyword and click on ‘Search keywords now’:

10. Create And Implement A Content Calendar

As we have established earlier, content is crucial to local SEO. If you want your content to get more views, it's essential to start by focusing on a specific set of dates.
You might not realize it, but the search engines index websites extremely important to your overall traffic.
Creating An Effective Content Calendar
Content engagement can depend on several factors, including the day of the month and the time posted. A content calendar ensures that you post at optimal times, increasing your engagement.

• The Google Drive Suite has docs and sheets, which you can use for smaller schedules.
• Paid tools for content scheduling include Loomly, HubSpot, and Hootsuite.

Here’s a screenshot of the tools Google Drive Suite provides to create an effective content calendar:

Local SEO for Car Dealership - FAQs

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Q1. Can Car Dealers Benefit From SEO?

SEO is a critical tool for every business owner in today's digital marketplace, including car dealers. As the search engines continue to change and update, companies must adapt their websites to match the new algorithms better.

Q2. How Important Is Local SEO For Car Dealerships?

Most car dealerships can't afford to ignore local search, and for a good reason. It builds brand awareness and customer trust for a dealer. It also increases conversion rates and drives leads to dealership websites.

Q3. Can I Generate Organic Leads For My Dealership?

Yes, you can. When done right, local SEO can result in a high number of leads for your business.

Q4. How Can I Find Important Keywords Related To Car Dealers?

Several SEO tools can help you find the right keywords. These are a few of them -

• Google Keyword Planner
• SEMrush
• Ahrefs
• MOZ Keyword Explorer

Key Takeaways

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• Focus on local SEO - it's the key to competitive local businesses like car dealers.
• Ensure that your website is SEO-friendly and geared to updates.
• Create and post only high-quality content which is relevant to the automobile niche.
• Spend time on the keyword discovery phase - it means better results later.
• Audit your backlink profile during specific intervals.
• Confirm your NAP details are consistent over all your platforms.
• Opt for a mobile-first approach to your marketing.
• Create a powerful companion app for your website if possible.