Is Your Dealership’s SEO Holding You Back?

A recent study of the car buyer’s journey shows that 88 percent of car shoppers use the internet for their research.

On average, a car shopper will spend nearly nine hours looking at various websites for information, reviews, and pricing, and largely third-party sites. You might be wondering, “If so many people look at cars online, why don’t I get more leads from my website?”

The answer is known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Online search results are optimized for the user, showing the best matches to the search phrase first. That can mean the most authoritative web pages, the website with the most applicable content, a website that advertises based on keywords in the search, and a host of other criteria.

If this all sounds like a foreign language to you, you’re not alone. But make no mistake, it’s the linchpin for your online presence, and can significantly impact how much business your dealership’s website generates for you.

Create Top-Notch Content

No dealer website can have too much GOOD content. It can be tempting to cut and paste press releases from your OEM to your dealer website. Don’t do it as Google will punish your site for duplicating content. Instead, create new, fresh articles, vehicle pages, and landing pages for your website for the best results.

Use Short-Form and Long-Form Content

Some pages like vehicle description pages need only to be rather brief, 300 to 400 words or so. Other value-added pages like how-to articles, vehicle reviews, and new vehicle releases should be more in-depth, 900 to 1,500 words.

Strive to add at least one short-form article and one long-form content page per week. If you can’t keep up, reduce the number of articles, not the quality.

Choose High-Quality Keywords

It’s like an online library, and keywords are the titles on hand. Expand your library with pages that use relevant, fresh keywords so you can appeal to the most search results possible.

Don’t Do It Alone

If SEO is new to you, don’t attempt to do it on your own, or even in-house. As previously mentioned, poorly-written or duplicated content is more harmful than it is good. Seek out a qualified automotive SEO specialist who you can hire to create new content for you. It can be costly at first, but soon the investment will be realized in increased online lead generation.

A tip: when you find a good automotive SEO specialist, lock them down long-term with a contract.