The Internet is full of acronyms these days, and SEO, short for search engine optimization, is one of them. However, it's not just another set of letters that have no real meaning. When it comes to the building blocks of SEO for auto dealerships and their car websites, there's a few specifics that marketers should keep in mind.Avoid These Mistakes
Auto SEO has a lot to do with optimizing for local buyers. But's not just about a single geographical area. For example, neighborhoods and suburbs are also important. Secondly, consumers aren't just concerned with make and model. As a salesman, you might know which cars have what features, but consumers don't. They might be shopping for an SUV with four wheel drive or a luxury sedan, so don't forget about keywords that describe vehicles rather than just naming them.
Lastly, smart SEOs recognize the value of targeting car buyers based on the stage of the buying process. People who are searching for a vehicle are comparing features and look at options, which ties into the previous though. As they move through the process, consumers will want real choices, which your dealership may be able to provide them. Obviously, there's a lot of keywords that you can focus on, but you don't want to try to do everything at once, especially when you're doing SEO yourself. Instead, consider the keywords that will have the highest conversion and focus on that. You can always tweak or adjust your campaigns in the future, but you don't want to spread yourself too thin when you're getting started.
Getting Social with Content
The obvious way to avoid low-quality content is to create content that visitors will find useful. Car dealers have a specific advantage because there's so much that consumers don't know about cars. First-time buyers will especially find comparisons and feature guides useful. Plus, a car blog is the perfect way to advise drivers on keeping their vehicles in the best condition for resale. In locations where snow is a concern, dealers can populate their blogs.
This content is perfect for sharing on social media, too. An article or image that goes viral brings traffic to your website, and those visitors can become customers. Social media has become increasingly more important. Google counts retweets, shares and +1s when ranking pages in the SERPs. Furthermore, Google shows results from its own social network, Google+, above organic results in the search engine, so it's vital that you promote content from your dealer website and blog on Google+.
Embracing Your Identity
Authorship is another opportunity of which you should take advantage. When you link to your Google+ profile from your website or blog and place the link of your site in your profile, you've claimed your site as an author. When you post content to your site, your Google+ profile picture will appear next to that content in the SERPs along with links to your profile. This visually separates your content from others on the results page. This is important for salesman because it shows a real person associated with the content. If yours is a trusted name, why wouldn't you want to take advantage of it?
SEO is a big task, which is why so many dealers hire on a freelancer or even a team of SEO pros to help with the job. An SEO may be able to see where your campaigns are lacking or provide knowledge gained through experience in other industries. Of course, this comes at a price. Whether you're simply paying cash or spending your time on SEO, it's important to get it right.
By Andrew Handley I write weekly articles for a car blog. I've had experience with car dealerships and maintenance business websites, as well as car hobby communities.
