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Getting found is only half the battle - SEO is NOT enough

Great post @ed.brooks ! Having shoppers choose YOUR dealer over one of your competitors can sometimes boil down to HOW you respond to negative customer reviews on your GMB profile.

I've seen many cases where dealers either don't respond to negative reviews or they respond in a way that makes them look worse (e.g. stand-offish attitude, antagonistic, non-apologetic, etc). Customers do look at these reviews and the responses to them.

Dealers - whether they have a community manager or a reputation management service responsible for responding to reviews on Google - should have a plan for responding to these negative reviews. A dealer's review response can have a HUGE impact on how potential customers view that dealership. This, in turn, can be the difference between a shopper choosing one dealer over another.

Speaking from my personal experience purchasing a car, I've relied on these Google reviews to determine which dealership I should visit (assuming inventory is similar).

Anyways, great post!
 

✨ AI Highlights

Dealers often over-invest in SEO and getting "found" while neglecting the equally critical factor of getting "chosen" through reviews and positive customer experiences. The discussion emphasizes that reviews are nearly as important as accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone) citations for local SEO success, and that a consistent process for collecting customer reviews—paired with actual operational excellence—drives measurable sales increases. The key insight is that marketing effectiveness requires both visibility and conversion: being discoverable means nothing if dealerships haven't earned customer trust through quality service and actively managed reputation building.

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