Josh, I understand where you are coming from, and SEO is important. The issue is there is only so much that you can do. 1) Make sure your dealer contact information is accurate across all online listing sites. 2) You have unique and well written content on Home Page, About Us Page, Credit App Page, and Trade-in Page. 3) You have vehicle descriptions on your VDPs.
Search engines use so many data point to produce results that excessive SEO effort will not get you the results that you are looking for. Car dealership serve a local community, search engines understand that and use that information when producing result pages.
If a customer is looking for a Calgary Dodge Dealer and you have 8 dealers here are some of the most important factors that will be considered when producing result pages:
1—User location (what dealer is closest)
2—Accuracy of “Local Business” page (phone, business hours, full address, is business verified)
3—Reviews (when was the most recent public review posted)
4—What type of device mobile or desktop user is searching on, is device moving (like a car driving)
5— Data from analytics account installed on the site like bounce rate and average new user duration on site
The list goes on before algorithm starts to rank the sites based on SEO factors that website webmaster has control over. Search engines are so smart now that you can’t really trick them into ranking your local business over identical local business. Search engines will use external factors that you have no control over to make a decision on what pages to display.
I see dealers pay companies to write blog posts, build back links, create non-organic social mentions, and produce a bunch of other useless information that is no longer even considered by search engines.
I say spend your digital dollars on measurable marketing and lead engagement improvements. Now, if your site is outdated, you have wrong information posted, and you don’t have analytics installed then you need to get to work and get your basics SEO covered. The best part, basic SEO can be done by anyone with a pulse and a webmaster login.
I recommend reading:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35291?hl=en
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in SEO, I just don’t believe that you need to pay an SEO company for snake oil when your sales process is broken, your team can’t manage leads properly, and your customers are not 100% satisfied with the experience they leave at the store. Spend your money on things that you do have control over 1st then concentrate on other factors like SEO.
Let me know your thoughts. I work with dealers across United States and manage accounts for independent and franchise stores; most dealers just don’t see any results from any “extra” SEO work.
If you have a success story to share with me please do.
