5 Ways To Optimize Your Dealership's Website

5 Ways to Optimize Your Dealership’s Website

It has become increasingly difficult to get your business to rank high on Google, especially if you're part of a competitive and complex dealership industry. When we say dealerships, we don't just mean car dealerships, we're talking about a dealership selling any major modes of transportation including Powersports dealerships, Boat dealerships, RV dealerships, and more.

These are industries that can have long sales cycles and where buyers are often doing a lot of comparative shopping. This is why it's important to make sure prospective customers can find your site, and that your site is functioning well when they get there.

In these industries a lot of the research is done online before people even step into the dealership showroom - increasingly so with the ongoing restrictions of COVID-19 in some areas. Many people don't even know what vehicle, boat, or RV they want before they begin their purchase journey. According to Autotrader car buyers spend 59% of their time online researching, this means that you have to be able to educate your buyer before they ever step foot into your dealership.

As if standing out in a competitive industry wasn't enough, most dealerships are selling new products from different manufacturers, used products from even more manufacturers, and offer a service department as well. As a dealership you're potentially running three businesses in one, which means your digital strategy needs to be multi-faceted and informative.

So now that we've told you what you probably already know - the difficulties of competing for attention as a dealer - what are some of the search optimization strategies you should be using as a dealership?

Google My Business

Google My Business can have a direct correlation to local SEO - especially when it comes to showing up in Google Local 3-Pack.

You'll want to make sure you keep your information up to date and you're giving users information that will make it easy to find you.

Online directories (if you're a car dealership specifically car directories)

If you're looking for ways to improve your dealership's rankings and backlink profile, online automotive directories are a great place to start. You'll want to submit your dealership's site to an online automotive directory or to an online directory that has the right category for you and can help to build your backlink profile.

Most of these online directories show up on the first page of Google search results, meaning they can be very valuable for your dealership.

Online Reviews

Online reviews are extremely important for dealerships. When making large purchases like a car, an RV, or a boat, people want to trust the person or company they are buying from. Before meeting you face-to-face, reviews are how people get to know your company. Make it easy for your customers to leave detailed reviews by using dedicated review sites.

Select long-tail keywords

A key part of SEO is making sure you're using the right keywords. You'll want to select the keywords that have a high search frequency but also have mid to low competitiveness so you're not competing with the big brands. Long-tailed keywords such as "2018 Toyota Tacoma TRD features" instead of short-tailed and generic keyword phrases like "Toyota truck" or "2021 Sea-Doo GTX 300" instead of "Jet Ski".

Your keywords should also have direct relevance to your website's content and you should be using keyword phrases that your potential customers are actually using to find you.

Optimize Images

According to Google, searches for "pictures of [insert dealership item]" is up 37% year over year. When uploading photos of your products, whether it be cars, RVs, jet skis. or boats, you should include the words "pictures of" and the name, brand, make and model where appropriate.

Web optimization was just one of the strategies we use to help our customers succeed! Check out our Dealership Case Study for more information on how we helped our Powersports customers grow their audiences and increase online leads and sales!