Many dealership owners might not consider themselves writers, and therefore not qualified to produce content to help boost the dealership’s search engine optimization efforts.
If you don’t feel comfortable constantly churning out new writing, there are actually ways that you can boost your SEO campaign, without having to write anything (or very much).
Here are the top ten ways for dealerships to boost their automotive SEO, even if they don’t want to write:
1. Steal it.
Of course, you don’t actually want to steal it.
But there are ways that you can borrow content from another source, without it hurting your SEO plan (and with it actually improving your optimization).
One way to do this is to curate content from blogs and websites into one long, master-post of helpful information.
Another way is to ask a writer if you can syndicate their content (i.e. publish it on your blog, with attribution).
2. Meme it.
If you’ve been on the internet at all in the last ten years, you probably know what a meme is.
If you don’t, here are the basics: it’s an internet inside-joke.
It uses a character, theme, or idea that most people will recognize, usually to comedic effect. Making a meme is a great way to engage with your site visitors and can also be a great way to market yourself on social media, as long as the meme actually makes sense.
You can create your own meme (an example might be Bad Car Maintenance Carl, who refuses to bring his car in for maintenance, even though it is making a strange noise), as long as it is referential enough to clearly be recognized as a meme.
3. Post inspirational quotes.
You want to make sure that your quotes relate to your dealership, but quote images are a great, shareable form of content that, with the right caption, can be just as good for engagement as they are for SEO.
If “inspirational” doesn’t really fit your bill, you can make a series of very short car buying or maintenance tips in image form, branded with your dealership’s logo, that are easy to share.
4. Make a video.
If your dealership is attached to a maintenance center (as most brand-centric dealerships are), it could be very valuable for you to make a short, informational, how-to video about how to change your oil or replace wiper blades or clean windows—the little maintenance tasks that the average car owners can do and should be doing.
A short video that shows the viewer how to do one thing can be extremely shareable and valuable.
5. Join the conversation.
This will require some writing, but getting involved in forums and other venues is very different from writing webpage content or a blog post.
Getting involved in a conversation that is already happening is a great way to boost your brand’s authority and to get your dealership’s name out there in the world.
How does this help SEO? Every time you post, if it is tagged with your dealership, that dealership will start to come up more and more frequently as people look for useful information about their vehicles.
The more often it comes up, the more authoritative you appear.
6. Create a checklist.
Many of the people reading your blog will hopefully also be the people coming to your lot to look at your cars.
Offer them something they can actually use when they show up to your lot, like a car buying checklist.
This should be a list of the things they should do before purchasing any car and could include information like taking a test drive, tuning the radio, adjusting the seats, looking under the hood, and more.
7. Introduce a new model.
This will take a little bit of writing, but chances are that your brand has already done most of the writing for you.
As soon as a new model hits your lot, grab your camera and take pictures of the exterior and interior.
Not only will this help potential buyers see what you actually have on your lot or in your showroom and give you the opportunity to insert location-specific keywords, it will also give you the ability to write a post that is most comprised of pictures of the vehicle, with captions describing how the new model differs from old models and why they should come to your lot to check them out.
8. A roundup post of all of the good reviews of one of the models you offer.
If you sell Kia vehicles, look around the internet for good reviews of the Kia Optima (they’re out there). Create a master-post of these reviews. This gives people in your area looking for these cars a huge list of reasons to come to your lot and look at that car.
9. Make a short video about how cars work.
Out of the millions of people who drive cars on a daily basis, only a small percentage know anything about how their engine works. A short video explaining why their car needs oil, why it needs gas, how the engine works, and any other pertinent information is a great way to educate, improve your authority, and provide an engaging piece of content.
10. Farm it out.
Never be afraid to hire someone from outside your dealership if no one inside the dealership has the time or the skills to create content on a routine basis. Freelance writers and web developers are good places to start when looking for someone to take over your content creation.
