When you think of marketing for the automotive industry and for your dealership, you probably think it comes down to advertising on television, the radio and the newspaper. While those are all important, the times have changed and now there are other forms of marketing that are taking over. One such form is SEO marketing, and it is helping to change how dealerships market themselves to a wider audience.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is extremely important for any dealership that wants to reach a wider audience. The thing is that when a person starts looking for a vehicle, they are not looking in the newspaper. They are typing into Google to find a dealership near them that is selling what they are looking for. That is how people shop now, and that is why a dealership has to do what it can to get noticed by reaching those people.
This is how it works. A person decides that they want to find a Kia vehicle. They live in the Allentown area, and they want to find a dealership that provides them with a new Kia vehicle that is also affordable with good lease deals. So, what they do is they go to Google and they type in “Kia vehicles affordable”.
Google then takes those words and finds sites that have similar words, and rank them on their page. Only those on the first page really get clicked. Anything beyond page 1 of Google is something that is not going to be clicked and if it does, there is a much smaller chance of it being clicked.
Users may go and type “Kia vehicles in Allentown” and when that happens, those dealerships in Allentown who have those words in their website are then the ones that get noticed on Google. If your dealership uses the words “new vehicles in Allentown” several times in online literature, then you are the dealership that is going to get noticed.
So, what are the basics of getting that dealership SEO traffic?
First, you have to have a target in mind and that is not always being the top searched link on Google. You want to know what keywords are the most valuable, and you want to reach as many people as you possibly can. The thing is, you don’t want to use generic keyword lists for clients. You want to have actual content that is valuable to a person that is reading it. People are smart online these days, and they know when someone is just writing content to get them noticed. That is why you need to find content that readers are going to want to read. They want to be informed, and they want to learn more about a subject. If they feel like they are receiving actual good information, then they are going to be more likely to go to a page. Once they get to your page, half the battle is done, and now you just need to show them all the great vehicles that you have on your page and all the great deals that you are ready to provide.
When we think of traditional marketing, SEO is actually much more cost effective with a higher return on investment. When you buy a television ad or newspaper ad, you can pay thousands of dollars and only reach a few people. When you use SEO marketing, you spend a fraction of the cost, but you can reach thousands of people and once the SEO content is online, it is not going anywhere. It is there forever so it keeps making you money for a long period of time. That is what makes SEO marketing so great and why it can be something so beneficial for you as a dealership.
It should also be pointed out that Google actually puts greater emphasis on local-focused results. That means that when someone in the Allentown area types in “Kia deals dealership”, if you use the SEO marketing approach, then you are going to be at the top of the search results because you are a local dealership. That is very important to remember because you will reach those people that are looking for a dealership. You are reaching them before they start to look elsewhere and you are already working to get them into your dealership.
The hardest part of any business is to get people to come to the dealership and choose not to come to another dealership. You need to make sure that the customers choose you, and having a SEO marketing approach can do that. You are reaching the customer while they are in their home, looking on their computer, tablet or phone. You are already convincing them to come to you, and that is a big part of the battle.
When you use SEO, use these tips:
- First, don’t just put keywords anywhere. You want to put them where they matter most in terms of the content. This is about creating content users want. Users want to be informed.
- Don’t be afraid to link to further content within your site. Keep the user going deeper into your site and getting more invested in your site.
- When you are using permalinks, use keywords to anchor the links. This will look better and it will help you with your SEO content.
- People often forget that SEO applies to images as well. Make sure that you use keywords within your images so that you can reach more people through the images.
- Keep your SEO content updated on a regular basis. Make sure you are putting up new and relevant content on a regular basis and that will keep people coming to your website on a regular basis.
If you want to reach more customers, you can go with traditional marketing, but the better approach is to go with content that provides the user with something they want online. Within that content, you will have SEO content, helping to drive even more traffic to the website.
