Looking For An Automotive SEO Company? Start Here:
How Automotive SEO Companies Help Your Website Rank Higher
Automotive SEO requires an understanding of both SEO best practices as well as the nuances of the automotive industry. An automotive SEO company will have experience optimizing websites for local searches related to cars, trucks, repairs, parts, and more. They know which keywords are most valuable and how to optimize your site architecture, metadata, and content accordingly.
Specific services an automotive SEO company may provide include:
- Keyword research: this is a necessity to identify high-value search terms and phrases. These relate to makes/models, parts, services, location-based searches, etc.
- On-page optimization: by optimizing title tags, headers, meta descriptions, image alt text, and schema markup, you can give search engines a better understanding of exactly what your website is about.
- Content creation: blog posts, guides, local pages, and videos (to name a few pieces of content) are all necessary to develop the framework to rank higher.
- Technical website audits: to identify and fix issues hurting SEO, these audits must be done. These audits include site speed, mobile optimization, internal linking, and proper site structure.
- Link building: backlinks need to be built through high-quality directories, blogs, and other automotive websites to increase authority.
- Ongoing optimization and reporting: a true search engine optimizer is never ‘done.’ There is always some sort of refinement or optimization that should be conducted to help remain at the top of search engines, like Google or Bing.
Choose an Automotive SEO Company with Industry Expertise
Not all SEO agencies understand the automotive industry well enough to deliver strong results. When researching automotive SEO companies, ensure they have specific experience with auto-related websites.
Look for case studies, client examples, and a portfolio that demonstrates their success in increasing organic visibility and website traffic for automotive businesses. The ideal automotive SEO company will also be up-to-date on the latest Google algorithm updates and how they impact automotive sites.
Investing in a strategic partnership with an automotive SEO company almost always provides a positive ROI. By making your website more visible for relevant local searches, you can connect with more qualified customers and grow your business.
Try this! Before you select an SEO company, check how that company’s SEO stacks up! Type in keyword strings like “auto dealer SEO” and see where they land in the search results.
Top Rated Automotive Search Engine Optimization Companies
Dealers United is considered one of the top-rated automotive SEO companies within the United States. With over a decade of experience specializing in automotive digital marketing, we have a proven track record of boosting leads, sales, and most importantly, reputations, for dealerships across the country. Our expertise across on-page and off-page optimization makes us a top choice among the many other automotive SEO companies you’ll find when searching for one online.
Our highly qualified SEO department knows all of the in’s and out’s of what it takes these days to rank a website in organic search engine results pages, also known as SERPs. Gone are the days where you can simply make a page and stuff it with different car dealership keywords, and watch it sky rocket to the top. This is a highly competitive industry, and dealers continue to choose us over the competition because we know what it takes, and we deliver results – nothing less.
Automotive Search Engine Marketing vs. Automotive SEO
Automotive search engine marketing (SEM) and automotive SEO are two major digital marketing strategies used by car dealerships and auto-related businesses to drive increased web traffic and sales. While both focus on improving search visibility, there are some key differences between these two terms.
The most fundamental difference is that SEM centers around paid advertising platforms, like Google Ads and Bing Ads. Dealers will buy ad placements that appear at the top and side of search engine results pages when users search for relevant keywords. This allows dealerships to essentially pay for instant visibility and traffic. In contrast, SEO involves ongoing optimization of a website to earn high unpaid organic rankings in search engines through relevance and authority building.
While SEM delivers direct visitor traffic instantly when ads are clicked, SEO provides indirect traffic as visitors find your site through earned prominent organic results placements.
When it comes to effort, SEM requires regular budget investment to fund continuous ads. SEO demands investment into website optimization elements like metadata, content, technical site enhancements, and off-page authority building through digital PR and link earning strategies. The rankings and visibility gained through SEM can fluctuate daily based on advertising bids and budgets. However, organic rankings achieved through effective SEO are more stable, and typically more trusted from a user’s point of view. We live in a world where everyone knows that the top results are tagged with terms like ‘sponsored’ or ‘paid’, and aren’t as trusted as an organic search results that isn’t labelled as such.
Search users tend to believe that since a dealer paid for the top placement, it isn’t necessarily as accurate of a search match as something that organically comes to the top. Roughly 90% of search users will skip past all paid placements, and choose organic search results.
Common Questions About SEO For the Automotive Industry
Dealerships will usually have several questions when it comes to how search engine optimization works for their automotive website, and rightfully so. While we prefer to cover most of your questions and concerns on a quick call, here are some of the more common inquiries we get at Dealers United.
How long does it take to rank my automotive site in Google?
The amount of time it takes to rank an automotive site in Google will vary depending on site history, the amount of backlinks your have, prior SEO work done, and your site structure (among other criteria). That said, we tell most car dealerships to expect to see great results in roughly 9 to 12 months. This doesn’t mean you cannot get good results sooner, this is just a very general answer to a very common question that is tough to answer without digging into your website details.
What are examples of some automotive SEO services?
While we have different services depending on the package you choose, you can expect the following SEO work to be done (regardless of your package):
- Keyword Research: Identifying high-value keywords and analyzing keyword difficulty to target for the client’s website and content.
- On-Page Optimization: Optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, headings, image alt text, internal linking, etc. to improve relevance for target keywords.
- Content Creation: Writing new blog posts, guides, local pages, etc. optimized for ranked keywords.
- Monthly Reporting: Providing insights into website analytics including organic traffic, rankings, conversions and more.
- Local SEO Tactics: Building local signals like Google My Business and citations to rank for local searches.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO refers to the optimization of your automotive site for local terms and phrases. For example, car dealers (generally) want to sell to people in their general area of operations. A car dealer in Tampa, Florida, would want to rank for ‘Tampa Car Dealer’ related terms, not ‘Seattle Car Dealer’ terms. We make sure to effectively target your local area when it comes to search users and your vehicle inventory. All of this is developed as part of our on-boarding process with your dealership.
How do you track SEO results?
Dealers United will monitor your rankings, organic traffic, and even conversions – depending on the package you choose. We use data platforms like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Page Speed Insights, and a few others.
What are the most important ranking factors for a car dealership website?
Optimizing for local SEO signals like city name and dealer names, location-based schema markup, and overall user experience prove to be the most important ranking factors that we have seen. Keep in mind that Google is constantly updated their algorithm, so we always have to stay on top of the latest trends and news from Google Search Central. Many SEO agencies fail to do this, and you end up with outdated ranking tactics that simply fail over time.
Want to learn more about Dealers United’s SEO Solutions?
Written By Lauren Blackwell