Why Is Local SEO Important For Car Dealers?
Having a strong local search presence is crucial for automotive dealerships who want to drive sales and remain competitive in today’s digital marketplace. With over 90% of vehicle shoppers starting their search for a new car online, dealerships need to ensure that they are easily found and highly visible to searchers looking for dealers in their surrounding area. Implementing an effective local SEO strategy should be a top priority, and in this blog article, we’ll go over exactly why local SEO is SO important for automotive dealerships today.
Benefits of Local SEO
Before we talk about why local SEO is SO important for car dealers, let’s quickly run through the different benefits of SEO:
Capturing Local Search Traffic
Connect with car shoppers who are ready to purchase and become their go-to dealership.
Building Local Brand Awareness
Establish your dealership as the top dealer in your surrounding geographic area.
Driving Foot Traffic to Your Dealership
Get qualified, ready-to-buy customers to visit your showroom and convert.
Outranking Competitor Dealerships Across Search Engines
Beat the local competition at search.
Connecting with Mobile Searches
Reach car shoppers who are searching on their phone and make it easy for them to take action.
Helping Customers Find You Online
Make it easy for car shoppers to find you as they search for terms like “car dealer near me.”
Generating More Calls and Form Submissions
Leverage your website to drive more calls, form fills, and sales inquiries.
Improving Your Local Ranking Factors
Optimize key local ranking factors Google uses.
Now that you know the different benefits of SEO, let’s dive a little deeper into each….
Capturing Local Search Traffic
One of the biggest benefits of optimizing your dealership website for local SEO is tapping into the large volume of local searches. According to Google, over 1 billion local searches are conducted every day…
These include searches with the intent to visit a local business, such as “Toyota dealership near me” or “Honda service center in Chicago.”
By enhancing your website and online listings to rank for these types of localized searches, you’re putting your dealership in a position to connect with high-intent customers and become their go-to dealership as they are looking to shop for cars in their city.
Building Local Brand Awareness
Strong local SEO helps build brand awareness and establish your dealership as a leading provider of vehicles in your geographic area.
And when you pop up on the first page for local brand name searches like “ABC Motors Chicago,” your high-ranking reinforces your dealership as the top local choice.
Through the process of strengthening your online visibility across directory listings, review sites and other local platforms, your dealership will increase local visibility and cement your brand presence.
Driving Foot Traffic to Your Dealership
One of the biggest advantages of ranking highly in local search results is the ability to drive actual foot traffic to your physical dealership location.
With local SEO to help connect nearby searchers with your dealership’s address, phone number, directions and sales offers – you’re making it easy for qualified, ready-to-buy customers to visit your showroom and, more importantly, convert!
Did you know? Dealers who rank #1 for their brand name see an average 34% higher CTR than #2 ranking dealers, driving more physical store visits.
Outranking Competitor Dealerships Across Search Engines
Strong local SEO enables you to outperform competing dealers in your metro area.
When you prioritize your dealership’s website and citations better than nearby dealers targeting the same local search terms, you can rank above them and siphon away their potential customers.
The key to stealing market share is by dominating the first page for non-branded terms like “used trucks Denver.”
Connecting with Mobile Searches
An important benefit of local SEO is reaching local searches on mobile, which account for over 65% of total Google searches!
Developing your website and listings for mobile search helps you connect with these on-the-go searchers and drive conversions through simple “call now” or “get directions” clicks. (Pro tip: Structured data markup and fast mobile page speeds are key!)
Helping Customers Find You Online
Not ALL customers will know where to find you online…Even customers already familiar with your brand may not know your exact location or dealership name!
But local SEO makes it easy to find you online when customers search for terms like “car repair near me” or “Honda dealer in Dallas.” It will drop you directly in front of potential customers right when they need you. Strong local optimization across directories, maps and review sites also reinforces your location and dealership info.
Generating More Calls and Form Submissions
Local SEO will directly generate more calls, form fills and sales inquiries when you leverage your website and listings to showcase your phone number, location info, and lead gen forms.
Here’s a mind-blowing stat I bet you didn’t know: Calls are 40x more likely from mobile searches with prominent phone clickables.
Essentially, local SEO acts as a virtual sales rep encouraging direct engagement – what’s better than that?!
Improving Your Local Ranking Factors
To see strong local SEO results, you need to optimize key local ranking factors Google uses. These include…
- Google My Business: Optimizing your complete GMB listing with photos, services, hours, etc.
- Local Page Optimization: Targeting your metro area in title tags, meta descriptions, content.
- Citations: Building structured citations on 50+ local directories like Yelp.
- Reviews: Generating recent positive reviews on GMB, Facebook, DealerRater, etc.
- On-Site Signals: Having a local address, phone number and schema markup onsite.
Additional Benefits of Strong Local SEO
Here are some additional benefits automotive dealerships see from optimizing for local search:
- Increased click-through rates (CTRs): Landing pages optimized for local keywords have been shown to have higher CTRs in Google search.
- Higher ad visibility: Good local SEO boosts visibility for Google paid ads targeted locally.
- Improved social engagement: Localized content drives more clicks, comments and shares on social media.
- Customer retention: Existing customers are more likely to return when you rank well locally.
- Lead quality: Local leads often convert better with lower acquisition costs.
- Competitive insulation: Strong rankings make it harder for competitors to take away potential customers.
- Mobile conversions: Phones now account for over 50% of auto-dealer website traffic.
- Website authority: High local ranks signal you are a trusted source to search engines.
In today’s hyperlocal world, focusing your SEO efforts on dominating local search is essential. The expertise of an agency well-versed in local ranking factors can help drive more conversions and sales from local searchers looking for exactly what your dealership offers.
Partnering with a Local SEO Agency
Local SEO delivers some of the highest ROI of any digital marketing channel for automotive dealerships.
Being backed by an automotive SEO agency, like Dealers United, will give your dealership access to experts who will help you tap into high-intent local searches, plus drive more phone calls, form submissions, and foot traffic from nearby searchers.
Investing in proven local optimization best practices pays off through increased visibility, brand awareness and sales in your geographic market.
Want to learn more about Dealers United’s SEO Solutions?
Written By Lauren Blackwell
Lauren Blackwell is a skilled content marketer who has spent the past 3 years working in automotive advertising technology and now brings her unique experiences to Dealers United. From running ad campaigns, to curating auto-specific resources, Lauren is empowered to create valuable content to help automotive dealers thrive on social media.