4 Steps To Make SEO Bring More Ups to Your Showroom

All of your marketing efforts are intended to get more ups on your showroom floor, and search engine optimization (SEO) is no exception. It may feel like it’s one step removed, however, because its primary focus is getting more people to your website, but the more customers who visit your website, the more are going to eventually visit your showroom.

SEO is constantly in flux, with new developments happening all the time. What do you actually need to know in order to get more people in your dealership with your SEO? Here are four key steps.

1. Keep a blog

What does a blog have to do with getting more people to visit your physical dealership? When you get more people to visit your website, you will naturally see more ups on your showroom floor. Keeping a blog is one of the best ways to get more consumers to visit your website. A blog also does something that just about no other traffic-increasing tool can: It proves your worth to the people who read it.

When they read a well-written, informative blog post from a dealership, they immediately connect those attributes with your dealership, and are therefore more likely to put you at the top of their list when they start their search for a new vehicle. This isn’t exactly a new tactic, but it’s one that too few dealerships are utilizing. Don’t just write aboutindustry news on your blog. There are lots of places potential customers can find news about your brand.

Although you might want to create blog posts about updates to technology, changes in new models, or changes to your dealership, what most people look for is information about specific models and lifestyle articles that help them take better care of or get more out of their vehicles. Lots of bloggers spend too much time writing about what interests them, but not their readers.

2. Post on forums/question websites

This is by far one of the best and most-underutilized link building strategies, probably because it requires more time and effort than any other strategy. You have to search for relevant (preferably location-specific) forums, find questions that you can answer, and then write answers to those questions. And even after all that effort, you might not find all the questions and answers appropriate for including links back to your dealership’s website. This method has some of the same effects as keeping a blog — you start to establish yourself as an authority, which builds your reputation, ultimately making you a more popular (and obvious) choice when someone needs advice on purchasing a vehicle.

3. Focus on long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are the future of SEO. With more and more people using digital assistants and fewer trained to use the old short-form keyword search that most search engines encouraged at their inception, long-tail keywords are going to become increasingly important. These are keywords like “best place to buy a Jeep in Las Vegas.” Many people are now asking their phones a verbal question to initiate a keyword search, and many others are typing longer phrases into search engines. If you want to stay ahead, you need to start focusing on these types of keywords — they are essential to attracting customers to your website and into your showroom.

4. Don’t just write text

Written content is still highly valued by search engines, but this year, we will see a jump in how well Google can process and use other types of media to rank your website. Videos and images will become increasingly important, and provide you with a much better rank. This will be even more true when search engines gain the ability to quantify the information presented in that media itself, instead of just taking what the caption and tags say for granted.

When you have more engaging media on your website, you’ll not just rank better, you’ll also have more engaged site visitors, which means a higher likelihood of seeing those people on your showroom floor. SEO may be in flux, but that doesn’t mean your rankings have to be. Keeping up with the latest trends can ensure that you stay (or get) on top of the search rankings, resulting in more customers visiting your website and, in turn, setting foot in your showroom.

Adam Roseland is the founder of 814 Interactive, a leading digital marketing firm that specializes in automotive SEO. Adam has been working in the advertising industry for the past 10+ years, primarily in the digital space helping local dealers get more ups.