The car industry has to find creative ways of reaching as many shoppers as possible by relying on digital marketing. Having a website, promoting inventory on classified pages, and advertising with a PPC campaign are the bare minimum a store can do. Regardless of which search engine you prefer, advertising platforms have become saturated. Making your mark and engaging potential shoppers requires the latest tools and a good dose of creativity. Automotive dealer SEO is the solution your showroom needs to generate profitable leads to keep your doors open.

Generally speaking, the best way to get the word out about your inventory of vehicles, service department, and financing specials necessitates more than ads. What dealerships need are for their websites to show up on search engine results pages (SERPs). Ideally, your site will appear on the first or second page, far ahead of your local competition. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the tool you need to make that happen. Unlike other marketing strategies, SEO relies on curating original content to increase your overall page ranking. For those not in the know, page ranking is a number all websites get assigned once the search engine robot crawls and indexes your site. Think of page ranking as an overall grade your website gets from the search engine itself. The higher it is, the better the placement on a results page.

No one knows what you need to get a perfect score, though. If everyone did, the internet wouldn’t be as diverse and “wild” as it is. Instead, the most seasoned and well-informed SEO experts get some insights into what to look out for on the web pages they manage. For example, combing through your site to ensure no typographical errors or broken links abound sounds obvious. Yet, it is shocking how many GMs overlook this very primary step.

Another point to consider is how well your website loads on a multitude of screens. There is nothing worse than visiting a website on your smartphone while you’re waiting in line only to find out that it’s uncomfortable to navigate. Your SEO guru can easily make your website smartphone, tablet, PC, and Mac friendly with a few clicks of a button. Similarly, the overall loading time must be quick since no one has the patience for sites to load these days. However, this cannot come at the expense of grainy or poor-quality photos. Remember, page ranking is an overall score, and the goal is to get it as close to perfect as possible.