Why is SEO so important to car dealers?

Now more than ever, consumers are relying on digital channels to help them shop for their next vehicle. There’s no moving away from the fact that modern day car buyers are scouring the web, interacting with a number of brands along the way, whilst looking for their next car. 

Throughout this journey, buyers often turn to search engine Google in order to answer these questions. Often hundreds of Google searches will take place before a consumer settles on their purchase decision. In fact, Luth Research followed one consumer from the beginning to the end of their journey and discovered that she had made over 900 digital interactions along the way.

Being Visible is More Important Than Ever Before

In the past consumers would shop around a number of local dealerships before buying a car. Now, however, 95% of car buyers polled say they rely on online research when choosing their next vehicle. This online research comes in may forms, from car marketplaces such as Autotrader, Google searches, manufacturer websites, social media communities and third party reviews. 

With consumers spending so long interacting online, it’s vital that dealerships are visible and able to put themselves in front of these potential customers at various intervals, such as through a compelling social media presence, and a well optimised website.

Search Engine Optimisation is Key

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of optimising a website through a number of different techniques so that it ranks higher on a search engine results pages. By appearing higher up on results pages, your dealership is getting in front of more potential customers, increasing your chances of making a sale.

Some of the techniques used in SEO include:

1. Link building – the practice of building inbound and outbound links within a website or webpage in order to establish authority
2. Key word optimisation – ensuring that the pages or website are optimised for key word searches that Google users may complete
3. Writing and maintaining a blog – creating fresh, original and compelling content to signal that your site is consistently in use
4. Providing alt text – adding alt text to images to assist users that might land on your page that use screen readers
5. Proper formatting – using headers and paragraphs not merely for aesthetic purposes, but in the right order to signal how the page should be read

This is not an exhaustive list, but just indicates some of the things that SEO practice considers.

As you can see by these few figures, if you are not appearing on the first page of Google’s search results pages, you are not going to be able to attract as many customers as those dealerships who are situated there. Ranking high up really is vital to the online success of a business.

There are a number of tasks that you can carry out to help your business climb the Google rankings. To find out more about what can be done read our ‘Beginner’s Guide to SEO’.

Let Us Take Care Of The Work For You

All Spidersnet websites are built with SEO in mind. We go to great lengths to ensure that they are able to rank well. However, to take your site, and your business, to the next level, more in-depth regular work needs to be carried out.

At Spidersnet, we are continuously improving our Search Engine Optimisation offering. Our dedicated team of SEO professionals have extensive experience in digital marketing, and are on hand to talk you through the different SEO packages we offer and what each can bring to your business.