How Your Dealership Can Use Automotive SEO Services to Boost Brand Awareness and Sales

1. August 3, 2017 How Your Dealership Can Use Automotive SEO Services to Boost Brand Awareness and Sales If your car dealership is trying to reach potential car buyers online, then SEO is an important marketing strategy. When done correctly, you can generate traffic in a cost-effective manner. Unfortunately, many dealers think that it’s enough to simply throw a website together with their latest inventory. Remember that to reach the prospects who are currently searching for the car dealership nearest them on Google, you need to pay enough attention to certain optimization requirements, including the ones below. P a g e 1 | 3

2. Image Optimization As potential car buyers go through your website, the images you use can be just as effective as the list of features and benefits of a particular car model. After all, shopping for cars is primarily a visual experience. People want to know what the car looks like and imagine themselves in the driver’s seat. When uploading images, however, it is important that you consider optimizing these images for SEO purposes as well. When choosing a file name for your dealership’s images, for instance, the car make, model, and year must be identified. Also, think about naming patterns that your customers might use. You can use web analytics to pinpoint these patterns and then use the same formula in image file names. Loading times are also another factor to consider as they are critical for SEO rankings. Images that have large file sizes end up taking longer to load. This derails the user experience, so search engines like Google penalize websites that use these images in their rankings. When uploading vehicle model images, make sure that they are high resolution, but with small file sizes. Link Building Link building is an SEO tactic you should never overlook. In a nutshell, this is the process of getting other websites to link to a page on your website. This is crucial because a lot of search engines determine page rank based on the quality and quantity of inbound links to that particular page or domain. Think of these links as “votes.” The more websites linking to your domain, the more that Google will recognize your website as relevant to a particular keyword or topic. Apart from search engine benefits, link building also gives you the chance to establish connections with people who have large followings. A simple link on their website can open up your business to a larger audience and enhance your dealership’s brand visibility. When selecting new link sources, make sure they are respectable and relevant. The first is somewhat subjective, but generally, this means people trust the source. This could be a high-authority general news website (e.g., BBC, CNN) or niche sites that specifically relate to the automotive industry. Using internal links is also an effective strategy that involves creating a hyperlink from one page to another within the same domain. This helps establish site architecture for search engines, while P a g e 2 | 3

3. making it easy for users to navigate from page to page. For instance, each car listing can benefit from having a link to a loan calculator or to similar car models. You’ll find that having relevant links are critical for generating more page views and leads. The required automotive SEO services and tactics vary from dealership to dealership. Whether you sell new or used vehicles, though, achieving high rankings is predicated on providing your target audience with valuable content with optimized images and multimedia. This will make it easier for your dealership to get found online and reach new customers. About DealerRank: SEO is a multi-step process that requires the expertise of an online marketing firm. You don’t have to worry, though, when you get help from DealerRank. Our digital marketing agency can optimize content and images on your website to help you achieve higher search engine rankings. The SEO services we provide include content marketing, image optimization, duplicate content checks, and much more. Sources: Your Guide to Link Building for SEO in 2016, forbes.com SEO 101: Optimize Your Images and Make Them #SEO Rockstars in 4 Steps, searchenginejournal.com P a g e 3 | 3