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Back in the day if a dealership wanted to get noticed it meant renting a billboard or taking out an ad in a newspaper. It could basically mean just standing on a soapbox in the park and pontificating. But now with large search engines being the go-to for lots of information including SEO for Automotive Industry. 

What is SEO for Automotive Industry?

For most dealers to make themselves heard, they have been seeking ways to fight and claw to the top of search results. This includes using a process called search engine optimization or SEO. But what is that? Well, you see giant search engines like Google use algorithms to try to push relevant results to the top of the page. So that when a user types in “computer mouse” they’ll get links to buy a new input device rather than pictures of Stewart Little trying to use a PC now.

So the first SEO mistake is thinking Seach Engine Optimization is dead. I am sure if you’re trying to figure out how to get more traffic, you’ve probably encountered the idea that SEO is dead – likely from those pushing Google Paid Search placements.

And here’s the truth. SEO of the automotive industry has definitely changed but it’s more alive than ever when it comes to search engines. And here’s the proof that SEO is more alive than ever. Number one is trends. Just go to Google Trends and compare SEO to any other channel online. No channel online is more popular than SEO – including Voice SEO.

Finding Potential Customers

What’s the best place for your potential customers to find you organically online? Is it, A, social media; B, search engines; or C, email? Well, if you answered B, search engines, then nice work because there’s data to prove this. Just go to SimilarWeb and examine the top five websites with the most traffic.

What do these top five websites have in common? They’re either a search engine or feature a prominent search engine, and Google is by far the most popular website and search engine in the world.

How Many Searches?

On average, Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second. That’s 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year. Then you have YouTube, which is by far the most popular video search engine in the world. After that, you have Amazon, which is by far the most popular e-commerce search engine in the world. And lastly, you have Yahoo, which is the second-biggest traditional search engine.

What is the SEO Algorithm?

Understanding how to get organic search traffic is a good use of time and resources, but that’s not all. How exactly the search engine algorithms work are usually closely guarded trade secrets. But there’s enough public knowledge for webmasters to attempt to tune their pages to boost their position in the search results, in fact, Google even puts. out a search engine optimization starter guide to help website owners improve.

Search Engine Optimization Audit

Believe that the number one thing you need to do if you want better SEO results is to perform an SEO audit. SEO audits are one of my favorite activities because it reveals all the issues holding your SEO performance back.

Plus you’ll also get the intel you need to make better decisions. And by better decisions, I mean that you’ll be able to prioritize your actions based on what will have the highest impact.

The truth is a well-designed site architecture can have a positive SEO impact for several reasons.

First, a strong site architecture helps Google crawl your site more efficiently, which as a result helps Google index your pages faster. Secondly, a strong site architecture will grow your site’s overall authority, which makes ranking much easier. In other words, you won’t need as many backlinks to rank.

Web Site Layout

Adobe discovered that 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content and layout is unattractive.

This alone should make you value UX and UI optimization much more, but how do you actually optimize UX?

Well, there are obvious UX optimization actions like increasing your website’s loading speed, making your site more mobile-friendly, not using aggressive interstitial pop-ups, and not using disruptive ad placements.

Investment into SEO

Over 65 billion was invested in the SEO industry in 2016, and this number is expected to rise to 79 billion by 2020. More and more capital is flowing into the Automotive SEO Industry as well. Focusing on strong content for dealership web sites. This includes building out specific model content, local search content and preparing for the forthcoming Voice SEO increase!

Climbing the Search Ranks

The chances of earning the coveted top result are certainly difficult for starters. A good idea to optimize the metadata of your page is all the stuff other than the actual content people will see in their browser window. Accurate metadata things like descriptive page titles or embedding a short explanation of what’s on the page into your HTML. Which you can often end up seeing underneath the Google result can help push your site up to the top. A more recent development is making URLs themselves more information. You’ve probably seen this on news sites that have started to use file names.

Search Engine Optimization Text Links

Most modern search engines use how often a page is linked to as a key metric of its importance. Providing descriptive text links in the body of a webpage to other pages on your site can be very helpful. Search engines are also aware of things like topic headers and alt text for images to help categorize the site the key as with any metadata.

Search Engines – Information and Descriptions

But also being informative and descriptive as possible to make it easier for a search engine to determine that your site is relevant to a particular topic.

Stay Away from Blackhat SEO

Of course, though everything we’ve outlined so far is a legitimate SEO strategy there are plenty of other tricks that might be employed by unscrupulous site owners. These collectively are known as blackhat SEO or spamdexing and their goal is to try to make the page seem more relevant to a topic than it actually is for the search engines. These tricks can take the form of anything from citing keywords in invisible text. Such that a user would have to highlight to see, to buying link backs or even traffic from other sites. Thereby using irrelevant keywords that might just be trending at the moment. Or even just overusing the relevant ones this kind of behavior.

This has certainly resulted in a bit of a digital arms race between search engine developers. They are constantly looking to weed out these pages for their users. Of course, the spammers or site owners who are desperate for clicks and aren’t above using shady tactics so who will ultimately win well let me put it this way as search giants like Google deploy.

SEO Backlinks Matter

Backlinks are the fuel of every successful SEO campaign. Don’t get fooled by these ideas that backlinks don’t matter because they aren’t grounded by facts or data. According to a massive ranking study, the number of domains linking to a page correlated with rankings more than any other factor.

Semrush had very similar conclusions. They found that the higher the domain’s position on the SER the more referring domains it has. Backlinks matter and will continue to be critical to Google’s algorithm now and into the future.

Conclusion

In order to prepare for leads now and into the future – Search Engine Optimization is key. Ensuring that content is relevant on the web site will bring in more traffic, more leads and ultimately more sales for the dealership.

Shawn Ryder

With over 20 years of experience in the car business, I’ve navigated the evolution of the industry from traditional sales to the dynamic digital age. My journey through various roles in both sales and management has endowed me with a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in automotive sales today.

As the founder of Shawn Ryder Digital, I combine my extensive background in technology with my deep understanding of the automotive industry. This synergy allows me to craft digital marketing strategies that are not just effective but tailored to the specific needs of each dealership. My commitment is to drive your sales, enhance your brand awareness, and ensure your dealership thrives in the digital landscape.

Here at Shawn Ryder Digital, we’re not just about providing services; we’re about building partnerships. As I often say, “In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, staying ahead isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity.”

Together, let’s embrace the challenges of the digital age and turn them into opportunities for growth and success. Join me in redefining the future of automotive digital marketing. Let’s accelerate your dealership’s journey to the top.