From manufacturing a car to running a vehicle dealership and auto-financing, whatever sector of the automotive industry you are currently engaged in, a strong digital marketing strategy needs to be in place. This is because the traditional model of selling and marketing does not work by itself anymore.
Picture this. You have just joined an organization in a managerial role and now you dream of buying a luxury car. Would you shoot straight to a car dealership in your area or you will inquire from someone about the best car dealers in your area? The chances are that you will look for a referral or still better, search online for a car dealer in your area who keeps a variety and who can get your car easily financed.
The auto market is continuously being driven by change these days and the car enthusiasts research and compare the vehicles (new or used) online in terms of design, features, or price along with the financing and insurance options available to them.
Therefore, coming to an understanding that todayâs automotive industry dealers have become smart marketers by utilizing the latest digital marketing techniques — one of them being — Search Engine Optimization — will define your path to success.
At the same time, after having read about the importance of SEO tips and SEO tricks to succeed in the auto business, you will realize that despite the competitive marketplace, itâs not the amount of investment that matters, but the pathway you follow to drive the traffic to your website.
Why SEO is important for your automotive industry business?
One of the main reasons SEO is needed for an auto business is the ârules of marketingâ have changed intensely. Buying more ad space and air time is no more the practical approach to acquiring customers as the customers may easily ignore such traditional advertisements in the times of online advertising.
Secondly, ever since digital marketing or advertising has been in effect, most of the automotive industry leaders, car dealers, or car financiers havenât been able to implement the SEO best practices for their websites, instead, some violate the Googleâs Webmaster Guidelines.
In a nutshell, the best kind of SEO strategy would be the one that is user-friendly and can easily bring the customers to your website. Acquiring the top ranks in Google isnât a joke and which means SEO is a time-consuming, mindful and consistent approach to securing the top ranks and above all, a driver of growth for your automotive business.
This blog will provide the reader belonging to an auto industry smart SEO tips and tricks to help them grow their business.
SEO Tips and Tricks to Optimize Your Automotive Industry
Pay attention to the website taxonomy
Itâs the taxonomy of the website which helps the customers easily navigate between pages or content on any website. To understand what taxonomy is, think of auto parts being categorized according to the names and features of products. If more than one product can be put together in one category, a category tree can be built for easy eCommerce website navigation.
Your websiteâs taxonomy should be structured so well that a user or shopper can easily find a product on your website as the category or subcategory of products you create is displayed in your site map. If you are a car dealer, you may like to categorize different cars by their size — midsize car, coupe, micro, hatchback, minivan, pickup truck, and more. You may further subdivide one car into more than one, for e.g. SUV as compact or Standard. Similarly, you could categorize cars by model or brand.
Set up your website with an appropriate domain name
If you want to set up your website or change the website address, you should register your website with an appropriate domain name. Doing this will help improve your organic ranking in search engines. You can choose a name that best suits your automotive business. You can begin searching for domain names in the search registrars such as Google Domains, Namecheap, Hover, GoDaddy, and more.
Since your domain will be the core focus of your site, you should be as creative as possible while choosing a domain name. Also, avoid choosing a subdomain unless it is necessary because this will require an extra effort of website link building and website SEO. By all means, you will want to choose a name that is user-friendly and easy to remember.
Make an effort to create useful content related to Automotives
The content on your automotive website needs to include information thatâs useful in order to be pulled by the search engines and attract visitors to your site. The content if stuffed with the right keywords without overstuffing those keywords, there are good chances of securing backlinks to your site. The content needs to be relevant to the automotive industry and should serve some unique purpose.
With the search volume as 450000 for popular keyword automobile, 9140000 for car, 368000 for vehicle, and so on for the related keywords, it becomes increasingly important to make use of Google Keyword Planner. To implement the right âkeyword strategyâ you should focus on long-tail and local keywords to get the best out of your SEO efforts and to achieve higher rankings within a short period of time. As an example, if you own a car dealership in Ontario, Canada, your target audience will likely be searching for âused cars in Ontarioâ than just âused carsâ so it is advisable to include the former as your keyword in your siteâs content.
Optimize the page titles and headings on your website
The titles and the headings on your web pages are like a summary of the content that lies ahead in just the same way you read the headings of any news to understand what the subject is all about. The web crawlers or search engines first read the titles, headings, and descriptions on your web pages and so itâs important that you have a title and heading for every page. At the same time, your titles should contain the top key phrases without any keyword stuffing.
By following the âheadingsâ rule and applying them in the sequence as H1, H2, and H3, H4, H5, and H6, you can easily structure your web page content. As an example, letâs say you are editing an article in WordPress. Here, you can organize your content by keeping headings in order by size and also importance. H1 or âHeading 1â is the most important and also larger in size than H2 or âHeading 2â and so on. At the back end, these get converted into HTML heading tags as <h1> to <h6>.
Optimize your Google My Business page
For a local search engine optimization, you need to first claim your business in Google My Business Page. Once you are done with this, you will need to optimize this page. As GMB is one of the best ways to get listed and be seen by users, you must keep your business address, phone number, business hours, etc. always updated on this page.
In order to optimize your GMB page, you should choose the right business category, write a keyword-rich description for your business, add your website link, and add plenty of images. If there are any âbusiness reviewsâ, you can add that as well. All of this will help you secure a higher ranking than those who do not list their business in GMB page.
Include your business information in local search directories
When you create an online profile in all local search directories, professional, and social media networks, it will help the search engines to pull your information from these directories and sites. Being in the automotive business, you should be able to create your online profiles in local online directories.
Some of the sites where you can create your profiles and update your information from time to time are yellopages.com, yelp.com, wealthmanagement.com, financialdirectory.com, insidermedia.com, wallethub.com, linkedIn.com, about.me, and many more.
Conclusion
While there are many other SEO tips that can be utilized to boost the ranking of your automotive site, the aforementioned were some of the best SEO practices. On the entirety, an effort should be made to make your automotive website as fast, mobile-friendly, and secure as possible. There are several ways of doing this and you should be prepared to implement them if you want to grow and thrive in your business.
Solvoguru is a reputed digital marketing agency that helps clients from diverse sectors leverage their business in the most unique ways. Contact us, if you are looking to utilize our services.