One of the biggest mistakes I see dealers make when starting out online is the failure to target “keywords” prospects are using when looking for a new or used car in the search engines.
If you are not familiar with keywords or basic SEO principles, they are simply words are phrases that describe your product or services. A few examples of good, geo-targeted keywords would be “used car dealership Philadelphia,” “PA Nissan,” or “Kia dealer New Jersey”.
So the goal of SEO, then, is to strategically work these keywords into YOUR website copy, thus giving you a better chance of being found by prospects who use these phrases during their search.
Yet how do you know what keywords your prospects are searching for in the first place? Here are 3 easy steps to find out:
- Compile a list of the keywords you THINK prospects are using to find your product or services online.
- Put together a group of friends, family…or even complete strangers and ask THEM what they would type in Google if searching for your product or services online. The simplicity of their choice may surprise you.
- Use Google’s keyword tool to plug in all of the keywords you’ve compiled above to see how much they are REALLY searched across the web. Again, the results here may surprise you.
Finally, when you’ve gathered a good list of targeted keywords, be sure to start using them on your blog, in titles, headlines, meta tags, anchor text and all over your website copy. This will help you attract more internet shoppers, and hopefully buyers, if your website is good enough to close the deal.
More on that next time.
Anyone who follows me or my auto marketing company knows I’m a big fan of making online videos as a way to better connect with your prospects and promote your store.
Yet, I’ve discovered most dealers aren’t as enthusiastic about doing online videos as I am because they are afraid they won’t have “anything interesting to [...]
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Let’s face it, 90% of people looking for a car will start with a basic internet search.
Yet these buyers don’t start with basic, broad keywords like “new car Alabama” or “used car dealer New Jersey” as you may think. Instead, buyers hit the internet with LOCAL results in mind and expect to find [...]
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So many times after the sale of a car we get caught up in encouraging happy buyers to fill out their CSI forms that we fail to do something equally important with those testimonials—and that’s record them on video for future use!
The growth of internet review sites such as Yelp and Google Maps proves that [...]
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Toyota dealers are in a bit of a panic right now following the recall of 2.3 million vehicles manufactured with faulty gas pedals that stick down in the accelerate position.
Equally troublesome for local Toyota dealers is the manufacturer’s decision to halt production on eight models, including Camry and Corolla until this issue is finally resolved [...]
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When it comes to marketing your car dealership, your database of email contacts (also known as a ‘house list’) is as good as gold in bringing new or repeat business through the door.
However, because of the prevalence of spam and unwanted solicitations, prospects are often leery about giving their email address away to a car [...]
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I’m a big fan of getting your car dealership listed in as many local search directories as possible on the web.
That’s simply because consumers now search for EVERYTHING online, and dealers who aren’t savvy to this trend (or sadly believe people under 50 still use the yellow pages) are missing out on business because of [...]
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More and more car dealerships are turning to Facebook fan pages to promote their companies for a number of reasons:
There is no friend limit on a fan page
It helps to cut back on spammers
You can send broadcasts to all of your “fans” in one shot about promotions, deals, sales, etc. instead of sending a handful [...]
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For auto dealers seeking to market their business through social media and search engine optimization (SEO), creating a YouTube channel is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get started.
YouTube videos are sort of like mini-commercials for your dealership– without the $50,000 price tag that comes with TV advertising. They allow you to create [...]
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For any car dealership looking to dabble in the world of dealership marketing and blogging, Google Alerts is an invaluable tool for keeping up with industry chatter/ customer feedback.
Basically, this program allows Google to “alert” you any time a particular word or phrase is mentioned on the web or in the blogosphere.
I’m going to explain how [...]
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Yes Chant founder, Robert Ring is an experienced car dealer marketing strategist and consultant for auto dealers seeking to increase brand awareness, generate more leads and increase their bottom line with the power of online dealership marketing.
