Automotive SEO: 7 Strategies For Car Dealers and Auto Shops

You’ll need to enter:

• Your name
• The name of your dealership
• Zip code
• Country
• Email address
• Phone number

Then, click on “Get started.” The Cars.com team will reach out to you to help you complete your profile and upload your inventory.

2. Optimize Your Google Business Profile for Local Searches

Optimize your Google Business Profile to give your business a better chance of appearing in local search results and help you generate more calls and appointment bookings.

Here’s how to do it:

• Select the right business categories: Google lets you select a primary and secondary category for your business. Make sure you choose the ones that describe your business most accurately (e.g., “Used car dealer,” “Auto broker,” or “Auto repair shop”).
• Write a compelling description: Use the description section in your Google Business Profile to clearly define what you do. Here’s an example:  “[Your business name] provides oil changes, brake repairs, and engine diagnostics in [City].”
• Upload high-quality photos: Businesses that include photos in their Google Business Profile get 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps and 35% more click-throughs to their website compared to businesses that don’t upload photos. Add high-quality photos of your location and cars to your profile.
• Post updates regularly: Google lets you post updates, events, and special offers to your profile. Use this feature to share news, announcements, and deals with customers.

3. Use Location-Specific Keywords in Your Website Content

Use location-specific keywords (e.g., “used car dealership in [city]”) on your website to help Google understand what you do.

This will ensure search engines see that your website is relevant to display in local search results for your area.

Use digital marketing tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to determine the best location-specific keywords to use on your website. Both of these tools can generate hundreds of keyword ideas based on a keyword that you provide.

Pay attention to the following when performing keyword research:

• Relevance: A good keyword is relevant to both your business and the area you serve. For example, “break repair in austin tx” or “used SUVs for sale in dallas.”
• Search intent: Focus on keywords that show transactional intent (i.e., a readiness to buy) over informational intent. For example, “oil change in miami” is better than “how much does an oil change cost in miami.”
• Volume & difficulty: Once you find relevant keywords with transactional search intent, prioritize them based on search volume and difficulty. Go for keywords that get at least 50 searches per month and start with the ones that show the lowest difficulty score in your SEO tool of choice — these will often be the easiest to rank for.
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Once you’ve gathered a list of keywords, put them in relevant places on your site, prioritizing page titles, URLs, and on-page content.

4. Create Vehicle and Service-Specific Landing Pages

Create dedicated landing pages for every vehicle you sell or each service you provide. This strategy offers more chances for your website to land in local search results. Take it a step further and optimize each page for its own target keyword, increasing your chances of ranking.

Keep the following in mind when building out your landing pages:

• Choose a primary keyword for each page: Optimize a landing page for one keyword. Use the keyword in the page title, URL, and within the main body of the page.
• Provide detailed information: Google can penalize thin content — pages that offer little to no value to users. Avoid this by providing detailed information on your landing pages (e.g., vehicle features and specs, service descriptions, pricing, financing options, etc.).
• Include a call-to-action: Include a call-to-action (CTA), such as “Get a quote” or “Apply for financing,” to nudge visitors into taking action and convert more of them into prospects or appointment bookings.
• Add your contact information: Don’t forget to include your address and contact information on each landing page to make it easier for potential buyers to find and contact you.

5. Build High-Quality Backlinks From Automotive Websites

Backlinks are links that point to your website from other sites. They act as votes of confidence, showing Google and other search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy.

Acquiring backlinks from relevant, local websites can increase your chances of ranking in local search results. Here are a few ways you can generate backlinks for your site:

Write guest posts

Reach out to blogs and websites in the automotive industry and ask if you can write a guest post for them. Pitch relevant topics to the blog or website and your business (e.g., “5 Tips for Choosing the Best Used Car for Your Budget”). Make sure to include a link to your site within each guest post.

Get featured on local news sites

Send a press release to local news sites whenever you’re running an event or promotion. This will increase your chances of getting featured in a news article with a link to your site.

Collaborate with local businesses

Find local, non-competitive businesses you can partner with (e.g., tow truck companies). Reach out to them and ask them to include a link to your website on their site.

Some potential placements for the link include a “Partners” page, a service page, or even their blog (if they have one).

A good way to go about it is to offer an incentive, such as a link back to their site or an exclusive discount for their customers. This will increase your chances of getting a “yes.”

You can simply send them an email that outlines your offer and explains how it benefits both parties.

Create linkable resources

Create detailed, highly valuable content for your audience (e.g., a guide on the “15 Best Used Cars Under $20,000”).

These types of content marketing resources have a good chance of being shared and linked to by other sites, which will result in more backlinks for you.

You might be wondering how to actually come up with relevant topics for your linkable resources. Here are a few ideas:

• Listen to your customers: Think about the most common questions customers ask. These are usually great ideas for new guides you can create.
• Analyze competitors’ content: Look at the topics competitors are writing about to get ideas for new content. Remember not to copy your competition — if you decide to cover one of their topics, make sure to give it your own spin (and do it better than them!).
• Check Google’s “People Also Ask” section: Once you have an idea for a topic, search for it on Google and then check the “People Also Ask” section. This will provide you with multiple related ideas for topics you could create resources around.
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6. Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly and Fast

Google considers both mobile-friendliness and page speed when ranking pages. While these are not the only ranking factors Google uses, they are two that you can directly impact and improve.

Follow these tips to speed up your website and make it more mobile-friendly:

• Switch to dedicated web hosting: Using shared hosting, where multiple websites are hosted on the same server, can slow down your site considerably. Opt for a dedicated web hosting package. While usually more expensive, it can result in a substantial performance improvement for your site.
• Deliver content using a CDN: A content delivery network (CDN), such as Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront, can speed up your site by serving website content from whichever server is closest to a visitor’s physical location.
• Use a responsive website design: A responsive website design adjusts to a user’s device automatically, which ensures your website will look great and function as intended on computers, tablets, and smartphones.
• Implement mobile-friendly navigation: Don’t add too many items to your main website menu to ensure it will be displayed properly on mobile devices. Also, make sure that menu items are easy to tap on using a smartphone or tablet.
• Use image compression: High-definition images can slow down your site. Compress website images using a tool like Optimizilla to reduce their size so they load faster.

Apart from helping your website rank better, improving speed and mobile-friendliness can also lead to more conversions due to a better user experience.

7. Collect and Respond to Customer Reviews to Boost Credibility

According to a BrightLocal study, 42% of people regularly check online reviews when looking for local businesses.

If your business only has a few reviews (or worse — one or more extremely negative ones), people are likely to look for a different company to do business with. To avoid losing potential customers to your competition, use these tactics to get more reviews:

• Ask for reviews: Always ask customers for a review. You can do this in person after a successful purchase or service appointment or via email or text afterward.
• Create a review link: Make it easy for customers to leave a review by creating a link that leads directly to a page where they can leave a review. You can even create a QR code that directs customers to this page and then add it to your business cards or receipts.
• Automate review requests: Requesting reviews manually can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Use a tool like Chatmeter to set up automated email and SMS sequences that ask customers for reviews.

Keep in mind that it’s not enough to just get reviews — you also need to take the time to respond to every one. This shows existing customers that you care about their experience and makes potential buyers feel more comfortable about doing business with you.

Chatmeter can help you monitor reviews of your business across the web and notify you when you get a new one. It also allows you to respond to all of your business’s reviews from one central location.

How Chatmeter Helps Car Dealers and Mechanics Dominate Local Search

Auto dealers and mechanics across the country have turned to Chatmeter to grow their brand visibility and attract more local customers. Here are two real-world examples of how Chatmeter helps businesses stand out in search results — and win more business.

Caliber Collision

As Caliber Collision rapidly expanded to hundreds of locations — some without even having a physical storefront — it became harder to manage their online presence. Their team struggled to keep listings accurate and respond to the growing number of customer reviews across platforms.

Chatmeter stepped in to centralize and streamline Caliber’s local SEO efforts. The results?

• Over 12,000 reviews per month
• A consistent 4.7–4.8 star rating across all locations

With Chatmeter, Caliber built a scalable review and listing management strategy that supported their growth without sacrificing their online reputation.

Driven Brands

Driven Brands came to Chatmeter with the goal of increasing non-branded traffic to bring in customers who hadn’t heard of their business before.

Just three months in, they saw their average keyword ranking for non-branded keywords improve from position 15 to 6.

They accomplished this by leaning into local SEO and using Chatmeter’s review widget to build high-performing, location-specific pages. These widgets automatically pulled in fresh customer reviews, signaling to Google that their pages were active, relevant, and trustworthy — making them more likely to rank for local searches.

Boost Your Sales With Chatmeter

Your car dealership’s online reputation and visibility can make or break your business. Buyers will check online reviews before stepping onto a lot, and local search rankings will further impact foot traffic.

Chatmeter can help you take control of your online presence and allow you to build trust with customers and stand out in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Monitor and Improve Your Online Reputation

Managing customer feedback across multiple online platforms can be time-consuming and overwhelming. Chatmeter monitors the web for online reviews of your business and lets you read and respond to all the reviews from one central location.

This helps you engage with customers and resolve their issues quickly, leading to a better customer experience and higher review ratings.

Chatmeter also helps you get more reviews for your car dealership. You can use it to set up automated email and SMS sequences asking customers to leave reviews for your business.

Ensure Consistency Across Online Listings

Your car dealership is likely listed in a number of online business directories.

In order to build trust with both search engines and customers, it’s important that all your listings show consistent business information (including your business name, address, and phone number).

Chatmeter lets you update all your business listings in just a few clicks, allowing you to edit your business information with ease.

Improve Visibility With Location-Specific Pages

If you run a multi-location car dealership business, location-specific pages can help search engines understand what you do and where. They can also provide your business with increased online visibility and brand awareness by giving you more opportunities to rank in search results.

Chatmeter can help you create hundreds of location-specific pages with ease. All pages created with Chatmeter are search-optimized, responsive, and equipped with a geolocation feature that allows you to display personalized, location-specific information to visitors based on their location.

Ready to try it out? Book a demo today.