The world of automotive retail is changing and attracting new customers to your dealership is more complicated than ever. As consumers spend more time online, and the marketing tricks and tactics that worked yesterday inevitably change with tomorrow’s technology and consumer demands.
In this new world of automotive sales, dealers must constantly evaluate their digital marketing practices and make adjustments to keep up with today’s consumer demands. And the best place to start this evaluation is by checking your digital traffic.
Stand Out in the Crowd of Competition
The car buying process for most consumers starts online—looking at local inventory, comparing colors and options, and trying to find the perfect car for the perfect price, as close to home as possible. These consumers are thorough in their online research, spending an average of about 14 hours online looking for cars,1 which is great news for dealers like you trying to drive traffic to their website.
Here’s where the process gets somewhat complex. The world wide web is a big place. Consumers can find easy access to the information they need in a number of places, right down to the details of how much they’re willing to pay for their next car purchase. So, it might as well be your website that informs their next purchase decision. On the other hand, if your dealership’s website doesn’t answer or even address their questions, would-be customers may pass you by.
Optimize Your SEO Strategy
If your website isn’t getting enough digital traffic, there’s a good chance your dealership’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy isn’t doing enough to set you apart from all the other dealership’s in the world. It’s the first symptom that your site is getting lost in the shuffle of search results.
To ensure your inventory and dealership services consistently reach likely buyers browsing search engines, your SEO strategy must be optimized for local reach. The specific mix changes from dealership to dealership, but your SEO strategy may include some combination of custom content like blog posts, news articles, and new make/model pages designed to help connect you with local buyers.
This approach is proven to elevate performance across your digital strategy with higher organic rankings, increased website traffic, and more leads from qualified visitors. But because implementing the right strategy can be complex, it’s always a good idea to enlist the help of the experts—a proven team of copywriters, strategists, and SEO specialists—to enhance your website’s overall visibility.
After just one year of running Dealer.com’s car dealer SEO service,2 dealers experienced an average of:
- 30% more website visits
- 52% more VDP views
- 59% more phone leads
- 14% more form leads
If your digital traffic has seen better days, optimize your SEO for local searches and partner with a team of SEO experts you can trust to drive digital shoppers with proven results.
To learn more ways your dealership can adapt in a new age of automotive sales, check out our free eBook: 4 Questions to Improve Your Dealership’s Digital Marketing.
![eBook thumb - DDC21-0155_Digital_Marketing_Questions_eBook_Thumbnail_413x413_v1[3] (2)](https://www.dealer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2021/05/eBook-thumb-DDC21-0155_Digital_Marketing_Questions_eBook_Thumbnail_413x413_v13-2.png?h=413#038;w=413 "eBook thumb – DDC21-0155_Digital_Marketing_Questions_eBook_Thumbnail_413x413_v1[3] (2)")
Sources:
- https://www.dialogtech.com/blog/18-automotive-marketing-stats/#:~:text=Car%20buyers%20spend%20an%20average,hours%20 online%20during%20their%20search.
- Based on a study of 43 franchise dealerships with Premium SEO and Dealer.com Advertising from December 2018 – May 2019 VPP.