Automotive SEO

Your website needs the support of several other processes to help you avoid some of the common mistakes dealers make online.

Many things will cause you to feel that you’ve made a mistake on your site, whether you’ve forgotten something that impacts your SEO or failed to meet a timeline for your social media marketing. Has your team been unable to respond to comments from your audience, or did your last blog post lacks the necessary elements? Let’s explore some of the most common errors made on dealer websites.

Your Blog is the Backbone of Your SEO Process

When you post your blog, you want it to rank high for its content. If you forget the Meta Descriptions, you’ll have a hard time seeing any post rank where you want it. The meta description offers a peek into the subject matter of that particular content. If you forget this item, you won’t see the leads, traffic, or page views you expect from your blog. Don’t forget the meta description whenever you add a new post to your dealership blog.

Posting Vehicles Without Reviews

You might have most of the aspects of your vehicle listings automated, but do each of your models include a review? This is an integral part of the buying decision for many customers, and it’s something you must have on your website. Ensure each vehicle has a review attached, which can link to a professional review or one from actual customers who have purchased the car. This is a fantastic way to quickly offer your website visitors the information they desire.

Mobile Unfriendly Websites

In 2022 this shouldn’t happen, but some dealers have forgotten to make sure their websites are easy to use on mobile devices. This is one of the biggest mistakes dealers make when attracting an online audience. Car dealers aren’t web designers and developers and shouldn’t attempt to be. The best way to fix this problem is to have a digital marketing team that transitions your website to a mobile-first site, ready to offer the critical information to buy a vehicle at your location.

One-Sided Information Sharing

Does your website ask for information from the car shopper without offering them anything in return? Many consumers that fill out a static lead form leave the website within 45 seconds, and some won’t fill out the state because they fear the dealership will harass them. It’s essential to offer an interactive and engaging process for the customer to build trust and shared information that will lead to a sale. Your website should provide trade-in assessments, payment calculators, helpful quizzes, and information about financing for potential customers.

Hidden Content Options

How can a customer contact your dealership for information? This should be easy to find and located somewhere on every page of your website. One of the most common mistakes dealers makes is having the contact information listed only on one page. Offer various contact methods for those shoppers who don’t want to pick up the phone. Some shoppers would instead send a message and check that message when convenient for them later on in the day.

Focus on the Manufacturing Brand

Yes, you need to tell your audience about the brands of vehicles you sell at your dealership, but that’s not where your focus should be. Customers can go to several dealers that sell the same brand as you do; what makes your dealership stand out? Is there something your location offers that should be important to your customers? Talk about relationships, the history of your dealership, and your team. This is how you talk about the brand identity you want to build with your audience.

Results Aren’t Specific Enough for Most Customers.

One of the biggest mistakes car dealers make with their website is to have search results that don’t bring shoppers to a specific model. If a customer has to sift through several pages of irrelevant search results, they will look for the vehicle they want somewhere else. Also, some websites require a shopper to fill out a static contact form every time they visit the site; that’s a severe problem. Ask your online marketing team to fix this problem and make your customer experience better for the end-user.

Are You Missing Landing Pages?

When a shopper clicks on a link in your blog, where are they directed? If that blog post talks about a particular model vehicle, the links should take you to that vehicle offered on your dealership website. The more brands and vehicles offered on your lot, the more landing pages you need. This is one reason you need an online marketing team. They can build the landing pages that support the various vehicles you offer for sale so that every link takes a shopper to the right place.

Lack of Creativity

You need some consistency in how your cars are listed on your website, but you don’t have to use the same type of video or blog for every model. One of the biggest mistakes dealers makes is to lean into a specific format for a blog and stick to this. At the same time, it looks consistent and uniform; it’s not going to capture a reader’s attention as much as a creative blog will.

Offering Duplicate Content

One of car dealer websites’ most common SEO issues is duplicated content. There’s nothing wrong with offering a similar blog piece three to six months after an original, but you don’t want to showcase the same content repeatedly. This is one of the biggest mistakes dealers make on their websites to build a bank of nearly identical blog posts. Using a specific canonical tag helps avoid this problem in search engines. Make sure your content is original and unique every time you update your blog.