In this week’s Wednesday Workshop, we’re sharing 4 easy brand building tips that will help build a strong foundation for your SEO efforts. Google is increasingly looking at entities instead of just websites, so building your brand helps Google see that you’re an awesome result to show in local automotive searches.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Welcome back to another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn. This week, we’re talking about brand building activities that you can do to lay a stronger foundation for SEO. Google is moving in a direction of looking at “entities” instead of simply websites, so it’s important to do everything you can to boost the strength of your dealership’s entity online.
We’re not talking about SEO basics today – obviously, you need a killer website that’s marked up with schema, and you need links pointed to your site, and you need consistent citations on all the right sites.
Instead, we’re talking about specific activities that can help boost your brand in Google’s eyes. These are things that you can do that will help customers see you as the awesome dealership that you are AND help Google see that you’re the most relevant search result.
First, you should look at ways you can improve your site. Sure, some providers (like us) run A/B tests on your site and are always trying to improve things for you – but how many of you are running your own tests? Try running a few usability tests – have real people try to perform a specific action on your site, on multiple devices. Test all the elements of your conversion funnel. Even try testing your competitors’ sites to see what their users experience. Figure out what you can do to make your site better – you’ll get more conversions from humans, and Google will love you too.
Next, take a step back and look at your site. Is the sole focus on driving leads to sell more cars? You need more there – you want to broaden your focus and include service customers, and to try to catch more potential customers much earlier in the buying funnel.
Create valuable resources on your site – provide things your competitors don’t have. Stop using your blog to write post after post about the cars you sell. Share posts that provide helpful information. You’ve got sales staff and service techs that have a wealth of knowledge about cars – start sharing that knowledge! Educate people about cars and how to service them correctly. Do it yourself maintenance tips are killer blog posts, but hardly any dealers post them. Do more to make your site a valuable resource for both potential customers and past customers.
Also, try to increase repeat website visitors. Look at your site – is there any reason for someone to come back to your site after they’ve bought a car or come in for service? Most likely not. So change it – give them a reason to come back on a regular basis. Provide value. Set up some discounts for previous customers. Again, share useful info on the blog. Move beyond the dealership and share things on the blog about the local area – remember, you blog doesn’t have to be ONLY about the cars you sell. If you share high value content on a regular basis AND send out alerts on social media to remind everyone, you’ll get more traffic from repeat customers – they’ll be more likely to come back again in the future, and Google will love your brand popularity.
Finally, share what you’re doing in the community. Most dealerships are super involved in the local area – sponsorships, charity work, community involvement – but that involvement is rarely shared on the website or in social media. You’re already doing great stuff in the community, you simply need to let everyone know! Make sure you’ve got a page on the site that talks about everything you do, and write blog posts about each specific event. Share social alerts before events to help drive more awareness, and share updates afterwards to let people know how the events were.
It’s a digital age, but it’s still important to build your brand. Customers need to know who you are and why you’re awesome – and so does Google. The things you do to build your brand signals online also happen to be the same things you need to do to build a strong foundation for your SEO.
That’s all the time we’ve got for today. As always, if you’ve got questions or comments, leave ‘em down below and we’ll get back to you shortly. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you again next week for another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn.
