The automotive industry is one of the most competitive when it comes to local search, so standing out in local search results is crucial for dealerships looking to attract more customers in their area.
At the forefront of any successful local SEO strategy for automotive businesses is Google Business Profile, one of the most powerful platforms car dealers can use to increase their online visibility and drive more traffic to their dealerships.
By following some best practices for optimizing Google Business Profile for car dealerships, you can boost your rankings in local search results and increase engagement, ultimately helping you generate and convert more leads into happy new vehicle owners!
How To Optimize Google Business Profile for Car Dealers
1. Claim or Create a Listing for Each Unique Department
Before you start optimizing Google Business Profile for a car dealership, you should determine how many profiles you will actually need.
Many car dealerships have separate departments that function as separate entities, such as sales departments for different brands and parts and service departments.
Setting up separate Google Business Profile listings can help each department stand out in local search, allowing you to optimize each listing separately as part of a campus.
For example, a dealership that sells Cadillac and Chevrolet vehicles might have one primary listing for the overall dealership, then a few different secondary listings for the Cadillac department, the Chevrolet department, and the parts and service department.
Setting up separate GBP listings for different car dealership departments allows them all to have their own contact information, business hours, categories, photos, promotions, etc., helping them show up in more local searches and increasing the chances of nearby customers contacting or visiting them when they're looking for something specific.
2. Select All Relevant Categories
Google Business Profile offers a wide range of categories for car dealerships and automotive businesses, so make sure to select all appropriate categories to ensure your dealership shows up in all relevant local searches.
To align with Google's guidelines for choosing Business Profile categories, you should set the single most relevant category as your primary category. For example, if your dealership only sells used cars, choose "Used car dealer" as the primary category. Or, if it is a Honda dealership, set the primary category as "Honda dealer."
If the dealership sells multiple brands, this is where there can be a benefit to setting up different GBP listings for each automotive brand you deal in, as it allows you to set the primary category according to each brand.
Once you've selected the most relevant primary category, you can set any other applicable ones as secondary categories. For instance, if your primary category is "Car dealer," your secondary categories might be things like "Used car dealer," "Motor vehicle dealer," and "Motorcycle dealer," depending on your specific offerings.
3. Add High-Quality Photos and Videos
Adding high-quality photos and videos to your dealership's GBP listing is one of the best ways to attract potential customers to click on and interact with your profile, which can help improve its ranking and get more leads.
Make sure to upload photos of your dealership's interior, exterior, staff, and inventory, and regularly add new photos to keep your listing fresh and engaging.
In terms of videos, you might upload things like a 360-degree tour of your car lot, showcases of exciting new inventory at the dealership, or clips of staff talking about certain cars or special offers.
4. Ask for and Respond to Reviews
Google Reviews are an important local ranking factor, meaning that having a high number of reviews and a high average review score can help shoot your dealership to the top of Google Search and Google Maps results.
To improve your local search rankings with reviews, make sure to ask all satisfied customers to leave a review on your Google Business Profile. Additionally, respond to all reviews, whether they're positive or negative, to boost engagement on your profile and demonstrate a commitment to providing excellent customer service.
Google Reviews also present an opportunity to perform sentiment analysis (which you can do at lightning-fast speeds with Local Falcon's AI Reviews Analysis Tool), providing valuable insights into potential changes that you could make to get more positive reviews in the future and improve your dealership's local SEO along the way.
5. Use GBP Posts To Promote Your Car Dealership
Google Business Profile Posts are a feature that car dealerships can use to promote special offers, sales, discounts, or other aspects of their business, ultimately helping generate more leads through GBP.
To get the most out of this feature, try to create new posts every week or so. Examples of things you might promote include dealership events, like a free car wash to promote brand awareness, deals, like an end-of-year sale, and news, like the arrival of brand-new automotive inventory.
6. Answer Customer Questions in the Q&A Section
Google Business Profile's Q&A section allows anyone to ask a question about the business, and anyone who knows the answer, including the business itself, can respond.
To ensure potential customers are getting the most accurate information, and to increase engagement on your profile, try to answer as many questions as possible yourself.
7. Keep Business Information up to Date
Google ranks business listings with the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date business information higher than those with inaccurate or missing information, so make sure to keep your dealership's business info up to date and as complete as possible.
This includes updating key business info, including name, address, and phone number (NAP) whenever anything changes. You should also ensure the business hours remain accurate and add any special holiday hours as relevant.
Not only does this help optimize your dealership's Google Business Profile, but it also ensures customers get the most accurate information about your business when they're ready to contact you or pay you a visit!
8. Add and Update Inventory
Car dealerships can display current inventory on Google Business Profile by adding a product catalog to their listings.
While displaying inventory on a dealership's Google Business Profile listing doesn't directly impact its ranking in local search results, it can help boost engagement with the profile, which does help improve rankings.
Additionally, customers are more likely to visit a dealership when they know it has the type of vehicle they're looking for in stock, so displaying an up-to-date catalog on your GBP can help increase foot traffic leading to more sales.
9. Use GBP Insights to Track Profile Engagement
Google Business Profile Insights provide valuable data on a dealership's GBP engagement, helping you make adjustments to increase engagement and generate more leads.
For example, you can see which actions, like getting directions, calling, or messaging, people are making the most, as well as what search queries people are finding your GBP listing with.
If you see that people prefer to message the dealership over calling it, you might ensure that a member of your team is readily available to respond to Google Business Profile messages quickly.
Based on the queries that people are using to find your listing, you might also start tracking performance and optimizing for additional keywords. Which brings us to the last tip on optimizing Google Business Profile for car dealers”¦
10. Track Your Dealership's Local Ranking and Optimize with Local Falcon
What's the ultimate goal of all these Google Business Profile optimizations for car dealerships? Appearing at the top of Google Search and Google Maps results, of course!
But in order to do so, you'll need to constantly track your local rankings for specific keywords, compare your performance to competitors, and implement ongoing optimizations — that's where Local Falcon comes in.
Local Falcon's AI-integrated local rank tracking technology is perfect for dealerships with one or more Google Business Profile listings that they want to track and optimize to outrank competitors. Additionally, Local Falcon is compatible with tracking Apple Maps listings (Apple Business Connect).
With features like automatic AI-generated analysis of local search performance and optimization recommendations, an AI-powered virtual assistant for local SEO, and AI Reviews Analysis for reputation management insights, Local Falcon saves car dealers and the local SEO professionals they work with tons of time when it comes to ongoing rank tracking and optimization.
Don't wait to take your car dealership's local search performance to the top — sign up for Local Falcon today!