SEO for your dealership website – Keywords and Content

I’ve taken notice to a few articles lately in the dealer magazines about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your dealership website. Most of the articles are very broad, and only touch lightly on what it takes to be successful to achieve high rankings in the organic listings of the search engines. I’m going to take it one step further, explain in a little more detail and direct you to a few tools that will help you with your own SEO.

• What are your customers typing in the Search Engines when they are searching for your dealership website or product?
• What keywords should you target?
• Once you have these keywords, what do you do with them?

Perhaps you are a Mazda dealer in the state of Maryland. What are shoppers typing in the search engines to find a Mazda dealer in Maryland? Use the Overture Keyword Tool Google Keyword Tool to help you with this.

Here I searched the keywords “Maryland” and “Mazda”.

This tool can give you an idea of what keywords or key phrases you should be considering in your title, description and onpage text.

I don’t recommend one-word keywords. If you sell New and Used Mazda cars in Maryland then the keyword “cars” is not going to work. People searching for “cars” might be interested in new cars or car insurance.

The right “key phrases” will bring you visitors that are truly interested in the Mazda product. You must use keyword phrases that are common enough that people actually use them, but unique enough to generate highly qualified, targeted traffic that increases your sales.

So what do you do once you have your keyword phrases? Lets look at the following;

Lets start with your dealership websites’ VERY important “Title”. The title of your dealerships website shows up at the very top of your browser window. If there is not a lot of competition for your targeted keyword or phrase, I’ve seen great results by just making changes to title tags.

Here is a not so good example of a title tag:
Bob Smith Mazda: Baltimore, new, used, certified, car, truck, suv, dealership

I would recommend something like this:
Maryland Mazda dealer / John Smith Mazda :: Baltimore, MD 21740

Description – Your dealership websites description is also very important. You want to include the right keywords and phrases here while also keeping in mind that this is the text that many search engines use to describe your site in the listings. Try to use some persuasive wording here to convince the shopper to click on your link while also incorporating your targeted keywords.

Here is an example:
John Smith Mazda dealership offers the Lowest price on a HUGE selection of New or Used Mazda’s. View our full Mazda inventory and specials for the RX8, MPV, Mazda3, Mazda6 or Miata of your choice.

Meta Keywords – Don’t waste too much time with this.. most search engines do not look at these keywords anymore but if you have time to create some, go ahead and do so. It does won’t hurt.

Example:
Mazda dealer Maryland, Baltimore Mazda dealer, Mazda cars, Mazda trucks, Mazda dealership, new, used, Tribute, Miata, Mazda6, Mazda3, B2000, MPV, parts, Baltimore mazda, Baltimore maryland, bodyshop, mazda service

On Page Text – This is the actual text writing that you place on your homepage and sub pages. This could be your welcome text. I’ve noticed that many dealer website providers do not provide an area on your homepage for text.

Within your text you want to use your targeted keyword phrases, BUT don’t over do it. Ultimately you want to be at a 2-4% keyword density (I’ll touch more on this later). Also..If possible, there are a few tags that you want to use in the HTML coding of your content.

Search engines like content that appears in “header” tags, yet very few dealer websites actually use these tags:
<h1>Header Text</h1> and <h2>Subsection</h2>

There is also the use of the “strong” tag:
<strong>Keyword Phrase</strong>

Here is an example with the use of proper HTML tags within your text:
<h1>Maryland Mazda Dealer</h1>,<strong>John Smith Mazda</strong> located in Baltimore, MD. We service all the major cities including Towson, Perry Hall, College Park and Gaithersburg.

<h2>New and Used Mazda’s<h2> with the Lowest Pricing, Large selection and monthly specials.

Remember, try not to get too spammy with your keywords or phrases. Too much can be worse than not enough. Never use more than one <h1> tag per page. Use your Homepage to target customers looking for your dealership name or a City/State Mazda dealer. You can focus on other keywords for your individual models (Mazda3) on your Mazda3 details or inventory page (if your website provider will able you to do this).

Be sure to keep an eye on your keyword density (though not as important as it used to be). Keyword density is the number of times a keyword is used on a web page divided by the total number of words on the page. You want to have a density of 2-4% (each search engine has different tolerances).

You can use to track your keyword density with this Keyword Density Tool.

Please make use of the “comments” link below for any questions or of course comments.

Jeff Kershner

Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.

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