In the ever-changing landscape of search marketing it can be difficult to stay up-to-date with what’s best practice when it comes to your content marketing strategy. This is especially true when it comes to SEO. Some dealers have no idea what SEO is while others have just a vague idea of how it’s impacting their business. They’ll ask questions like, Why does my dealership need SEO? What does SEO even stand for? This can all become very confusing pretty fast.
You’ve likely heard about it at dealer meetings, conference calls, and around the dealership. Your internet department may even be begging you to start looking into it. Well guess what, your internet department is correct if you haven’t made it a serious part of your content marketing strategy yet.
SEO 101
Most dealers are way behind on making sure there websites are optimized according to what industry leaders such as Google like. Dealers typically think that since they are paying a website vendor on average $500.00-$2,000.00 per month that the website vendor takes care of everything. However, in most cases this is not the level of service that is being delivered. Website fees are typically just covering the cost of having a compliant website for your automotive franchise. Overlooking this aspect of your content strategy can have you grossly misinterpreting your effectiveness when it comes to your content strategy.
For those that don’t know SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. The basic concept behind SEO is that it allows you to optimize your website content using a variety of methods so you start organically ranking in search results. The idea being that if your SEO strategy is effective and executed properly you’ll get ranked higher on search results – the optimum place being the top (or close to it) of the first page. While there are many methods that can be implemented to assist your website increase your search rankings there are some things you can start doing.
Here’s a few basic SEO practices you can implement yourself:
- Make sure you keep the Specials Page, Service Coupons and various pages that need frequent updating up-to-date with fresh content.
- Create relevant content that your website visitors can use each month.
- Don’t use flash or limit the use of flash on your site as much as possible.
Why Should I Outsource My Content Marketing?
When it comes to deciding whether to outsource your SEO needs there can be as many reasons for doing it as there are methods for doing it. SEO is complex. It requires a specialized skill-set that even some marketers don’t fully understand. While there are best practices that can be adopted to assist your SEO strategy, it takes a knowledgeable search marketer to truly get the results you’ll need to stay competitive.
The skill-set required can include being fluent in HTML, coding and programming, indexing links, and even properly constructing URL’s for search-ability. You can see how it might be hard to find this collection of skills within the automotive industry. Choosing the right content marketing agency can be equally as important as the content you’re optimizing. Be sure the person handling your SEO seems well-equipped so you get the most out of your investment.
… So Here’s The Gist
What you’ve more than likely taken away from this blog is that SEO is vital to your content marketing strategy and it’s something that has to be executed properly by a skilled marketer.
SEO isn’t just another line item when it comes to your content marketing strategy, it’s an investment.
Developing an online footprint is the very essence of well executed SEO practices and can send traffic back to your site long into the future. That being said it has to be at the forefront of your content marketing routine. To stress the simplicity of SEO basics, If you’re not creating fresh content, search engines are probably not creating fresh pathways to your site. What does this mean for your dealership? Simple. A loss of opportunity for increased revenue.
Because SEO is a continuous and never-ending process it’s easy for dealerships to drop the ball in this area if they’re handling their own content strategy. Just remember that every time that ball is dropped it’s another sales lead that is potentially lost.
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