SEO for Car Dealerships

Almost certainly not, and we would rather say so before you pay us. Used cars is 12,000 searches a month and cars for sale is 20,000, and what ranks is carsales, Gumtree and the other marketplaces, whose entire business is that page. The clearest evidence is what advertisers will pay: those terms run at about US$0.10 a click, while sell my car runs at US$4.00 and business car finance at US$11.00. A term nobody will bid on is a term nobody is making money from. The winnable demand is the 52,200 searches a month around trade-in, valuation and finance, and the 16,300 that actually ask for a dealer.

They do different jobs, and the honest way to decide is to measure them separately, which most dealerships can't currently do. A marketplace sells you a buyer who is comparing you against every other yard on the same screen. Your own site is where somebody who wants to sell you a car, arrange finance or book a test drive goes, and those are the enquiries with the better margin because there's no lead fee and often no auction fee on the stock. The first thing we do is split the tracking so you can see what each one actually produces.

Because it is the part of the demand a dealership is uniquely placed to win, and it is where the stock comes from. Sell my car is 9,100 searches a month at US$4.00 a click and the valuation terms add another 9,600. That is somebody actively trying to hand you a car. Most dealer websites meet them with a form headed trade in and no number on the page, so they go to RedBook or Gumtree instead, and those two take 4,200 valuation searches a month between them. A trade-in page that gives a real range is the highest-return page on most dealer sites.

No, and in this industry there is a second reason beyond the usual one. The usual reason is that a page per suburb with the name swapped ranks for nothing and reads as spam. The second is section 11(1) of the Motor Dealers and Repairers Act, which catches advertising that you carry on, or are willing to carry on, the business of a motor dealer other than at the place your licence is granted for. Real pages for the sites you actually operate, yes. A page claiming you sell cars in thirty suburbs you have no licensed premises in, no.

On your website and on all your advertising material, and section 19A is specific about how: in a reasonably prominent position, clearly legible, and identified as the licence number. Most dealer sites fail at least one of those, usually all three, by setting it in small grey type in a footer. It is worth fixing beyond the compliance point, because it is the one credential every legitimate dealer holds and buyers in this industry are unusually suspicious.

Yes, and it's one of the best opportunities on this list. Roughly 4,100 searches a month are people researching dealer administration fees and what to watch out for at a used car yard. That's hostile research by somebody who is definitely buying a car from somebody. A dealership that answers both honestly, publishes its own fees and explains what its warranty covers is doing what almost nobody in the industry does, and it converts the most sceptical buyer there is.

Yes, because they're searched separately and often by different people. Ford dealer near me is 2,000 searches a month, toyota dealer near me 1,900, honda dealer near me 1,300, mg dealer near me 1,200 and subaru dealer near me 900. Each of those is somebody who has already chosen a make and now wants the nearest franchise holder. A single page listing all your brands competes properly for none of them, and it also competes with the manufacturer’s own dealer locator, which you won't outrank without a page of your own.

On near-me searches, yes, and there's direct evidence in the data. Car yards near me is 1,900 searches a month and Ahrefs files it under the parent topic of a Perth dealer group, meaning one dealer has become the answer for that phrase. Near-me searches are decided in a map pack, and a map pack rewards a complete profile, real photographs, correct hours and recent reviews, none of which a national marketplace can supply for your yard. That's the one part of this market where being local is the advantage rather than the handicap.

Quite a lot, because the search demand is for understanding rather than for a lender. Car finance calculator is 9,600 searches a month and car finance is 8,800, and what people want first is an idea of repayments and what they can qualify for. A calculator and a plain explanation of what your dealership can and can't arrange catches that person while they are still deciding, which is well before they would otherwise speak to anyone. You aren't competing with the bank, you are getting to the conversation earlier.

By enquiries recorded against the type they came from, and kept separate from your marketplace leads. Trade-in valuations, finance enquiries, test drive bookings and stock enquiries each tied back to the page that produced them. That also gives you the number most dealer principals can't currently produce, which is what your own website is worth next to what you pay a marketplace for the same month.