Businesses of all sizes are looking for ways to cut spending, including taking their foot off the gas of their SEO efforts. Find out why that would be a big mistake for your dealership in this edition of DealerOn University.
In an uncertain economic environment, every dollar spent must be meaningful to your business. With a possible recession looming, businesses of all sizes are tightening their belts and looking for ways to save. For many, that will mean slashing their marketing budgets, including search optimization efforts.
That’s a big mistake.
Pulling back on SEO efforts will cost your dealership dearly in the long run. SEO isn’t simply a goal you can reach; it’s a battle that requires constant attention to prevail. If you cut back on your SEO efforts, you will quickly find your search rankings dropping like a stone and your organic traffic dwindling. Your competition will get business that should be yours.
Easing off the pedal, even for a short time, can cause long-term damage to your brand. Here are five reasons you can’t afford to do that.
1. You will lose out on long-term SEO returns
Local SEO is the lifeblood of dealership search. Car shoppers need to know what vehicles are available in their local market, and they are going to figure that out by searching on Google. That is because 92% of car buyers are going to research on the web before they buy, and they begin their research on Google. You must optimize your website for Local SEO so that searchers will find your store before they find the competition.
Climbing to the top of search results takes time, but the rewards are well worth the effort. According to a recent study, after three years of Local SEO campaigns, the ROI is an average of 500%. If you pull back on your SEO efforts for short-term relief, you will cost your dealership in long-term gains.
2. SEO is a constant competition
95% of all search traffic goes to the first page of search results, so acquiring and maintaining high search rankings is the goal of any website, which makes the first page of Google Search one of the most competitive spaces on the web. Because this particular digital real estate is so lucrative, getting to the first page and staying there takes serious effort.
As previously alluded to, SEO is a process, and it never stops. If you ease off the gas, your competitors will take advantage. As their SEO efforts gain traction, your rankings will begin to decay. You can watch as they supplant your position in organic search results.
Alternatively, taking advantage of a time when your competitors are easing off their search efforts can pay dividends. You set yourself up for long-term success while the competition loses ground.
Your local search optimization efforts are critical to maintaining and increasing your organic traffic rates.
3. Google will change their search ranking criteria
Search optimization is a constantly moving target. The SEO strategy that works today may not work tomorrow.
Google recently announced the latest updates to their Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) to include “Experience” in their E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) search evaluation formula. What was once E-A-T is now E-E-A-T.
The constant changes from Google will make your head spin. Google needs to match visitors with the most relevant sites for their searches and the state of the web is constantly evolving. That means Google is always tinkering with their algorithm to present the most relevant search results.
SEO isn’t simply a goal you can reach; it’s a battle that requires constant attention to prevail.
Even the best managed SEO strategies need the ability to change course at a moment’s notice based on Google’s changing ranking priorities. With an expert team of SEOs in your corner like DealerOn, you’re in safe hands. DealerOn is used to pivoting quickly with Google’s changes to keep dealerships at the top of search results.
4. Google values regular updates
A steady stream of quality content is one of the key signals Google uses when evaluating websites. A website with old, dated content is going to be knocked down in search results, while websites with fresh, relevant content will be given a boost.
A large part of SEO efforts are built on the back of regular updates. From your own content to backlinks to vehicle specials updates, all these factors aid your search rankings. Neglecting these efforts in the name of cost cutting is a recipe for disaster.
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5. You will miss sales opportunities
If you step away from a comprehensive SEO strategy, your rankings will drop, and your organic traffic will quickly follow. Considering that 45% of a dealership’s traffic comes from organic search traffic (DealerOn internal data), that would be a huge loss for your store. You will have fewer site visitors and as a result, a reduction in sales.
Your opportunities will rapidly dwindle as you cede ground to your competition. To make matters worse, when you return to your SEO efforts, you will be starting at a deficit. It will take significantly more time and energy to dig yourself out of a hole in search rankings than it would by simply maintaining and boosting your rankings.
Keep your SEO in the driver’s seat with DealerOn
Keeping a winning SEO strategy is just as important in the boom times as in the bust. Search rankings can drop for a variety of reasons, and sticking with your SEO strategy guarantees your place at the top of search results.
DealerOn has been at the forefront of SEO for automotive dealerships for over a decade and we have the awards to prove it. We know the automotive market and have the tools to make your dealership succeed. We’ve been through countless Google updates and will navigate your website through the twists and turns that come with maintaining an effective SEO strategy.
Schedule your DealerOn SEO demo today. We would love to show you how our SEO strategy and expertise outpaces the competition.
Hi Justin,
I have a question for you. I work for multiple cardealers in the Netherlands. At this moment, I work for six dealers that sell the same car brand. How would you cope with things like blogs? All six of them want the same information on there site like “Specifications of [make + model] “. Would you advice to write an article, and rewrite is, so that every dealer has unique content? or would you use a different approach?
Thank you in advance!
Kind regards,
Robert van Heerde
Freelance SEO-specialist
Hello Robert!
Ideally you will have unique content for each blog, because search engines tend to penalize pages when they find duplicate content. Perhaps you could try localizing the articles for each dealership? At the very least I would write unique introductory paragraphs and meta descriptions for each article.