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THE DEALERON BLOG

Your primary GMB category carries more weight

In this week’s video, we share another important tip about Google My Business category choices. While you’ve got multiple category fields available, your primary category is the most important. Google’s algorithm gives much more weight to your primary category, which helps you to show up better in searches related to that category. Watch the video for all the details…

(if you’re looking for the link to the last video about categories, click here)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn! Sorry we missed a few Wednesdays recently, I’ve been on the road the last few weeks speaking at conferences all over the place and we got a bit behind…

But we’re back and today’s tip is a good one. A few weeks ago, I did a video where I shared the specific categories you should choose in Google My Business. If you didn’t see it before, definitely head over to our blog and check it out – or if you’re watching this on our blog right now, click the link below in the transcript to jump over to it.

Today’s video builds directly from that video – and it’s a killer tip that applies to any dealership out there!

Here’s the thing – Google gives much more ranking value to your primary category – the first category you choose.

So you should be strategic in which category you pick first, since that category will have so much more weight.

If you’re in a really competitive market and there are several other dealerships selling the same brand as you, you want to list “[brand] Dealer” as your first category. For example, if you’re a Ford dealer in the Dallas metro market and you’re competing against 13 or 14 other dealerships, you’d definitely want to put “Ford Dealer” in that first slot, since that’s going to help you rank better for any “Ford Dealer” searches.

But on the flip side, if you’re a Ford dealer in a more rural area, and there’s not another Ford dealer for 100 or more miles in any direction, you don’t want to waste that primary category weight on a category you’re already going to dominate. Instead of choosing “Ford Dealer” as your primary category, you should choose “Used Car Dealer”, since you’re competing against all the other new car and used car dealers in your area.

Your Google My Business listing is critical for success in local searches, and being more strategic in your category choices will help you beat the other local dealerships. Now that you know, go check your GMB dashboard and make sure you’ve got the right category listed first for your dealership.

That’s all the time we’ve got for today’s video. As always, if you’ve got questions or comments, leave ‘em down below and we’ll get back to you shortly. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you again next week with another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn.

Author Greg Gifford

Greg Gifford is the Vice President of Search at DealerOn. He has over 16 years of online marketing and web design experience, and has specialized in automotive SEO for the last 8 years, helping hundreds of auto dealers thrive while the industry has struggled during the recession. Greg speaks internationally at both automotive and SEO conferences, teaching thousands of small business owners and marketers how to get their sites to show up higher in local search rankings. Greg also spends his spare time doing freelance website design and SEO for local businesses. He graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BA in Cinema and Communications, and has an obscure movie quote for just about any situation.

More posts by Greg Gifford

Join the discussion 2 Comments

  • Hi Greg,

    What if car dealer X sells 3 different brands (new cars) on one fysical location. What GMB-strategy would you prefer? 3 different GMB-profiles:

    – Dodge dealer X Rockville
    – Chevrolet dealer X Rockville
    – Toyota dealer X Rockville

    Or one GMB-profile for all 3 brands?

    – Dodge, Chevrolet and Toyota dealer X Rockville

    Thank you for your time!

    Robert van Heerde

    • Greg Gifford says:

      I’d always do a separate GMB profile per brand…Unless it’s a group of brands that’s always tied together, like Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. But with your example, I’d definitely have 3 listings!

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