To boost brand visibility in a competitive digital landscape, your contents must not only be well written but also perform well from a SEO perspective. In this post, we explore seven basic rules to create highly effective content for your website.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the quantity and quality of organic traffic to your website from search engines, such as Google. Combined with paid marketing strategies, SEO practices are a powerful instrument for car dealers to match the online searches of potential customers: in fact, by mastering them, brands can improve awareness, engage users and ultimately obtain conversions. As a key revenue driver, SEO must be a pillar in any digital strategy.
1. Make sure your content is relevant, trustworthy and useful
While Google algorithm is based on over 200 ranking factors, which may even change over time, there are three key parameters your content must always adhere to.
- Relevancy: there is a match between the user’s expectations expressed in the search query and the keywords that make up your content
- Authority: your content is accurate, unique and trustworthy
- Usefulness: your content is easily understandable and well organised
2. Research your keywords and stand out from the competition
Incorporating meaningful and effective keywords in your content is what makes it relevant in the eyes of search engines. Keyword research is an art in itself and it is no easy feat, especially for more mainstream topics with lots of competition.
Competition (i.e. how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword in Google) is, in fact, one of the parameters which define the effectiveness of a keyword, alongside with search volume and earning potential (i.e. ability to generate leads).
How can we make sure to pick the best ones? It’s basically a matter of fine tuning: we typically start with the so-called ‘seed keywords’, which are words or short phrases commonly used to research a topic, and we gradually move to related keywords in the long tail (i.e. more specific terms that have lower search volume), which are more niche and have a higher potential. In the early stages, it’s recommended to stick to less competitive keywords, while the website builds up in authority. Intuitively, a keyword with low competition and high search volumes is always a winner.
Applied to automotive retail, it means, for example, going from seed keywords such as ‘Toyota dealership in Milan’ to more niche ones along the lines of ‘new Toyota Yaris hybrid in Milan’.
Inspiration for keyword research can come from various sources: from the suggestions of related searches Google provides at the bottom of the SERP, to Wikipedia content trees and popular threads in forums such as Reddit.
3. Stick to proven content templates which can effectively convert
When it comes to SEO-optimised content, being hyper-creative is not necessarily a plus. It’s much better to hold to formats that have already been proved successful and use them as templates for new content.
There are three content styles which are particularly appreciated by users:
- lists: tips and best practices related to a given theme, presented in a structured and detailed way
- guides: everything you need to know on a specific subject in one place
- recommendations: lists of tools and resources supporting a particular topic
For example, your audience may be interested in discovering ‘Electric cars: Ten things you need to know before you buy one’.
4. Focus on your on-page SEO
Building SEO-optimised content not only means letting Google know what you’re talking about by means of keywords but also delivering on such a promise through the internal structure of the various pages.
On-site SEO includes title tags, optimised with the frontloading of main keywords, and internal links to other website pages with a content affinity. In a broader perspective, it also refers to the overall UX, that’s to say the website ease of use, which makes visitors navigate for longer and take in more information.
For the website of your car dealership, you should always make sure that whenever you mention a specific topic in your editorial content, this is linked to the corresponding web page (e.g. if your are talking about after-sale services and you have a website section promoting your after-sale offer, this must be linked).
5. Facilitate the seeding of editorial links
Equally important, off-page SEO contributes to the enhanced visibility in search engines in the form of backlinks. These are inbound links on websites other than your own pointing back to a page on your website.
Their value can be assessed both from a quantity and quality point of view, by considering the authority of the website linking you and the relevance of the link for the content where it is placed.
Randomly positioned backlinks are not useful for the SEO performance, whereas seeding editorial links can be very effective. For example, you can reach out to automotive content creators and suggest backlink your contents that are relevant for what they are talking about.
6. Analyse your performance and monitor results
An ongoing analysis of the SEO performance of your website should be part of the overall results assessment: this way, you can gather useful insights on what your audience is specifically looking for, identify brand new targets you had not considered, calibrate your content strategy for the upcoming periods and get a better understanding of the impact of your content on the online lead generation process.
Truth be told, SEO is not a quick and easy endeavour: after starting your website optimisation, it may take at least three months to register a significant traffic increase.
Which metrics should you keep an eye on? It’s basically a combination of website and keywords analysis over time, since your site should always be ranking well in absolute terms as well as for the right keywords.
7. Let technology work for your technical SEO
The good news is, while knowledge of basic SEO best practices is always recommended, today technology can support us on this front as well.
The MotorK solution specifically designed to boost SEO performance is called SEOSparK and goes hand in hand with WebSparK Revolution, the most advanced version of our automotive web module to build a state-of-art online showroom optimised for traffic acquisition and lead generation.
SEOSparK can enhance and expand the SEO settings and features already available in WebSparK Revolution, thus improving the visibility of key pages in your website for search engine crawlers as well as the effectiveness of your stock listings.
There are three standout functionalities of SEOSparK for premium SEO performance of your dealership’s website:
- internal linking optimisation
- linking of VDPs (Vehicle Detail Page) to dealership pages for increased website authority
- VDP optimisation
Furthermore, WebSparK Revolution comes with a content package called ‘Dealer Cr’AI’tive Studio’, a set of AI-powered solutions which also encompasses a built-in ChatGPT integration to easily create SEO-optimised content, and Elementor Pro to build engaging design.
If you would like to deep dive into the WebSparK Revolution novelties and SEOSparK, get in touch with one of our experts for a demo.
