What Affects Your SEO Part 2

Search Engine Optimization is one of the critical things that every dealer should pay attention to. There are things that you can do in the other three categories that can improve your placement on the Search Engine results page.
First, you can put some level of custom text on almost every page. For example, you can place a paragraph on your homepage in the ‘Custom Text’ area.

This can and should include all of the communities in your primary market areas, (PMA). If my dealership were in New York City, I might want to be certain that Manhattan, Brooklyn and Harlem were listed somewhere on my web site, as long as they are a part of my PMA. We strongly encourage you NOT TO INLCUDE THE NAMES OF CITIES THAT ARE NOT IN YOUR PMA! This could cause you some severe penalties from Toyota and from the Search Engine itself, when (not if) you get caught. You can also include this information on your ‘About Us’ web page.

To make changes to this Custom Text section, log in to Fusion Tools and select Custom Text from the menu on the left.

Second, you can do some research about similar URL’s and you can purchase those that make sense. If my dealership’s name were Rogers Toyota, I would also want to own Rodgers Toyota and Roger’s Toyota if it were possible, since these are common misspellings of my dealership’s name.

Third, you should look for opportunities to build links in your web site from other related and non-automotive web sites. These can include other dealerships if you are part of a group or a ‘mother’ site for the entire group. Or it may be for the local Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce. If your dealer has organizations that they support like a university, charity or community organization, you should arrange for links from their site to yours. You can arrange for links from your local media web sites to your web site, especially if you are already spending thousands of dollars advertising with those companies.

Finally, although it’s not part of the construction of the web site, one other item that can improve your SEO is frequently updating and maintaining the site. Much of this is done for you with automatic used car specials and updated incentives, but anything that you can do, like new car specials, will also help.