“Content is king.” That’s one of those common SEO buzzwords used so often that it makes content marketers cringe when hearing it. That said, as clichéd as the phrase may be, it’s just as true today as it was when Bill Gates first coined the term in 1996.

But creating content isn’t the same as it was in 1996. It’s not even the same as it was 5 years ago. SEO is always changing, and your dealership’s customer base is changing along with it. So, in an ever-changing digital world, what should content look like and how do you create it? And we’re not just talking about what content marketing and SEO should look like in 2019, but also what it should look like in 2020 and beyond.

Search for “cars” on Google, and at the top of the results page, you’ll find a map that shows as many as three car dealerships within a few-mile radius. Conduct the same exact search from the other side of town, and you’ll find that the three listed dealerships are completely different.

The whole purpose of Google is to address searchers’ queries as quickly and efficiently as possible, and on the local level, the algorithm factors the searcher’s location into the results. In addition to showing businesses that are nearby, Google also wants to make sure that searchers have a positive experience at those businesses, so the search engine is selective when it comes to their results.

To determine the best businesses to list, Google looks at over 200 ranking signals to ensure that the results are the best that they can be. Many of these signals come directly from the businesses’ websites, but there are also several signals outside the websites that are considered, such as online directory listings, citations, backlinks and customer reviews to name a few.

Approaching Your Dealership’s Site With An SEO Mindset

The internet was a vastly different place only a decade ago. Responsive websites were extremely rare, design principles were largely lacking, and boosting your site’s rankings took little more than adding a slew of keywords into the code. Even though website technology and search engine algorithms are increasingly complex, there’s still a vestigial understanding of just how SEO works and it’s easy to fall back on outdated practices.

“Create content for the user, not the search engines.”

You hear this a lot in content marketing circles. And it’s undeniably solid advice. But the “create content for the reader” approach is only part of the story. SEO is still very much alive in content marketing, even if it doesn’t transfer as heavily to the written words themselves.

Moving to a new website provider – or even redesigning your current site – can be a scary thing in any industry. In the complex world of automotive websites, the intensity reaches another level.

Automotive dealer websites have a lot of moving parts. First and foremost, when you switch sites, you don’t want any lag in business. You rely on your site to engage customers and push valuable leads through in a timely manner. Any lapse could mean lost sales. And besides simply being live, you’ll want to ensure all pricing, incentives, rebates, forms, CTAs, CRM integration, inventory feeds – everything – is working correctly so the transition is seamless to the customer and your internal processes.  

The internet has completely changed the ballgame for dealerships. Nowadays, getting people through the doors often requires getting them on the website first. That in itself can be a feat. Taking it to the next step and convincing those website visitors to buy a car from you increases the difficulty factor even more. 

However, with the right approach to the website content, you can accomplish both in one fell swoop.