Import Car Dealers and Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization has been a thorn to many manufacturers. They want their stores to be ranked for generic searches such as New Car Dealers Springfield or New Trucks in Oklahoma City, but they don't want them to compete into each other's market area.
What has been pushed for a long time - competing with other dealers of the same make - may be coming to an end for some brands, particularly imports. Honda has started restricting what dealers can put on their websites. They don't want them straying away from their market areas. They don't mind a Honda dealership ranking well for Used Cars Shreveport or Used Cars Minneapolis, but when it comes to their brands, they want you to stay close to home.
It even goes into their other products such as service and parts. Toyota Service Minneapolis is a no-no as a keyword for a dealership outside of that market area. This makes it tough for dealers whose market area is lightly populated. Take Griffith Toyota, for example. They are in Oregon, but they are outside of the Portland Toyota Dealers market area and soon, it's possible that they won't be able to mention Portland on their website.
Same holds true for First Honda, who is 40 miles north of Los Angeles. It would be nice to rank for Los Angeles Honda Dealers where they would be able to pull thousands of visitors, but it is difficult with the current rules. Even someone to the south like Orange County Toyota Dealers would love to rank in LA. The question is - will they be allowed?
While all of this makes it harder for car dealers to get ahead of their competition, the manufacturers are seeing it as a negative. What they fail to realize is that, with record-low sales of new cars, competition is a good thing. Chances are strong that a dealership savvy enough to know the value of SEO and that is willing to invest in it is probably the type of dealer that should be getting the traffic. They are more likely to understand what it takes to sell a car in today's market.
Selling them short will be a big mistake.
Read more automotive SEO advice on this blog.
