Dealers can create distinct “personas” for the demographic groups they want to target and then focus their search engine optimisation on these personas.

Luke Carter, head of search at Manheim Retail Services gave an example of a dealer using ‘low cost car’ or ‘car for new drivers’ in a vehicle description, rather than the more standard ‘new car’ or ‘used car’. The dealer’s content should also confirm to a potential customer viewing their website that it is the right car, right price, a good deal, and a wide choice as well as including a call to action to get in touch. Doing so will help create a stronger natural rating in search.

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Carter also suggested using Google+ as a digital blog, hosting a Q&A that searches will pick up, and putting a review line or image adverts in any pay-per-click message. Pages with ‘most popular customer questions’ and standard FAQs are valuable, too.

In social media, he recommended creating video reviews that can be shared. With automotive forums, dealers can search how customers are consuming. Dealers should also enable customers to rate them, as adverts with seller ratings receive 17% higher click-through rates.

“The experience of the user starts in the search page before it comes onto your website,” he said.