What is Local Optimisation?

Local optimisation helps to improve search engine ranking for businesses which serve customers face-to-face, such as used vehicle dealerships. It can involve claiming a business listing, acquiring reviews, updating on-page content and much more.

Claiming a Business

It is important to get your dealership listed on as many respectable directories as possible. Search engines are frequently used to conduct local searches and to be seen as relevant, your business’s information needs to be visible to the engines.

Claim your dealership on directories like Yelp and Citysearch as well as local business directories, ensuring that your name, address and phone number (NAP) is consistent across all sites.

Google My Business (GMB) is the most important directory to be on, as it provides an excellent opportunity to increase your visibility if your listing is optimised.

Optimising your GMB listing involves adding your NAP, an accurate description of your company, a business category and opening hours.

Reviews

Although you open yourself up to criticism by publicly displaying reviews, it can really improve your local SEO. According to Google, high-quality customer reviews will help your business gain exposure.

You should concentrate on getting reviews for your GMB and Facebook pages because these will be the most viewed. Not only should you post reviews, but you should also respond to them, as engaging with customers builds trust and loyalty. Don’t worry if you get a negative comment, this just presents an opportunity to offer solutions to dissatisfied customers and improve your service.

On-Page Content

Google will crawl through websites to assess whether or not they will be relevant to a particular query, scanning through tags and content for keywords.

You should therefore try to include your city or region in addition to a relevant keyword in title tags, H1 tags, URLs, on-site content and image attributes.

For example, searchers looking for a specific make of used car in their local area, might search for something like “Used Audis in London”. Your Audi landing page should therefore include a H1 tag followed by a piece of content incorporating the same keywords. This way, Google will see your website as an extremely valid result.

Structured Data Markup

Also known as “schema.org markup”, structured data markup provides search engines with details about your business, such as your products and services you offer. It lies within the code of a website, which Google crawls through to determine whether or not the site is relevant to a query.

The majority of websites do not use structured data markup, so adding it to your code is likely to make your site outperform others in local searches.

Following the above advice can help you dominate local searches, but the aspects mentioned are just the tip of the local optimisation iceberg. The more you commit to optimising your website, the more visibility your business will gain.

For more information on how Click Dealer can help your dealership to make the most of local optimisation, get in touch today by emailing marketing@clickdealer.co.uk or calling us on 01782 904 715. Alternatively, you can get in touch via our contact page!