I firmly believe the best SEO strategy for all car dealers is an “in house SEO” strategy. I have a few reasons for taking this stance and hopefully they make sense. The entire point of this post is to raise the question and get you (the Dealer) thinking about your online marketing strategy.
Reason #1 No one will care about your dealership and your website as much as you do. If you have a third party company implementing your search engine optimization strategy, chances are it’s being maintained by an underpaid SEO with little experience. For this reason alone, as the Dealer Principal or Internet Manager, you need to move your SEO efforts in-house. With a little research and guidance, you can maintain and implement a very solid strategy.
Reason #2 Three words. Return On Investment. Chances are your dealership has an Internet Manager who, with a little additional knowledge, could easily learn the fundamentals of SEO that will keep your dealership’s site ranking well and driving traffic. With a competent workforce already on staff, you shouldn’t need to outsource your core SEO work. That could change down the road if you find someone who can develop your link-building strategies.
Reason #3 Control. Very simply, when you reduce the number of people touching your site, the better. You can also implement changes and adjustments at will. When you have the tools and information readily available, there’s no need to check with a “specialist”, or wait for anyone to “get to it”. Also, I know that any third party SEO provider is going to spend as little time maintaining your site as possible because they have more clients than just you.
At the end of the day, you’re going to want complete control over your online marketing strategy. This also includes taking control of your dealership’s Brand Management strategy and your dealership’s Reputation Management strategy.
There are some downsides to using an “in-house SEO” for your auto dealerships site, and I’ll address those down the road. But I’ll say it now, even with the downsides, I firmly believe the positives outweigh the negatives.
