What Do Local Customers Find When Searching for Your Business?

As a local business, you know that stakes are high in winning over the loyalty of customers in your community – especially when you’re dealing with local competitors who are equally progressive when it comes to marketing strategy. The ability to claim that top spot on a search engine results page (SERP) is incredibly valuable, because it dramatically increases the likelihood that a prospective customer will choose your dealership over the one across town that shows up lower in search results. The higher search ranking you’ve earned may even be the only reason that a customer chooses to visit you – because you showed up in front of them first.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which can be earned through the content shared on your site, will help you place in a higher organic search ranking. Paid advertising or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ads can put you at the very top of the page, above organic listings. Earning the top spot for both paid and organic search? It doesn’t get better.

Achieving a high search engine ranking has always been important, but it is becoming even more so as consumers spend more time on smartphones and mobile devices. Search engines like Google have even evolved to the point that a searcher doesn’t need to clarify their location when looking for a local business - GPS-enabled smartphones can track where the user is. According to research from MDG Advertising, 82% of smartphone users go to a search engine to find local businesses and 72% of consumers who perform a local search end up visiting the store. Local search, especially when performed my mobile, makes it easy for consumers to take quick action.

• Let’s consider a customer who is thinking about buying a new grill. First, the customer conducts an online search for a local hardware store. Let’s say that they click on the top result, which is a hardware store located eight miles away from their home. After checking the store’s website to confirm that they have grills in stock and perhaps making sure they carry a preferred brand, the customer will likely visit the store in person and purchase a grill – if not that day, maybe within a few days or a week of the search. Unless the customer changed their mind about the purchase or some other major distraction got in the way, why wouldn’t they? The hardware store made sure that everything was in line for their local search result, earned that top spot through paid advertising, and will be rewarded for their efforts.

Optimizing your dealership for local search is a hugely important piece of your overall marketing strategy, and that high ranking in a local search is more crucial than ever in earning the business of your community. Invest in the success of your dealership with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services.