Need a morning java? Grab your smartphone and Google the nearest Starbuck’s. You can pace a mobile order in seconds and pick it up on the fly. Where is the best place for sushi in Miami? Google Maps will give you top-rated restaurants near your current location. Browse their menu online so you don’t hum and haw over the options at your table.

Service industries have done a great job of making it easy to find a solution. It’s something that goes hand in hand with speeding up service and making it more convenient. Wait a second – that’s the same thing automotive dealership customers have been saying they want too!

It’s Not About Selling Online

It’s not a matter of making new or used cars available for purchase online. Most dealerships aren’t anywhere near that point in their business acumen. The overwhelming majority of customers aren’t ready for a fully online purchasing experience anyway. So, you’re not about to set up your Amazon store for new and used cars.

There’s still a mobile solution you’re able to provide aside from an online store. For most dealers, you’re about to discover an area that can be improved exponentially.

The Mobile Experience

I think we can all agree on the popularity of smartphone use. Nearly every shopper through the door, for sales, service, parts, or otherwise, has a smartphone in their hand, purse, or pocket. That’s a tool they use just like you do, finding the simplest and fastest solution for their concerns. Unless there’s a rock-solid personal relationship established, that customer is going to search for the fastest way to get what they need.

Google makes it easy. Looking for an oil change? Type ‘oil change near me’. Searching for new tires? ‘Tire sales near me’. A GMC dealer for the new Terrain? Search ‘GMC dealer near me’.

Tack ‘near me’ onto anything you want to find. It’s the way people find what they need in close proximity to their current location.

That’s the Massive Opportunity You Have

Geo-targeted searches are big business at the moment, especially on mobile. But dealerships aren’t exactly the best performers in these searches. Check it out for yourself:

• Search ‘oil change near me’ on your smartphone and look at the results. You might be sitting in your office at the dealership and your store may not even show up on the first page.
• Search ‘tire store near me’. The same thing is likely.
• Take a look at the results for ‘car dealership near me’. Is your dealership on the first page of results?

It’s most likely going to be those pesky independents and chains again. Midas, PepBoys, and those other mom-and-pop shops know the importance of being searchable. They capitalize on the convenience factor. They currently own smartphone search results.

What they don’t have is the facility that you do. They can’t offer the same high-level products and services and don’t have the technology that your shop does. You have an advantage over the aftermarket, but you need to show up on search results better than they do.

It’s a Content Thing

Your online experience is driven by your web content, and your website needs to be optimized for a mobile experience. There are keywords that you need to be using on your website to get noticed in search results.

Obviously, there are a couple that you’ve already heard about here. Target first the loss-leader customers with this content. Then, target the people who search for problems like ‘Ford F150 Check Engine light’ or ‘Honda Civic engine noise’.

Here’s the reasoning behind it: if a customer searches an immediate problem on their mobile device, you want to be the first solution they find.

Writing new, evergreen online content is key to continually improving in search results. There’s never too many content pages on your website, and each will factor into your mobile searches too. Strive to add at least one new geo-targeted keyword to your website every week in some way.