The service department is its own unique entity with revenue streams, repeat customers, and has the potential for generating more positive exposure for your dealership. Traditionally, dealers’ websites don’t show up on page one search listings under numerous service keyword phrases, as they mostly have been focused on new and used car sales. In today’s economy, where credit is scarce and consumers are keeping their vehicles longer, the service department can increase their online presence when potential customers are searching for these types of services by applying SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques to their online digital marketing strategy.

The service department can increase the potential exposure to potential in-market local consumers by having a more dominant page one search listing presence. Here are some statistics to help you understand why and how search engines can increase your service department’s exposure:

·         90 percent of consumers use search engines.

·         Roughly 70 percent of consumers use Google.

·         95 percent of consumers don’t go past page one search results.

·         30 percent of Google searches are done on Youtube.

·         Videos listings on page one Google search results are clicked on 41 percent more than black and white text links.

These statistics formulate in a simple equation: dominate page one search results for your dealership in your market to increase your customer base, promote controlled positive messages about the products and services you sell, and reduce your competitions exposure to the local consumer base. One dealership group in Wisconsin, the Russ Darrow Automotive Group, is employing the use of Video SEO to gain a more dominant page one search presence for their 14 stores when local consumers are searching for automotive services. Colleen Kellen, director of marketing for the company says that, “The Milwaukee area has over 150,000 local Google searches related to service each month based on Google’s Adwords stats. Using videos each month targeting these service related keywords gets each store more page one search exposure than our websites can do alone. Using video SEO is just one part of an overall digital marketing strategy that our company uses to expand our sales and service presence in the Wisconsin marketplace.” Below is a search result for “Honda Mechanic Milwaukee” which shows Russ Darrow’s Honda Milwaukee dealership having five video listings on the page one Google search result for this search phrase.

The bottom line is adopting video will help expand your service department’s online presence today!

AJ LeBlanc, is the cofounder of Car-mercial.com and Carbuyersengine.com. For more information, visit www.car-mercial.com and www.carbuyersengine.com.

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