SEO and PPC for automotive businesses
Local intent, phone-heavy inquiries, and national franchise chains sitting above you in the results. Two of our engagements are in this sector.
In automotive, most leads arrive as phone calls
Someone whose car will not start does not fill in a form and wait. They tap the number on whatever Google shows them first, which makes the Business Profile and the map pack the real battleground — often more so than the website.
That changes how the work has to be measured. Click-based conversion tracking breaks every time a site is redesigned or a thank-you page moves, and in this sector sites change often. Calls counted by Google itself keep reporting honest through all of it.
The competition is the third factor. National chains have franchise budgets and thousands of reviews. Independent operators beat them on specificity: the city, the service, the exact phrasing people use when something has gone wrong.
- +478%Calls from the Business Profile for a mobile repair service, year over year, in a metro of more than four million people
- 2×Calls doubled in four months for a car-buying service — 204 calls across six months, counted by Google
- ~85%Share of that mobile operator’s organic traffic now carried by its city pages
- $31Cost per ad lead for the same operator, at an 11% conversion rate
How we approach local search · Figures from each client’s Google Business Profile, Search Console and Analytics. Full write-ups on the case studies page.
What we do for automotive clients
The same four things, in roughly this order, in both engagements.
The Business Profile run like a storefront
Complete categories and services, current photos, fast responses, steady activity. It is unglamorous and it is the single highest-return surface in this sector, because it is where the calls come from.
One page per city, written to be the answer
Not a template with the city name swapped in. Each page earns its ranking on its own, which is why they now carry the large majority of one client’s organic traffic.
Measurement that survives a redesign
Anchoring the scoreboard on calls Google counts itself, so the numbers stay trustworthy while the site keeps changing. One of our clients changed pages repeatedly mid-engagement; the reporting held.
Paid filling the gaps, not duplicating them
Ads are pointed at the cities and services where organic has not arrived yet, with tight local targeting and query filtering. The two channels stop bidding for the same click.
Automotive search, answered plainly
We have no storefront. Can we still rank in the map pack?
Yes. One of our automotive clients is a mobile operator with no premises at all, and its map grid in the home area reads close to solid number one. Service-area businesses are handled differently in the Business Profile, and getting that setup right matters more than most people realize.
Can we really outrank the national chains?
On their brand terms, no, and there is no point trying. On the searches that produce work — the service plus the city, the problem plus the neighborhood — yes. That is where both of our automotive clients compete and win.
How do you count a lead when most of ours are phone calls?
Calls from the Business Profile are counted by Google and reported directly, which makes them the most reliable number available. Website calls and form fills are tracked separately. Both go in the report; neither is presented as the whole picture.
Do you handle multiple locations?
Yes. The city-page approach was built for exactly that, and the same structure has been applied to a sister brand in a different metro.
Deeper pages for the shops we serve
Repair and collision work reach drivers at completely different moments, and neither is reached by advertising the word mechanic.
Find out where you rank, city by city
A free written review of your Business Profile, your rankings and your ad account, back within two business days — and yours to keep either way.
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