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These free automotive directories are a great place to begin improving your dealership website’s SEO and backlink profile.
The days of customers walking into your dealership and beginning the car-buying process are over. 62 percent of drivers in the market for a new vehicle begin shopping online first, long before they ever set foot in a dealership or talk to someone on a sales team. If you want these customers to contact you when they are ready to schedule a test drive, you need to make sure not only that your website is top notch — but that they can actually find it in the first place.
How do you make sure customers can find your website? It’s a process called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are many different components to a good SEO strategy, and the “rules” of SEO change all the time (usually according to decisions or announcements that Google makes). However, auto dealerships can begin with small steps to help increase their digital footprint and build web traffic. One way some dealers do this is by submitting their website links to online automotive directories.
The benefits of submitting your website to online automotive directories
One thing Google looks at when deciding how to rank your dealership website is your backlink profile, a.k.a. how many other websites are linking back to you. When other websites link to your website, it is telling Google, “Hey, people trust this website and they think it’s useful. You may want to push it up higher in the search rankings.”
A solid backlink profile takes time and effort to build because you want links from a wide range of different websites. In an ideal world, you are reaching out to a variety of sites to see if they will include a link to your website (.edu and .gov websites carry an extra amount of credibility with Google, so if you have any connections, use them). Getting these high-quality links, however, can take a while. One way you can begin creating your robust backlink profile is by submitting your website to automotive directories.
In the early days of the Internet, directories were a big deal. In fact, they pre-dated the search engine, and directories were how people found what they were looking for online. Today, they are still a good way to start getting links to your website and building a name for yourself online.
Where should you submit your website? Try these top automotive directories
If you are going to begin submitting your dealership website to directories, it makes sense to start with automotive directories, or directories that have an automotive category. It narrows things down in Google and shows that you are an expert in your unique field.
The automotive directories listed below are perfect places to get started — they are all free and easy to use. Some of these automotive directories also have paid options, and there are other directories out there that only have paid options, but if you are just starting out with backlinks, you may want to stick with the free options to begin with.
- DirectoryCar.com
- AutoGuide.net
- AutoElf.com
- Directory Critic: Auto Directory List
- DirectoryAuto.com
- Dir Jet – Automobile Directories
- Dmoz – Auto Directories
- Cars & Autos
- Car and Auto Link Directory
- Motoring Links
- Bahia Car: Automotive Directory
- Automobile Web Directory
6 other websites to add your dealership website link
As you add your website to free automotive directories, make sure your business is listed on some of the bigger websites as well. Your links in the automotive directories will be given more credibility if Google sees your dealership listed on a few major websites, including:
Of course, listing your website in automotive directories is just the beginning of improving your overall SEO strategy. Be sure your website is filled with helpful information, create new content regularly, get active on social media, and encourage your fans and customers to share links to your website. Every little bit helps when it comes to SEO, and pretty soon, you should see your auto dealership’s website moving up in the search engine rankings.
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