Keyword Research for Automotive SEO & PPC

In Automotive SEO choosing the right keywords to optimize your website is crucial. Typically, there are 2 steps involved. The 1^st step is to generate a candidate list of phrases that are to be optimized.  The 2^nd step is to obtain traffic volumes and estimated conversion ratios phrases identified in Step 1 and generate a “final list” of phrases to be optimized.

Concerning Step 1, for auto dealers, we have found 5 classes of phrases that, when optimized, consistently results in a highly converting website: Branded phrases, Broad phrases, Dealer phrases, Used Car phrases, and Long Tail phrases. These phrases are typically garnered from weblogs, client business objectives, experience, intuition, etc. To be clear:

• Branded phrases – consist of terms that have your dealerships name in them (e.g., Dewey Ford of Ankeny).  Most sites typically rank high for their brand so limited SEO or PPC efforts should be placed on them.
• Broad phrases – consists of terms that have the Make the Dealer sells (e.g., Ford) and the location. Some examples of phrases are: Ford Iowa, Buy Ford Des Moines, New Ford Iowa, Ford Des Moines, Ford Parts Des Moines, Ford Service Ankeny, etc.
• Dealer phrases – are similar to broad phrases, but have the term (or some variant of) “Dealer” in them (e.g., Ford Dealer Iowa, Ford Dealers Des Moines, Ford Parts Dealership Des Moines, Ford Service Dealerships Ankeny, etc.). It should be noted that these phrases important to rank high for since they tend to be highly converting.
• Used Car phrases – are prefaced by the term “used” or “pre-owned” and are followed by the Make and/or Model and a location (e.g., Used Cars Iowa, Used Trucks Des Moines, Pre-Owned F-150 Iowa, etc.).
• Long Tail phrases – tend to be very specific searches and typically have many terms in them. It’s important for a website to rank well for them since they tend to be highly converting. Some examples include:  2010 Ford F-150 Iowa, 2007 Ford Focus Brake Repair Shop near Des Moines IA, etc.

Finally, when this candidate list is complete, the next step is to estimate search volumes and pick phrases that generate the most traffic (Broad, Used Car) and the most conversions (Dealer, Long Tail) for inclusion in the “final list”. This will ensure your site will have the most traffic and conversions possible.

For PPC, the search phrases to bid on are similar to those identified by SEO. Usually, you’ll want to spend a higher proportion of your budget on known converting phrases that you don’t rank well on organically (e.g., Dealer phrases, Long Tail phrases). This is part of a strategy that we have employed successfully on the PPC engines for many years – I.e., leveraging the Synergy between SEO & PPC. In other words, until SEO efforts are able to get your site ranked high for key business phrases, PPC phrases you don’t rank high organically until this is realized. When your key business phrases are sufficiently ranked high in the search engines, then limit (or eliminate) PPC for those phrases since this saves money (i.e., why pay $3.00 for a “click” in PPC when you can it for free organically!). These additional funds can then be used to bid on other phrases that bring in additional traffic and conversions.

It’s also important to also bid on broader phrases (Ford Iowa) even though they don’t convert as well. This is done for branding purposes since you want to attract potential customers at the top of the search funnel. Lastly, a portion of your PPC budget should be spent on Branded phrases (e.g., Dewey Ford). This helps your PPC campaigns since a major factor in the cost of your campaign is the “quality score” of the campaign given to it by the search engines. I.e., the more people that click on ads in your campaign, then the search engines perceive this to be a “quality” (and relevant) campaign. The search engines reward you by giving you a lower “cost-per-click” (CPC) and this saves money.