Local SEO for Your Car Repair Shop: How to Get More Leads from Local Organic Searches

Auto repair shops need local organic search. It’s not likely that you’ll be looking to attract business from across the country, after all, unless you’re in the business of specialty repairs or custom jobs. For the most part, a car repair shop is going to rely heavily on the local SEO part of its overall optimization strategy. Although there’s not one single path to success, there are some best practices that will help you improve your local organic search results. 

It starts with keyword research and getting your name out there. From there, companies can start networking and hunting down reviews to help bolster their reputation. 

Keyword research for optimization

As with your traditional SEO efforts, you have to do the appropriate keyword research before you can optimize your content for local keywords. Consider using the city or town, as well as neighborhoods, counties, or other recognizable areas nearby to help you promote your car repair business. You can even search specifically for local auto repair and see what kind of results come up. 

If you’ve already got a keyword research tool, that’s great. If not, check out Moz or SEMrush, as they both have some great platforms to help with this process. Once you have the right keywords ready to go, you’ll be able to optimize your content and get listed wherever you want. 

Get listed and check it twice

Speaking of getting listed, that’s your next step. Take the time to check your name, address, and phone number (NAP) and ensure that they’re consistent across the board. Even a comma or period out of place could count against you in reputation points—bots are fickle. Once you’ve got a consistent NAP, start getting listed on various directories related to car repair. You can find local business directories, too, and even professional forums where you can connect with others. 

Quality is more important than quantity here. You should always look for high-quality, reputable places to get listed online, not just any place that will have you. 

Network with other local businesses

There’s little that can stop the power of networking, even in the world of modern technology. As a local repair shop, you’ll want to connect yourself with other local businesses and companies that may have a chance to build a professional relationship with you. If nothing else, it will show your audience that you’re committed to the community in which you live and that you aren’t just some big corporation that’s coming in to clean up and cash in on the car repair market. 

Google Business Profile

You must take the time to claim and complete your Google Business Profile. This used to be called Google My Business, but it still works much the same despite the name change. Auto shop owners will want to fill out this profile completely, allow room for the addition of keywords in headers, tags, and other areas, and make sure that the end result is a cohesive piece that’s reflective of your organization. 

While people tend to focus on other aspects of local SEO and skip over this one simple task, it’s going to make a huge difference in the success of your own local optimization efforts. Google, after all, is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to local search. 

Get reviewed and rated 

This is a great way to build your reputation when your repair shop is new in town or just might not have a lot of online reviews as of yet. Ask people to review your business. Consider seeing how you rate with third-party services like the Better Business Bureau. If you have negative reviews, address them immediately. You can’t erase them, but you can show people that you are doing your best to resolve them. 

If you have positive reviews, highlight them on your website and social media accounts. And speaking of social media, make sure that you get engaged on there and collect that new audience, as well. 

Audit existing content

You’re not reinventing the wheel. If you already have existing content up online, you might just need to adjust it here and there a little. That can be done by performing an SEO audit on your website, social media pages, directory listings, and anywhere else your business can be found online. This will allow you to identify shortcomings and discrepancies, see where you can add keywords or clarity, or even find out how much content you need to add to reach your goals. 

Auditing your existing content is something that a lot of people say that you should do right away, but that’s up to you and your process. As long as an audit is part of it, you’ll be able to make much more informed decisions about SEO and optimization, among other things. 

Auto repair shops are a unique business because they’re necessary to an extent, but they’re also easy to find. This highly competitive industry offers a lot for consumers but makes marketing that much more difficult for actual shop owners. Fortunately, an audit can go a long way in helping organizations see where they stand so they can make the right moves going forward. 

Speaking of forward, are you forwarding your calls while you work on strategy?

You’re used to working on engines, not local SEO campaigns and direct marketing. Fortunately, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s not that difficult and you’re not alone. Our 24/7 virtual receptionists can deliver everything that you need to keep up with that new influx of leads, from around-the-clock answering so that you never miss an opportunity to appointment scheduling, lead intake, and more. 

We can even offer support for outreach campaigns and outbound sales, and we’ll help you craft the ideal strategy to manage all the details. Ready to learn more? Schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai and find out how our virtual receptionists can help your local SEO efforts and more. 

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