Your Quick Guide to SEO for Auto Repair Shops

Have you been running an independent auto shop for a long time? If so, you might be tempted to stick with traditional marketing methods for your business, even though that’s not the wisest approach. Nowadays, the most effective auto shop marketing happens online, and almost half of all companies have found that organic search is their single most effective digital marketing channel. 

With that in mind, you should take search engine optimization (SEO) seriously. Put simply, SEO involves making changes to your auto repair website to improve its organic ranking on search engines like Google. By boosting your ranking, you’ll get more clicks from people in your service area—and more traffic at your auto shop.

If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, you might assume it just involves adding the right keywords to your web copy. While keywords are a significant part of SEO, you’ll need to focus on many other aspects of website design to truly excel in this field. Read on for a brief overview of the fundamental elements powering SEO for auto repair shops.

Quality Websites

Any successful SEO strategy begins with thoughtful web design—and in the 21st century, a good website is a mobile-friendly website. By late 2022, nearly 60% of all web traffic came from smartphones and other mobile devices. 

Since poor mobile optimization can impact your SEO ranking, be sure to:

• Create a unique mobile layout. No matter how good your desktop website looks on a computer screen, it won’t be easy to read or navigate on a phone. Be sure to offer both mobile and desktop layouts of your site.
• Provide a fast, responsive website. The mobile internet is all about convenience—but even on desktop computers, no one enjoys dealing with slow, clunky websites. Make sure your mobile and desktop sites load as quickly as possible to keep your visitors happy.
• Build pages that load correctly everywhere. Do some of your pages load as they should on computers, but cause problems when accessed through your mobile site? If so, correct this right away.
• Avoid blocking Javascript and images. Google’s guidelines don’t allow web designers to block these elements from public view, so double-check to ensure that you aren’t violating this rule.
• Use video formats that consider mobile users’ needs. Flash Player is no longer in use on today’s internet, but it’s always best to prioritize mobile-friendly video formats such as HTML5.

Accurate and Relevant Content

One of the core tenants of SEO is providing accurate, valuable information to website visitors. For potential customers visiting your auto repair website, that can include any information that can help them learn about your services and book an appointment.

• Services. On your website, be sure to include information about the types of services you provide, what vehicle makes and models you service, and other relevant information about your offerings. 
• Contact Information. In order to become actual customers, website visitors need all of your basic contact information so they can reach out to ask questions or schedule an appointment. This can include a phone number, email address, and directions to your shop. 
• Online Booking. Customers love the convenience of booking appointments online. Although it won’t strictly help your website’s SEO, it will improve the customer experience and help you get more sales.
• About Us. Introducing your team and your business’s values is a powerful way to break the ice and add personality to your shop. Customers like to feel like they’re trusting their car with real people rather than a cold, unknown entity. 
• Educational Content. Although it’s an extra step, overachieving auto repair shops can start up a blog. How-to and DIY guides and videos can provide your website with a powerful SEO boost while also winning the loyalty and trust of potential customers.

Outside of your own website, be sure that everything is set up and accurate on Google My Business. Your Google Business Profile displays information, contact details, and reviews to people who use a standard Google search or Google Maps to find out more about your repair shop. You can also add photos, answer customer questions, and gain valuable insights about your audience and local search performance.

Although these local searches may never officially land on your website, they still help your repair shop details appear in local search results and drive business to your bays.

A Solid Keyword Strategy

Keywords are one of the most well-known SEO elements, and for good reason—these words and phrases are responsible for helping search engine users find your business. A dedicated keyword research tool can make it easier to find high-ranking keywords that are relevant to your website.

In addition to finding the right keywords, ensure your URLs and meta descriptions will play nice with Google’s web crawlers. These elements should be as concise as possible without omitting your target keywords. Ideally, your meta descriptions will be about 150 characters long.

A Way to See Your SEO In Action

Once you’ve completed the steps described above, it’s time to check whether or not your SEO efforts are paying off. The good news is that this isn’t a complicated process—due to the nature of SEO, roughly gauging the success of your optimization efforts is as simple as running a quick Google search.

By searching for your target keywords every so often, you’ll have an opportunity to see where you rank against local competitors. If there’s still room for improvement, keep following the advice included in this article. You’ll be at the top of the heap in no time!

Choose the Right Partner for Your SEO Needs

When you take web design and SEO for auto repair shops seriously, your garage will be able to compete with other local shops in an entirely new way. But if you’re an independent business owner, any type of marketing can be challenging to take care of on your own. Instead of building your shop’s SEO strategy by yourself, choose AutoVitals as your online marketing partner! 

When you team up with AutoVitals for digital marketing services, you’ll get a custom-built website that’s fully optimized for mobile and Google Lighthouse, along with instant feedback on how your site is performing through our WebVitals dashboard. Plus, you’ll be able to accept appointments online, making life easier for your valued customers. Take the first step towards building a partnership with AutoVitals by setting up a demo today!