When it comes to finding the best SEO keywords for car dealerships, there are some that work extremely well for an automotive dealer. Your dealership serves a local community and your marketing team can take advantage of broad global keywords and also local keywords in your market. There’s no question that traffic from search engine marketing is important for any business, including your organization.

There are some keywords worth your investment, but there are also some not worth the effort. This article will go over the advantages of ranking in the search engines, as well as specific keywords that are best for your auto business.

Picking the Right SEO Keywords for Car Dealerships

The advantages of using search engines in your marketing strategy are essential. We all know consumers start their purchasing journey online; specifically on search engines like Google. The idea here is that your marketing can position your site to attract more potential customers who are in the market for buying a new/used car. That’s where you want to be!

However, picking the right keywords from the beginning of your strategy is the key to your early success. When we pick keywords for our clients, we focus primarily on a combination of things: search volume per month, search intent, competition, and more importantly, search trends. It’s important that you understand the search intent of the person performing the search; are they simply looking for educational information or are they in the market to shop for their next vehicle? This will help you strategize and accomplish results like this:

SEO for car dealerships works well if you want to bring more eyeballs to your vehicle pages. Most future customers use their mobile devices to find a dealership they can check out online, before ever stepping foot into your lot. Although SEO takes time, it can be your best long-term strategy for sales growth.

Depending on your market, there are keywords that people specifically search for when thinking about buying, other keywords will be focused on those who are ready to buy, and other set of keywords can help drive sales to your service department.

SEO is important because it increases the likelihood that people will find your dealership online.

Best Keywords for Car Dealerships

Every SEO campaign starts by picking the right keywords and being very strategic with your choices. Picking the wrong keywords can waste thousands of dollars, not to mention months of work. By being very cautious and knowing exactly what the goals of your SEO are, it’ll help you pick the correct ones from the beginning.

Let’s do a quick example.

For the last several years, “near me” keywords have shown exponential growth. This also applies for dealership keywords.

Remember that people are searching for local businesses, such as car dealers, to find what they’re looking for. When people need a car, they usually search for “car dealers near me” or “car dealership near me.” People don’t like wasting time, especially when that includes driving.

The graph below shows the growth over the last 5 years, for keywords like “car dealers near me”. Although there’s a lot more SEO tactics to rank for “near me”, the search demand is there.

Global Keywords for Car Dealerships:

The following keywords show some of the best keywords for a dealership showing the monthly search volume at a global scale.

Keywords	Avg. Search Volume
car dealership	92k per month
used car dealerships near me	65k per month
car dealerships near me	160k per month
new car dealerships near me	4.6k per month
local car dealerships	2.9k per month

Local City Keywords for Dealerships

Your dealership doesn’t need to rank “globally”, given that your primary focus is local in your market. So why not go after city keywords?

Keywords	Avg. Search Volume	Difficulty
car dealerships in Houston	8,100 per month	Difficult
car dealerships in Denver	3,600 per month	Medium
car dealerships in OKC	5,400 per month	Difficult
car dealerships in Phoenix	1,300 per month	Difficult
car dealerships in Corpus Christi	2,400 per month	Medium
car dealerships in San Antonio	5,400 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Houston	8,100 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Corpus Christy	350 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Detroit	1,000 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Chicago	2,900 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Dallas	3,600 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Jacksonville FL	3,500 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Nashville TN	1,600 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Virginia Beach	1,500 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Louisville MS	2,400 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Indianapolis	4,400 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Fort worth	2,400 per month	Medium
car dealerships in Memphis	1,600 per month	Medium

Branded SEO Keywords for Dealers

Additionally, think of the branding opportunities available for you. While some automotive dealerships are traditionally practical without a thoughtful name, this isn’t the case for all of them. A targeted keyword such as “brand + car dealership near me” will help boost your branding awareness in the search engines, which is especially helpful if a handful of people know about it.

Keywords	Avg. Search Volume	Difficulty
Ford dealership	673,000 per month	Difficult
Ford dealership near me	873,000 per month	Medium
Ford Dealership San Antonio	6,600 per month	Medium
Ford Dealership Austin	5,400 per month	Medium
Ford Dealership Houston	14,000 per month	Medium
Ford Dealership Las Vegas	5,400 per month	Medium

This applies to every manufacturer’s brand, not only Ford. Near Me Keywords for Car Dealerships

Keywords	Avg. Search Volume	Difficulty
Chevy dealership near me	450,000 per month	Medium
Honda dealership near me	460,000 per month	Medium
Nissan dealership near me	301,000 per month	Medium
Kia dealership near me	300,000 per month	Medium
Hyundai dealership near me	246,000 per month	Medium
Toyota dealership near me	550,000 per month	Medium
Jeep dealership near me	368,000 per month	Medium
Dodge dealership near me	246,000 per month	Medium

Used Car Dealer Keywords

Consider the type of vehicles you sell at your dealership. For instance, you may target the keywords “new cars dealers” or “used cars dealers,” depending on if you sell new or used cars. This helps Google and your community understand what you sell and what market or markets you cater to. A great general keyword is just “dealer cars search.”Used Car Keywords for Dealerships

Keywords	Avg. Search Volume	Difficulty
Used cars	1.2M per month	Difficult
Used cars near me	550,000 per month	Medium
Used cars near me dealership	368,000 per month	Medium
Used cars for sale near me	246,000 per month	Medium
Used cars for sale	843,000 per month	Medium

Branded + Used Cars Keywords

We’ve covered branded searches as well as used car keywords already… But as SEOs, we have to get creative. It’s time to mix it up and look at branded + used cars keywords.

Keywords	Avg. Search Volume	Difficulty
used Ford cars	22,200 per month	Difficult
used Ford cars for sale	1,900 per month	Difficult
used Ford cars near me	1,300 per month	Difficult
used Chevy cars	2,400 per month	Difficult
used Chevy cars for sale	4,400 per month	Difficult
used Chevy cars for sale near me	70 per month	Difficult
used Honda cars	40,500 per month	Difficult
used Honda cars for sale	4,400 per month	Difficult
used Honda cars for sale near me	880 per month	Difficult
used Nissan cars	14,800 per month	Difficult
used Nissan cars for sale	2,900 per month	Difficult
used Nissan cars for sale near me	480 per month	Difficult
used Kia cars	18,500 per month	Medium
used Kia cars for sale	2,400 per month	Medium
used Kia cars for sale near me	320 per month	Medium
used Nissan cars	5,400 per month	Medium
used Nissan cars for sale	2,900 per month	Medium
used Nissan cars for sale near me	480 per month	Medium
used Hyundai cars	18,000 per month	Medium
used Hyundai cars for sale	1,900 per month	Medium
used Hyundai cars for sale near me	210 per month	Medium
used Toyota cars	40,500 per month	Medium
used Toyota cars for sale	18,100 per month	Medium
used Toyota cars for sale near me	590 per month	Medium
used Jeep cars	2,400 per month	Medium
used Jeep for sale	33,100 per month	Medium
used Jeep for sale near me	2,400 per month	Medium
used Dodge cars	1,900 per month	Medium
used Dodge cars for sale	390 per month	Medium
used Dodge cars for sale near me	30 per month	Medium

Bad Credit Used Cars Keywords for Car Dealers

Also, consider the customers and community that you serve. While many people at least have either a good or decent credit score, not everyone is the same way. In a similar way that you should individually target your focus audience, you should do the same for the keywords for car dealers. For example, you can focus on the keyword “car dealers bad credit” for people who have bad credit.

Keywords	Avg. Search Volume	Difficulty
bad credit used cars	3,600 per month	Medium
bad credit jeep wrangler	70 per month	Medium
bad credit cars near me	1,600 per month	Medium
bad credit used cars near me	1,900 per month	Medium
bad credit car dealerships near me	12,100 per month	Medium
bad credit car lots	3,600 per month	Medium

Keep in mind that there are many keywords for car dealers that you can use for the local business that will work well for you. While many of these don’t have as much search volume as the ones listed above, they are much easier for you to target. In that way, you can get a bunch of them for a good amount of traffic as long as you research them through various tools.