Need Help with Local SEO for a Car Buying Business

[seoconalberto]

Hello,

I need some assistance. I have a client who buys cars in a town of 100,000 inhabitants. He asked me how I can help him increase his car purchases in his town. Currently, he doesn't have anything, so we need to create a (simple) website and position it locally in his town.

Based on the keyword research, I obtained the following results:

• "buy your car": 210 searches
• "sell my car": 10 searches
• "we buy your car": 10 searches
• "buy your car + city": 0 searches

The strategy to achieve success as quickly as possible would be:

1. Purchase the EMD (Exact Match Domain) comprotucocheciudad.es (because it's available).
2. Design and develop the website.

Now, here are my doubts:How should I configure the website to rank for the keyword "buy your car," but only in that town? The sector is very competitive in my country. How can I indicate to Google that, whenever someone within the town searches for "buy your car," my site should come up first?

In terms of on-page SEO, what should I do? I know I need to open a Google My Business listing.

What would be the best strategy?

Thanks.

 

[ElizabethRule]

Optimize for "near me" terms - that way when people search for "sell my car near me" or similar you can show up.

Does Optimizing Content for "Near Me" Work for Local SEO? Sterling Sky Blog

Every advantage is helpful - here Joy explores the advantages of optimizing for "near me" or "nearby" phrases to assist with your ranking efforts.

www.sterlingsky.ca

Also, on the homepage, make sure to mention the name of the largest city in the area you're targeting. For example, "sell my car in [location]". That will help Google understand where your service area is.

If the business has a physical location, add that address onto the website in the footer.

 

[SergeyRusak]

I've done something similar for Boston area, but in 2009 - 2010.

• PPC will be the fastest option for you. Target exact matches because broad and phrase match will bring a lot of unrelated terms.
• SEO will take a few month but it's not that hard if you target local cities and towns, except large metropolitan areas with over 1 Million people.
  • Have a page for each location, write genuine content with the most important keywords in phrases in Meta Title, Meta Description, and on the page itself. Also, make sure you have keywords included in titles (H1 and H2).
    1. Look at competitors who rank well for similar keywords and see what they do on their pages, write similar and even better content and copy their strategy.
  • If it well established site, Google will find and rank your content appropriately. But if your website is new with no backlinks, it will take a few month to build links and get ranked.
• Set up Google Business Profiles to show up on Google Maps, but for your business you won't get much traffic from there, maybe a few clicks per week or even month.

 

[seoconalberto]

Thank you for your responses.

​

. Based on your advice, I understand that I should use the title and meta description "buy your car" without mentioning the city. To ensure that when users in my town (located in the town using their mobile phones) search for "buy your car" (without specifying the city), my site appears, I need to include the name of the town in the content, especially in the footer. Additionally, I should add a rich snippet with schema.org "Organization" indicating the location within the town.

I have a couple of additional questions. Is there a minimum number of words I should include on the landing page to make the content effective for SEO? Regarding link building, is it better to get links from local newspapers to improve positioning, or do you recommend another strategy?

Thanks again for your help ....

 

[ElizabethRule]

I understand that I should use the title and meta description "buy your car" without mentioning the city.

I would 100% add your most important city to the meta title + description of the homepage and service pages.

Is there a minimum number of words I should include on the landing page to make the content effective for SEO?

No minimum number, just make sure its comprehensive and informative to the services you offer and the unique selling points of your business,

Regarding link building, is it better to get links from local newspapers to improve positioning, or do you recommend another strategy?

Local links like that are gold, so yes to any type of genuine local link. BrightLocal has a free Local Link building master class you should check out How to Master Local Link Building