SEO for car buying stages

We all know that 90% of our car buyers are starting their research online. We also know that when they access the web they probably go straight to a search engine to get the information they want. Perfecting the dealership SEO process is not a new idea, in fact most of you are probably working on it, but have you optimized your search terms for the stages of the buying journey?

Buying a car is an extensive process for most people. How they search for information will shift as they progress through their decision-making process. How they start off and how they finish will be driven by different search phrases based on how much and what they've learned during each previous stage. And you want to be the dealership found in every single step - right?

Let's outline some of your buyer's probable considerations for buying a car. Put yourself in their shoes and see if you can outline the questions they ask themselves as they progress and then back your way into search terms that answer each of them. This list should get you started:

What kind of car/truck/SUV do I want?
Which features are most important to me?
Now that I've decided what kind, what are my choices?
Based on the choices I find acceptable, which ones can I afford?
Based on the ones I can afford, how do they compare?
What colors can I choose from?
Whats the trade off in features between them?
Which feature is my "ultimate" priority that I'm unwilling to give up?
Could I configure a car with the features most important to me?
Which one of my choices is rated the best by the experts?
What do other buyers say about my choices?
What will my friends say?
How will I convince my spouse this choice is our choice?
I wonder what I can get for my trade-in?
How am I going to finance the purchase?
What would my monthly payment be?
Is my credit going to pass muster?
Which dealerships do I have to choose from?
How far am I willing to go to get the car I want?
Who's going to give me a fair price quote?
What's the easiest way for me to find out?

There may be other steps within this list that are specific to your buyers and some which aren't relevant considerations to them, but  you get the idea.

Once you have your list, under each question make a list of potential keywords. If you've already got a list of keywords you're using, fill them in under the appropriate questions.

Armed with your keyword list, use a tool to help you evaluate your keyword popularity and see other possibilities that might be better. Google has a good free keyword tool. The other thing you'll want to do is actually search on these keywords and study the search results. Look at some of the top results and their meta descriptions to see how yours could be worded to compete.

You should also look at your website analytics and evaluate which keywords and phrases people are actually using to reach your website. Compare those results to the keywords on your new list. Do you need to make some adjustments?

Now that you've scrubbed and evaluated your list, you should have a solid list of keywords and phrases for each step of the buying process. Look at your website pages and determine which existing pages can be further optimized to address specific search stages and pinpoint places where adding content for keywords can benefit your website visitors and pull more valid traffic.

Once you've optimized your keywords for buying stages the end result should be a combination of relevant terms that emphasize your dealership, your location, your inventory and the buying considerations important to your leads during each step of their process.

It can't hurt being found at their fingertips each time they progress to the next step in their decision process for buying a new car. In fact, the more you show up, the more they'll feel like they know you.