What items stand out the most to you in search results? Often pictures and especially video will initially draw your attention more than plain text results. Videos posted to sites like YouTube show up especially well in search listings. Auto dealerships need to take advantage of this free exposure by creating videos of walkarounds, customer testimonials, test drives, dealership tours, events, etc., to post online and tag to rank right at the top of search results.

What can you do to make sure your videos rank your dealership’s name in search results and actually get views?

• Use descriptive titles with model names and your dealership location to make sure you rank for people searching for all the specific models you sell. A name like “Stock # 13748A Just Arrived” is not going to rank very high in results or get many views. A video name like “Test Drive the 2011 VW Jetta-Greenville SC” will show up in many more searches and in turn get many more views.
• Tag your videos with keywords to cover model names, locations you target, etc. These  keywords help YouTube and Google know what searches and categories to rank videos for.
• Post to multiple video network websites in addition to YouTube; although YouTube by far ranks the best, other sites like MetaCafe, DailyMotion, and Vimeo also show up well in search results. For our clients, we regularly see videos from multiple channels showing up to fill the top of the search results.
• Customize and monitor your YouTube channel to build your brand identity and exposure. Read our previous blog post on YouTube Marketing Tips for Auto Dealers for more info on this.

For a more in-depth lesson on ranking your car dealership in search with videos, sign up for a free online workshop this Thursday, March 24, at 1:57 PM.