If you work with an automotive SEO company today, you’re likely receiving assistance with optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) listings. Ideally, these optimizations are yielding your dealership with success beyond just increasing GMB impressions for direct searches. Your GMB should ideally be the destination for discovery and branded searches happening in your top geos, in addition to those direct queries featuring your dealerships name.
But, a knowledge gap we’ve noticed with dealers today is understanding the profound impact and statistical relevance GMB listings have in this digital age. That’s why we’re providing you with 7 of the most important statistics you should remember when you’re sitting there thinking, “what is the deal with all this GMB talk!”
If you’re interested in reading the full, in-depth report, Brightlocal’s Google My Business Insight Study is the source for these insights. 45,000 GMB profiles were analyzed to produce this piece of research.
1. Car dealerships receive the highest number of calls and website visits via GMB than any other industry
When a user is making a direct search for your dealership, you should absolutely be owning the search results page with organic search results and your GMB listing. This reinforces the importance of having all your listings claimed and regularly maintained.
If a user is making a service specific search featuring your dealership’s name, your service center listing should appear; the same applies for your parts department. Too often, sales, service, and parts listings are not separated meaning you are losing out on providing users the most seamless user experience possible. Don’t jeopardize a single website visit or call due to bad GMB practices.
2. Users that clicked on listings in the Google local pack were most likely to do so because of review ratings, the number of reviews, and the position in results
Google is the number one review platform online today. The reviews posted on your GMB listing are not only prominent, but proven to be a factor in your click-through rate and call to action success.
Now, position of results is purely based on optimizations to the GMB listing as they relate to the search query, so cadence and care is key with all GMB listings to maintain proper relevance.
3. The average dealership has 106 reviews on their GMB listing
The number of reviews on a GMB listing could largely depend on the area in which you operate, but as noted in the above stat, reviews really matter to the propensity at which someone visits the website. If you’re operating below the industry average, consider ways you can encourage and incentivize shoppers to leave you a positive review. If a negative review is left, be sure to respond!
4. Calls to businesses via GMB grew 61% during the Covid-19 pandemic
Face-to-face interactions paused for a number of months in 2020 and the convenience factor of that shift only perpetuated more phone calls, chat leads and form submissions for many dealerships. Phone calls via GMB have large aggregate gains in 2020 with no signs of things slowing down in 2021, even with restriction changes.
Users are calling typically to inquire about hours of business operations, safety procedures, and online offerings. Google My Business is often the first point of contact, so it’s vitally important to make sure business information matches with what information is being relayed over the phone.
5. Businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for driving directions to their location, and 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t have photos.
People like to know what to expect when about to visit a business, especially when they are going to spend significant time there (like during the car buying process). Reunion has always suggested that dealerships have up-to-date photos of their inventory, the showroom, waiting areas, any unique dealership amenities, outside signage, and the vehicle lot.
6. 84% of searches are discovery, while 16% are direct
Impressions via discovery search is where GMB can make your website a true powerhouse. Optimizing your GMB for all applicable categories is one of the easiest ways to start seeing your discovery searches increase.
7. Google made a towering 54 updates to Google My Business in 2020
That’s a lot of changes to keep track of. Reunion Marketing’s automotive SEO strategies are always inline with recommended best practices to help dealers rank as high as possible in all search types. We even became a MOZ recommended company because of our ability to perform such solid SEO success for partners.
To throw in a few bonus statistics, Reunion Marketing partners typically grow their GMB views by +37%. Service listings have typically seen an increase of +63% after maneuvered through the creation or claiming process and optimizations begin. If you’re looking to get ahead in GMB, schedule a demo to hear more about our local SEO strategies.