When using Google to find a car or truck for sale, Do you use your area code or zip code in the search box? Do you think searching a zip code for used cars for sale will help or hurt your search results? Do car dealers selling automobiles online use zip codes or area codes to market their vehicle inventory? All of these questions (and many more) go thru my mind everyday as I work on Sutherland Chevrolets website. The owners and management at Sutherland Chevy want all of their cars, trucks and suv’s to be found online regardless of how consumers search the web, but the truth is many searches will not have our inventory unless we add in things like a 40356 zip code, 859 area code or cars for sale in Nicholasville Ky in the listing.
Writing good listings for our new and used cars, trucks and suv’s for sale is critical for helping consumers find our inventory. Trying to think of all the ways a car buyer would search for a car is challenging. Sometimes the price or monthly payment is the most important item and other times the features of the vehicle is most important. (Like 4wd, tow package or color) As the marketing manager, it is my job to understand the features of our products and understand the buying criteria of the consumer. Car buyers in Nicholasville Kentucky may have very different needs than a truck buyer in Lexington or Louisville.
Searching for cars for sale online by googling “cars for sale in 40356” may show you inventory of vehicles on new and used car lots in 40356, but would you see cars for sale by private owners? How about cars for sale at an auction in 40356? It is a very difficult task for Google to serve up. Additionally, how many auto dealer and search partners (Like Cars.com & Autotrader) are trying to get their ads to show up in that same search?
I don’t usually add the area code to our listings directly. For instance, Nicholasville Ky is area code 859 and we don’t add 859 to the text on page but we will include it in meta keywords and meta descriptions to try and connect the listing to a consumer wanting to see vehicles for sale in area code 859.
I would love to hear your opinion and feedback regarding how you search for a new or used car online. Feel free to send me a message at jim.kincer@sutherlandchevy.com or connect with me on Sutherland’s Facebook page.
Connect with us
