In today’s digital-first world, car buyers are no longer beginning their journey at the dealership; instead, they start on Google. Whether they’re searching for new inventory, directions to your lot, or service department hours, their first impression often comes from your Google Business Profile’s (GBP) information and the accuracy it provides. For auto dealerships, an updated and well-managed profile isn’t a luxury — it’s an essential tool for your survival in this ever-changing market.

If you’ve experienced a loss in your customer leads or a dip in online or physical traffic to your dealership, you should first take a look at your GBP. Anything wrong, from an incorrect phone number, to a broken website link, or even if your business’ hours are off, you should correct this immediately. Customers often see these signals first and will trust them without question, even if your website might say something different, and act on this information first.

After you’ve checked that all of your information is accurate, routine profile maintenance and diligent updating can help ensure you avoid losing leads in the future. At Aronson Advertising, we know how important it is to keep your dealership’s online presence relevant to your customers, and we’re here to help ensure your dealership can maximize its digital footprint.

The Benefits of a Routinely Updated GBP

Your GBP acts as the digital storefront of your business, where your customers expect both accuracy and convenience when researching their next major purchase, and it’s why a well-maintained GBP is an essential for your continued sales success. If a potential buyer sees any incorrect information from your business this can create user frustration or lead them astray from your business, resulting in a loss of both sales and customer trust.

Building Trust Through Community Engagement

Google Business Profiles are more than static listings; they’re a living, breathing part of your business, mirroring the life and energy that you’ve invested into it. Features like the Q&A section, customer reviews (with owner responses), and linked social profiles allow your dealership to connect with your community in real time. Responding to customer questions and addressing reviews (both positive and negative) shows potential buyers that you’re an attentive and approachable professional who has a genuine care for customer feedback.

These small steps towards showing your trust and credibility add up, painting a positive picture of a dealership that values its customers experiences long after the sale has been closed and they’ve driven off the lot with their new milestone purchase.

Ensure Consistently Curated Content

A strong GBP benefits from both fresh content and a regularly updated media index with current, curated photos of new inventory and special sales offers. This shows your dealership is more than a place to make a purchase, but that it’s a vibrant and engaging location that values them every step of their journey. Customers want to engage with you and see what they can expect to see before walking through your doors, and current, authentic, and honest content helps them visualize the experience.

Driving Business With Multiple Profiles 

An often overlooked strategy is to create separate Google Business Profiles for each of your business’ departments, one each for Sales, Service, and Parts – along with any other extra specials ones you might have as well. Each department caters to a different customer need, which is why having dedicated profiles for each department allows customers to easily find the information that matters to them.

These sub-profiles, embedded in your Sales profile, allow you to not only show a unique set of individual hours and photos, but also link to separate pages within your website, giving you a broader set of options to help attend to your customer’s greatest needs at that moment. Your dealership’s main profile, it’s Sales profile, showcases your current promotions, inventory, and showroom events. Where your Service profile can provide your customers with service coupons and appointment links. Finally, your Parts profile can highlight your current inventory and ordering options for any automotive parts that your customers might need.

By creating your own custom department profiles, and content for each department, you enhance not only your customer’s satisfaction but also increase the chances of boosting your business throughout all parts of your dealership.

Keeping Your Profile Visible

One of the most damaging missteps a dealership can make is allowing its GBP to become unverified and suspended from business on the platform. When this happens, your business is delisted from Google, losing visibility in local searches and will result in a sharp drop in business. Since most car shoppers rely on Google to discover local dealerships, losing that exposure can mean fewer phone calls, fewer website clicks, and fewer visits to your lot. This can be a difficult spiral to climb out of, and requires a consistent, vigilant effort to ensure your business’ placement on Google.

While Google’s official guidelines lay out a set of rules that all business need to adhere to, oftentimes verification can be revoked without warning or reason from Google through its own bots and algorithm’s false-positives, marking an honest profile as a dishonest one. And if this does happen, you need to act fast to resolve this issue immediately to regain your profile’s visibility and verified status! If you find that your profile has been suspended, we offer a comprehensive guide to reinstate it and help get you back on track.

How Aronson Makes a Difference

At Aronson Advertising, we drive ahead of other marketing agencies, doing laps around the competition with our deep understanding of automotive industry trends and predictions in its future direction, giving you the best insight and guidance needed to stay three steps ahead of your competition. We go beyond the standard marketing agency practices and give you only the best in website analytics, ad tracking, and premium GBP management. And thanks to our monitoring of every signal across every platform, we ensure that your business will maximize growth for the best price to reach the right audience: your next guaranteed customer. Let Aronson Advertising drive your dealership forward and show real results — connect with our team to get started. We look forward to helping you achieve beyond your expectations.

Happy Motoring from Aronson Advertising.