SEO is the best source of traffic for dealers both in terms of effectiveness and cost-efficiency. So for car dealers, SEO is job #1. The question is, is SEO traffic enough to get the job done? And if it isn’t, what else should a dealer do to fill in the gaps?

According to our data, SEO does still leave a gap for most dealers. In other words, SEO traffic does not get enough views to every VIN in dealers’ inventories to move them off the lot. How many views are enough? According to the ground-breaking 2009 CDK Global study, 30 views is the sales lift benchmark.

Is SEO doing enough for your dealership? You can find out by using our VIN View Optimizer, which ranks the VINs on your lot according to how many views they get from every online source – direct, SEO, SEM, Autotrader, Cars.com, LotLinx, and other. Turn on the “Direct” and “SEO” toggles to see how many views your VINs are getting from people entering your URL into the browser bar or finding you from organic search.  If you’re seeing that there is a significant number of cars still below 30 views after turning on these two toggles, you know that you have to supplement the gaps with paid advertising.

So the key here is, dealers have to be smart about the ways they fill in the gap. Are they paying to bring more views to the cars that are already getting views, or are they effectively spreading “the love” to the underserved vehicles on their lot? Dealers can find out by turning on the SEM and classified car listings sites toggles to see if these paid efforts are driving enough views to every VIN on the lot.

We’re finding that even when a dealer augments their direct and SEO traffic with SEM and classified car listings sites, up to half of the vehicles in their inventory are still getting shortchanged. They’re far under the 30 view-sales lift benchmark – or worse yet, they’re getting orphaned with ZERO views.

Here’s our recommendation for how to be smart about augmenting direct and SEO traffic with your paid ad spend:

Use the VIN View Optimizer to find out if you’re driving enough views to every VIN on your lot, or whether you’re falling short.

Reach out to LotLinx for a smart, streamlined strategy to focus on the VINs that need the most help.