Day 15 Easy SEO Tips for Used Car Dealers - Choose Your GBP Primary Category Wisely!

Today's tip: set your primary category to "Used Car Dealer," not "Car Dealer."

One selection in your Google Business Profile can decide whether you show up in local search at all - and most car dealer SEO advice never mentions it. Google gives you one primary category and up to nine secondary ones. The primary carries the most weight for what searches you appear in.

Why "Used Car Dealer" beats "Car Dealer"

The franchise stores in your market almost all set "Car Dealer" as primary and tack "Used Car Dealer" on as a secondary. Meanwhile the buyer you want is typing "used cars near me." Go primary on used and you're competing in a smaller pool instead of going head-to-head with the big dogs on the generic term.

We've watched the wrong primary hide a store

One dealership we work with also runs a service center. They set "Service Center" as their primary category with "Used Car Dealer" as a secondary - and they didn't show up in the map pack at all when buyers searched for car dealerships. The primary decided which map they were on.

If you run two real operations like that and want to show for both, the fix is two Google Business Profiles: one for the dealership, one for the service center, each with the right primary.

Then fill in the secondaries

Only the ones that actually apply: car dealer, truck dealer, auto financing, whatever fits what you really do. You don't need all nine - just the ones that are true. (Your categories should line up with the services you built out on Day 12.)

To edit it, go to google.com/business and sign in. There's also a free browser extension called GMB Everywhere that shows you the categories your competitors are using, which is a fast way to spot one you missed.

Want to go deeper on building dealer pages that actually rank? See Automotive SEO for car dealers.

New tip every day I walk the dog. Want to find me later? Search "KGI SEO" on Google.