When a buyer searches for your dealership or a vehicle type you carry, your Google Business Profile is often the very first thing they see — before your website, before your ads, before your reviews. Yet most dealerships leave this critical asset severely underutilized.
The Basics: Get These Right First
- Name, Address, Phone — Must be exactly consistent with your website and all other directories
- Category — Set the right primary category (e.g., "Car Dealer") and relevant secondary categories
- Hours — Keep accurate, update for holidays immediately
- Website link — Point to your correct homepage or relevant landing page
- Phone number — Use a trackable local number for proper attribution
Photos: More Is More
Profiles with 100+ photos receive significantly more views and calls than profiles with minimal photography. Upload high-quality images of your exterior, interior showroom, service department, team, customer deliveries (with permission), and current inventory highlights. Refresh photos regularly — Google rewards active profiles.
Posts: Your Weekly Organic Touchpoint
GBP Posts appear directly in search results and Maps. Posting weekly — current inventory specials, service promotions, team spotlights, events — signals to Google that your profile is active and keeps your content fresh for browsing buyers.
Q&A: Control Your Narrative
Proactively add and answer your own FAQs — hours, financing, trade-in process, service department — to ensure accurate information is always visible and to populate this section before buyers or competitors do.
Reviews: The Trust Factor
Your star rating appears prominently in search results and maps. A systematic review generation and response strategy is essential — not just for consumer perception but for Google's ranking algorithm, which rewards profiles with high volume and high quality reviews.