Autotrader is a leading online marketplace for buying and selling cars, and amongst other things, it’s known for its comprehensive, user-friendly website and robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
The company’s success in the highly competitive automotive industry is due, in part, to its focus on creating high SEO value pages that provide users with valuable and relevant information. In this blog post, we’ll explore how Autotrader creates high SEO value pages and what best practices you can follow to improve your own website’s SEO.
Autotrader is a popular online marketplace for buying and selling new and used cars. One of the reasons for their success is their ability to create high SEO value pages. Here are some ways that Autotrader creates these pages:
Relevant and Targeted Keywords
Autotrader uses relevant and targeted keywords throughout their website, including in their page titles, descriptions, and content. They make sure to use keywords that are specific to the car industry, such as “used cars for sale” or “car dealerships”, which helps their pages rank higher in search results. This is on top of using automation to create pages with specific model variations, similar to faceted navigation.
Unique and Fresh Content
Autotrader’s website has a large number of unique and fresh content, including car reviews, car news, and advice on car buying and selling. This content is regularly updated, which shows search engines that Autotrader is actively providing valuable information to users, and helps improve their rankings.
Site Structure and Navigation
Autotrader has a clear site structure and navigation that makes it easy for users to find what they’re looking for. They use internal links to connect related pages, which helps search engines understand the site’s hierarchy and index pages more effectively.
User Experience and Engagement
Autotrader provides a positive user experience by making it easy for users to search for cars and dealerships, and providing helpful tools such as a car loan calculator. They also encourage user engagement by allowing users to leave reviews of dealerships and cars, which helps improve their rankings.
Mobile Optimization
Autotrader’s website is optimized for mobile devices, which is important because a large portion of their traffic comes from mobile users. This ensures that the website is easily accessible to users on any device, and helps improve their search rankings.
Overall, Autotrader’s success in creating high SEO value pages is due to their focus on relevant and targeted keywords, unique and fresh content, clear site structure and navigation, positive user experience and engagement, and mobile optimization.
So here are our top 4 recommendations for you to do yourself to create some high quality SEO pages:
- Conduct keyword research: Use keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs or SEMRush to identify relevant and targeted keywords that people are searching for in your industry. Once you’ve identified these keywords, use them throughout your content, including in page titles, headings, and meta descriptions.
- Create unique and valuable content: Focus on creating high-quality and unique content that provides value to your audience. This could include blog posts, videos, infographics, or guides. Make sure your content is well-written, informative, and provides a unique perspective on the topic.
- Optimize for user experience: Your website should be easy to navigate and provide a positive user experience. Use a clear and concise site structure, use internal links to connect related pages, and make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
- Use meta tags: Make sure you include title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags on each of your pages. These tags provide search engines with a brief summary of what your page is about, and can help improve your click-through rate from search engine results pages.
We understand that it can be a challenge to keep on top of the latest SEO recommendations and trends and to continue to create high SEO value landing pages and content. So, if you need some support in this, get in touch.
