You’re always looking for ways to bring in more customers to your auto repair shop, we get it. That’s the drill when you own a business, and it’s your responsibility to drive more traffic.
You may already know that starting with a well-optimized and nice-looking auto repair shop website is essential. We did some looking around and know there are several auto repair shops that know an amazing auto repair shop website is essential. In fact, we found 10!
What you may not know is that there are lots of opportunities to market yourself on lots of websites out there. There are opportunities all around, you just have to know where to look.
Lucky for you, we have put together a list of the top 9 websites you should definitely be using to promote your auto repair shop. Most of the options are free or offer a free option. You should jump right on this list and start managing your business on them all.
It’s free marketing!
Market Your Auto Repair Shop On These Websites
If you want to reach more customers for your auto repair shop, these are the websites you need to do it on. Yes, you should do it in this order and spend more time on the top of this list for the first two. The rest depends entirely on your local search market.
Your market may be different, so take a second, open a private browser window and search for “auto repair shop city-state abbreviation”. So, for example, if You’re in Provo, Utah then you’d search for “auto repair shop provo ut”. You’ll see which websites are the most important that you can use to promote your business.
Google Business Profile
Who doesn’t use Google? Because Google has such a huge share of searches, you need to focus on perfecting it and constantly keep it updated.
Take advantage of all the free local marketing tools Google Business Profile gives you. Post every week, monitor your categories, answer questions, and definitely get more reviews. There’s a gold mine in Google Business Profile if you actually spend the time marketing your auto repair shop on it right.
See that big box highlighting the top auto repair shops Google Business Profile decided to show? That placement is right at the top of Google searches and those businesses didn’t get there by accident. They have to have an excellent local website and great management of their local business listings and review management.
Yes, we plugged our own services for properly managing your auto repair shop presence, but that’s only because it’s important, and you deserve a little help with some local marketing automation. Those tools can save you massive amounts of time and enable you to be more successful with less effort, including on Google Business Profile.
Yelp
This is another really important website to market your auto repair shop on. You may hate Yelp (and many do) but it doesn’t matter, you will get some business from Yelp, and their top 10 lists rate extremely high in most Google search results.
See?
The top two search results are best-of lists from Yelp. That’s pretty consistent across almost all general service searches across Google. If you’re not on this list then you’re missing out. How do you get on the list? Get more reviews on Yelp (but not by asking for them *wink*).
You can’t ask for reviews on Yelp, but you can offer a checking deal if people check in using Yelp. What does that mean for you? Yelp will ask your customers for them to leave you a review if they checked in.
Apple Maps
People are about convenience first and foremost. If that means pulling out their most-used map app and doing a search then that’s what they’ll do! It doesn’t matter what you want, your customers will choose the way they search for what they want, and you have to work around that.
Believe it or not a lot of people use Apple Maps because it’s installed on every Apple device out there. That’s a lot of potential Apple Maps users!
It’s pretty darn simple to keep your business information updated on Apple Maps too. So why wouldn’t you do it? The reviews on Apple Maps are pulled in from Yelp, so those are important to keep up with.
It’s even easier to manage your business information on Apple Maps with business listing management software.
Yellow Pages
For some reason, Yellow Pages are still a thing. As I was researching this article, I ran across several Yellow Page lists on the first page of Google. That must mean Google thinks they’re pretty important.
Of course, Yellow Pages wasn’t on the first page for all results so be sure to do a search in your market to make sure it’s relevant to you. If it is, add and manage your business there.
Angi
This is another business listing website that’s at the first page of many auto repair shop Google searches. There’s no need to go with a sponsored listing or anything paid, but get your business on there for free and keep it updated.
Many of these directory websites are useful if you don’t have to pay for them. They do provide you with valuable citations that help boost your business rank. What they don’t likely get is much traffic directly to your business. That means paying for sponsored service on them is likely to be a waste of money, unfortunately.
Did you know people can search for local businesses right on Facebook? It’s true, no need to open anything else or go anywhere else. Your customer could be looking for recommendations or just decided to tap “auto repair shop” in the Facebook search bar.
Because Facebook has so many users (1 billion+), you should definitely maintain your business page on Facebook. It’s not hard, and you can use local marketing automation to make it even easier.
Whatever way you decide to do it, Facebook doesn’t rank high on Google, but Facebook is a massive ecosystem on its own with plenty of users. Facebook doesn’t need traffic from Google, they provide the users themselves that can help your auto repair shop.
AAA
This is the only website that’s not going to be easy, but it may be worth it. AAA has a lot of customers and many people stay within AAA when it comes to finding someone to do work on their car. For that reason alone it may be worth it to get on AAA’s list of approved auto repair facilities.
Another benefit is that there are several lists of certified repair facilities for your city in Google searches. Many of these lists are on the first page, which means people searching for a repair shop are going to see them and click them. If you’re on that trusted list from a trusted vendor like AAA, you will benefit.
As for becoming a certified facility with AAA, don’t ask us! It’s not an easy process and there’s no single website we can link to. In fact, it may be different depending on your geographic region. Our recommendation is to contact your local AAA office to find out more details on how you can become certified and get on their list in your city.
Good luck!
Expertise
We were a bit surprised as Expertise has been known in our industry (web design) for some time, but auto repair!? We had no idea!
In several cities, Expertise has a top auto repair shop list listed on Google. In fact, in the Reno, NV market they hold the #2 spot just below Yelp! That’s a pretty important rank, and they may change places with Yelp on occasion to make the #1 spot.
In any case, you should absolutely nominate your auto repair shop to be on Expertise’s top list. They’ll let you know if you make the list, and they have some nice looking badges you can show off on your website if you do make the list.
Bing Places
There are people out there who use Bing as their preferred search engine. Or, in the more likely case, Bing is set as the default search engine on their web browser, and they never change it.
Because it’s still a place where people go to search for things, your auto repair shop should be listed on Bing. You don’t get quite as much visibility as you do in Google mainly because Bing loads heaps of ads in search results even before the following map is shown.
There’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t maintain your business on Bing because it can lead to plenty of business if you’re listed on the top. If you’re not on the top then at least you get some citation impact.
Take a look at the reviews in the listing above. You’ll notice they come from Yelp and Facebook too. Bing pulls information from all over so be sure you’re focusing on getting some Yelp and Facebook reviews. Google Business Profile should still always be your first priority, though.
Other Opportunities
You may also want to seek out local city directories for your location. These can be valuable for at least providing a good local citation and link for your website. Another good source for a valuable local link and one that has a big impact is your local chamber of commerce. They often have business directories for businesses who are members. Depending on the cost, it is likely worth the yearly fee to be a member.
As we mentioned before, Loclmark can take care of getting your auto repair shop listed on major directories (many of which are listed here) and help automate the process of getting more reviews. If you don’t believe me then you can get a free business listings scan to see how well your business is listed online.
Conclusion
There are lots of great websites you can market your auto repair shop on for free. The least you should be doing is adding your business to them and maintaining your listings on at least the ones listed above.
There are many more directories but for the sake of your sanity, don’t try to manage those manually. There are great tools you can use to manage your business everywhere all at once (including many of the ones above). We, of course, recommend Loclmark which is our local marketing automation platform.
Good luck marketing your auto repair shop, and we wish you luck in getting more customers from your market. Don’t forget, it all starts with a well-optimized and professionally built website for your local market. It can make a huge difference!