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If you own an auto repair shop or dealership, you know how tightly competitive the automobile industry can be. With more customers relying on Google to locate services, your business needs to be at the top of all those search results. But how does one do that? The answer is through local SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

The blog ‘Boosting Local SEO for Auto Repair Shops and Dealerships’ will detail all the steps you must take to be able to optimize your business for local searches, attract additional customers, and get ahead of competitors. From Google My Business to refining your content game, the experts of our SEO agency Dubai have covered it.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the strategy that helps your business appear in search results when people seek services that are “near me” or within a particular location. Imagine if some car breaks down or requires a quick repair; they will not look for “auto repair services,” they’ll be looking for “auto repair shops near me.”

If your auto repair shop or dealership fails to appear in these localized search results, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers. Local SEO helps to increase the visibility of your business and also builds credibility and trust.

So, how do you improve the local SEO of your auto repair shop? Before reaching out to the popular SEO services Dubai, continue reading the blog. 

1. Optimize Your Google My Business Profile

Your Google My Business (GMB) profile is your digital storefront. When a customer types in “auto repair near me,” the GMB listing pops up with business hours, location, photos, and reviews. Here’s how to optimize it:

• Claim and Verify Your GMB Profile: If you haven’t done this already, make it your first step. Google requires verification to confirm that you’re really a business.
• Fill in Complete Information: Fill out all of the information correctly, including the business name, address, phone number, website, and business hours. Don’t forget to fill in special services such as “emergency repair” or “tyre replacement.” This will help Google match the services you have available with relevant queries.
• Add Photos and Videos: Add good photo images of your shop, repair bays, waiting area, and team. Adding videos of how you do repairs or some short introductions of your team can also be engaging to customers at large.
• Ask for Customer Reviews: As a local SEO, gold is positive reviews. Ask satisfied customers to leave their reviews and respond to each and every review, whether good or negative. The interaction shows Google (and the customers) that you really care.

2. Get Your NAP Consistent Everywhere

NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. Here consistency is the key. Your NAP information must be uniform everywhere—that is, on your website, social media profiles, directory listings, and any other place your business is cited.

Why Is This Important?
Search engines cross-reference your business details to validate your existence. Inconsistent information may confuse the search engine and harm your rankings.

• Use Moz Local or Yext to check and update your NAP on the web.

3. Perfect Use of Local Keywords

Keywords play a pretty important role in SEO, and with local SEO, it’s no different, but while leveraging keywords may seem very basic, you need to be more specific in this case. So, you would want to use location-specific keywords like “auto repair in Dubai” or “car dealership near Al Awir”.

• Keyword Research: Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush for popular local search keywords. Use them naturally on your website content, meta descriptions, and headings.
• Location Pages: If your shop provides services in more than one location, then this would call for a separate location page for each location. Not only would this help in doing better in search for local SEO but also in the case of an information search by customers

4. Localize Your Website for Local SEO

It needs to attract visitors, but at the same time, it must be locally search-optimized. How?

• Create Local Content: Create local content blogs and articles specific to your neighborhood. Such as, “Top 8 Reasons for Car Repairing Before Winter in Dubai” or “How Dubai Drivers should always keep their car in good condition.”
• Schema Markup: Schema markup is a kind of code that enables search engines to understand your business better. You might increase the likelihood of getting featured in rich snippets by adding local business schema to your website.
• Mobile Optimization: Most of the local searches are performed using mobile devices. Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, loads faster, and provides a seamless user experience even on small screens.

5. Concentrate on Local Citations

Local citations are online mentions of your business name, address, and phone number written down on websites outside of the officially owned ones. Here, you will find local directories, business listings, and even news articles among other things.

• Submit to Local Directories: List your shop in local business directories such as Yelp, YellowPages, and the Better Business Bureau.
• Get Featured in Local Publications: Reach out to local bloggers and news sites. If your shop sponsors a local event or is involved in community activities, make sure the press covers it. This not only gives you exposure but also strengthens your SEO through backlinks.

6. Build High-Quality Backlinks

Even now, backlinks are considered one of the best tools for promoting the authority of your site and a higher rank. Obtain local backlinks for local SEO.

• Partner with Local Businesses: Team up with local businesses, such as car wash stations, tire shops, or towing companies. Cross-promotion often proves to be a great way to get the better of some priceless backlinks.
• Participate in Local Events: Sponsor or participate in local events, and you are more than likely going to find your shop featured on numerous local websites as well, increasing the possibility of getting some backlinks.

Make Your Website User Friendly

User experience, or UX, has direct effects on your rankings. If a user can’t navigate your site easily or cannot find what they want, they will bounce, and search engines will know.

• Speed Load Times: It is keeping users from coming to websites if they load too slowly. Compress images, eliminate unnecessary scripts, and minimize server response times.
• Easy Navigation: Organize your website to create easy paths toward more important information like your services, contact details, or appointment booking.
• Clear Call to Action (CTAs): Show clearly visible CTAs like “Book an Appointment Now” or “Get a Free Estimate” to guide users.

Dubai is also known as the “City of Gold” because of its exponential growth from a rudimentary Gulf port to the present world-renowned business crossroads within the span of a single generation. Known for its welcoming business environment, favorable tax system, legal framework, and abundance of raw materials, UAE is a favorite for many businesses to establish and flourish. The fact that UAE is a global hub for many international connection flights between the west and east is a cherry on top of the cake. But setting up a business has its own share of difficulties. This article highlights the major business problems you can face while launching a business in UAE 2021.

1. Company Ownership

Under the Commercial Companies Law of UAE, only 49% of an LLC that is operating as an onshore UAE business can be owned by foreign shareholders, regardless of the country of their origin. The law requires an Emirati citizen or even an exclusively Emirati-owned company to hold the remaining 51% majority share, thereby acting as the local sponsor. UAE laws also state that trading names selected by the company should not be previously registered and honour public morals while complying with the legal status.

If you are new to UAE, identifying a suitable sponsor for the company with the understanding of the UAE law, market knowledge, and capability to handle the local operations can be a demanding task.

There are however exceptions to this rule for companies that restrict their operations pertaining to trade of goods and services to specific allotted space within each Emirate called the free trade zones. They were developed to boost foreign investments in the country by offering 100% ownership by foreign shareholders. Recently there have been talks of extending the complete ownership outside of the free trade zones as well considering the current aftermath of the pandemic.

2. Project Funding

With all its glory, setting up a business in UAE will cost some big bucks and if your company is in the starting phase, obtaining any funding from UAE banks would be highly difficult. The audited balances of at least three years with positive figures and practical growth indicators are a few primary requirements for any application for business loans in UAE.

Unless you are backed by well-established funding, running the operations smoothly may not be feasible in the long run. The other option is finding a local investor which is often challenging because of the trust factor.

3. Money management

Efficiently managing money is an acquired skill and can extend beyond your business life. Dubai is an incredible place attracting millions of tourists to relax and have fun with extravagant ways to empty their pockets like fast cars, watches, fine dining, fashion, luxury…the list goes on.

The same analogy applies to your business spending too like impressive office spaces and overindulgence in branding.

Another important factor is the implementation of Value Added Tax(VAT). VAT is a 5% indirect tax applicable to all goods and services, with education, healthcare items, and basic food essentials as exceptions.

As per the study by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, 82% of startups fail as a result of poor profit and loss management. So unless you want your business venture to be a short stint in the UAE, taking hold of your revenue management early on will be advisable.

4. Job Market & People management

The workforce available in UAE is vast and diverse in culture. People of different ethnicity and background makes it a challenge for business owners to increase their levels of cultural awareness and sensitivity. With huge talents available in the job market, finding the right resource for your business can be an exhausting task.

In order to hire employees, UAE has set specific rules and regulations like legal UAE work visa and Emirates ID which is mandatory. Besides, the labour laws governing UAE nationals and expatriate workers are quite different. Prior consent of the Department of Labour and a work permit need to be obtained before an ex-pat can be hired. This could a time-consuming endeavor, so plan well in advance to avoid a delay in productivity.

Every employer registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) must subscribe to Wages Protection System (WPS) and pay salaries to their employees through the WPS on or before the due dates. WPS is an electronic salary transfer system that organisations in the private sector use to pay an employee’s wages through banks & other approved financial institutions.

Also, avoid getting buried in work yourself to prevent getting burned out. Burnout is above tiredness or exhaustion and has a devastating effect. It is a state of chronic stress that eventually blurs your thought process, impairs your cognitive function, and in extreme cases can lead to depression. Finding a work/life balance is the key to ensuring your sanity while adjusting to Dubai life otherwise all the effort taken so far would be in vain.

5. Organized workflow

Since there are plenty of rules and regulations and no corruption, many Dubai-based businesses struggle to stay organized over a long time which eventually leads to wipeout.

Information split across several systems along with patch-worked CRMs and limited accountancy software, project management tools and Excel spreadsheets which are initially used has to be upgraded with the growth of the company. Proper management of resources and company assets is key to maintaining a well-organized workflow.

In spite of the hurdles, running a business in UAE is highly rewarding and many new ventures come to UAE every year because of the positive attributes. With proper planning and guidance, one can stay one step ahead of the roadblocks that come when starting a business in UAE.