Scope and method
This is not one hand-picked client. It is every active new and used car dealership in a US agency's portfolio with at least five months on record. Each client is compared with itself: its first tracked month against its latest completed month, which is August 2026 for most of them. I work inside that agency's SEO team on technical fixes, schema, indexation, city content and Google Business Profile optimization, so these results belong to the whole team.
| Data set | Clients measured |
|---|---|
| Search visibility and keywords | 436 |
| Website sessions and leads (GA4) | 451 |
| Google Business Profile grade | 383 |
| Pages published | 428 |
Search visibility
The average search visibility score rose from 32.1% to 46.5%, a gain of 14.4 points. Of 436 dealerships, 387 improved and 40 declined.
Average search visibility score
First monthLatest month
All 436 clients+14.4 pts
Where the dealerships sit today, grouped by their current score:
Visibility by tier today
At startNow
Elite (70%+) · 34 clients+19.7 pts
Strong (50–69%) · 153 clients+22.7 pts
Building (30–49%) · 171 clients+10.4 pts
Early stage (under 30%) · 78 clients+4.6 pts
A score in the 50s or 60s is strong for a dealership. Google spreads visibility across several physical locations in the same city, so a dealer with same-brand competitors nearby rarely owns the whole map. The largest group, 153 clients, now sits in that range.
Keyword rankings
The average dealership went from 65.4 keywords in position one to 118.7, nearly double. Top 3 and top 10 grew as well, while the number of tracked keywords rose from 215 to 266.
Keywords per client (average)
First monthLatest month
Position 1+53.4
Top 3+67.9
Top 10+72.4
Tracked keywords+51
Visibility and keyword movement usually shows after four to six months of steady publishing. Every client here is past that point, which is why the gains compound.
Content published
428 dealerships have at least one city-targeted page on record: 81,210 pages in total, 190 per client on average. Visibility is not compared against benchmarks until a city has at least 20 published pages.
Pages published per client
- 100+ pages 292 clients (68%)
- 50–99 pages 95 clients (22%)
- Under 50 41 clients (10%)
Traffic and leads
Leads went up, raw organic sessions did not. The average dealership went from 412 to 478 website leads a month, 66 more. Organic sessions fell on average, from 4,406 to 3,942, and 267 of 451 clients had fewer sessions than in their first month.
Website leads a month, per client (all traffic)
First monthLatest month
451 clients+66
Google organic sessions a month, per client
First monthLatest month
451 clients−464
We publish both numbers because both are real. Measured per client, the relative change in sessions is +22.6%, pulled up by smaller dealers growing from a low base, while large dealers facing lower market search volume pull the raw average down. With visibility and rankings up across the same clients, the drop points to market demand, not lost positions. Leads count forms, calls, service requests and chats from every traffic source.
Google Business Profile
The average Google Business Profile audit grade rose from 78.8 (C) to 91.9 (A) across 383 dealerships. Three in four profiles now hold an A.
GBP audit grade (average)
BaselineCurrent
383 clients+13.1 pts
GBP grade today
- A (90–100) 288 clients (75%)
- B (80–89) 80 clients (21%)
- Below B 15 clients (4%)
The full picture
| Metric | Clients | First month | Latest month | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search visibility | 436 | 32.1% | 46.5% | +14.4 pts |
| Keywords at #1 | 436 | 65.4 | 118.7 | +53.4 |
| Pages published | 428 | 0 | 190 avg | 81,210 total |
| Organic sessions | 451 | 4,406 | 3,942 | +22.6% per-client avg |
| Website leads a month | 451 | 412 | 478 | +66 |
| GBP grade | 383 | 78.8 (C) | 91.9 (A) | +13.1 pts |
Method: visibility and keywords are averaged per campaign within each month, then per client. GBP compares each location's first audit with its latest snapshot. GA4 leads include all traffic sources. Paid media is not included.
What it means for your agency
This is the kind of delivery that runs behind an agency's brand: hundreds of clients, the same process for each, and reports that show the weak metric next to the strong ones. If your agency serves dealerships (see white label automotive SEO) or other multi-location businesses, I can run city content, local SEO and Google Business Profile work under your logo, with the same monthly reporting.
Want this for one of your clients?
Send me one client and I will scope it for free. NDA first, and you get the plan in your template.
Book a callServices used in this case
Client names and domains are confidential. Figures come from the client's own Search Console, GA4 or Semrush. Past results do not guarantee future rankings.
