Getting your site indexed by the Search Engines is step one to SEO. If Google, Yahoo, MSN, or the other Engines don’t even know that your site and pages exists then the odds of it coming up as the number one hit is ZERO.
For most dealerships, especially franchise dealerships getting the ‘Home’ page indexed usually isn’t the problem, the problem is getting the rest of the site seen and available for possible buyers. Keep in mind that the main purpose of the Search Engines is to return the most relevant page for each individual search, so when you only have one or a few pages indexed you are limiting the ability of your website and your inventory to be found.
To see how many pages your site has indexed in Google and Yahoo run the following searches.
Google search for “site:www.yoursitedomain.com” to determine what Google has indexed for your site. Yahoo search “www.yoursitedomain.com” will give you a picture of what Yahoo has. You should have at least as many pages indexed as you have vehicles in inventory. Having your website indexed isn’t the only thing you need to do for SEO but it is definitely required before you can do anything else.