Case study · Automotive SEO · Used-car marketplace, Minnesota
A Minnesota used-car marketplace, up against every national listing site and every dealer in the state for the searches car buyers type first. CarSoup went from #6 to #1 on Google for “Used Cars in Minnesota”, and from onboarding on 31 December to late March Google sent it 122K clicks.
CarSoup
carsoup.com › For Sale
More head terms, onboarding to late March
Used Cars for Sale in Minnesota
#5 → #1
Used Car Minnesota
#7 → #1
Used Cars For Sale In Minnesota
#5 → #1
(01) The search
The search was simple: “Used Cars in Minnesota.” The competition behind it was not. A dealer competes with the dealer down the road. A marketplace competes with every national listing site, every dealer group and every car review site that wants the same buyer.
The national sites have huge inventories and years of trust with Google. They can publish a page for every state and every city in the country, and they do.
A local marketplace wins a different way: by matching how Minnesota buyers actually search, by state and by city, better than a national site written for everywhere.
The job was to build and strengthen pages around the exact way people search for a used car in Minnesota, then make Google trust them enough to put them first.
Get my free strategy call(02) The results
#1 for the search every Minnesota car buyer types. 21.5M times on Google. 122K clicks to the site. And a line that held from the first week to the last.
From search to site
All three from CarSoup’s own Google Search Console, 31 December to late March. The daily figure is 122K spread across the period.
Why the steady line matters
No spike and fade. A flow of buyers that held.
Look at the daily chart below: no viral week, then nothing. Clicks hold from the first week to the last. That is what owning the searches buyers type every day looks like.
Head terms, onboarding to late March
Used Car in Minnesota
#5 → #1
Used Cars for Sale Minnesota
#7 → #2
Used Trucks for Sale Minnesota
#5 → #2
Cars For Sale Minnesota
#6 → #2
Cars For Sale Minneapolis
#6 → #3
Minnesota Used Cars
#9 → #3
(03) The screenshots
The search
#1 for “Used Cars in Minnesota”
The orange frame and highlight were added to the screenshot. They are not part of Google.
Totals
122K clicks and 21.5M impressions
From onboarding on 31 December to late March.
Daily clicks and impressions
The line held, every day
Blue line: clicks per day. Purple line: impressions per day. On a phone, swipe the chart.
What Google shows
Type “Used Cars In Minnesota” into Google and CarSoup comes up first. That is the spot every marketplace on the page wants, and a local one took it.
Total clicks is how many times someone picked CarSoup from a Google search page and landed on the site: 122K. Total impressions is how often it showed up at all: 21.5M. The chart shows the clicks holding steady from the first day of the campaign to the last.
(04) How we work
The national sites have more cars. We gave CarSoup the better answer for Minnesota, and Google put it above them.
One state page, a page for each city buyers search, and every listing one click below.
Step 01
Pages for how buyers search
People search for a used car by state, by city and by what they want to drive. Each of those searches gets a page that matches it, instead of one listing page trying to rank for everything.
Step 02
Strengthen the pages that matter
The state and city pages that bring buyers get clearer titles, better descriptions of what is for sale and copy written for a Minnesota buyer, not for everywhere.
Step 03
Connect state, city and listings
State pages lead to city pages, city pages lead to the cars. Buyers find the car they want in two clicks, and every page lifts the ones around it.
Step 04
Build trust Google can see
Mentions and links from real, relevant websites, and a site that loads fast, so a local marketplace beats the national listing sites at their own game.
Two guarantees in writing, checked like a used car before you buy.
Guarantee 01
20days
If you don’t see visible improvement in your key metrics within the first 20 days, we refund $200 on top of returning your payment for that period.
What we measure: your traffic, what that traffic is worth, how much authority your site and its pages carry, and how many other sites link to you, against the day we start.
Guarantee 02
60days
If your qualifying keywords aren’t on the first page of Google within 60 days, we keep working for free until they are.
What counts: at least one high-value search for your business on page one of Google.
No long-term contracts. Results keep you here. Paperwork doesn't.
Your next step
A free 30-minute strategy call on Google Meet. We run the searches your buyers type, show you where you sit today and who Google puts first and why, and tell you what we would do first and what it costs.
Bring with you
We search your market live
The way your customers do, in the towns you serve.
We show who's above you, and why
On Google, on Maps and in the AI answers.
You leave with a road map
Yours to keep. If we can help, we'll invite you to work with us.
For established businesses doing at least $20,000 a month.
Straight answers
CarSoup took the #1 spot on Google for “Used Cars in Minnesota”. From onboarding on 31 December to late March, Google sent the site 122K clicks and showed it 21.5M times. The screenshots on this page show the search and the Search Console totals.
An impression is one time the site appeared in a Google search. A click is one time someone chose it and landed on the site. CarSoup had 21.5M impressions and 122K clicks over the period.
From CarSoup’s own Google Search Console, the report Google gives every site owner, covering onboarding on 31 December to late March. The #1 position is from a Google search for “Used Cars In Minnesota”.
By matching the search better. National sites write one template for every state. A local marketplace can build pages around exactly how buyers in its state search, by state and by city, and earn the trust that lets those pages rank first.
Yes. Dealers and dealer groups win with the same plan: a page for each model, city and service buyers search, a strong Google Business Profile for each lot, and the trust that lets those pages rank.
Yes. For a dealer with a lot buyers can visit, reviews are one of the signals Google weighs for local searches, alongside a complete Google Business Profile, consistent listings and pages that clearly match the search.
Yes. AI search is included in every plan at no extra cost. Clear pages that answer what buyers ask are the same pages AI answers tend to quote.
Organic SEO, local SEO, or the two together run between $1,497 and $5,000 a month. Your number depends on how many cities and searches you want to win and how strong the sites above you are. We work with businesses doing $20,000 a month or more and take on 15 new clients a month. You get your number on the strategy call.
If you don’t see visible improvement in your key metrics within the first 20 days, we refund $200 on top of returning your payment for that period. If your qualifying keywords aren’t on the first page of Google within 60 days, we keep working for free until they are. There are no long-term contracts.
