There’s just no way around it: successful search engine optimization for boat and yacht dealers starts with a clear understanding of who the audience is. This includes what the target market is looking for and where that market is finding answers. The first rule of successful boat dealer marketing is to do your research.

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Fortunately, there are plenty of free (or nearly free) tools that can be used to help in the process of improving your site’s SEO. Below are five tools you can try today that can be used to figure out what your audience is looking for, create content to attract site visitors, and create content that ensures they will keep coming back.

Here are 5 tools to help increase site traffic.

Tool #1: Google Search Console {https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/}

Though research is the first step, technically you could consider having your site submitted to Google Search Console as what to do before taking the first step.

This tool is a simple way to submit all of your site pages to the Google index {https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1348732?hl=en}. Doing this is the fastest, easiest way to make sure that your site (and all its pages) show up in search results. Once you submit your site, the engine’s “crawlers” (a term for bots that browse the web and index websites) know to visit your site for indexing.

Don’t forget Bing! Google’s biggest (and only) competitor also has a tool you can use to submit your site so that it’s recognized by their crawlers {http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster/}.

Tool #2: Google Analytics {http://www.google.com/analytics/#?modal_active=none}

Once you’ve submitted your site to Google Search Console, you’re ready to start researching your audience. The first stop here for any boat dealer or marketer is Google Analytics. Get set up with this tool to find quick information on how visitors are landing on your pages, and if they’re visiting more than one page or leaving quickly.

Pro Tip: If you’ve signed up for Google Analytics, but wonder where exactly to find this information, look under ‘Acquisition’ in the menu on the left. Then click 'All Traffic’, and then ‘Channels' under ‘Default Channel Grouping’. In this section, you should see ‘Organic Search’.

Many results tend to be under the dreaded ‘(not provided)’ category, but if you do see any results on this page, that tells you what people typed into search engines before finding your site. Then you can compare this with the results that your audience is actually looking for, with the help of the next tool.

Tool #3: Yoast Suggest {https://yoast.com/suggest/}

This is really a tool to help you find keywords around your category, but it’s also useful to help discover what your audience might be looking for. Yoast Suggest assists you with figuring out what content you may need for your site. By using the information you find to make adjustments, you can start attracting more of the traffic you’re looking for.

For example, using the term ‘boat deal’, you’ll notice that a number of results come back that say ‘boat dealer near me’ or ‘boat dealer’ with a specific city or state code listed. This suggests that when it comes to boats, most consumers looking to purchase are searching for dealerships in their area.

This is valuable information for boat dealer marketing because it can help you with creating content. If you’re going to publish a post or a new page advertising a sale, for example, you’ll want to make sure the location and city are featured prominently in site content well before the sale starts.

Tool #4: CoSchedule Headline Analyzer {http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer}

Once you’ve determined what your audience is looking for, and the keywords that people have used to find your site, it’s time to incorporate that into your content strategy. This tool analyzes the headlines you’re using for content and gives you tips on how you can improve those headlines.

The same rules of online marketing that apply to everyone apply to boat dealers: headlines are (almost) everything. When someone is looking down a list of search results, the headline is what helps them decide if they will visit your pages or not.

Tool #5: SpyFu {https://www.spyfu.com/}

Wondering how your competitors have landed at the top of search results for specific keywords? Here’s where you can find the answer. Type in the competition’s website and you’ll get quick and easy information on what keywords they’ve bought on Adwords, and the ones they are organically being ranked for.

Knowing where your competitors rank gives you essential information on who your competition is targeting. Have they found an audience that isn’t relevant to your business? Or maybe they’re targeting the same people you are.

Bonus: Social media tools! By sharing your site on Twitter, Google+, Facebook or other platforms, you can get your content out in front of more people. Sharing content on social media platforms also helps search engines find links to your site. Once they have your site indexed, it makes it easier for results linking back to your site to show up in search results.

As a boat dealer, one of the first platforms you consider is Instagram. Even though it’s not ideal for sharing links, sharing photographs of your boats is the easiest and quickest way to get engaged with potential site visitors.

There are many more free tools that boat dealers can use to improve search engine optimization for websites, but if you’re looking to get more insight into your audience and competitors, online analytics and keyword platforms are the best places to start. Have you found any free tools online that have helped with increasing traffic to your site? Share in the comments below.