by Chris Jackson - Posted 1 day ago
If you have ever been told your website needs the words “near me” sprinkled throughout it to rank locally, you were not lied to. You were simply given advice that expired quietly years ago.
If you have been in the car business for any length of time, you have watched entire marketing channels rise, fall, and quietly disappear. Newspaper classifieds were once non-negotiable. Then came third-party listings. Then websites. Then mobile. Then Google Maps.
Search marketing has followed the same pattern. What worked at one point stopped working later, not because it was a bad idea, but because the environment changed.
“Near me” SEO is a clear example of this.
At one point, it sounded logical. Customers search “used car dealer near me,” so the assumption was that dealers should use the phrase “near me” on their websites. Simple input. Expected output.
The problem is that Google stopped working that way a long time ago. This article explains why “near me” became obsolete years ago, why it is still promoted today, how Google actually handles proximity searches now, and what dealers should focus on instead if they want sustainable local visibility.
Dealers deal in practical realities. If customers ask for something, you try to give it to them. Early SEO worked much like early inventory listing sites. If the words matched, you showed up.
Back then, search engines behaved more like a parts catalog than a navigation system. You looked something up, found the matching page, and that was that.
“Near me” fit neatly into that model. Customers typed it. Vendors recommended it. Dealers implemented it.
The problem was not the logic. The problem was assuming Google would stay frozen in time.
When someone types “used car dealer near me” into Google today, Google does not scan dealership websites looking for that phrase.
Instead, it immediately answers three questions:
Where is the searcher right now?
How far are they typically willing to travel for this type of purchase?
Which dealerships exist within that radius and appear legitimate and active?
All of that happens before your website copy even comes into play.
Think of it like a customer driving through town.
They do not need a dealership to advertise that it is nearby. They can see where dealerships are located, how active the lot appears, and whether it is open for business. Google does the same thing digitally using Maps, location data, and business profiles.
This is why adding “near me” to a page never caused a ranking jump and never will.
Once you understand this shift, everything else about modern local search starts to make sense.
Younger buyers rarely scroll through traditional search results when they are trying to find something close by. They open Google Maps.
Maps immediately answer the proximity question visually:
Which dealerships are closest?
Which ones are open?
Which ones have reviews?
Which ones look active?
That behavior alone eliminates the need for “near me” language. Proximity is already baked into the experience.
This is also why Google Maps visibility has a greater impact on local traffic than any keyword phrase could ever have. Your physical presence, your activity level, and your relevance matter far more than what your title tag says. This behavioral change did not just influence rankings. It fundamentally rewired how visibility is earned.
Around the mid-2010s, Google stopped treating local search as a keyword-based problem and began treating it as a real-world business issue.
Maps became central. Google Business Profiles became foundational. Mobile location data became reliable.
From that point forward, Google no longer needed businesses to describe proximity. It could calculate it.
Dealers who removed “near me” from their metadata did not lose rankings. Dealers who added it did not gain anything.
The market moved on, even if the advice did not.
Many vendors still sell SEO the same way domain companies sell add-ons.
You are checking out, buying a website or a service, and there is a checkbox that says “Add SEO.” It feels like coverage. It feels responsible.
“Near me” works the same way. It is easy to explain, easy to implement, and easy to invoice for.
In fairness, it sounds comforting, especially to dealers who just want to know they are doing something.
But it does not reflect the actual work required to build local relevance. It is the digital equivalent of saying a car has horsepower without specifying the amount.
Some companies claim they do SEO the same way you could claim there is sugar in a cup of coffee after adding two packets.
Technically accurate. Practically meaningless.
Other companies do SEO the way you would fill the cup almost entirely with sugar and then add a little coffee. There is no doubt what the dominant ingredient is.
“Near me” SEO is two packets of sugar.
Real local SEO is the entire cup.
Modern local search is about whether Google understands your dealership as a trustworthy, relevant, and legitimate business in a specific market.
That understanding is built through multiple systems working together:
Your physical location and service area
Your Google Business Profile setup and activity
Customer reviews and engagement
Website content that clearly explains what you sell and where you sell it
Internal site structure that reinforces geography
If those systems align, you show up.
If they do not, no keyword phrase fixes it.
If you want to know whether your dealership is positioned to win local search today, do not ask whether your site says “near me.”
Ask these instead:
Is Google crystal clear on where my dealership is located?
Does my Google Business Profile show recent, real activity?
Do my reviews reflect current customer experiences?
Does my website clearly connect inventory, services, and geography?
Can Google easily determine which location matters most for which searches?
If those answers are strong, proximity takes care of itself.
If they are not, no phrase ever will.
You do not fix a check engine light by covering it with tape.
That is what “near me” does. It hides nothing and fixes nothing.
Real SEO plugs into the diagnostic system, reads the data, and addresses the underlying issue.
Geographic Entity Optimization focuses on making your actual market unmistakably clear.
Not vague proximity language, but real-world geography:
Cities
Submarkets
Neighborhoods
Driving corridors
This mirrors how buyers actually think. They do not say “near me.” They say “in Dayton,” “around Riverside,” or “close to work.”
Google no longer reads pages like a human skimming text.
It analyzes relationships, depth, structure, and context.
Artificial Intelligence Optimization ensures that content reflects expertise, intent, and relevance, rather than relying on surface-level keyword usage.
This is why thin pages stopped working and comprehensive content gained value.
This is where “near me” advice becomes especially dangerous.
Many dealer groups try to represent five, six, ten, or more rooftops on a single website.
When those rooftops are spread 25 or 30 miles apart, Google struggles to determine which location is relevant for a given search.
One website cannot realistically be hyper-relevant to that many distant physical locations at once.
Strong multi-location strategies require structure:
A parent brand site
Supporting location sites for clustered markets
Or individual sites for each rooftop
Trying to force proximity relevance through keywords does not solve a structural problem.
Structure provides that clarity. Keywords do not.
Myth: Adding “near me” helps Google understand proximity
Reality: Google already knows where the searcher and dealership are
Myth: Removing “near me” will hurt rankings
Reality: Rankings are based on relevance, distance, and prominence
Myth: All locations can rank equally on one website
Reality: Distance and entity clarity limit that approach
The car business has always rewarded operators who adapt early and stop clinging to what used to work.
Search is no different.
“Near me” had its moment. That moment passed quietly years ago.
What replaced it is more durable, more accurate, and far better aligned with how real buyers actually find dealerships today, not by keywords, but by clarity.
- by Chris Jackson, VP of Digital Operations
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