Sector
Digital agency for garages and MOT centres
Garage marketing comes down to three things: being found for 'MOT near me' and your own town, letting people book at 9pm when the phone is off, and reminding last year's customers before the chain down the road does. We build the website, the booking flow and the reminder system, and we manage the Google Business Profile that feeds them.
Independent garages do most of the UK's servicing and repair. Around 35.5 million initial MOT tests were carried out in 2025/26 across 23,092 private testing stations by 66,925 nominated testers, and roughly 22% of those tests failed first time, which is repair work. The car parc is old: average age 9.7 years, 45.7% over ten years old. The aftermarket that serves it adds around £17bn to the economy. The demand is not the problem. Being the garage that gets chosen is.
Customers now find and book a garage the way they book anything else. They search 'MOT near me', read the Google reviews, check the opening hours and expect to book online. Chains and marketplaces such as BookMyGarage and WhoCanFixMyCar have built their businesses on that behaviour and charge for the leads. We put the same capability on your own site: a booking flow that shows real slots, a quote form that identifies the car from the reg, and a Google Business Profile that is complete, categorised and answering the questions people ask.
We work with the garage management systems you already run: Motasoft, GarageHive, Autowork Online, TechMan and Garage Data Systems, with Autodata or HaynesPro for technical data and MAM Autocat for parts. Where the GMS has a booking API we integrate; where it does not we build the diary sync around its exports. Reminders come from the DVSA MOT History API, which returns the expiry date and test history for any vehicle and allows 500,000 requests a day at no cost, so every customer can get an MOT reminder without anyone typing dates in.
Two things the chains do that independents rarely do: recruit online and sell capability. There is a technician shortage and a garage with no careers page will not fill the bay. And with EV and ADAS work growing, a site that says what you are qualified and equipped to do, in words a customer understands, wins the jobs that the general garage down the road cannot take. Turners Auto Services is one of the garages we work with.
The usual problems
- We are invisible for 'MOT near me'
The Google Business Profile was set up years ago, has the wrong hours, no photos and twelve reviews. The chain has four hundred.
- Nobody can book when the phone is off
Evening and weekend enquiries go to the marketplaces that offer online booking, and the lead comes back with a fee attached.
- Quoting means asking what car it is
Every enquiry needs a phone call to identify the vehicle before anyone can price a job.
- MOT reminders are a box of postcards
Or nothing at all, while the fast-fit chain sends a text on the first of the month.
- We cannot recruit a technician
There is no careers page, no description of the workshop and no way to apply except walking in.
- Customers do not know we can do EV or ADAS work
The equipment and the qualifications are there; the website still says servicing and MOT.
What we do for garages & mot centres
Services built around this trade
Grow
local SEO for garages
Google Business Profile, reviews, service pages for your town and the surrounding villages. This is where MOT and service bookings come from.
Local SEOBuild
automotive web design
A garage site with booking, reg lookup quoting, honest pricing, careers and capability pages, built to load fast on a phone in a car park.
Web DesignSoftware
automotive software development
Booking and diary integration with your garage management system, so an online booking appears in the workshop planner without re-keying.
Software DevelopmentGrow
automotive eCRM
MOT and service reminders by email and SMS from DVSA data and your own history, with consent handled properly.
Email & CRMGrow
automotive PPC
Google Ads for MOT, tyres and diagnostics in your postcode area, with call tracking so you know which clicks became bookings.
PPCGrow
automotive SEO
Pages for the jobs you want more of, from DPF cleaning to timing belts to EV servicing, that rank beyond your immediate town.
Automotive SEOGrow
automotive social media agency
A steady stream of workshop content and reviews that makes the garage look as busy and competent as it is.
Social MediaGarage website design
Garage website design is a narrow discipline. The site has to load quickly on a phone, show opening hours and location without scrolling, list services with prices where you are willing to state them, and put a booking or call button on every page. Reviews should be pulled in live from Google. Reg lookup on the quote form identifies the car so the customer does not have to know their engine code. Careers and capability pages tell technicians and customers what kind of workshop this is.
We build garage sites on WordPress with a booking layer that talks to your garage management system where an API exists, hosted and maintained by us so patching and backups are not the owner's job. The structure is designed for local SEO from the start: one page per core service, location signals in the right places and schema markup for the business, its reviews and its services.
MOT centres
For MOT-led businesses the marketing is the reminder. The DVSA MOT History API gives the expiry date for any vehicle from its registration, so once a customer has been in once you can remind them every year by email or SMS, with a booking link that shows real slots. Test-and-fix bundles, retest policy and honest content about common failure items give the site something to rank for beyond the town name.
Where the centre also does servicing, tyres or exhausts, the booking flow should offer them alongside the test. Every added line on an MOT booking is margin that came from a page rather than a phone call.
Specialist workshops
Diagnostics specialists, EV and hybrid workshops, ADAS calibration centres, marque specialists and 4x4 workshops attract customers from further away because the general garage cannot do the job. Their sites need to explain capability in customer language, show qualifications and equipment, and rank for the problem the customer is searching for rather than a postcode.
We write and structure that content, connect the enquiry to a quote workflow with reg lookup and vehicle data, and run paid search on the specific searches where the specialist can win.
Vehicle data
Data that does the heavy lifting
MOT history API
The DVSA MOT history API gives you every MOT test since 2005 for a registration: result, expiry date, odometer reading and each defect or advisory by category.
MOT History APInumber plate lookup API
A number plate lookup API turns 'enter your reg' into a vehicle record your store can act on: make, model, engine, K-Type.
Reg Lookup Integrationvehicle data API
Choosing a vehicle data API in the UK means choosing between DVLA VES, DVSA MOT History, UKVD/VDG, cap hpi, HPI, Experian AutoCheck and MotorCheck.
Vehicle Data APIGarages & MOT Centres: common questions
How do we get more MOT bookings from Google?
A complete Google Business Profile with the right categories, regular reviews, a fast website with a booking button, service pages for your town and MOT reminders to every past customer. Most garages are missing at least two of those.
Can the website take bookings into our garage management system?
Where the GMS has an API (several do) we push bookings straight into the planner. Where it does not, we sync from its exports or run the diary on the site and send confirmations to the workshop.
How do MOT reminders work?
The DVSA MOT History API returns the expiry date for a vehicle from its registration. We store the customer's consent, look up the date and send an email or SMS ahead of it with a link to book. The API is free and allows 500,000 requests a day.
Do we need a garage website if we are on BookMyGarage?
Marketplaces bring leads and charge for them. Your own site ranks for your name and town, takes bookings without a fee and holds the customer data for reminders. Most garages benefit from running both.
Can you add reg lookup to our quote form?
Yes. A licensed lookup returns make, model, engine and fuel type from the registration so the customer just enters their reg and the job. Lookups are cached so cost stays low.
What does garage marketing cost?
It depends on whether you need a site, a booking system, local SEO or all three. We scope it in a short call and quote fixed prices for the build and a monthly figure for ongoing work.
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View servicesTalk to the pit wall
Let's talk about your garages and mot centres business
Tell us what you sell, fix, break or race and what is getting in the way. We will come back within one working day with a straight answer and, if it fits, a fixed-price scope.