However, many of you still do not have a Plus 1 button on your website. You need to be relevant, recommended, and found, and the Google Plus One button will help.

Just What does Plus One do?

It shows the people in your Google network that you like a piece of content and/or trust a certain site. The recommendations influence the ranking of results for you or your extended network, causing listings to potentially be moved to page one, based on your social connections, and altering the look of results by showing an aggregated number of +1s from all people in your network.

Don’t be left out. Google is quickly moving toward Social Search, and Plus 1 is a major factor.

Why Add Plus One Button to Your Site if it Already Appears in Search?

Simple, it does not always appear. Often when a listing is conjoined with a Google Map no Plus One button will be shown. Maybe I can suggest that the Google Places team sit with the Google Plus One team and take a look.

No button in search, no ability to Plus One. So, if you don’t have one get one now. Then make certain you have a completed Google profile, get connected, and begin to Plus One.

Let me know what you discover in the world of Plus One, and your theories behind the elusive Plus One button in search.

Kristen Chiarello is a Project Manager/SEO Strategist at PCG Digital Marketing, and has been in the Marketing, SEO, SEM and Content Creation fields for many years.

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What happened today created one of those “Ah Ha” moments that I wanted to share with car dealers and our industry.

You first have to know that Google changes the search engine results page (SERP) if you are logged into your Google account. While logged in, Google records your past activity with the goal of making sure that it can display the best search results for your online behavior.

So, with this in mind, have you asked what happens when you click on the +1 button next to a website you like, or own.

Automotive Social Media Searches

Here is the SERP for the search phrase “Automotive Social Media” when I am logged out of my Google Account:

Notice that TK Carsites website located at AutomotiveSocialMedia.com is ranking in position #1 over the PCG website at www.AutomotiveSocialMedia.org.   To clarify this screen capture, notice there are no “+1″ buttons or thumbnails of my friends since I am logged out of my Google account.

Now look at the same search result while I am logged into my Google Account:

Notice a few things.  First, Google PULLED from Page Two our Automotive Marketing Boot Camp website which has content optimized for “Automotive Social Media” into first position.  Secondly, it placed our microsite AutomotiveSocialMedia.org into position #2,  It also pushed up websites that I visited frequently or +1′d which in effect pushed the TK Carsites website into position #5.

Also see how the thumbnail effect colorized the SERP and reminds me that my friends ALSO liked certain pages or companies.

Identifying The Googlized Consumer

Now, think about what this means.  If your dealership is implementing a proactive reputation management process in your dealership which uses 3G iPads or iPhones to get “Googlized Consumers” to post a review from inside the store using the Google Places App, why stop there?

When they are done with their 60 second review posting using the Google Places App, why not setup a boomark on your browser for a search that shows your key website pages one the iPad?

Hand the iPad back to the consumer and ask the consumer to click on the +1 buttons next to your key pages or at least just your home page.  Here is what a Google search using the site command does, which in some cases is all you need to show for your dealership:

In this case, many key pages are displayed like the home page, service page, parts page, and used car pages.  So if this page was bookmarked, it would be a breeze to touch the +1 button next to the pages that the customer chooses to +1.

If your website has the +1 button on each page, most do not today, then you could also have them go to the page directly and click the button.

Now the bonus.  Since they are logged into their Google account, their +1 activity is recorded.

Since they are logged into their Google account, their +1 activity is recorded.  This means that when they search for car dealers in your area in the future from their home or mobile device, your website assets will get priority placement.

In this example, my +1 activity significantly changed my top SERP placements.  If you liked this article, please click on the +1 button on the top of this page and also share it with your network om Facebook.

Mmmmmm the benefits of connecting with your Googlized customers are getting better by the day.  If your dealership needs assistance with a comprehensive IRM, SEM, and SEO strategy, give us a call.
Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch

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Where to Start – Revisit the Automotive SEO Basics

1. Research & Direction

Not knowing what your target audience is searching for, and the keyword phrases that are most typed into a search, can lead you down the wrong road.

The question to ask: What are our major and minor keyword targets?

Use free tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Google Insights to determine what people are searched for, and if it is worth your team’s time and effort to target such a keyword. Using the keyword tool, test any keyword phrase you can think of, its free information that will shape your goals.

2. Benchmark Your Starting Point

Comparing month to month traffic is not always the best indicator of a successful SEO campaign. Seasonality affects many dealerships and unfortunately in this case, numbers can lie.

The question to ask: How are we measuring our success?

For the most part, traffic increases should occur at a gradual pace a few weeks and months into the start of an SEO campaign provided the number of people searching for any given keyword you show up for doesn’t drop off. Benchmark the number of unique visitors to a website during the month. If possible compare it to year over year statistics, not just month to month.

3. Analyze Past Performance & Spend

Know the amount of time, money and energy your company’s previous attempts have spent on Pay Per Click (PPC) in order to evaluate your future performance in SEO. Don’t just throw more money in the budget without making educated changes, find out where your PPC spend went before and understand what the results were.

The question to ask: What is our conversion rate on our Pay Per Click campaign for our major keywords?

Find the words that are converting best, or you are paying the most for, and try to show up for those keywords organically. Conversion rate is a goal for any campaign, but why am I talking about PPC when this is an SEO checklist? The importance is their relationship to one another by looking at your Internet Marketing campaigns as a blended function. If you cannot achieve a goal with organic search results, one may have to rely on PPC. Once you are receiving a sufficient amount of traffic from multiple listings in page one’s organic SEO listings, then you could start testing your PPC budget, and by testing, I mean reducing. Gradually. Gauge the effect it has on your numbers and find the right blend of SEO and PPC.

4. Enhancing Community Relationships for Links

If you’re part of the community that surrounds the dealership, you know which organizations your company sponsors or donates it’s time to. Ask for a link back to the dealership, it’s a valuable ranking factor!

The question to ask: How many links do we have pointing back to the dealership?

Look to increase this number as time goes on. Find new resources in both your local and regional community. If you’re donating time and resources to a local charity, they usually do not have an issue with listing you as a sponsor of their events, and linking back to your website. Make sure these links are of good quality, not just “Bob’s Superstore” but a description of the dealership, with the important keywords being the clickable text like “Chicago used car dealer”. Other resources include local bloggers on a variety of topics, little leagues, question and answer forums, religious communities and local car enthusiast sites.

5. Update your Title & Description Tags with Google Rules in Mind

Don’t just blindly start hacking apart the content, page titles and descriptions on your website, approach them from an educated analysis, taking into account the target keywords and how much room you can fill.

The question to ask: What does a “site:” search on our website say about us as a company?

Go to Google and type in “site:yourwebsite.com” and see what it knows about your site. Your title tags and description tags are what populate the actual search results when your website shows up in a search. Is there a good call to action to click thru to your website? They’re also an important ranking factor, and without the right words in a Title Tag, you might as well not be listed in the results at all. Use Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to help you with their standards.

I hope this checklist is helpful to those looking to be successful in internet marketing, and keep in mind, the items above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a complete immersion in digital marketing for automotive seo. You’ll want to look at SEO, PPC, IRM, Mobile & Social Media, to name a few of the major topics that make up your entire internet marketing strategy.

About the Author:
Matthew O’Such is a fanatic of Search Engine Optimization techniques, having spent the last 12 years specializing in internet marketing and website development. When he’s not fixing meta tags and training dealerships on better SEO practices, he’s doing research and development on the latest Google releases and updates from their webmasters blog and testing white-hat strategies. Matthew is the Senior SEO Strategist at PCG Digital Marketing in New Jersey and loves answering your challenging questions, you can contact him form more information at matt@pcgdigitalmarketing.com or 732-450-8200 x3.

• Article Archives

Have you thought about how much color has been added to Google’s search result pages?

It’s as if they took a cue from a broadway play and have created their own Technicolor Dream Coat.

Businesses that understand the importance of implementing an in-store process to collect customer reviews get an additional benefit with yellow stars next to their Google Places listing.

Yellow is a color that draws the eye.

The Amazon effect has clearly trained consumers to click on the “products” and now companies FIRST that have the highest ratings. This is an untapped opportunity for most car dealers.

Check and see how many stars you have compared to other dealers in your market.

Suggestion: Download the Google Places App and start a strategy to get your customers to post a review when they are engaged with you!

Are Your Friend’s Photos Showing Under Your Assets

But now, the technicolorization of SERP include photo thumbnails (enlarge photo below) of people who “+1″ the listing. Imagine the charge in click behavior when a person searches and sees 5 of their friends profile photos under the SERP listing for a specific business.

The addition of photo thumbnails add color and relevance to people from their network of friends. The colorization and personalization of SERP pages can be leveraged to increase click behavior of online shoppers.  You can see how powerful these thumbnails can be from the example below:

Do you have a technicolor search engine optimization strategy in place?  If you have not updated your Automotive SEO strategy to include these new opportunities, give us a call.

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch

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I am looking forward to helping car dealers implement the latest Automotive SEO strategies for their dealership on October 5-7th in Park Ridge New Jersey.  I’ll be speaking at Jim Ziegler’s Internet Battle Plan 7 on the opening day, October 5th.

This is the first time a conference of this size and scope has been scheduled in Northern New Jersey.  The location is perfect for dealers in NY, CT, RI, and PA to attend.

The hotel is located right off the Garden State Parkway and minutes from the New York Thruway.  Any dealer in the tri-state area can save on airfare costs by having their team drive to the Marriot and participate in this great conference.

Special SEO Offer For Early Birds

If you register by September 1st, PCG will prepare a custom SEO Analysis and Market Review of your dealership.  We’ll bring the report to the conference and take time to personally review our findings with you.  This offer is only for dealers who register by September 1st.

This full report would normally cost a dealer $1,000 but if you register early, you will have it included in your registration fee.  This is another example of the VALUE the Internet Battle Plan is offering dealers that attend.

Conference & Hotel Information

Park Ridge Marriott
300 Brae Boulevard
Park Ridge, NJ 07656

The Group Room Rate is $129… YOU NEED TO BOOK EARLY to receive the $129 rate.  Book Online

To make your reservation over the phone, you must provide the following call-in code: IBPIBPA
Room Reservations: 800.882.1038

See you in New Jersey in October!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences

Brian Pasch

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I am writing to remind those who care to DOMINATE their market, to consider these opportunities.

24×7 Managed Chat

If you would like to significantly increase high quality website leads using chat and have a money back guarantee, give us a call.

Managed 24×7 chat is real and effective. 35% of the chat leads come after you are closed. Chat leads close higher than website leads. So what are you waiting for?

Want 40% more website leads this month?

The ROI on chat is amazing. For most dealers, 24×7 managed chat is less than $1,000 a month and generates a 10x ROI. Now that’s exactly the numbers dealer principals need to hear about.

If our managed chat solution doesn’t deliver 40% more website leads, you get your money back!  

Mobile Text Marketing

If you would like to start building powerful opt-in mobile marketing lists, which have 95%+ consumer delivery rate, give me a call. Email open rates hover around 20% and are dropping. Mobile marketing is the channel that Gen Y and Z want to use!

We will design the showroom banners, signage, and desktop tent cards to engage your showroom customers. We’ll give you the strategy and word tracts to get your team engaged in collecting mobile phones. We’ll show you how to add mobile messaging to your print ads and TV commercials.

We will enhance your email marketing campaigns to drive more customers to opt-in to your mobile campaigns.

Do more with what you have in place for under $500 a month with a power mobile text marketing strategy.

Re-targeting Campaigns

Add up the total visitors to your website in a year to start to see the opportunity to touch these consumers multiple times during the year with a strategic banner advertising campaign.

For many dealers, annual unique visitor counts total over 100,000 people and many of these are local buyers. Imagine creating new messages each month to enhance your online reputation, sharing your work in the community, or the arrival of new models.

I challenge all dealers to invest $500 a month in a retargeting PPC budget to start building your re-marketing list. Each month that goes by you are losing people that may never come back.

ALL advertising investments that drive traffic to your website can be enhanced with retargeting. If you are using radio, TV, print, SEO, and/or PPC to drive traffic to your website, building a retargeting campaign makes all of these investments better.

Reputation Management Consulting

Here is a fact; all advertising investments are impacted eventually by your online reviews.

We have written about it in the past and we have turn-key solutions to help your team get MORE reviews that your competitors.  We show dealers how to use the Google Places application as well as the #1 rated in-store platform PrestoReviews.

Do a search on your dealership name and one page one is Google Places and your reviews. 30% of dealership organic traffic is on their store name. Google Places shows up on Page One 25,000 – 50,000 times a month for car dealers.

Our research has shown that less than 20% of car dealers have a proactive reputation management process in place. Despite selling thousands of cars a year and servicing 10x that number of cars, most dealers have less than 30 positive reviews online.

Dealers are still struggling to get buy-in from their team and implement in-store review process. So, we are now offering in-store consulting and training services to jumpstart your review process.

A 2-3 day visit to your store will demonstrate how to implement in-store review processes in service, sales, and F&I. We’ll make sure a proactive reputation management program enhances your online brand. If your dealership does not have HUNDREDS of strong reviews online, you are a candidate for onsite training.

Keep in mind that having strong reviews enhances your SEO positioning. Having poor reviews hurts your business because showing up on Page One with bad reviews just drives traffic to your competitors.

FOUR OPPORTUNITIES

I’ve listed four opportunities that have a clear and measurable ROI. No smoke and mirrors. Immediate visible results.  Are you utilizing all four?

I’ve listed four opportunities that have a clear and measurable ROI. No smoke and mirrors. Immediate visible results.  Are you utilizing all four?

PCG will work with your team to implement one or all of these solutions to ensure that you are dominating your market. We will ensure that you generate more leads and will stand by the ROI of these investments.

It starts with a call. You can call me direct at 732.672.2356,  Matt O’Such at 732.450.8200, or Lizelle Landino at 201-800-1315. Keep in mind that we work with ONE OEM brand per market so if you want the very best in digital strategy, be the first one in your market to call.

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
About Brian Pasch

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Industry thought leaders Ralph Paglia, Kathi Kruse, JD Rucker, Brian Pasch, and Paul Potratz are just some of the personalities that will share their insights into the latest opportunities for car dealers to grow their business online.

Paglia’s hands-on workshop, entitled “Digital Guerilla Marketing Strategies and Tactics,” will show dealers how to take advantage of emerging Internet marketing tools for guerilla marketers and how to recognize when their competitors are using these same tactics against them.

According to Paglia, “No dealer should try these techniques without knowing the risks and returns.”

Kathi Kruse will be addressing all conference attendees at the opening dinner reception on July 16^th with a keynote address titled: “How to Generate Through Social Media Integration.”

According to Kruse “Before they visit your store, internet savvy car shoppers spend up to 11 hours online researching you and your store. They bypass the Yellow Pages and cable ads to see what their Social network says about your reputation and inventory.”

JD Rucker, automotive social media pioneer, will be leading a popular workshop entitled “Facebook Marketing vs. Facebook Advertising.” With Facebook and Google + dominating discussions on new media strategies, Rucker brings to the table a proven tactical plan that dealers can implement to dominate your local markets.

The PCG Pit Stop Conference tour after Huntington Beach will continue its road trip to St. Louis, Seattle, Vancouver, and Toronto, delivering world-class education to car dealers on subjects they need to leverage new media opportunities.

12 Workshop Subjects Offered

The Pit Stop Conferences are open to any dealership employee but were created with Dealer Principals/GM, General Sales Managers/ISM, and Fixed Operations Managers in mind.

A total of 12 workshops will be presented in each city including strategies for Fixed Operations, Internet Lead Management, Video Search Marketing, Google Places, and Mobile Marketing.

To register for the PCG Pit Stop^® program or for more information, visit http://www.pcgpitstop.com . Dealers can also call 732.450.8200 ext 5 and ask for Renee McGowan to register via phone.

About Ralph Paglia

Ralph Paglia has 20+ years of leadership in information technology enabled automotive marketing strategies and tactical implementation. Widely known as the outspoken Director of Digital Marketing at ADP Dealer Services, Ralph is now the Vice President of Digital at Tier 10 Marketing.

About Kathi Kruse

Kathi Kruse is an Automotive Social Media Expert, Blogger, Coach, Author, and Founder of Kruse Control Inc. Born in the heart of Los Angeles to a family of “car people,” Kathi’s passion for the car business spans a 30-year career managing successful dealerships in Southern California. Kathi is co-author of the book “Next Up – Essential Social Media Strategies for Auto Dealerships.”

About JD Rucker

JD Rucker is Director of New Media at TK Carsites, responsible for research, development, and implementation of dealership marketing strategies on search engines and social media.

JD is also President of Hasai, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of TK Carsites that specializes in viral marketing campaigns in and out of the automotive industry. His works, strategies, and quotes have been seen in hundreds of publications and news outlets including NY Times, NPR, and Time.

• Article Archives

18 months ago being on Page One was the goal of most Automotive SEO strategists. Today, you need to make sure your online reviews, social media “likes”, and now “+1′s” also show next to your listing.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record:

Being on Google Page One with poor reviews is actually hurting your brand.  Now, being on Page One with nobody recommending your page is going to be negative as well!

Email From Google About Adwords +1

Here is the email from Google I received today: (in italic)

In the coming weeks, your search results and ads on Google will include a +1 button, which users can click to recommend your ads. You don’t need to make any changes to your account in order to take advantage of them. The final landing page URL of your ads can also appear on the Google profile of any user who +1’s your ad.

Here’s how the +1 button works:

Let’s say you own a hotel in Madrid. Brian had a lovely stay at your hotel last summer. When Brian starts researching accommodations for his next trip to Spain, he searches on Google while signed into his Google account, and sees your ad. He clicks the +1 button on the ad to recommend it to his contacts.

When Brian’s friend Ann plans her trip to Spain, she signs in to her Google account, searches, and also sees your ad – plus the personalized annotation that Brian +1’d it. Knowing that Brian recommends your hotel helps Ann decide where to stay during her travels.

Think of the +1 button as a way for fans of your business to recommend what you offer, for all their friends and contacts to see. By helping searchers see more personal, relevant ads, we believe you’ll see more qualified traffic. You can also add the +1 button to your site to give your customers the opportunity to +1 your site after visiting it.

What +1 Means To Your Business

Do you have a process to leverage the Google +1 feature for your business?

The +1 is the next “gold rush” for Page One relevance and conversion. Imagine what happens when your organic listing for your dealership home page have 100 +1 votes. In this example, what happens when your ads get recommended.

I hope you can see the clear opportunity and now you just need a strategy. Automotive Advertising and Google search marketing is continually evolving to provide the most RELEVANT and DESIRED result for consumers.

That said there are creative ways to empower your customer base to make sure you get the attention you need on Page One.  You need an online marketing strategy and these continued changes should be proof enough that dealers need to be paying attention and reacting.

Note:  Did you see the Google +1 voting tool at the top of this page? Time to get this on your blogs as well.

Digital Marketing Strategy – Do You Have One?

I’ll be reviewing the opportunities for the Google +1 tool at all of the upcoming PCG Pit Stop Conferences. I will also be addressing the impact of social media links and likes, which continue to influence SERP’s.

Dates and locations can be found at http://www.pcgpitstop.com.

• Article Archives

There have been many articles on this community website about Automotive SEO but few have been focused on Conquest Marketing using Search Engine Optimization strategies.

Rob Fontano is one of the few people who could be called The King of Conquest Marketing.  Rob has published hundreds of videos that are optimized on competing brands in his local market.

Ft Myers Toyota Camry

Need an example?  Go to Google and type in “Ft Myers Toyota Camry” and this is what you will see:

You will see that there is a local Toyota dealer in Ft Myers and right under their website are two videos that challenge consumers to consider purchasing a Nissan Altima instead of the Toyota Camry.  Are people clicking on this video?  See the view counter on the first video:

Toyota Camry Naples

How about in John Marazzi Nissan’s own home town of Naples Florida.  Yes, there is a Toyota Dealer in Naples and they are not getting a break.  Type into Google: “Toyota Camry Naples” and you will see:

Take a minute to watch this video on www.metacafe.com. (Watch Video)  Rob does a great job of talking to the consumer and the videos are being watched!   This one video on MetaCafe was watched over 800 times. Videos are just one way to implement a conquest search marketing strategy but Rob does an outstanding job with video.

Join Rob’s Video Marketing Workshop

If you have not started a conquest marketing strategy, consider implementing one since with SEO it is very low cost.  If you would like to learn more about Rob’s strategy, he will be conducting a 2 hour technology workshop at the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, April 16-18th in Orlando.  The workshop is sponsored by automotive video experts Car-Mercial.

Rob will be candidly sharing his strategy, process, and the results of his video marketing investments.  I’m really looking forward to his workshop.  Listen to what Rob has to say about his workshop:

• Article Archives

It’s amazing how many people have called to ask about the JC Penny and Overstock.com SEO scandal. Let me assure you that anyone who has taken my Automotive SEO Workshops or attended my webinars, the strategies that these unnamed SEO companies implemented is NOT anything I would have recommended.

I made a video to help car dealers understand that good Automotive SEO strategies are compliant and effective. If you have any doubt,you can read some of the success stories on this blog. Let me give you a few recent examples of winning SEO strategies.

Fiat 500 Dealers

Recently the Fiat 500 was launched in the US and Fiat dealers were scrambling to get their facilities completed in time for March delivery of the car.  For many dealers their Fiat branded website is still not completed as of this writing.   Using Automotive SEO Strategies, we have been able to assist Fiat dealers with lead generation.

If you search Google for “Fiat Dealer” or “Fiat Dealers” for example, you will see the AAN microsite on Google Page One:  http://www.fiatdealer.org.  As we add names, addresses, and websites for Fiat dealers across the United States, this site will provide an annuity of leads for Fiat dealers using SEO strategies.

Fisker Dealers in California

Just yesterday I received a call from Fisker of Orange County and was told that the microsite we built resulted in two Fisker Karma cars being sold in one week.  One of the cars was from a man in Texas and the second car was from a famous movie star.  One did a search on the Internet for “Fisker California” and another for “Los Angeles Fisker Dealer” and found the dealership website assets that I linked.

Keep in mind that the first search was very broad (the whole state) and the second was a large market outside of Orange County (LA) that the dealer wanted to attract shoppers from.  Automotive SEO strategies can increase the paths that lead consumers to your products, services, and cars.

Automotive SEO Requires Patience

So, Automotive SEO strategies are alive and well when authenticity, good content and design are implemented.  When you take your time to invest in SEO over 12-18 months, you can really increase your local search visibility.  Check our Brickell Honda’s search visibility in Google for the phrase “2011 Honda Accord Miami“.

When you optimize content on your main website, create microsites, utilize press releases, and post videos you increase the paths by which consumers can find you.  In this case, Brickell Honda has published their message in multiple places to gain 80% of the organic listings.

Digital Marketing and Social Media Education

If hope that articles such as this and others on this blog will inspire you to increase your investments in digital marketing and social media education.  the 2nd Annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp is coming up on April 16-18th and your return on investment will be rewarded 10-fold.  Check out the conference brochure below and register today at:  http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com

• Article Archives

Every week it seems that a new social media website or micro-blogging platform comes to market and your circle of friends invite you to join.  I don’t know about you but how does the average person evaluate the benefits of using these new digital marketing tools? Are you overwhelmed?  Do you feel that you are dodging bullets?

In the past 60 days you may have been invited and joined:

• IMfaceplate.com
• CarDealerWiki.org
• Amplify.com
• Thoughts.com
• Quora.com
• Branchout.com

I thought I would share with you some of the processes I use to evaluate the many requests that come across my desk each month.  In my experience, some websites serve as useful Automotive SEO tools, others as Automotive Social Media tools, and some just fail to do anything.  The key is to know how to evaluate your investment in these websites.  You must have the tools to evaluate which websites are worthy of your continued investment of time and energy.

Your time is valuable so treat it that way!

Automotive Advertising Strategies

For car dealers, automotive advertising strategies have never been as diverse and confusing as they are today.  Dealers are faced with deciding how to find the correct balance of traditional marketing, social media, SEO, SEM, blogging, email marketing, re-marketing, and the list goes on.  All of the sites that I listed above may have been presented to dealers as “worthy” of their staff time and content.

Which new websites are really delivering on those claims?

All of the sites listed above may be suited for car dealers.  However, some may be better for personal branding.   In either case, the question comes down to your time investment.  Should you engage or not?

Sites You Think Are Good For SEO

If a website is introduced to you as a new Automotive SEO tool, there are some quick ways to measure that claim.  First, make sure you are using Google Alerts, Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools.  Setup Google Alerts for your dealership name and your personal name.

I like to use Google Alerts to see how fast a blog post I created is picked up by Google. This is a measure of how often Google pulls and indexes content.

For example, I posted content on www.Quora.com, recommended by my friend Eric Miltsch, under my name this past week.  One question I posted was about Frank Herbert and Dune books. I received a Google Alert within an hour of posting and from the screen shot below, you can see that it is now in the Google index.  This site is definitely respected by Google.

In contrast, all the social media sign-ups that I have done on Branchout.com in the past two weeks have not triggered any Google Alerts.  In the first case, Quora.com is getting into the Google search stream and Branchout.com seems to be limited to inside of Facbeook.  Branchout.com fails on the SEO front and we will have to see how it does on the networking front.

Automotive Advertising on CarDealerWiki

As I stated in another blog post this week, www.CarDealerWiki.org is showing strong SEO visibility and links.  Take a look at this search query for a dealer who is leveraging the page publishing power of CarDealerWiki:

You Should Be Seeing Increased Links

Secondly, if your posts or articles on micro-blogging platforms are being respected by the search engines, any hyperlinks in your posts should be showing in Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools to your main website.   If after 30-60 days your links are not showing, you can assume you are not getting SEO back-link benefits from these posts.

Sites You Think Are Good For Networking

Other websites that are not designed for Automotive SEO may claim to increase your networking potential.  In these cases, I recommend that you use a tracking phone number on all posts to these sites.  This can be in the form of a user profile or a signature block that you add to all articles.  In addition to tracking numbers, you can see how many people are commenting on your posts.

For example, IMFaceplate.com is a new micro-blogging platform.  I have posted about 12 articles on my profile so take a peek:  Brian Pasch.  The comments on my articles have not been very interactive or meaningful.  In addition to low engagement, I have not been seeing Google Alerts coming in for my efforts.  I will give this website another month or content and if I don’t see any positive confirmations form the search engines, I will stop.

As a side note, www.imfaceplate.com has slow website response times which I think is hampering their search engine credibility.

Prioritizing Your Time

With so many new websites in play each month, just be careful about how you invest your time.  Measure the search visibility, link counts, or contacts you get by engaging in any new community.

If you want some proven strategies for content publishing and link building, there are many articles that I have published in the past.  If you need an updated Top 10 List, just send me an email:  brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com.  I’ll send you my Top 10 Content Publishing websites that can assist car dealers with search visibility, links, and traffic generation.

P.S.  Dealers who want to develop the strongest digital marketing strategies for 2011, are coming to the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference Feb 1-3rd in the Napa Valley prior to NADA.  You can be there as well, register at: http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org

• Article Archives

The largest “wiki” website for the automotive industry is http://www.CarDealerWiki.org. This website is a great resource for dealers embarking on a Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign and also for dealers who want to syndicate their used car inventory.

CarDealerWiki.org is a free website that is for employees of car dealerships, vendors of the automotive industry, and related automotive service and news providers. Getting started with CarDealerWiki is as simple as creating an account and completing the sign-up form.

It is recommended that you register with an email account from your business and NOT from Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail. Once your registration is approved, normally within 24 hours, you can claim your dealership profile page and create powerful content and backlinks.  Email accounts not associated with a business website will not be approved to reduce spam.

Creating More Automotive Backlinks

One of the most powerful ways a car dealer can increase the search authority of their website is to build quality backlinks from well respected websites. The more links a dealer has pointing to his relevant website content, the higher that page will rank in the search engines. Think of links as “votes” to your website pages.

It is a challenge to find free websites that allow car dealers to post original content and create backlinks on a variety of keywords and phrases.

CarDealerWiki is one of the best websites to assist dealers with content publishing and backlink building.

In fact, the site has a number of automated features that make content generation and link building very easy, some which are shown below:

1. You can drop in your RSS feed from DealerRater.com (view example)
2. You can drop in your RSS feed of new car inventory (view example)
3. You can drop in your RSS feed of used car inventory (view example)
4. You can drop in customer testimonial videos from Youtube
5. You can drop in your RSS feed from your blog

Capital Ford Lincoln in Canada has a very detailed profile page and sub-pages that integrates their inventory, videos, and their blog posts.  Take a peek by visiting their page at:  http://www.cardealerwiki.org/Capital_Ford_Lincoln.

Marketing Used Cars on CarDealerWiki

CarDealerWiki.org also supports the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) data feed so members have direct access to their inventory with searchable RSS parameters so they can create used car marketing pages for any make or model.

The architecture of CarDealerWiki.org really empowers car dealers to build links to their Vehicle Detail Pages.  This is a significant competitive edge that is little talked about in the industry. Not all website providers provide a properly formatted RSS feed of car inventory, for those that do, dealers can really leverage this website.

Midway Motors in Kansas created a Used Car marketing page for Hillsboro Kansas and the cars shown on this page http://www.cardealerwiki.org/Hillsboro_Used_Cars provide not only more visibility for their cars but also links back to their main dealership website and Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP)

CarDealerWiki Pages Index For Automotive Search Phrases

The key with any SEO campaign is to see if Google is respecting the content and links generated from a third party website and in this matter CarDealerWiki.org is a superstar.

Take a look at the screen capture below for a search on the phrase “Nissan Altima Marlboro“.  Marlboro Nissan operates a dealership in Marlboro Massachusetts and the content pages he created on CarDealerWiki is helping to defend his PMA.

You will see that CarDealerWiki has two listing on Google Page One. In fact, 90% of this page is filled with search results that Tim Martell, Internet Marketing Director and founder of WikiMotive has implemented for his store.

You can also search for a Fiat Dealers in the USA with a term like “Fiat Dealers USA” and you will see that CarDealerWiki.org is on Google Page One for this national search phrases.  Type into Google “Regina Ford Service” and you will see CarDealerWiki.org on Google Page One for a dealer created service page.

Dealers Can Be Creative

The power of CarDealerWiki.org is that car dealers can create pages for new cars, used cars, service, parts, and warranty repairs in their local markets.  Well formatted content pages can link back to the dealer’s primary website to enhance the search authority of their main website.

So if dealers need more search visibility and links and content are a part of that solution, I encourage all car dealers in the US and Canada to create an account and get started building out content on CarDealerWiki.org for their dealership.

If you are a website provider or an SEO Consultant working on behalf of a dealership, you can assist your clients on CarDealerWiki.org as well.  Register with your business email address and complete your profile and your one login can be used for all your clients.

Now get to work!

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To date, I had documented cases where you can have normal organic listings before the Google Places “block” or after the “block” but until now, the section of listings was unbroken with traditional organic listings not associated with Google Places.  In the example below, the “red” block of Google Places listings are interrupted by the “green” block of non-Google Places listings.

A More Democratic Page One SERP

Today I saw something new; Page One results were mixed with enhanced listings from Google Places and normal organic listings.  The former “block” of Google Places listings was interrupted by normal organic listings.  In this case, one of those results was an exact matching domain to the search phrase queried, shown in yellow.

The boxed area in RED are listing associated with domain names that are included in Google Places.  The areas in GREEN are organic listings on domains not associated with Google Places.  I am very glad to see this SERP because it reinforces my belief that microsites, non-primary dealer websites, will still be effective and visible is common automotive search phrases.

Google Places Is Not The Only Defense

There was some fear that only domains listed in Google Places would dominate organic search results but this example shows that Google is tweaking their formula still.

In the example above, you can see how a business PRIMARY  website that appears in Google Places can be enhanced with additional microsites and marketing websites, if they can be optimized for popular local search phrases.   Creating a website on www.bradentonusedcars.org is a good application of a dealer microsite for a local city search phrase for used cars.

I’ll keep an eye out for the changes in organic search results but it looks like Google is still refining the SERP model.  Third party advertising platforms, like www.usedcars.com which is shown above, should be happy with this update to the SERP display.

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With that said, I am actually very pleased with the course that I have set for PCG Digital Marketing clients and the design of the Automotive Advertising Network.  Both strategies draw their strengths from targeted microsite strategies.  My microsite strategies are often exact matches to common search phrases. This exact match could be a dealer’s name to improve their POD Score™.  A microsite could also be created to match a broad search phrase like “Los Angeles Dealers”, which produces the search result shown below:

In the search results shown above, you can see that an “exact match” domain with good content, links, and relevance PRECEDES the massive block of results shown in green that are enhanced by Google Places data.  You can also see the other two websites that rank above the Google Places block are not slackers at all: Automotive.com and Cars.com.  A car dealer that is listed on www.losangelesdealers.org has a strategic advantage.

Google SERP Find Exact Matches First

I’ve said this before and will repeat it again, Google always tries to present, on a search results page (SERP),  the best matching assets in its database.  Google, Yahoo, and Bing all weight exact matching domains very high as long as the websites have relevant content.  Redirected domains that are not hosted will never appear in search results so all those parked domains you may own are not helping you.  It may be time to get those parked domains on a real content publishing strategy!

When Google integrated Google Places, the normal 8-10 organic listings were changed dramatically which created a “jump ball” once again in the search marketing Olympics.  Some of you may know that I won that jump ball during the Cash For Clunkers program as well as the Toyota Recall fiasco.   Once again, I’m pleased with what I am seeing in the revised search results presented by Google.

Don’t Forget The Stars

Before I continue about changes in SERP listings, I would like to remind all car dealers that they MUST develop a comprehensive Internet Reputation Management (IRM) strategy to increase participation of their clients to posted reviews.  My recommendation is that a successful dealer should have TWICE the number of positive reviews “stars” of their nearest competitor.  That may be harder in years to come but all dealers should have a few HUNDRED reviews posted from authentic customers.

Testing Search Results Start To Show A Trend

From recent testing that I have done, websites hosted on great domain names may actually have an edge over local car dealer websites.  Take a look at the search listed below.  The websites that Google felt were best matches and NOT in Google Places were listed first.  Then the local dealers were listed.  I don’t know about you but I’m happy for Brickell Motors who is in position #1 for that broad search phrase on an exact matching microsite domain.

Once again, the TOP websites above the integrated and enhanced Google Places organic listings are two heavyweight contenders UsedCars.com and Yahoo Autos.

Broad Searches Continue To Show Trends

This trend continues as you type in even broader searches, and you can see that websites that are EXACT matching or that have high SEO inbound links on targeted keywords, appear on Google Page One.  So, in essence, Automotive SEO strategies are still in tact and dealers that have EXACT matching microsites are getting a boost.

In the example below, CarsForSale.com (in red)  is an exact search and displayed prominently. www.CarDealerSale.com (in blue)  is on page one because of optimized inbound links on this search phrase.   You can not easily see that but since I created those links, but I know that to be true.  What is interesting to note is that the Google Places listings shows just local dealers because it has determined that this search is not for any particular region.

The Future Automotive SEO

Since I am an advocate of Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, you would expect me to substantiate my work but I will be the first to say that the changes with Google Places is still a dynamic event.   I’ll keep you posted on what I find and make recommendations to take advantage of opportunities I see.

One last screen capture below shows that Automotive SEO strategies that include VIDEO (green), document publishing (pink), and microsites (red) can help a local dealer increase the number of paths that bring consumers to their dealership.  In this case, Alexandria Hyundai dominates the “above the fold ” SERP listings.

Now the marriage of a well designed Adwords Campaign and Automotive SEO, that is heavenly!   We’ll discuss that at a later date as well at the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa Valley, February 1-3, 2011.   I hope to see you there.

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For example, if you are a Chevrolet dealer in Paramus New Jersey test out a few basic phrases:

• New Jersey Chevrolet Dealer
• Paramus Chevrolet Dealer
• Chevrolet Impala Paramus
• Chevrolet Service Paramus

There are differences in how the Microsoft technology and Google technology work and after you have studied this for a while, those differences become clearer. I would like to challenge all readers to take a moment to take 10 popular search phrases that are part of your SEO strategy and check your rankings in Yahoo.

You can place you name beside each listing to see which your business controls and the work to raise those positions over the next few months.

Practicing What We Preach

For PCG Digital Marketing, the new Yahoo is actually recognizing our leadership in content publishing. We practice what we preach.  Some of our top keyword targets are “Automotive SEO“, “Automotive Reputation Management”, “Automotive Social Media“, and “Automotive Microsites”. You can see that our focus on SEO has rewarded us with good placement in Yahoo.

If your Yahoo results and Bing results are not as strong as Google, or visa versa, it’s a good time to roll-up your SEO sleeves and make some investment in updating your Automotive SEO strategies.

In these snapshots taken on 8/30/2010, TK stands for www.tkcarsites, PR stands for Paul Rushing from www.dealerbytes.com and ADM stands for Ralph Paglia’s ADM Community.  These are companies that are active members of the automotive digital marketing forums.

Yahoo Search: Automotive SEO

Automotive Reputation Management

Yahoo Search: Automotive Microsites

Yahoo Search: Automotive Social Media

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According to a post on Google’s Webmaster blog, large websites that have strong consumer interest, can now have more than two organic search results. This is a big change because if website can get four organic listings, they will dominate the top places where consumers click above the fold.

 In the example on the Google blog, a museum can have four organic listings at the top of a SERP:

This change would seem to apply to larger website that have a well organized website structure.   You can always tell a large, well organized website because it has Google Sitelinks.  Sitelinks are helpers to get consumers to popular inside pages on your website.

Car dealers who have a number of sitelinks already under their main page would most likely be a candidate.  In the graphic below, Google created Sitelinks for Checkered Flag’s main website because it is well organized and there are a number of brands that they sell:

Sitelinks can not be added by a dealer but once Google decides to add these links, you can delete any that you don’t want to show using Google Webmaster Tools.

Is This a Good Change?

The reactions on the Google Webmaster Blog are mixed but for car dealers I like this change.  This will definitely help with Google Page One Management when car dealers have lead collectors and distractions showing on Google Page One for their dealership name.  It may also drive more traffic to relevant inside pages to facilitate a better consumer experience.

So this brings up another reason why all pages on your website need to be optimized for the best user experience because Sitelinks and their new SERP feature will be driving consumers to popular inside pages. 

What are your thoughts on this change in how organic search results will be displayed?

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Webinar Registration Link

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/603596369.  Since this offer is only for 100 dealerships, we encourage you to register quickly while space is open.  There is no cost for the webinar.

Ever wonder what free tools are available for Search Engine Optimization for automotive dealers?

Find out from PCG Digital Marketing experts the best tools in the industry that are just a click away.  You’ll also get access to tools developed by PCG and for the first time, 100 dealers will get login accounts to utilize these tools.

This is a must see webinar for Automotive Internet Managers focusing on getting results from the little time available in your week to do research and development for expanding your brand online.

This webinar will be conducted by Brian Pasch, CEO of the PCG Digital Marketing. Brian has penned a series of white-papers to help automotive professionals understand the challenges and opportunities that exist with online marketing.

Details

Title: Free Automotive SEO Tools by PCG Digital Marketing
 
Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2010
  
Time: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EDT
 
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
 
This webinar is open only to employees of dealerships. The tools and logins are designed for internal employees of car dealers and not consultants and vendors.  Registrants must have valid car dealership email and no Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. email accounts.

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As you know,  PCG is an advocate for both strategies and we are passionate about the return on investment, not cost, that these services provide.

Benefits of A Strong Automotive SEO Strategy

In a nutshell with Automotive SEO, car dealers get:

• Search Relevance
  • Good Content
  • Good Website Architecture
  • New Content Added To Website
• External Links
  • From A Diverse Group Of Sites
  • From Authoritative Automotive Sites
  • With Quality Anchor Text
  • And Proper Page Positioning
• New Sources of Traffic
  • Social Media
  • Content Publishing
  • Automotive Forums
  • Advertising Portals

Car dealers are in the weakest position when it comes to building external links.  Links are the “votes” from other websites and the links authenticate your web site’s value for specific search phrases.  Over time dealers should have THOUSANDS of good links pointing to their websites.

When dealers realize that there are about 25 third party websites that I see on Google Page One every day pushing their website off Page One, the issue of links will become more apparent.  Dealers have given their inventory to free advertising portals that have created sites that rank above them in their OWN TOWN.

I estimate that less than 5% of dealers nationwide understand that if they only have ONE website to market their goods and they are not concerned about links, then they will be at a significant disadvantage.  The disadvantage is getting larger each day.

If you want to validate this claim, type in a year, make and model search for your town and brand of car you sell.  See just how many dealers vs. third party lead collectors/advertisers are on page one that are NOT dealer centric in their ad model.

The days of consumers going to one car advertising website because of a million dollar off-line branding campaign is being diminished by many new paths to searching and researching a car.  Consumers are getting more sophisticated in their search behavior and are more empowered to find their own “best” deal.

Search 2008 Toyota Corolla Downey

There is a Toyota dealership in Downey California. When you look at the Page One search results, the dealer’s website is no where to be found and its their own city.  80% of the page is occupied by third party lead collectors or third party advertising portals.

Check it out yourself:  View Search (shown in photo on right)

Automotive SEO strategies that include microsites, content writing, link building and social media do not make sales and visibility changes overnight.

Most dealers do not have the patience so in the end they spend 2x more on pay-per-click investments over the long-haul.

Automotive SEO is a long-term investment in your multi-million dollar franchise.

In the past 6 months we have seen a 200% increase in competitive search traffic for year, make and model searches and it’s not looking good for dealers who ignore SEO strategies.

AAN Members Can Fight Back

Do a similar search for a member of the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) which is the first dealer centric advertising network.

Search: 2008 Toyota Camry Englewood

You will see their AAN local advertising page in the 3rd postion on Google Page One, shown in the image below:

Note: The dealer’s own Dealer.com website is not on Google Page One.  This is not a criticism about their DDC website but rather commonplace from what I can see.  Car dealer websites are under attack and they don’t yet see the problem.

Members of the AAN get both Automotive SEO and Social Media integration benefits that include:

• Inventory Plugin For Facebook
• Customer Testimonial Channel Plugin For Facebook
• Unlimited Blog Posting on the AAN’s Automotive News Network
• Inventory integration to their own blogs
• Cars listed on national, regional and local advertising pages
• Numerous links back to dealer’s primary website
• Unlimited leads from optimized SEO advertising pages

Social Media ROI

Social media is more than Facebook and Twitter and it includes tasks like Reputation Management, FourSquare, Social Communities and Blogging.  As dealers participate in online communities and social media platforms they can connect and engage with consumers in their marketplace.  As the video points out, if you compare everything in social media with outdated ROI standards you will be missing the point of social media.

PCG’s own advertising budget is primarily based on social media.  We participate in blogs, social networks and communities to get our services and expertise in front of business owners.  Our company’s growth is based on practicing our own SEO strategies and social media participation.

Dealers as a whole are impatient with the process. I understand that impatience but I would not stake my reputation and career on vaporware.

Someone said it best, “Don’t bet against Pasch”.

I took that as a great compliment but it reflects my passion.   I work around the clock testing new ways to assist car dealers increase their search relevance and authority.

The Automotive Advertising Network is a delivery on that passion (SEO and Social) and promise those that participate will be rewarded…just not overnight like a PPC campaign would deliver.

Automotive SEO and Social Media engagement is a critical investment that must be a part of all car dealer budgets.

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The first thing I questioned was the relevance of the patent since so much has changed in the past 6 years in search.  The patent data include this text:

Ranking documents based on user behavior and/or feature data
Invented by Jeffrey A. Dean, Corin Anderson and Alexis Battle
Assigned to Google Inc.
United States Patent 7,716,225
Granted May 11, 2010
Filed: June 17, 2004

SEO pundits have differing opinions on the specific value of this patent but to save you the internal banter, I will try to distill what I think is most important.  This patent is focused on how Google will “weight” links on a web page.  The weighting may include predicting what a consumer would most likely click on a web page.  So a text link in the first paragraph of a blog article, with interesting anchor text, could have more “weight” than a link in the bottom page footer.

Links are critical in the overall visibility of any website and this patent is part of that discussion.  The discussion that has surfaced pertains to where is the best place for links on a page and how do different types of links “rate” with Google. 

For example, a link from the home page of Automotive News to any dealer’s website is a great link to have since that site is a recognized authority in the automotive industry.  This link would have more “weight” than a link from a brand new microsite or a friends landscaping website.

Building Inbound Links

Car dealers who have launched effective off-site SEO campaigns that produce high quality inbound links from well ranked websites normally have an edge over their competition with all other things considered equal. 

However, it is difficult for dealers to independently create hundreds or thousands of high quality links to their websites.   Dealers can obtain high quality links from press releases, social communities, car forums, article syndication, document publishing portals and business directories.  Increasing links is like an annuity of good will and create a digital marketing foundation.

If you have been considering increasing the links to your website, you should understand some of the basics of link building.  Some of the questions you may have are:

• How many links do I have directed to my website?
• What is a good link?
• Where can I find places to create links back to my site?
• Where should that link be located?
• Are image links better than text links?

To find the number of inbound links pointing to your website, and to make it easy for anyone to get a correct count, I recommend that you go to www.websitegrader.com .  Type in your domain name and then click on the “Create Report” button.  The free report and analysis includes the number of “inbound links”.

While you have the report, take a look at the data and one thing to spot is when your domain is going to expire.  If it’s less than two years, renew it today.  Also, if your score is under 70/100, it would be a good time to give PCG a call.

Dealers who want to be competitive in online search should seek to have a diverse set of high quality sites linking to their website.  I bring this up because often I see hundreds of links coming from only one website and so the number of links masks the problem of low diversity. The total recommended links will vary but I would like to see over 1,000 links to the dealer’s home page and hundreds of links to key inside web pages like service, parts, and used cars.

A good link is one that comes from a reputable website that has real content, real visitor activity and relevance to your business.  The site can also be unrelated to your business but one that has a high Google PageRank. There are many link building scams on the market, so be careful that you don’t waste your money.

 The Reasonable Surfer Patent   emphasizes what I have been recommending for years. Content based SEO strategies that include blogs, press releases, article publishing, posting articles on technical forums and social communities can deliver high quality links.  The key is to place that link in such a way that enhances the page and that links to the right page on your dealer website.

An example would be posting an article, outside of your website, about the different types of Nissan extended warranty plans available to a consumer.  In the article you would place links to the extended warranty page on your dealer website or even Nissan brochures on your website.  Car dealers who have been blogging for years or participating in automotive forums already know this. 

How Many Links Do You Have?

Do you know how many links are pointing to your website?  How about your competitor’s website?

You can see inbound links on any website by going to Yahoo and typing in your competitor’s domain name or your domain name with the “link” parameter.   For example, if you wanted to see where ABC Ford (www.abcford.com) was building links from you would go to Yahoo and type in the search box:

link:www.abcford.com 

No spaces. This will bring up the Yahoo Site Explorer  and it will show you the first 1,000 inbound links to any website. 

There is a debate whether a text link will not be as strong as an image that is linked because a “surfer” may be more likely to click on a photo or banner that is above the fold.  There is no uniform agreement on this matter.      Should you bold the text anchor?  Should you use larger fonts for the anchor text?  That is where the art of link building and testing comes into play.

What is most uniformly agreed is that a list of links in a sidebar or footer will not be as strong as links inside an article.  Of course I am talking about a well written article with links on anchor text that point to relevant pages on a dealer’s website.

If you want to target high value keywords that you want your website to appear on Google Page One, then a combination of good on-site content and a few hundred links from external sites may be just what you need.   The strategy for off-site links will be to use the keyword in content and hyperlink that keyword to an appropriate page on your website.   It’s a two part strategy that must be in place to win.

 If your keyword goal is very competitive you will most likely need thousands of links.  The point is that over time, you can compete and win against your local competitors if you have a strong content writing and off-site link building strategy.

Need help with link building?  Give us a call at 732-450-8200.

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As PCG Digital Marketing has expanded its own offerings to car dealers, none are more apparent than Fixed Operations digital marketing and optimization.

In this case, car dealers don’t have to go far to see that most car dealers are invisible on Google Page One for searches for tires, brakes, oil changes and parts in their own PMA.

Fixed Operations SEO is not widely discussed within online communities or at trade conferences, and yet it is a true bread winner for car dealers.  I have been working with a number of car dealers that have decided to aggressively advertise that they offer competitive prices on the most common car repairs and service.  The key is to take that offline decision to the search engines for consumers to see online.

There are a few ways to attack generating more calls and leads for service, so I will create a multi-part series on this topic and also schedule a webinar to help dealers with implementing effective Fixed Ops search strategies.

Before we talk about search strategies, it is vitally important that you do local market research on competing dealers and independent service center.  Use this data to establish your pricing and marketing message. Ask your digital advertising agency to create online and offline branding graphics and messages that can be used in print, television, banner ads and on your website.

Once you have the graphics and message worked out, add service pages to your main website or dedicated service website that match your offline message.  I suggest that you have specific landing pages for oil changes, brakes, tires, transmission service, etc.  Each of these pages should have a lead capture form and a clear call-to-action button to schedule a service appointment.

Once your dedicated service landing pages are in place, you can start a Google Adwords campaign which buys keywords that can be directed to the appropriate service landing page.  For example, if you bought the words “oil change” or “Oil and Lube”, you should direct those clicks to the oil change landing page that you just created.  Do not send consumers to a generic service appointment form with no message about why they should have their next oil change done at your dealership.

In Google Adwords this is called setting up Ad Groups, so I suggest that each Ad Group be directed to the best landing page you created.

Fixed Operations Videos

On your service landing pages, I suggest that you consider creating videos that address the common fear that getting a service done at your dealership is more expensive than at an independent service shop.  If you want to see two good examples of videos that talk to the consumer about dealership service benefits, click on the links below:

• Checkered Flag Service Video
• Mac Haik Service Video

In the case of Checkered Flag, their video team created a series of service videos that address specific services.  If you click on the oil change link on the Checkered Flag service site, you will see that Christine’s video is different than the home page and talks specifically about oil changes.

If you would like to create a video package of 10 service videos, drop me a line because there are a number of companies that can do this for your dealership at a very reasonable cost.  Fixed Ops videos will turn those boring pages on your website into selling tools.

It is wise to note that by creating a separate and optimized service website, car dealers can run TWO Adwords campaigns at the same time.  This means your normal new and used car sales Adwords campaign can be running at the same time as your service Adwords campaign.

This has some added competitive advantages as well as addressing consumer behavior that clouds accurate assessment of sales campaigns. Consumers often click on car sales PPC ads when what they really want is service.  Next time you want to see this, just listen to the phone calls recorded from your PPC campaign.

Dealers can create a service ad group which buys your dealership name and in that ad group create ads that are service specific messages. This can reduce the contamination of your car marketing PPC results by reducing the number of service clicks out of the sales campaign.

Automotive SEO for Fixed Ops

In addition to Adwords SEM, I suggest that dealers create a stand-alone service website that is optimized for their PMA and the most common services they offer.  A service Microsite will create an annuity of high quality service leads once it is indexed every year without advertising costs.  The interesting fact is that most car dealers are NOT appearing in the organic search results for services like oil change, tires and brakes.

The market is wide open for those who respond first.

The organic listings in Google for service searches are filled with franchises like Jiffy Lube, Meineke and Discount Tire stores.  It’s time for car dealers to fight back and give consumers a choice when they search online.  Search optimized websites for Fixed Operations actually index rather quickly because local dealers have ignored this aspect of Automotive SEO.

Also, buy creating a separate service website, you can choose a URL that will better match consumer search.   For example, if you purchased www.seattlejeepservice.com you would have a better change of appearing in service related searches in Seattle.

Fixed Operations Digital Marketing

If you have not been exploiting the profit and revenue associated with a dedicated Fixed Ops digital marketing campaign, there is no better time to start than today.  If you need assistance, drop me a line and we can coach you through the process.

PCG has a new Fixed Operations marketing package and stand-alone website that may be the right fit for your business for as little as $395 per month. Give us a call 732-450-8200

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A recent post on an automotive social networking forum brought up the question about back links to their dealer website.  Having high quality automotive website linking to your dealership website is an important part of an Automotive SEO strategy.  However, getting links from other automotive websites is not an easy task.

Before I make some suggestions on how to build links, it is important to stay away from offers that sound too good to be true.  Every week I get email solicitations from companies from India, Russia and the UK offering one-way links for a low fee.  Most of these services create links from websites that will add no real value to your Automotive SEO strategy.

Automotive User Groups

In the automotive space, consider becoming a sponsor of popular automotive user group forums for your specific brand.  Many offer links building opportunities and banner advertising at a very reasonable cost.  For example, if you are a Nissan dealership you may consider becoming a supporting member of www.nicoclub.com  or www.nissanforums.com.

There are dedicated user groups and forums for every brand of cars.  These sites have high keyword density and relevance for the dealer brand they represent.  Articles posted on these sites, posting your cars for sale, or just advice to forum members can produce high quality links back to your website.

A word of advice; become a supporter and clearly identify yourself as a vendor. Also, take it slowly and build up your reputation and trust in the forum or you will be thrown out on your ass.

Outside of well ranked automotive user groups websites, look for automotive blogs that offer advertising space; many exist.  An alternative is to look for automotive blogs or communities that will allow you to post articles in a field of your expertise for free.  This is perfect for automotive professionals that like to write and share ideas.

If you don’t have the time or the motivation to write, considering hiring a firm to write articles on automotive topics and post these articles on “ezine” websites like http://ezinearticles.com or article directory websites like http://www.articledashboard.com .

The articles you write must be informative and not sales pitches. When done properly they can create powerful links and attract organic search traffic.  For example, writing an article on the benefits of purchasing a Toyota ExtraCare warranty over a third party warranty would be a good article to gain link relevance on extended warranty keywords. You can link to charts or warranty information on your website  and pickup a good back link.

Local Business Directories

Outside of these two strategies, look for ways to also establish local relevance for OEM car sales in your state.  These opportunities are normally found on reputable statewide business directory websites. Make sure that the website has a Google PageRank of 3 or higher. Banner ads or sidebar articles can often generate hundreds of links to your website from one advertising sponsorship.   The optimal advertisement will include some text that you can hyperlink with a strong anchor tag. An example is: http://www.newjerseyvisitorsnetwork.com

Press releases are another great way to build quality links and there are about a dozen great websites that you can utilize for PR and back links.  The key is to use press release websites that allow hyperlinked text in the body of the press release.  This allows for you to create “votes” for important keywords surrounded by relevant text. Try www.prlog.org and www.webwire.com .

If you donate to local charities, schools, colleges and churches ask for them to create a sponsors page and add a short note about your support with a link back to your website.  Links from these websites can be very valuable to establish credibility.

Free Linking Exists

Other opportunities like Yahoo Answers, Merchant Circle Blogs, Fast Company and SlideShare are just a few of the dozens of free sites that can provide a good back link that will raise your relevance for the keywords you are targeting.  Try to build links from blog articles that are about automotive topics.

You can also look for blog posts that you can reply to that allow links to be followed.  Firefox has a nice plug-in that will show you which website forms have a “no-follow” tag and those that do not.  Reply boxes that have a no-follow tag will not build back links.

In the end, link building is very important but it takes time and experience to know how to build the most effective links. Car dealers often do not have the time or expertise to build a consistent monthly link building campaign.

In the ideal situation, link building and other Internet Marketing tasks should be a shared responsibility between car dealer and outside consultant.  Techniques and strategies are constantly changing and someone who builds links all day is normally finding new sites every week which can be an advantage over your competitors.

If you have questions, drop me a line or an email.

Brian Pasch, CEO

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“The biggest barrier to better social media engagement for companies surveyed is a lack of resources, with more than half of companies (54%) saying this is a significant problem, the report said. Nine out of 10 businesses (90%) say social media is taking up more time internally than a year ago.”

The data collected in the survey parallels my experience as I consult with car dealers seeking to create powerful Internet Marketing strategies for 2010. More than any time in the past, automotive budgets are being adjusted so that a majority of the funding is directed toward online advertising. This is reflected in increased spending for Google Adwords, banner advertising, SEO, blogging, video, social media and microsite designs.

The survey data documents a turning point in retail automotive operations. In years past, software and technology have reduced the staff hours needed to complete sales or marketing tasks. Some reading this article may remember hand typing sales contracts or a newsletter that now is produced with a few clicks of a mouse.

The turning point is that Internet Marketing and engaging customers online takes real people doing creative writing, videos and online customer service. It’s a labor intensive operational shift that requires increasing staff levels and dealerships need to recognize that shift.

How Much Should I Spend?

A common question I hear from dealership executives is; “How much should they be spending in each online strategy?” There is no easy simple answer to that question because each online advertising strategy will depend on local competition and your sales goals.

More importantly is the honest assessment of the commitment, skills, and availability of your staff and your ability to track the ROI on your online advertising spend. These two factors will be hallmarks of successful dealers in 2010.

An important change is on the horizon in 2010. With the increase in online spending and a decrease in monies spent on radio, TV and newspaper, dealers will have the opportunity to directly track a majority of their advertising investments. Let me emphasis that this is a major change and opportunity for car dealers. Automotive executives need to make the commitment to track their online media spending. Many dealerships will miss the rich information provided by implementing an online tracking strategy.

For example, do you have unique phone tracking numbers for Facebook, Review Websites, Press Releases, Microsites, Google Maps and Twitter? Is your website capturing the referring URL for every customer that submits a lead form? Are you creating consolidated sales reports by website and phone source? Do you know how many cars were sold off Facebook this month?

Media like radio, newspapers and billboards relied on either tracking phone numbers or sales staff surveys to related store traffic to a sale. It was an imperfect system. With many budgets going 75% or more to online spending, dealers must realize that the holy grail is getting closer; calculating the true ROI on your advertising strategies.

Do you have the right team in place?

I am currently interviewing candidates for dealership group in South California for position called Digital Media Specialist. This role will support the Internet Marketing needs of their 11 stores and also work with the PCG Digital Marketing marketing team to create a unified and competitive Internet Marketing strategy.

The job description requires the ability to write and communicate professionally online. Experience with social media, press releases and advertising is a must. The salary requirements of these candidates that have applied for this job ranges from $40,000 -$65,000.

The position will enable the dealership group to more effectively blog, write press releases and engage local consumers on Facebook and Twitter, to name a few targeted tasks.

I commend the decision of their Executive VP to create a blended model of internal staffing and outside expertise. This will give the GM’s immediate in-house resources for day to tactical marketing projects and the benefit of outside experts to direct the overall strategies for the dealership.

This is a model that will be replicated in 2010 across the country. The pace of change in the online marketplace will make it difficult to be competitive with only internal marketing resources.

As I have said many times before;

“The most important hire for car dealers in 2010 will be a content writer“.

For smaller automotive groups or stand alone stores, in may not be cost effective to hire a full-time staff position so dealers will need to look at consultancy models.

A shared resource for Internet Marketing implementation can cost dealers a fraction of what a full-time person would require. For example, the PCG Digital Marketing has an effective starting package for $995 a month which brings those functions listed above to under $12,000 a year.

The key point in regards to staffing is that doing nothing is not an option. Online marketing spending is on the increase so in 2010 you will have more competition online. With recent changes in Google which shows Twitter and Facebook activity in real-time, dealers more than ever, need to implement a smart comprehensive online marketing strategy that include social media, blogging, microsites, press releases, banner adverting, SEO, SEM, IRM, video, document publishing, photography, and link building.

Looking Toward 2010

I look forward to 2010 as the opportunities for online engagement and new technologies keep me busy testing new strategies for success. Executives submitting marketing budgets for 2010 need to reflect on the findings of the study from Econsultancy and Bigmouthmedia. It is a snapshot of what is happening to business owners all over the country.

With increased spending comes increased competition. With increased spending comes accountability. Dealers must have a rock solid tracking system in place to determine which online strategies are giving them the best results so that they can be nimble throughout 2010.

Since effective online marketing and social engagement are labor intensive, car dealers must have the staff in place to be effective. Dealership staff must be trained on how to leverage social media and online marketing tactics; it’s not intuitive for most people. At the pace of change in this industry, going it alone may not be the optimal choice.

Doing nothing will make your competitors smile.

Automotive Marketing Boot Camp

Car dealers looking to increase the skills of their staff should send them to the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp on February 12, 2010. It is schedule the day before the offcicial start of NADA so they can benefit from both educational experiences, back to back. Jarod Hamiltion, will be the keynote speaker with the opening night on February 11th.

About the Author

Brian Pasch is the CEO of the PCG Digital Marketing and can be found online at:

http://twitter.com/automotiveseo
http://facebook.com/paschconsulting.com
http://www.dealer-seo.com

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We will review your local marketing strategy and discuss how we can integrate our winning Internet Marketing strategies into the current systems you have in place.

Multiple brand dealership groups can discuss packaged pricing to reflect economies of scale that can be realized from a single point of contact.  Start 2010 with innovative Internet Marketing solutions that will give you the edge over your competition.

Keep in mind, that once you contract with PCG, we will not work with any competing same brands within 50 miles of your dealership.  In some cases, these restriction is even larger.  We don’t want to compete against ourselves and we want the very best for our clients.

Get Started; 2010 is just around the corner!  Call 732-450-8200 and ask to speak with Brian Pasch or Matthew O’Such today.

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Download The WhitePaper

If you would like to download a copy of the Google Page One Management (GPOM) strategies created by Brian Pasch, just click on this link:

 Google Page One Management White Paper

How It All Started

A recent article on DealerRefresh.com written by Alex Snyder entitled “Is Edmunds Stealing From You?” has generated a tsunami of comments and reactions from the automotive community. 

For some automotive professionals the tactics recently used by Edmunds using Checkered Flag MINI’s brand was a revelation on the topic of “online brand leakage”.

Edmunds* and a number of other websites have been leveraging car dealer trademarked names and/or business names for financial gain.

I wrote the first whitepaper entitled “Your Online Brand is Leaking” in response to the outcry from dealers and posted the paper online for car dealers to read and distribute throughout their 20 groups and professional networks.  (Download WhitePaper)

Now, you can learn how to fight back with this most recent white paper called Google Page One Management

* According to a recent post by Edmunds on DealerRefresh.com, they have stopped Adwords campaigns that were targeting dealer name.

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His advice and leadership has helped to create a better awareness of the importance of Automotive SEO , Internet Reputation Management and Social Media tools. 

Brian was recently featured at the Driving Sales Executive Summit in Las Vegas and will be presenting at the 7th Digital Dealer Conference in Nashville on November 1, 2009.

Brian’s Automotive Blogs

You can follow Brian’s automotive blogs and marketing articles on these websites:  

• DrivingSales.com – http://www.drivingsales.com/blogs/paschconsulting  
• AutomotiveDigitalmarketing.com –  http://www.automotivedigitalmarketing.com/profile/NJSEOExpert  
• Dealer-SEO.com  – http://www.dealer-seo.com  
• InternetSalesManager.org – http://www.internetsalesmanager.org/profile/brianpasch  

You can also catch Brian Pasch on a weekly webcast on www.drivingsales.com/blogs/webinars with fellow Automotive Marketing experts Paul Rushing and JD Rucker.  The webcasts air every Wednesday at 12:00 noon EST.

Practicing What We Preach

The PCG Digital Marketing implements their effective search marketing strategies for their own business.  We practice what we preach and the National and State wide search results for our marketing websites is clear proof what we can offer competitive car dealers for their PMA.

To validate, just go into Google and type any of the phrases below to see, that our articles and microsites appear on Google Page One Nationally:

• Automotive SEO – #1 in USA
• Automotive SEO Speaker – #1 in USA
• Car Dealer SEO – #2 in USA
• Car Dealer SEO Marketing – #1 in USA
• Automotive Webinar – #2 and #3 in USA
• Automotive SEO Marketing – #2, #3, #4 in USA
• Automotive SEO Microsites – #1, #2 and #3 in USA
• Automotive SEO Specialist – #1 in USA
• Automotive Internet Marketing – #2 in USA
• Automotive Internet Reputation Management #1 thru #5 in USA
• Automotive WordPress Microsites – #1 in USA

For a Complimentary Review of Your Internet Marketing Visibility – Call 732-450-8200

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To continue the interest and momentum from the 2009 Driving Sales Executive Summit, I will be c0-hosting a weekly webcast on Automotive Marketing with JD Rucker from TK Carsites and Paul Rushing from DealerBytes.  The show will air every Wednesday at 12:00 Noon EST.

The first “rehearsal” for the live show will be on Wednesday October 21, 2009 at 12:00 noon EST.    The link to join the weekly show is: http://ustream.tv/channel/dealer-internet-marketing.  There is no cost to attend and we invite everyone interested in Automotive Marketing (Automotive SEO, SEM, Social Media, IRM, etc) to join us each week as we discuss a number of timely topics.

Join The Discussion

Everyone who joins the live broadcast can submit questions during our open mic shows and we will post the topics we will cover over the next two months during the first show.

Since the three of us have different approaches to achieving success online, the show is designed to guide, educate and clarify the misinformation that is out in the field of Automotive Marketing.  We also plan to have some guests on the show in future weeks so every week will be of value.

Get On Our Show List

If you are interested in getting on our show email reminder list, send me a note:  brian@paschconsulting.com and this week we will have a more organized sign-up process so you can get a reminder each week and be informed on the webcast topic.

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Brian Pasch met Steven Risso at an NADA 20 Group meeting in Chicago where Brian presented a short seminar on Automotive SEO strategies.  It looks like Brian did a good job of convincing Steven that if he was even back running a dealership that he should call PCG. 

From that same meeting PCG also won the Internet Marketing contract for BMW of Macon Georgia.  Brian is an active seminar and conference speaker and will be presenting again at the upcoming Digital Dealer Conference in Nashville Tennessee on November 1, 2009.

Steven Risso

Steven recently joined Teddy Nissan as its President and operating partner. He brings 25 years of extensive automotive experience.

Prior to joining Teddy Nissan, Steven worked as a Dealer Operations Consultant with the National Automobile Dealers Association, the leading association for franchised car dealers in the United States.

NADA is also one of the leading automotive training organizations in the world. As a consultant at NADA Steven’s primary responsibility was working with dealers to analyze and improve their profitability.

Also while at NADA Steven was selected out of 24 consultants, to participate in a five member task force that made a presentation to the New York Federal Reserve on behalf of dealer floor planning and the TALF stimulus package.

Prior to NADA, Steven worked as a consultant to a large domestic brand dealership, where he led a turnaround effort that resulted in a 200% improvement in net profits in one year.

From 1999 to 2005, Steven owned and operated two New York City Ford Dealerships. As the dealer principle he spurred sales 140% and led the zone in customer satisfaction every year. Steven sold the dealerships in 2005.

Steven also held elected positions with respected industry associations including; the New York Ford Dealers Advertising Association and the New York State Dealers Association.

Steven lives in New York with his wife and three children.

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The data is the start of a discussion that goes into why some search phrases yield ZERO page one search results when the same phrase yields top placement on another search engine.  As you develop an Automotive SEO strategy for your dealership, it is important that you track the results in all the major search engines.

The difference in being Google page 1 position 1 vs. position  7, considered under the fold, can be huge.

Google may represent 65% of all organic search traffic but that other 35% is very important.  As you look at one example below “Ford Massachusetts” the microsite does very well in Google but after 4 months the site is still not listed on Yahoo page one.   Since traffic from Yahoo is not insignificant, a special strategy is obviously needed.

Content SEO Strategies

The point of this article is to say that content SEO strategies will vary with the search engine you are targeting.  There are some very valuable insights that this data hints at including how the different search engines treat:

• Sub-domains
• Exact Matching Domains
• Short domain names
• Long domain names
• Free blogging portals (Vox, Ning, etc.)

At the upcoming Digital Dealer Conference I will be going over specific Content SEO strategies that will not only show you how to write content for better search visibility but to discuss how domain names and platforms play a direct role in your ultimate success.

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The ASMA study will identify automotive website providers that offer SEO compliant platforms using Google’s guidelines as well as best practices in the search marketing industry. All automotive website providers are invited to participate in our study.

The PCG Digital Marketing’s 2009 ASMA white paper will be released in time for the 2009 Digital Dealer Conference in Nashville which takes place November 1-3.   The Digital Dealer Conference is the automotive industry’s premier tradeshow which focuses on the latest trends in automotive digital marketing.

The 2009 ASMA study will evaluate and assign rankings to car dealer website platforms based on key components that represent the best in search engine optimization (SEO) architecture and consumer search experience.  These study parameters are established by Brian Pasch, CEO of the PCG Digital Marketing.

For many car retailers, their inventory pages make up over 85% of the total content pages on their website.  Organic search optimization and search ranking are heavily skewed to reward good content and good SEO architecture.  The report is designed to provide car dealers with an independent view of website platform technology as it relates to organic search marketing.

Last year, the 2008 ASMA report reviewed over 16 automotive platforms with only 2 providers receiving a perfect score for SEO compliance. In the past year car dealer website providers have released or announced many changes to their platforms which should make this year’s report even more interesting.

2009 ASMA Logo

A new element to this year’s study will be an official ASMA logo which will be awarded to automotive website providers that rank at the top of their peer group.  The ASMA logo will allow leaders in the field of automotive website design to proudly display their award on their marketing materials and on their websites. The ASMA logo will represent the best in SEO architecture for the automotive industry.

Automotive website providers who would like to participate in the review must submit three working websites which utilize their latest technology to the PCG Digital Marketing by 9-30-09.  Dealer software providers who do not submit examples of their technology may still be included in the report.  However, the website PCG reviews will be based on those found randomly on the Internet or referenced on their company websites.

Dealer software providers can contact Brian Pasch at info@paschconsulting.com for more information.

About the Digital Dealer Conference

The annual Digital Dealer Conference attracts hundreds of dealership attendees that are looking to learn more about Internet and technology-related issues.  Speakers who are experts in the field of Automotive Digital Marketing present seminars which help forward thinking dealerships stay ahead of the ever changing technology curve.   For registration or sponsorship opportunities, visit http://www.digitaldealerconference.com/

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Despite acknowledging that over 85% of consumers shop online for a new car purchase, dealers have not taken consumer behavior seriously in regards to parts and service.  This can be demonstrated in most local markets by conducting a Google search for franchise service or parts like “Ford Ranger brake pads NJ“.  National websites and automotive portals appear with local dealer franchises oddly absent.

Fixed Operations Content Is Normally Weak

The reason is simple; dealer websites have nothing significant to offer the search engines in regards to service and parts.  Google rewards text content and well tagged videos and images,. Many dealer websites have a few service coupons as graphical images tacked on a page labeled “Service Specials”  with no text and tags.  It reminds me of the old Wendy’s campaign that boasted a tag line “Where’s The Beef?“.

Automotive SEO  (Search Engine Optimization) is often a strategy deployed for new and used car sales and rarely have I found a discussion on how Automotive SEO can be used to increase revenue in other areas of the dealership.   Over the past three years I have tested a number of strategies that have increased dealer direct warranty sales, service and parts which are often omitted from online marketing budgets.

If dealers are serious about increasing their Internet visibility for all areas of their business they can follow two primary paths.  The first path is to add significant content to their websites on these profit centers.  Dealers can add information on extended warranty plans, coverage and pricing.  They can add recommended service schedules and common service tips.  Once the content is in place, linking strategies and social media can be used to promote the visibility of these new pages.

The second path is to create dedicated microsites for service, warranty sales and parts.  Microsites are websites on a unique URL with content that is normally about one topic. (i.e. www.infinitiwarranty.com)

Parts microsites are a bit more difficult and require more of an upfront investment because dealers have had only a few choices in OEM parts ecommerce systems.  All of the commercial auto parts platforms that we have reviewed fail the basic SEO guidelines set out by Google.  It’s odd that the major automotive parts platforms offered to car dealers have such bad architecture and SEO structure.

The good news is that there are new platforms and strategies that we have been testing that can either compensate for these SEO flawed online parts websites or to replace them altogether with a new optimized parts site.  As dealers look to increase revenue from their Fixed operations business, selling an extra  $100,000 in parts a month can add to a sweeter bottom line let alone dealers who are selling three times that a month with online parts sales.

Extended Warranty SEO Solutions

One example of using Automotive SEO to grow revenue outside of car sales is extended warranty plans.  Imagine the impact on your bottom line by selling an additional  75 extended warranty plans a month.   Dealership owners who have self-funded warranty plans will understand the financial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

If you go to Google and type in search phrases like “Infiniti Warranty” or “Toyota Extended Warranty”  or “” you will see PCG extended warranty microsites  come up on Google Page one.Extended Warranty Ford This national visibility gives dealerships more opportunities to sell their genuine OEM warranty products.  Warranty sales websites have a typical ROI of 6 months which is a tremendous opportunity for dealers who want to compete online for additional sales revenue.

Increase Service Revenue

For service, microsites can be created to ensure that your franchise comes up number one in your state for brand searches like ” Texas Chevrolet Service” or “Toyota Service Boston“.  These sites should be filled with service information, coupons and even a video walk-though of the service lane process.  Give consumers the confidence that servicing their car at your facility if fast, painless and handled from trained professionals.

An Automotive SEO consultant can help to determine the best places and techniques to post targeted content on dealer fixed operations services. Most car dealer platforms do not allow unlimited content pages to be created without custom programming fees.  This common limitation often develops a strong case for the creating microsite however dealer platforms will be coming out with embedded blogging tools in the coming year.

Automotive microsites allow dealers  to create unlimited content pages for the products and services they sell.  With the correct training on how to write for the Internet,  dealer staff  can target searches in their PMA, State and even nationally.  Since Google provides free tools to document what search words consumers are typing in each month, you don’t have to guess what are the most popular terms for the products you offer.

Content Creation Key For Car Dealers

The future of automotive marketing will require dealers to either hire a full-time content writer for their business or outsource that service part-time to a consultant.  Automotive SEO with a content based approach yields results year after year; a lead generation annuity.

Dealers need to make the commitment to add new content about the cars they sell and the products and service they offer on the Internet.  If dealers choose to ignore content marketing strategies they will be dominated by their competitors and placed in a deep hole that will not be easy to crawl out from. Dealers must include marketing budgets for Automotive SEO for parts, service and F&I to remain competitive.

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I had a great time speaking in Las Vegas at the last Digital Dealer Conference and I was honored to be invited back and recognized as one of the top 5 rated speakers at the previous conference.  Now that I have a better understanding for the format of the conference, I will be preparing some special surprises to make the seminar more interactive.

From the Digital Dealer Conference Website, the organizers include some feedback from participants that attended my last seminar that included:

• “Awesome!”
• “Brilliant”
• “Great presentation”
• “Best class I attended all day”

I’ll be working hard to live up to these high accolades.  I take it seriously that professionals take their time out of the office at a significant cost to attend these important conferences.  If anyone is attending the conference and would like to suggest topics that I include in my presentation, just give me a call or send an email to: info@paschconsulting.com

Cash for Clunkers Is A Perfect Content SEO Case Study

The PCG Digital Marketing has found great success with content based SEO strategies for car dealers.  We have been able to leverage content to increase the visibility for car dealers which translates into more traffic, leads and sales.  One of the greatest recent examples of Content SEO was our Cash for Clunkers microsite project.  The website was an experiment to see how content combined with our Automotive SEO strategies could work to create a nationally dominate website.

At the peak of the Cash for Clunkers frenzy, our website located at www.cashforclunkersfacts.com had over 120,000 unique visitors in one day.  Over the course of 60 days, the website had over 7 million page views from consumers, dealers and I suspect the NHTSA.  This is a perfect case study for the upcoming seminar to see how content based SEO strategies can propel a website to high visibility in the major search engines.

Renaissance Nashville Hotel

The 7th Annual Digital Dealer Conference will be held at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel located at 611 Commerce Street.  Conference room rates, while supply lasts, are $129 per night up until September 18th.  If you are attending the conference, I recommend that you book your rom early.

The Renaissance Nashville Hotel is located in the business district and is connected to the Convention Center. The conference hotel is within walking distance of the Sommet Center, LP Field, B.B. King’s Blues Club, Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, Schermerhorn Symphony Center and Historic Second Avenue District.

This vibrant Nashville luxury hotel has a 24-hour fitness center in case sitting all day at seminars messes with your exercise schedule.  I just hope that their high speed Internet is truly high speed.  For additional information about the hotel, you can contact them at the numbers below:

611 Commerce Street
Nashville, Tennessee 37203 USA
Phone: 1-615-255-8400
Fax: 1-615-255-8202
Toll-free: 1-800-327-6618

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Residents of Albuquerque have awarded Don Chalmers Ford with outstanding customer service reviews so working this New Mexico Ford dealer will be a distinct pleasure.

The New Mexico Ford dealer will  utilize PCG’s latest automotive SEO tools which will include the creation of a WordPress microsite, which will offer New Mexico Ford shoppers enhanced  information on new and used Ford vehicles.

The PCG Digital Marketing’s automotive microsites have been a factor in the success we bring to car dealers across the United States and Canada.  The use of targeted SEO tactics will give Don Chalmers Ford a major edge over competitors competing to sell Ford models like the Ford Edge, Ford Flex, Ford F-150 and the all new Ford Transit Connect van.  Each Ford car and truck model will have an optimized content page on the Ford microsite.

Brian Pasch CEO of the PCG Digital Marketing commenting on their first client in New Mexico added, “Don Chalmers Ford is a great organization and our new automotive SEO strategies will create a new gateway for consumers looking for information on any Ford model to connect with their dealership.  With one click, New Mexico Ford shoppers can get detailed information at their fingertips.”

Don Chalmers Ford will also be utilizing the PCG Digital Marketing’s content marketing strategies which includes press releases, blogging and social networking.  We look forward to dominating organic search results for Don Chalmers Ford since their customer service and sales professional are simply outstanding.

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One of the industries largest lead providers to car dealers responding to an inquiry why our lead sales were down responded that car dealers have cut back on buying leads in August.   From our estimates dealers have cut back anywhere from 25-40% of their normal lead spending.

Thousands Of Leads a Day Up In Smoke

For example, our Cash for Clunkers website has over 800 leads a day that can not be placed with new car dealers.  Imagine the thousands of  leads generated by Edmunds.com, Motortrend.com and other popular lead generation websites each day.  All of these leads will become stagnant and cannot be resold under normal contract terms which dictates that leads have to be send to dealers within 30 minutes of being entered into a website form.

It seems that car dealers are flooded with calls and walk-ins that are interested in buying a car under the Cash for Clunkers program and they don’t need extra leads.  I can understand the rationale especially if the dealer is running low on inventory but I would say that turning away leads may not be in their best interest.

Looking Out To September

Not all third party leads result in an immediate sale. Leads that arrive from 3rd parties can represent consumers in the beginning of the sales cycle or at the end of the cycle.  If the CARS program has awakened the consumer to action, it won’t last for very long.  We predict that the total $3 billion will be used up by Labor Day weekend.

Cutting back on lead purchases now may be a result of dealers being exhausted with all the additional paperwork generated from the Cash for Clunkers program.  But in a few weeks that will be gone and dealers who turn away new leads in August will be creating a sales gap in their September and October pipeline.

Slowed Automotive Support Sales

I also imagine that automotive sales support services may be having a tough time getting new clients in August.  Sales professional calling up a dealership in August  to sell them a new tool to convert more sales, increase their time of their website, or to drive more traffic to their website will most likely be told to call back at the end of September.

So its a good time to be selling cars after a horrible past 12 months and probably rough times for the support industry.

Dealers will have to think of new ways to continue the good times this fall is Congress does not inject more money into the Cash for Clunkers program.  That would mean getting back to the basics.

Interesting times indeed.

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The only consistent advertisers for the term Cash for Clunkers in the prior weeks was Edmunds.com and our company for www.cashforclunkersfacts.com.  Now the page is filled with Pay-Per-Click ads from national brands; some have good ads and others do not.   I’m surprised that some manufacturers have PPC ads going to landing pages that just suck.  

I think GM and Ford are doing to best job  with Cash for Clunkers landing pages right now and Mazda is one of the worst.  Their landing page doesn’t even mention the CARS program.

Automotive Microsites

Our advance planning was rewarded us well which shows that WordPress automotive microsites can compete with the big boys if you plan in advance.  In fact one day our website received over 70,000 vistors and is now averaging over 40,000 visitors a day.  This is good news because the program has not even started and we are on Google Page One, in the top spot for the term “Cash for Clunkers”.

We are also at the top of the search results for other related phrases like:

• Cash for Clunkers Florida
• Cash for Clunkers Ford
• Cash for Clunkers Chevrolet
• Cash for Clunkers Toyota
• Cash for Clunkers Fort Worth

First Responders Get Rewarded in Automotive SEO

Brian Pasch has been advocating for the last two months that dealers get a jump start on the bill through blog articles on Automotive Digital Marketing, Driving Sales, Automotive SEO as well as this website.  Few dealers were willing to step out in advance of the bill becoming signed into law.  Those who took my advice are at the top of organic search results.

We were the first company to come up with a marketing logo to help car dealers communicate with consumers about the upcoming legislation.  Today, hundreds of car dealers are using our marketing logo to draw attention to the program and get consumers to call.  We have offered to use of the logo to as many companies related to the auto industry as have contacted us for permission.  Dealers can download logo here.

You can go to Google and Type “Cash for Clunkers Phoenix” and see that Bell Honda is #1 in the state for ALL brands.  If you type into Google “Honda Cash for Clunkers Arizona“  you will see that Bell Honda is #1 again.  Hats off to Travis Holt for his foresight into planning ahead for strong Honda car sales in Arizona.

Budget For SEO and SEM

Car dealers know that the official start date of the CARS program will not be until the end of July.  That gives dealers approximately three weeks from today to put in a plan that can have some real search visibility by the end of July.

Dealers should consider building an organic marketing plan today as well as budgeting for an SEM campaign.  We have seen some impressive SEM ideas from ADP that dealers should consider.  You can contact Ralph Paglia about ADP advertising packages that can be up and running quickly.

The PCG Digital Marketing can assist dealers with on-site and off-site SEO strategies like press releases, blogging and dealer profile pages on www.cashforclunkersfacts.com. A dealer profile page is optimized for your brand, state and city.  Here are two examples of dealer profile pages:

• http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.com/dealers/california/nissan-cars/los-angeles
• http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.com/dealers/texas/chevy-cars/fort-worth-chevrolet-cash-for-clunkers 

In the end, our marketing plan was to educate consumers and to motivate those with an old clunker to get in and buy a new car with the limited time offer that CARS presents to consumers.  If you need help implementing an effective online organic marketing plan, call us at 732-450-8200

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Starting at 12:01 a.m. (EDT) on Saturday, June 13, 2009, you will be able to select a user name at http://www.facebook.com/username. For more information, visit the Username help topic.

I have a number of vanity URL’s for my name that show up on Google pahe one or two when you search my name:

• http://twitter.com/brianpasch
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/brianpasch
• http://brianpasch.gather.com/
• http:// brianpasch.multiply.com

Facebook Opens Up to Vanity

Currently, my Facebook profile URL is: www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Pasch/685389902 .   This URL is odd looking and what is that number on the end?  It’s a way to make the URL unique so that any other Brian Pasch in the world can create their own profile.

With the new offering, the URL can be: www.facebook.com/brianpasch.  The trick is that only ONE URL can be created like that so first come first served.  So if you want to reserve your name without putting a number after it, you must act quickly.

Does Vanity URL’s Help Automotive SEO

Why is this important?  That is debatable.  For one thing it is easier and cleaner to add to an email signature or just to remember.  Think of it as a calling card.

Secondly, if you can create a URL that is a HIGH value keyword like “bostonnissan” then maybe that Facebook profile will come up for searches on Boston Nissan.   The idea situation is that you reserve your name and if you have a business fan page, you also can customize it with a vanity URL.

An example of this is when you search for “Automotive SEO”.   You will see vanity URL from Vox ( http://automotiveseo.vox.com) and Ning  (http://automotive-seo.ning.com) in Google search results so vanity URL do make a difference.  

So your question should be: What vanity name to use?

I would suggest that you look at your Google Analytics data and Google Adwordsdata to see what search phrases bring the most traffic to your website and then grab that vanity name.  I do not know if the business fan pages have any restriction for vanity name so you will have to see that on Friday or Saturday when the doors open at Facebook.

I hope that this post allows the early birds to get the worm.

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All websites that you own should have a sitemap and if the site is a blog, it should have a self-generating RSS feed like WordPress and Blogger creates.

That said, I also suggest that you setup the best free measurement and diagnostic  tools that will help you fine tune your automotive microsite marketing strategy.

Sitemap and RSS Registration

First on the list  is to create a free Google Webmaster Tools account and register the website’s sitemap. By doing this you can be alerted when links are broken.  You will also get basic diagnostics on your website. Google Webmaster Tools will give you insight into how Google sees your website and will report common errors like duplicate META descriptions.

Now head over to Yahoo which has a tool called  Site Explorer . Open a free account and register your sitemap and RSS feeds. Here you can register both your sitemap and your RSS feed if you have one.  This tool also has a more reliable inbound link counters to see how many web pages are linking to your site.

Lastly, head over to Microsoft Bing and setup a Webmaster account where you can register your sitemap and get feedback from their search engine.

Add Google Analytics

As an Automotive SEO consultant, I can’t encourage you enough to take advantage of Google Analytics which is free and provides a great deal of information about your visitor traffic and what they are doing on your website.  Google Analytics combined with Google Webmaster Tools is a great toolkit for fine tuning your SEO and content development strategies.

To install Google Analytics you will need the help of your website developer because the Analytics code has to be added to the bottom of every web page.  In the WordPress Microsites that we create, it takes only a minute to add the code to the footer.php  file.  Once this code is in place, you will start collecting valuable data on the people that come to your site.

Register Your Blog

Now that you have registered your sitemap and RSS feeds with the major search engines and have data tracking installed, you should register the website or blog with a few of the better directories.

If you have a microsite with blogging built in like WordPress, Blogger or NING, I would recommend you register your site with Technorati. There are also great blog sites like www.blogcatalog.com and www.bloghints.com.  

Technorati

Create a free account on Technorati and then go through the process to “claim” your blog. 

Follow the steps below to get it right the first time:

1. Create a Technorati Account.
2. Choose to Claim Your Blog.
3. Enter the URL of your Blog.
4. You will be given a piece of code to add to a blog post.  It looks something like this:
5.             <a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/8254cgryhm” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>
6. Highlight and copy this code to your clipboard.
7. Create a blog “post” and not a page on your site. 
8. Switch to HTML mode and paste in the code they gave you.
9. Save the post.
10. Now go back to Technorati and  click to verify your claim. Technorati  will go to your blog and find the snippet of code you just added to a blog post.
11. Once you are verified, complete the details about your site that Technorati asks.
12. You can go back to your blog and delete that post you made to verify the Technorati claim.

In addition with Technorati, you should register you blog with other blog directory sites.  These will create additional inbound links to your site.  If your microsite is not a blog, there still are a number of great places to register your new site for inbound links. 

The key is not to just create a microsite and “hope” that everyone will find you.  Jump start your Internet marketing success with quality links to your new microsite.  Here are a few proven places to register your new microsite: www.merchantcircle.com, www.aboutus.org and www.insiderpages.com.

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The focus of this article is to help you with that decision making process. Domain names can make or break your marketing budget. A few assumptions have to be made for this discussion to be meaningful.

Mega Bucks Projects

The first assumption is that you are not building a multi-million dollar project that will be a national brand that has a HUGE marketing budget. An example would be Uggs and the domain www.uggs.com. No one was typing that word into Google before the brand launched. This is both good and bad. The good part is that the name had little competition once the word got out. The bad part is that it costs money to get the word out.

Short Term Goals

The second assumption is that you don’t need an immediate blast of visitor traffic or the website is for a short term sale. If you need an immediate blast of sales or traffic that means you will most likely need to use paid advertising campaigns. Think Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing.

In this case, you might not be concerned that your domain name is search friendly. Examples of this could be a short term promotion or sale that you don’t need organic rankings to develop over time. In this case you could pick a domain name like www.cars100.com if you were selling 100 cars over a weekend and were using radio, print and web to drive people to the event. A domain name like www.cars100.com is something that could be easily remembered from a radio spot.

Domain Purchasing Guidelines

So, with those two cases put aside let’s make sure we consider all our options before we purchase a domain name. I will attempt to condense years of testing into a few points of guidance. Time to put on your search engine optimization learning caps.

Look For Exact Matches

For most cases, an exact match on the services you offer will results in the most visibility. So, if you are a divorce lawyer in New Jersey, owning www.njdivorceattorney.com is a much better choice that www.charlesschwartzmcfeen.com. Use free keyword research tools to decide if “divorce attorney” or “divorce lawyer” get more monthly search traffic to help guide decisions. Search traffic is not the only tool to consider but it is important.

Buy the .NET if the .COM is parked

If you have a search phrases you want to target and the .com is taken the .NET may be just as good. A “parked” domain is one that has no website. If a .com domain is parked or forwarding to another website, that is actually GREAT for you. Forwarded domains will never be in a search result. So, if you wanted www.bostonnissan.com and it was parked or forwarded and you could buy www.bostonnissan.net , purchase it immediately and setup a microsite.

Dashes Are OK

If have a website called www.dealer-seo.com and it is #1 in the USA for searches on “automotive SEO” and “car dealer SEO” and the domain has a dash. Following our previous example, if www.bostonnissan.com and www.bostonnissan.net were taken, see if you could buy www.boston-nissan.com. If you can, purchase it and start your microsite strategy.

Does Size Matter?

It seems that size is not as important as the words in the domain name. If you are in the business of precision metal casting and you purchased www.precisionmetalcasting.com you would not be penalized that you domain is long. The focus should be on the search phrases you want to attack and since you can put up microsites very inexpensively using WordPress, you could in fact have multiple microsites placed on long tail keywords.

Content is King

Keep in mind that any site you create should have good content and should have over 10 pages of content as a starting base. There are no sustainable shortcuts to top Google rankings without good content.

WordPress as a Microsite Tool

WordPress microsites are easy to maintain, self-publishing and they have SEO marketing plug-ins that be installed. WordPress combined with an effective domain marketing strategy can yield amazing results. Here are some examples of taking this domain strategy in conjunction with WordPress to market:

• The term “mass bmw” or “bmw mass” is searched over 5,000 times a month and a WordPress microsite placed on www.massbmw.com is on Google Page One
• The term “Ford Massachusetts” gets over 6,000 searches a month.  We just completed a WordPress microsites on www.fordmassachusetts.com and in a few weeks this will start to move to the top of Google Page One.
• The term “salon lights” and “salon lighting” is searched in Google approximately 2,000 times a month and a WordPress microsite placed on www.salonlights.com is on Google Page one for both terms.
• The term “house painting nj” is searched about 400 times a month and related search phrases “house painting Somerset County”, “house painting Hunterdon County” represent smaller but targeted potential clients. A WordPress microsite on www.housepaintingnj.com is on Google Page one for these search phrases.

The point is that regardless of traffic as little as 1,000 hits a month, if that search phrase it resulting in good leads and sales, that is all that matter. A WordPress microsite can pay itself back with one car sale.  You should always addd Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to your WordPress sites to track the visitors and usage of the microsites just like you would on your main dealer website.

Microsite Benefits

A good microsite strategy gives you many benefits:

• Keyword Targeted Websites
• Website That You Own and Not Lease
• Easy to use Content Publishing Tools

Questions? Give us a call. 732-450-8200

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You can check out Brian Pasch’s Automotive Internet Marketing contributions at:

• Automotive Digital Marketing
• Driving Sales
• Internet Sales Manager
• Dealer’s Edge

We Practice What We Preach

In fact, when you search for the term “Automotive SEO” in Google this website (www.dealer-seo.com) is #1 in the USA.   The PCG Digital Marketing is also #1 in the USA for “car dealer SEO” and dozens of other search phrases.  If PCG can achieve national page one results for their own business, image what they can do for your car dealership in your state.

The PCG Digital Marketing has partnered with ClaraMark to provide optimized websites in the Spanish language.  If your car dealership is located near communities with a large percentage of native Spanish speakers, a Spanish SEO strategy could yield incremental sales.  Be the first to dominate Spanish search phrase in your PMA for the brands that you sell.

Effective Automotive SEO Strategies

The PCG Digital Marketing has help dealers across the county dominate organic search results in their state. In fact, our unique business model is embraced by car dealers because we only work for one brand per state.  Only one BMW dealer in Florida, only one Chevy dealer in Illinois can utilize the expert strategies pioneered by Brian Pasch.

 We can assist you with expanding your current Internet marketing strategies with: 

• WordPress Microsites
• Press Releases
• Blogging
• Twitter & Facebook
• Reputation Management
• Consumer Reviews

If you want to dominate Google organic search for your brand in your State, setup a free consultation. We will only work with one brand per State which means we will not be working for your in-state competitors.

Call us at 732-450-8200 and ask to have a free consultation with Brian Pasch.  You can also visit our website at: www.paschconsulting.com

References

If you would like to see examples of our work and a list of auto dealers you can call to validate our expertise in Automotive Internet Marketing, click here:  PCG Digital Marketing References

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On Google Page One , there were two listings that were very odd because of their syntax:

• http://2009-ford-memorial-day-sale.futuremark.us/
• http://fords-2009-memorial-day-sales.wohviesie.us/

and on Google page two there were these:

• http://ford-memorial-day-car-specials.valleywag.us/
• http://ford-memorial-day-incentive.upublish.us/
• http://ford-memorial-day-offer.ugqualitynet.us/
• http://2000-ford-memorial-day.blackmice.us/

Fake Google SERP Pages

When you click on these links you will see that there is an attempt to make the page look like a search result but when in fact, the entire page is a link farm and a Pay-Per-Click mess.  The scheme is using long tail keywords as a sub-domain to a main website that does not have any pages.

Now IF you type in a search phrase in this Faux Google search page and click the “search” button, you will notice that all the search results all change to include your search phrases. Wow, this is a bear trap.

I’m surprised that Google hasn’t picked up on this scheme which looks to confuse the public.  I just wanted to bring it you’re your attention so you don’t waste your time clicking on these pay-per-click or phishing scheme pages.

Are Long Tail Sub-Domains Viable?

The technique brings up some interesting thoughts about SEO strategies that include sub-domains with long tail search phrases.  If these pages were not a big scam, and a real Ford dealer, you wonder how much organic search traffic the pages would pull.

Should we test long tail sub-domains off our proven, highly ranked websites?  I don’t have an answer for this yet since all my sub-domains in the past have been one word.  Looks like I have another thing to test.

P.S.  I want to thank Stoneham Ford for having me check their Ford Memorial Day Sale page in Google, which set off this realization.

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As Twitter develops and becomes its own “search engine” of articles and best ideas, car dealers may want to rethink their Twitter strategies. I would image that car dealers who have very passionate staff who are subject matter experts on the brands that they sell, could leverage Twitter in Interesting ways.

So, I encourage anyone interested in Automotive SEO to follow me on Twitter and share.

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According to data published on May 9, 2009 on the Cash For Guzzlers website, Honda, Ford and Toyota are the top three manufacturers that would benefit from the Cash For Clunkers legislation.

If I was operating a Honda dealership in the US I would be all over this data and updating my website with content about the program.   Read Full Story

Cash For Guzzlers Attracting Consumer Interest

In the first week of operation of www.cashforguzzlers.net, Honda car models were the top inquiry for consumers interested in purchasing a fuel efficient car with the government’s proposed voucher program. The Honda models of interest were the Honda Accord, Honda Civic and Honda Fit, the nearest competing brand by number of inquiries was the Ford Motor Company.

Ford Motor Company was the most popular US company from consumer price inquiries. Interest in a wide range of Ford models topped GM and Chrysler models by a 4:1 margin. The data showed that consumers have a strong interest in the Ford Fusion Hybrid and select Ford cars and trucks.

Of the Big Three automakers, data suggests that Ford has done the best job at educating US consumers that the Ford Fusion and the Fusion Hybrid is a fuel efficient car that is priced right for the market.

Consumers indicated that their third most compelling brand of fuel efficient cars were Toyota’s. Interest was strong for the Toyota Prius and Yaris; but early data gives Ford car an edge over the Toyota Prius.

Car Dealer Websites

If early demand is any indicator, car dealers should start writing additional content on their websites that addresses the Cash for Clunkers program and to strengthen their organic search visibility in their PMA.  If the bill is passed and signed into law by President Obama, there will be a flood of searches on this topic.   Car dealers who prepare in advance will be rewarded.

If you need any assistance preparing your website, writing press releases or leveraging social media on this program, give us a call or send me an email:  brian@paschconsulting.com

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The PCG Digital Marketing is also pleased to welcome another Florida car dealership; Greenway Jeep Chrysler and Dodge.  The Orlando Florida dealership selected the PCG Digital Marketing to build their Florida used cars microsite in addition to consulting on their Internet marketing strategies.

Spanish Language Microsites

The PCG Digital Marketing, in conjunction with ClaraMark Inc. will also be building Greenway Jeep Chrysler Dodge a Spanish language microsite to offer Florida residents a Spanish language car dealer website.  If Florida residents choose to search and investigate cars in Spanish, Greenway will have a website to meet their needs.

Car Dealers looking to increase their visibility on the Internet are turning to Brian Pasch, CEO and founder of the PCG Digital Marketing for effective Internet Marketing strategies. Brian Pasch is an avid writer and blogger on Automotive SEO and marketing topics.

Brian Pasch is currently conducting a series of Automotive marketing webinars in conjunction with Dealers Edge. (http://www.dealersedge.com).  If you would like to learn more about Automotive Marketing, contact the PCG Digital Marketing at 732-450-82

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Our firm may be known for its work with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but we have been helping business owners balance their Internet Marketing campaigns with Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing as well.

The need for PPC is very clear when you study the search phrases patterns in Google Adwords to see that consumers are often lazy and do not add a “geo” word in their search phrases that an SEO campaign can pickup.

Boston BMW Searches

For example, you would think that a consumer looking for a BMW X6 in Boston would type “BMW X6 Boston” or “BMW X6 Prices Boston” but in fact that many people will be typing in “BMW X6″, “BMW X6 Prices” or some other non-localized search.

Since we can’t re-educate the nation overnight and until Google search engine includes more local web pages in their search results, PPC is needed.  So, setting a 15-25 mile radius around your dealership, and purchasing some generalized search phrases is a way to attract more local shoppers.

Without PPC, business owners would have to rely on long tail searches which may be high in conversion but very low in volume.  So, SEO is excellent is attracting web surfers who are educated enough to include localizing words in their search phrases and SEM is ideal for capturing the rest of the world.

Managing Your Automotive PPC Campaigns

Of course, evaluating the ROI of PPC for each phrase you bid on is important.  Be careful that the search phrases that you bid on are not too broad which could yield unprofitable conversion ratios.

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Brian is scheduled to speak on Monday April 20th at 5:15 pm and will be reviewing effective Internet marketing strategies and Automotive SEO techniques to increase dealer visibility on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Automotive Professionals are Heading to Las Vegas

Celebrating its 6th year, the conference has been growing in popularity due to its focus on cutting edge digital strategies to help car dealers become more effective and profitable in challenging markets. This year, hundreds of dealers from across the country are sending representatives to learn from the industry experts assembled for this exciting four day event.

Brian will be encouraging seminar attendees to consider the many roles and personalities needed to compete on the Internet.  Brian Pasch has identified 10 distinct roles that automotive organizations will need to integrate into their Internet sales team.  

“The most valuable Internet Sales managers will be schizophrenic.” jokes Pasch, “The breadth of skills and personalities that are needed for car dealers to compete on the Internet are very diverse. I’ll be identifying ten important personalities that will give car dealers a competitive edge on the Internet.”

Automotive professional who have not yet registered for the conference can obtain information on registration costs and conference agenda by visiting:  http://www.digitaldealerconference.com .   Automotive professionals can also call Richard Holley at 770-475-9870 for event registration information.

Conference attendees who would like to schedule a free personal consultation with Brian to discuss their Internet marketing needs, can make an appointment by calling 732-450-8200.  Appointments can be  made after business hours by sending  the PCG Digital Marketing an email at: info@paschconsulting.com.  Mr. Pasch will be available for appointment on Monday and Tuesday, April 20th and 21st.

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This automotive Internet marketing webinar will include detailed discussions on using Facebook, Twitter, Vox and NING for promoting your brand.  WE will also touch on a few other promising strategies we are testing.

Webinar Trends

There were a few common threads that ran through the Q&A periods but one that stood out the most.  Most people did not know how to login to their automotive web platforms and update META descriptions and Page Titles.

Internal website marketing professionals who are responsible for the organic search marketing visibility of your dealers should know how to develop strong page tags and descriptions and then how to edit them.  If you are not sure, call your platform provider and ask.

One common trend was that many dealers had most of their page titles starting with the Dealership Name.  I strongly advise against this practice and I feel that it is a huge waste in very valuable SEO real estate.  Your page titles should start off with the strongest keyword messages that reflect the content of the page.

Need Assistance?

If you would like help updating the META tags and Page Titles on your dealership website, give us a call.  We can do these updates in a few hours of work and it will make a big difference in your organic search results in your PMA.

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On March 31, 2009 Ford Motor Company announced the details on their Ford Advantage Plan which is similar to the popular plan announced months ago by Hyundai.  In a nutshell the Ford Advantage Plan lets you buy or lease a new Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle with the peace of mind of the Ford Payment Protection Program.

I have provide a link to page to the Ford Advantage Plan Q&A Sheet which has more details on the offer, but here is the high level details:

• It pays the monthly amount due on your new vehicle purchase/lease up to a maximum monthly benefit of
  $700, for a maximum of 12 Benefit payments
• Benefit is paid directly to your financing source
• No cost to you
• It is important for you to continue to make your monthly financing payments on your account until you have received notification that your Benefits have been approved in order to maintain your current account status

With Ford’s move into a payment protection plan it would seem that the Automotive industry has done enough research to show that the only way to get people to buy a new car is to limit their downside risk. 

Building Consumer Confidence

This makes complete sense to me since everyone I speak with is focused on conserving cash, if they have it. This is one block is the slow rebuilding of consumer confidence, but will it be enough to pump up Ford’s car and truck sales? 

Dave Wilson, President of Preston Ford commented on the plan “I’m very excited that we have some good news to offer Ford car buyers in Maryland. With many people facing the prospects of layoffs, this actually may give some people the peace of mind that they can afford a new car.”

Taking this to heart, David requested that we build a quick microsite for the Ford Advantage Plan to service his Ford customers in Maryland, Delaware and northern Virginia.  David purchased the domain www.fordadvantageplan.net and we posted the information on the Ford Advantage Plan for his customers to read. 

The website design makes it easy for his sales staff to refer customers to information when they are on the phone or my email. Preston Ford believes that while this program is being tested, they should get out and spread the word.  It also makes it easy for anyone visiting this website to click through to his Ford website or any of the other brands in their family of fine cars.

Building Microsites – How Much Time is Involved?

This project took about 5 hours of programming resources which made the site very affordable for Dave to test.  Once we create a template for a automotive client, creating additional marketing websites is very easy.  The added bonus is that Preston Ford owns the website code and it only costs him under $100 a year to host the website. 

This microsite is not a WordPress site, but a basic HTML template that we had create for their Preston Autoplexlanding page.  Websites that only have a few pages on them normally don’t rank very highly outside matches for their domain name.  In this case, the domain name is an exact match for the Ford plan so it was worth a test.  In the coming weeks we will see if we can add any additional information to the website and then watch how it ranks.

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The idea of a “RedNumbat” or a “Twitter” or a “Facebook” innovating car dealer sales just a few years ago would have been met with frowns. The Internet is creating new communication tools and channels that can deliver messages to thousands of “followers” in seconds.  No wonder why the idea of an instant car price quote from a Red Marsupial has traction in the marketplace. 

I look forward to testing the RedNumbat technology on a few client websites in the coming months. I’ll report my findings on this blog as soon as  we collect enough data.  www.rednumbat.com

Protecting Your Dealer Name

In the past few weeks I have been talking with dealers across the US and Canada that were inspired by a free webinar I conducted with Dealers Edge on March 10th.  From the calls, it is clear that the economy has reignited a passion for car dealers to compete on the Internet.   Dealers want innovators to step up and shake up the old establishment; they are just cautious about spending money.

Significant interest from callers was focused on protecting their dealer name from third party lead collectors.  This is one of the easiest things that car dealers can do to increase consumer direct leads; get third party leads collectors off of Google page one for searches on their dealer name. Dealers should roll up their sleeves and use free web publishing tools like:

• www.merchantcircle.com
• www.vox.com
• www.blogspot.com
• www.squidoo.com

to create “dealer name” branded web assets that they can use to share content about the cars that they sell; talk about promotions, rebates, safety or third party reviews.  The key is to “name” these web assets with their dealer name so they appear for dealer name searches.  Think of these web assets as your free blogging tools without expenses or the need to know HTML programming.

What About Facebook

This week I was speaking with a dealer that said that their Facebook project sold three cars this past week.  This was exciting to hear that car dealers are testing and measuring some of the latest trends in social networking.  It is too early to definitively say how to use Facebook efficiently. Anyone with experiences with Facebook I encourage to share on this forum by sending an email to me at brian@paschconsulting.com.  Your feedback will be welcome since Facebook is hot topic of conversation amongst marketing professionals.

What About Twitter

I’m still waiting to see the results from using Twitter, so if anyone has some data to share, please send me an email.

If you would like to join me on my next Webinar on April 2, 2009, click here:  SEO Webinar

Reader Feedback – March 25, 2009

Brian,

I have just started using facebook for marketing. I think it is going to work well. I have sold cars for 20 years. I have a data base of  over 2,500 customers. I have started inviting each one to be my friend on face book. I am surprised that 50% of them are on facebook. If they  are not I invite them to join. They often do and it is great to be the one that introduced them to facebook. if they are on I send a personal message. I ask how their car is and what have they been up to.

Once  they accept me as a friend, I look at there pictures. I find something I am interested in. Art work, or a fishing trip and ask a question about it. I also invite people that buy a car from me to be my friend and they almost write something about their new car. I take a picture of them with their new car when they buy it. I email it to them. I am asking them if I can post it on the dealerships facebook page, which I  am a fan of.

I really hope they will post the photo I email on their facebook account. Some have but it too early to see what the results 
will be. I mix friends and work on facebook. I get lots of comments from customers that they like the way I blend this and am real and that I use marketing, social networking and friendship the way it was designed to be used.

I think this is going to be great.

Chance Black
Internet Manager
Subaru of Georgetown
www.chanceblack.com

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The first in a series of Automotive Internet Marketing webinars offered by Brian Pasch and DealersEdge.com was a tremendous success.  Over 350 automotive professionals participated in the 2-hour webinar on March 10, 2009. There will be one webinar offered per month for the next 5 months as part of a new Internet marketing series offered by Dealers Edge.

The first webinar offered practical advice for automotive sales professionals who wish to leverage their dealer website for greater sales and web visibility. The goal of the webinar was to provide low cost strategies to attract additional Internet sales leads.

The free webinar explained the importance of  Web 2.0 automotive marketing strategies that included social networking, blogging, microsites and Internet reputation management. The seminar also reviewed website design guidelines that were included in Google’s free SEO Starter guide.

Upcoming Internet Marketing Webinars

The next five webinars will have a cost of under $100 per webinar making the webinar series both timely and affordable.  In fact, many dealers indicated that they had multiple staff members in a room participating in the webinar. 

We want to thank everyone who sent us a note, and all the feedback was extremely positive.

“The webinar was very informative. I read too many articles that just say, you need to be using social marketing media, but not telling you why and how it can enhance your organic search. That’s what was so great about this session-you thoroughly explained the benefits of each tip you suggested. “ Dionne Andrews, Marketing Director West Virginia

 ”By the way, very well done! The information was excellent it was presented in a way that even a GM or Dealer Principal should be able to get it” Jim Chamberlain, Ecommerce/BDC Director Florida

“This was one of the most informative webinars I have participated in. Not only does Brian offer a great process for SEO he actually takes the time to educate the audience. “ Brentley Jones, GSM Quantrell Auto Group, Kentucky

“Your webinar was first class and information packed.” David Griffith, GM Griffith Motors, Oregon

For the next 6 months, Brian Pasch will be hosting monthly webinars in conjunction with DealersEdge.com.  The next webinar is titled “How to make your dealership’s website Google compliant” will be held on April 2, 2009.  To register for future webinars and get important updates about the dates and times, visit http://www.dealersedge.com

You can also subscribe to the Pasch COnsulting Group’s RSS feed by clicking here.

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If you are actively using automotive or social networking portals to promote your car dealership I would like to suggest another way to measure the effectiveness of your work.  Most dealers have Google Analytics or a similar package in place to track inbound traffic, page views and the referring URL’s. 

However, trying to read through the “referrer URL” report and matching these cryptic URL’s with specific posts you are making on the Internet is practically impossible.   Yes, you can click on the links and see what the article was, but that is very time consuming.  Now image active Internet sales Managers or dealerships that are posting dozens of posts a month directly or through a consultant.

Tracking The ROI of Your Web Time

Finding which websites are linking to your website from post hyperlinks is easy.  The real question is what posts or topics brought the most traffic.  Did you hit any “nerves” with consumers with an article that drove more traffic to your website than others in past?   Did one type of car or one price point bring you the most traffic on Craigslist?   Did your parts managers reply to someone on a car forum drive more traffic to your parts website?

I have discussed in the past that good content is very important for search engine optimization and so are the potential inbound links and traffic that good content can generate.  This content can be on your own website or blog but it also can be on outside blogs and content aggregator websites.

So how do you try to equate your work posting on consumer forums, car forums or on your own blogs to specific traffic?  For this I would suggest testing www.budurl.com .  This service converts your cryptic URL to a simple URL that you can add to any website post.  You label the budurl in your account control panel so that you can remember the topic of the post. Then you can log into your account see how many people clicked on that link.

Links to Ford Dealer Specials Pages

For example, if you make a post on a community automotive forum to tell people about the specials your dealership was offering, the actually page link you would normally post would be something like this:

http://www.prestonford.com/coupons.asp?keywords=specials

You would replace this with a budurl that would look like this:  http://budurl.com/forddealercoupons

If you click on both URL’s you will see that they take you to the same webpage.  The trick is that you can now log into your budurl account and see how many people clicked on your link.  If you label your budurl’s carefully, you can create an instant dashboard of activity that updates in real-time.  So, if one type of post or headline generates 3 times the traffic of other posts, this data can help prioritize future content development.

You can also use budurl for LIVE tracking on specials or promotions you add on your homepage.  The possibilities are endless and the real-time stats can make testing different landing pages or promotional pages easy. There are third party statistics packages that offer similar features but I like the simplicity of this system.  Anyone can easily setup a BudURL and turn themselves into an Internet marketing maven with real data for tracking the ROI of their efforts.

One caveat:  I would not use BudURL for all my primary links since you do want direct links to important pages that can be good inbound link source to your primary URL.  For example, Google Maps provides you with free stats on how many people clicked on your map link so there is no need to use a budurl in Google maps.

Automotive SEO Ideas

If you found this article helpful, click here for more ideas on our Automotive SEO blog: http://budurl.com/automotiveseotips

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