News

The Automotive Website Awards (AWA), presented by PCG Digital Marketing each year, recognize companies that provide outstanding technology platforms for the automotive industry.   The 160-page research paper that is associated with the awards provides guidance to car dealers who are considering a change to their automotive website.  (Download a copy)

The review process has opened doors for PCG, allowing our review team the opportunity to see the latest design, technology, and future products from the leaders in this industry.  I am blessed that I have met so many great people behind the companies that were included in this year’s report.

Reviewing ADP and Cobalt Technology

As part of the review process this summer, I met with the Cobalt development team in Seattle as well as the ADP/BZ team via a webinar.  Both companies impressed me with their future vision and upcoming technologies. I posted a blog about some of the major positive changes in the BZ Platform, which excited a number of BZ clients.  Change was definitely coming to users of both platforms.

At the time we reviewed their upcoming platforms, I had no idea that at the end of this year the two companies would merge.  I am sure that I was not alone in July 2010 as I speculated which technology platform would eventually “win” and how the two companies would operate.   Some in the industry commented to me that these two “big” companies would have a hard time sorting out their technology and integrating their employees.

I started to speculate about the different cultures at ADP and Cobalt and how John Holt would integrate the development, sales, and marketing teams to create a future vision for the new company.  I asked John Holt this question directly at the Driving Sales Executive Summit in October 2010, in front of 500 industry leaders. At that time, John had little to share but he had tremendous confidence that the combination would yield significant benefits for ADP and Cobalt clients.

Visiting the ADP / Cobalt Team in Seattle

Fast-forward to 60 days later. I visited Seattle in December 2010 and met with the new website team which consisted of architects, engineers, social media specialists, search engine optimization strategists, and marketing leaders of the new company.   The team was a combination of BZ and Cobalt employees.

Members of each team took time to share their roles and vision for the future technology platforms that they were working on.  Through all the meetings one thing impressed me.  There was tremendous positive energy that was coming from everyone that was in attendance.  There were no hints of divisiveness and everyone was focus, attentive, and added to the conversation.

John Holt and his executive team have quickly united the best of each company and have crafted a powerful technology focus for the upcoming year.   This should be great news for Cobalt and BZ customers as the company readies its new technology platform.  How this new platform will be implemented for its customers was not shared but I was impressed with what I saw.

Some dealers have commented that ADP and Cobalt grew too large to listen to the needs of their installed user base, but the two companies have indeed been listening.  They have responded from the feedback provided in the AWA review process and from their customers.  Granted, it may have taken longer than dealers would have wished but the good news is that change is in the air.

The Energy Factor

The new ADP/Cobalt company is not wasting time to produce a world-class product that includes the best in website architecture, design, SEO, automotive advertising, and social media integration.

The injection of 50+ new developers from the ADP merger will surely expedite the technology road map. Since I was not privy to rollout schedules or final production software I cannot say when the new platform will arrive, but don’t count these two players out.

Contrary to what some may believe, this merger has empowered these two companies. I go back to the “energy” factor I witnessed.  When the right teams of people get together with a unified goal, great things can happen.

I commend John Holt the leadership that has created this momentum in just five months.  Now we all will have to sit back and see what comes out of the production funnel.  The future looks so bright that they may have to give out sunglasses during the unveiling of their new platform.

What are your thoughts?

Once the industry darling of automotive websites, back when car dealers raced to purchase Flash based websites, Dealerskins has had a challenge recently re-energizing their brand. In fact you might say that the company has been laying low for the past year and I think I understand why.

Over the past two years I have witnessed the industry move away from 100% Flash websites and this has impacted Dealerskins’ cutting edge moniker.

In the early days of Flash based websites, the Adobe technology was a hindrance for obtaining strong organic search visibility. In effect, the original Dealerskins Flash websites were not easily optimized using proven Automotive SEO strategies.

In the past, my reviews of the Dealerskins platform from an SEO perspective have not been flattering to say the least.

Today, I will be the first to raise a toast to the website “Phoenix” that has risen with renewed focus that will surprise its former critics. This bird is hungry and hunting! Existing Dealerskins clients are in for a nice surprise and according to company executives; Dealerskins has a great new story to tell!

This is not a full review of the Dealerskins SEO architecture and search marketing strengths of the new platform but a peak at what is coming. The latest technology from Dealerskins will be included in the 2010 Automotive Website Awards, which will be presented on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 8:00 am at the Mirage Hotel.

Moving Towards A Primary HTML Platform

The first point to acknowledge is Dealerskins’ willingness to rebuild their CMS platform and technology while keeping their existing customers in business and thriving. That is not an easy task! The platform that we reviewed in August is a bridge to their full Content Management System (CMS) release that will be announced in the coming months.

The development team at Dealerskins should be congratulated. Their current hybrid Flash and HTML platform actually performed better in our search marketing architecture analysis this year than many of their peers. In short, this is NOT your parent’s Oldsmobile.

Automotive Inventory Optimization

The current Dealerskins website technology fixed the biggest complaint that I had in the past; their inventory module was practically invisible to the search engines and not in conformance with my SEO best practices.

The new Dealerskins platform has optimized website pages for every car in inventory with unique page titles and META descriptions for each car. I also liked their breadcrumb menu on each inventory page shown below:

You can see an example of their new inventory page by visiting this link for a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. The final version of their optimized inventory technology will be unveiled in their next CMS release but the current version is performing very well in our testing. I would like to see more car details integrated into the inventory URL string.

In an interesting balancing act, the Dealerskins design team kept the Flash navigation menus to add some sizzle while adding HTML navigation links and editable text areas on key website pages. In the near future, the Dealerskins homepage will be 100% Flash free which will resolve any complaints of operating systems that are not Flash friendly.

The addition of HTML content pages will also increase the search visibility for existing Dealerskins customers. According to the company, approximately 50% of their existing customers have been converted to the new platform.

Website Administrative Tools Lagging For Content

The adminstrative tools for car dealers do not currently allow dealers to add their own content pages on the fly. A call to customer support will create as many blank pages that a dealer needs and then a dealer can add or edit content. In the final version of the platform, more robust content editing tools and a blog are scheduled to be included. As car dealer focus more on content writing in 2011, a robust content publishing platform will be a requirement for success.

The Dealerskins platform includes their own analytics technology that provides an independent audit for car dealers who have hired third party companies to run their Adwords or SEO campaigns. Their development team addressed a common concern of dealers who are paying thousands of dollars a month only to trust their vendors are being truthful about traffic, clicks and lead reports they send.

Marketing Intelligence and SEO Ranking Tools

The Dealerskins team also demonstrated some of their impressive digital marketing tools which included built-in SEO ranking reports and something that dealers should look at called the “Psychic Sales Tool” (PST). The tool shows dealers all the pages and cars that the consumer visited on the Dealerskins website prior to submitting a lead. PST gives the dealer more information about any shopper before they contact them.

HTML 5 Mobile Sites

Dealerskins has also created attractive mobile websites that are based on the new HTML 5 standard. You can see their slick mobile technology by visiting www.gentiliniford.com from your iPhone. The mobile interface is one of the best that I have seen and very fast.

The Silence Is Broken

The previous silence from Dealerskins? They were hard at work surveying their customers and getting their new release out the door to customers.

Car dealers using the old Dealerskins platform are encouraged to give their account manager a call and see about the upgrade path to this more powerful website technology.

Hats off to Dealerskins for moving to address the most immediate needs of their user base. According to the Dealerskins team more features and enhancements are coming, so listen up when your Dealerskins representative calls. SEO pundits will not have the DS dog to kick anymore!

I would like to invite all car dealers and vendors that serve car dealers to add your business to www.CarDealerWiki.org a new project that I have started.

There is no cost to add your dealership or company to CarDealerWiki.  On the flip side,  adding your company information to the website has many benefits.

As CarDealerWiki.org  increases in popularity,  it will provide car dealers with additional Google Page One assets that will protect the dealers most important search phrase; their dealership name.  As more car dealers participate in the website, it will become an important website for car dealers who want to keep Google Page One filled with brand enhancing listings they control.

Membership Requests Require Approval

CarDealerWiki.org requires your account to be approved before you post and the good news is that all employees of car dealerships and employees of automotive vendors should qualify! Please complete the user profile with accurate information about what dealership or company you work for.  I am trying to keep spammers off the site and grow the content with real dealership data.  This will also keep the website content quality high.

Once you create your dealership profile page, you can also create optimize Wiki pages for service, parts, used cars all identified with your brand and town.  I have provided a few examples of car dealerships that are taking their opportunity in CarDealerWiki seriously.

When you create any page on the website, I am recommending your write 400-700 words on each page as a target.  You can upload photos, YouTube Videos, DealerRater reviews, and if you are in the Automotive Advertising Network, you can load live inventory.  The site has the ability to input RSS feeds so you can also add the latest posts from your car dealership or personal blog.

Toyota of Wallingford

Toyota of Wallingford has taken their CarDealerWiki profile page to another level by creating content pages for the models they sell as well as integrating a YouTube video.  You will see that he created sub-pages for specific Toyota Brands with a geo-target of New Haven. Take a look at the page and the powerful URL it created: http://cardealerwiki.org/Toyota_Camry_New_Haven

Lexus of Portland

Lexus of Portland created a page at  http://cardealerwiki.org/Lexus_Of_Portland and added their streaming DealerRater.com reviews.  This is a cool way to keep your CarDealerWiki page updated with the latest reviews.  The great things about CarDealerWiki is that these reviews appear to Google as text on the page.  This helps to fill out the Wiki page with real content.

Marlboro Nissan Example

Marlboro Nissan created a CarDealerWiki page on this URL:  http://cardealerwiki.org/Marlboro_Nissan. Notice that the URL in the Wiki is your dealership name which is great for SEO purposes.  When you visit their page,  you can see that they created sub-pages for each model Nissan used cars that they sell, here is one page example: http://cardealerwiki.org/Used_Nissan_Altima_Marlboro .

Notice that the URL is “Used Nissan Altima Marlboro” and this is important to call out because you want sub-pages on CarDealerWiki to be geo-targeted.  The review process will not allow one dealer to create a Wiki page called “Used Nissan Altima”.   What this means is that members of CarDealerWiki can create geo-targeted pages for user cars, sales, parts and service.  The key is to add good content on these pages.

Capital Ford Lincoln in Canada

Canadian car dealers are also welcome to join CarDealerWiki and Capital Ford Lincoln in Regina has done a great job building out their car dealer profile page.  They have added a block of car dealer testimonial from YouTube.  They have also started to create pages for the cars that they sell, so take a look at their creativity: http://cardealerwiki.org/Capital_Ford_Lincoln

Why You Should Get Started

Since this is my personal project, I have been involved with building links and relevance for this site.  This means in the coming months this will grow to a high PageRank website. Trust me on that promise.

The links that are part of these profile pages ARE even now being picked up by Yahoo and Google.   This means CarDealerWiki.org will be great for Google Page One Management as well as building powerful links to internal pages on your website.

So visit www.CarDealerWiki.org today and create an account.  In the upper right-hand corner, there is a login hyperlink.  Click that and request an account.  It will normally be approved with 24 hours.  When you register check your junk email folder since your password, which is emailed to you, normally ends up there.

Once your account has been approved, please watch the tutorial video on the home page to show you how to use CarDealerWiki’s dealer profile template.  It will save you time with the syntax of creating an attractive profile page.  I hope to see you join and experience the benefits of membership!