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Recently one of my clients asked me how he can get his Google Adwords listings to include the review counts as shown above for AutoPartsWarehouse.com.   I wanted to write a post to make a distinction between Google Seller Rating (shown above) and the newly released Google Boost.

In the example above, Google Seller Ratings are included on Google Adwords campaigns.  Google Boost is not Adwords and it is controlled from within Google Places.  Secondly, the Google Seller Ratings has a number of parameters that must be met in order to qualify for “star” treatment.

Google Boost is a way to create a simple ad based on your data in Google Places.   If you have good consumer reviews on your Google Places listing, I recommend that you test Google Boost. We have been collecting data on Google Boost campaigns and I will be sharing the data from various tests at the upcoming 2nd Annual Automotive Marketing Boot Camp.  I’ll be conducting a workshop on Automotive SEO and Google Places optimization and Boost will be part of the curriculum.

Requirements for Google Seller Ratings

According to Google’s website:

Seller rating extensions does this by attaching your merchant star rating from Google Product Search to your AdWords ads. These star ratings, aggregated from review sites all around the web, allow people to find merchants that are highly recommended by online shoppers like them.

If your online store is rated in Google Product Search, you have 4 or more stars, and you have at least 30 reviews, you’ll automatically get seller ratings with your ads. What’s more, you’ll only be charged if someone clicks on the headline of your ad – clicks on the review link are free.

So, for car dealers who operate a parts website or an extended warranty website,

• Your Online Store needs to be published in Google Product Search
• You have to have 4 or more stars
• You have to have at least 30 reviews

Then your rating will automatically  be added to your PPC listing.

CarMax Integrates Their Inventory With Google Product Search

What is interesting is that CarMax.com got the their website into Google Product Search by getting it classified as an online store.

Now their website looks like a typical dealership website, shown below, except they took the time to integrate their inventory into Google Product Search.  I don’t know about you, but the fact that their Google Adwords ads have “stars” really makes them stand-out from the other Google text ads that surround them.

I would suggest that dealers discuss getting their inventory and website setup with the Google Product Search database.  There are some helpful instructions in the Google Merchant Center on how you would load your inventory into Google Product Search.  Basically, it looks like CarMax.com submitted a compliant Data Feed for all their cars.

I have not seen any other car dealers setup their inventory in such a way to get the star ratings, so it looks like a wide open opportunity.

With increased competition for online advertising space, it is clear to me that Seller Ratings can make a difference on which paid ads will be clicked.  There are so many ways to tweak and enhance your online advertising strategies so keep up on your reading and digital marketing education!

If you like to learn more about Automotive SEM, come out to the Automotive Marketing Boot Camp, April 16-18th in Orlando for great hands on training and cutting edge strategies.  You can see the full schedule of classes at http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com.

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com

Today I noticed something strange in a simple Google SERP. This may have been going on for some time but today it caught my attention.  I was in Google and searched using this phrase “Ford memorial day sale”.

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.

As a Automotive social networking advocate and Automotive SEO evangelist, it is important that car dealers understand that often the perfect digital marketing campaign is a blend between SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

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.