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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

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Brian Pasch

It has been a few months now since Google has integrated Google Places data and “star reviews” to Google Page One organic search results.  The impact of this change can best be seen for broad shopping phrases like “Bradenton Used Cars” or “Baltimore Honda Dealers”.  Since this change occurred, I had never witnessed examples where the “block” of Google Places enhanced listings was interrupted by non Google Places listings.

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.

Have you seen that Google is experimenting with a new Page One SERP design? I saw this today as I searched for Chicago Dealers and I was blown away how much Page One real estate was used for Google Maps listings.

I color coded the SERP in sections to show that:

• Google Adwords was split on top and right shown in pink.
• Two organic listings were displayed above the new maps region, shown in green.
• That 7 spots were taken up with exploded Google Maps listings, shown in red.
• The remainder of the organics were shown under maps which were cut off on the screen capture.

Google Maps Changes SEO Strategies

I don’t see this type of display for all searches and maybe this is a new design for broad commercial searches but this is a game changer.  What do you think?

What I can see is that Google review stars are SIGNIFICANTLY MORE VISIBLE which means that automotive reputation management processes must really be locked down.  What I also see is that if you are not in the top spots for organic search, you will get crushed by this new design and experience significantly less clicks.

What I also would expect is that the Google Ads on the right side will receive less clicks.  There is too much activity front and center that brings the consumers eye to the maps region.  So this will also be a game changer for Adwords bidding.

Google Maps Homework

Get your Google Maps listings updated with photos, videos, coupons, and make sure you have the geo-targeting set correctly.  If this is a look at the future, the more complete and compelling your Google Maps listing is, the more calls and clicks you will receive.

If you need help with Google Maps, call: 732.450.8200.

P.S. Here Another Example For Baltimore Honda Dealers – WOW – Same Issue Here