Jumping into Online Reputation Management

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on July 2, 2009
in online reputation management
. 0 Comments

Online Conversation

Many car dealers are becoming increasingly intrigued about online reputation management and monitoring. With countless ways for consumers, and competitors, to voice their opinions online, it’s becoming important to listen to what’s being said on consumer review websites, blogs, and social media.

If you aren’t embracing online marketing to promote your website, or even if you don’t have a website, you still have an online reputation to consider! Online media is about a conversation, and if you’re not contributing to the conversation, it won’t stop people from talking.

The best way to dive into the proactive of online reputation management is simply to start listening. High profile social media websites are a great place to start. These websites include Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter to name just a few. For any car dealer, local search portals and review sites like CitySearch and Yelp are also important to check out to gauge what people are saying about your website. Needless to say, sites specifically within the automotive niche, such as DealerRater.com, are also helpful in identifying what customers are saying about your dealership.

One of the best ways to begin monitoring your online reputation is to simply create a free Google account which will enable you to take advantage of a number of helpful tools and resources.

The first resource to look into is Google News. Thanks to its RSS functionality, you can easily keep track of the specific news you want to stay on top of, such as information on the automotive industry or other local news. While Google News covers news and events across the world and across the web, you can use keywords to narrow-in on the specific news you seek.

Another important tool for online reputation monitoring is Google Alerts. If you’re not a fan of RSS feeds, simply add the keywords that you’re interested in, such as your dealership name or the name of your competitors, and Google Alerts will email you each time news or other recent content is found that addresses those keywords.

Google Blog Search is Google’s search destination for finding out what’s happening in the blogosphere. These days, many car dealers have their own blogs, and so do your customers. By utilizing options for email alerts or RSS, you can keep track of what car buyers and your competitors are saying.

Online reputation management and monitoring is not exclusively performed by large corporations. Small and medium sized businesses should also be gauging the pulse of their industry and local area. Of course reputation monitoring will also allow businesses to see what it is they’re doing right or doing wrong in the eyes of their customers. Continue reading ‘Jumping into Online Reputation Management’

Different Ways to Utilize Universal Search

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on July 2, 2009
in Universal Search
. 0 Comments

Google appears to be increasingly embracing the universal search platform. As competition from Yahoo and Microsoft’s all-new Bing.com heats up, Google must now address the quality of its core product and the overall search experience.

Universal search blends a variety of content with search results. This might include news, images, video content, blog posts, and even books in addition to traditional website listings. While most search engines are adding content variety to their results pages, the biggest challenge is in providing the content in an easy to understand manner. The other challenge is determining how relevant a piece of content is in relation to a specific search query. For a given query, would a blog post be most relevant or perhaps a video? Regardless, the information found within the SERPs is becoming more varied than ever before, and the trend can be seen in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

With the rapid implementation of universal search, there are certainly more opportunities for website owners. When devising content for the Web, it’s increasingly important to consider types of content and think about where to place this content. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can develop your digital assets to take full advantage of universal search.

News

Toyota accessories

Search engines love fresh content in general, but all search engines these days are also becoming hubs for news-related content. Luckily, any dealership can take advantage by creating news releases about new products, unique sales promotions, special events, or philanthropic work in the community. This content can easily find its way into Google News and become featured as ‘News’ within search results pages for important search queries. Popular websites for submitting press releases include PR Newswire and PR Leap, both of which provide a variety of options to maximize reach and SEO capabilities.

Video

Video is one of the most powerful types of content available, yet many dealers neglect to utilize this medium online. Not only is it easy for car dealers to take television commercials and post them online, but creating an online video that explores new models or provides some type of tutorial can greatly improve the online user experience. Video content can be posted on numerous websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and even Flickr, to expand potential viewership. Best of all, videos from popular websites like YouTube not only can find their way into search results, but they can also be optimized for specific keywords and phrases.

Images

Many users turn to search engines to find images, especially new car shoppers looking for quality pictures of new models. By paying particularly close attention to files names, fie size, and most importantly SEO-friendly alt tags and text captions, the images on your website will have a greater chance of attracting more views. To prepare your images for universal search, check out the image search tool in Google’s Webmaster Central.

Local Listings

Shreveport Honda

Local listings are truly the low-hanging fruit of universal search. While it’s easy to forget adding your dealership to local listings on various search engines, it could make a huge impact. By taking just a few minutes to update your local listing information, your dealership’s location and contact information can appear within the SERPs, in addition to standard organic listings. To confirm if you have been added to local listings, check out GetListed.org for more information.

Product Listings

Product listings can be a unique way to generate extra revenue for any parts and accessories department. For long-tail, specific product searches, search engines such as Google are commonly showing specific product listings in search results. By jumping into product listings, dealerships can take advantage of other outlets beyond eBay and other popular e-commerce options.

Blogs

We’ve certainly discussed the importance of blogging on Top Dealer SEO before as there are ample advantages to it when it comes to SEO and building awareness. Blogs also make it easy to add fresh content to your website and they help attract links from other websites. In addition to building buzz within the blogosphere, blogs can also ping Google Blog Search and other blog search platforms which automatically notifies these services of updates. Continue reading ‘Different Ways to Utilize Universal Search’

Tips For Optimizing Multimedia Content

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on June 29, 2009
in SEO Tips
. 0 Comments

Multimedia content image

Multimedia is one of the greatest opportunities in Web marketing. However, it’s important to remember that when optimizing on-site content, this includes video and image content and not just text. Video optimization in particular is increasingly important as a brand-building tool. Best of all, video content potentially could find its way into search engine results pages as well.

With the growth of online video, car dealers are increasingly embracing YouTube and other online video platforms. In fact, comScore estimated that internet users in the US in the month of March viewed 14.5 billion videos on the Web! That’s an incredible statistic that shows the awesome power and demand of video content. It also may highlight the ease of putting video content online. In making it easier to find success with your online videos, let’s look at a few tips for video optimization.

When developing the video, or deciding on where to place it, consider relevancy of its content. The best online videos are those that provide value to those who view it. Videos that don’t provide any helpful information, don’t relate to the content on your website, or are simply old videos, usually are not able to gain impressive views.

Giving your video a title is probably the single most important video optimization tip. The title should be both descriptive and enticing to get people to view it. But the video titles can also be infused with important keywords to help optimize the video for search engines.

Tagging is another way to help people find your video content. Tags are used by numerous websites such as YouTube to categorize videos and they make it easier for viewers to find specific content via search queries. You should only use several keywords, no more than a half dozen. The keywords should also include keywords to aid SEO.

Naming video and image content is very important. The filenames you choose also play an important role in optimization, and should include a format that is easy to read by a human, while also being descriptive of content. Keywords should be used as well when applicable.

Much of search engine optimization revolves around text, which is precisely why a text transcript should also be considered. Many video and slideshow websites feature the ability to upload text to accompany your multimedia content. Adding a text transcript on your own website will also be advantageous for  car dealer SEO. While not all video sites enable this function, at the very least you’re able to provide a brief description of your content. Again, the description should accurately describe your content, be enticing like an advertisement for your video, and it should also include helpful keywords that users may use to find the video.

Video content is a social media tool, and as such can be helpful in link building efforts. Video should be engaging, entertaining, and/or informative, if you want others to link to it. Getting links from various social media outlets translates in more potential viewers.

Some videos are so entertaining or informative that they could go viral. What this means is that communities within social media sites begin to share it with friends and recommend it in  such a way that the video is passed from user to user. Again this means more eyeballs are on your video content, and it also could lead to more links pointing to your content. Don’t forget to provide proper branding or contact information on your content to ensure you won’t miss out on any leads! Continue reading ‘Tips For Optimizing Multimedia Content’

Microsoft Unveils New Bing Search Engine

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on June 1, 2009
in SEO News
. 1 Comment

Bing Search Engine image

Microsoft has long struggled to boost the profile of its search engine, MSN/Live.com. For that reason, Microsoft decided to try something new and has just launched an all-new search engine called Bing. Bing, which had previously been code-named Kumo, is said to help consumers make “faster, more informed decisions.”

Bing is said to provide vertical search functionality for those shopping for a specific product, planning a trip, researching health related topics, or trying to find a local business. Like other search engines, Bing also enables searches to be filtered by automatically generating suggested search queries as well as by links to images, shopping, maps, news, and travel. A key feature of Bing is the ability to hover over a result and read a snippet of the website’s content, helping the user gauge just how useful the site is.

Microsoft will be carrying the Bing branding to MSN and Live.com. If nothing else this is an indication that Microsoft intends to make the Bing search engine its primary product to compete with Google. But like so many other search engines that have tried to go up against Google, Bing will need to bring something truly different to the table to ensure its success. Most importantly, results need to provide value to users and deliver on the promise to provide information and answers to users faster.

Bing has been unveiled a few days ahead of schedule to give users the chance to preview the new search engine. It’s expected that potential users will soon see the Bing logo everywhere as Microsoft is spending between $80 million and $100 million on advertising to promote its latest search product.

While some have said that Bing stands for “But-its-not-Google,” the new search engine has received plenty of positive feedback from industry observers. Despite solid reviews, Bing still faces an uphill battle. The biggest challenge is getting users to switch from Google - a product they’re already used to. That being said, Bing may deliver more of a threat to Yahoo rather than Google. Continue reading ‘Microsoft Unveils New Bing Search Engine’

Ford Utilizes Social Media for New Car Buzz

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on May 13, 2009
in Social Media Marketing
. 0 Comments

Ford Fiesta Movement image

The Ford Fiesta will finally be available to U.S. customers next year as part of Ford’s strategy of offering a single global product lineup. Recently redesigned, the latest Fiesta is a compact hatchback that balances efficiency and sportiness and it has already seen tremendous sales success in Europe. Its success has fueled anticipation among American consumers and dealers alike, but to help maintain the anticipation, Ford has created a new campaign to generate interest.

To excite North American consumers about their latest offering, Ford has already shipped 100 Fiestas to the U.S. as part of the automaker’s Fiesta Movement campaign. For the next six months, 100 Americans will drive a Fiesta completely free of charge as they record their experience and impressions of the vehicle online via fiestamovement.com.

The Fiesta Movement campaign is comprised of young and well-connected drivers. The campaign is intended to leverage social media to spur grassroots interest in the Fiesta and generate demand for the car leading up to its release.

This bold campaign is plenty risky for Ford as few companies have had success running similar viral campaigns. However, Ford Tacoma and other observers recognize that Ford has plenty to gain if the campaign proves to be successful. For a limited financial investment, Ford can put the Fiesta in the hands of influencers and in front of its target demographic at a significantly lower cost than a traditional media buy.

Of course not everyone believes that such a campaign will be capable of enticing consumers. First, with a free car, free insurance, and even free parking, how can anyone expect these drivers to give completely unbiased opinions of the vehicle? Despite these perks, Ford’s social media guru Scott Monty has indicated that the Fiesta Movement drivers were instructed to be truthful and honest. To do their part, Ford will not censor or edit the content generated by those participating in the campaign.

Although the campaign is risky, Ford has little to worry about and everything to gain. With brisk sales of the Fiesta in Europe, the Ford Fiesta seems poised to be a success in North America soon enough. Continue reading ‘Ford Utilizes Social Media for New Car Buzz’

Microsites Produce Big Opportunities

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on May 13, 2009
in SEO Tips
. 0 Comments

Microsites are not new, but they certainly seem to be catching on. When we discuss microsites we’re talking about websites that have unique URLs and/or are separate from a car dealer’s main website. The content for these microsites are typically much narrower in focus, and revolves around a particular product or service.

With microsites catering to a specific product or service, car dealers can easily deliver unique and targeted marketing campaigns. Microsites can benefit car dealers by providing a more targeted landing page for a new or existing paid search advertising campaign. More targeted content is also advantageous for organic search.

The real benefit of a microsite is flexibility. If you have a lucrative product, service, or profit center, why not utilize a marketing tool specifically for it? Best of all, a microsite is smaller and more manageable than a dealership’s primary website.

Oil Change Richmond VA

An example of a highly targeted microsite is one recently launched for an Ashland Ford dealer. Giving highly-targeted information regarding their maintenance-related services, the Richmond Quick Lane microsite provides Richmond-area drivers with information regarding an oil change Richmond VA, tire services, brake services, and other services that drivers may not realize were available at a Ford dealership. What makes this microsite successful is that it provides a destination that appeals to a wide range of drivers, and not just those that happen to drive a Ford.

Auto Body Shop Richmond

For those looking for collision repair in Richmond Virginia, the same dealer has also produced a helpful microsite that again provides what searchers are looking for. While similar content is located on their dealership’s primary website, the microsite is tailored not only to Ford owners, but also those drivers that own other makes.

Opportunities arise with microsites because they help extend the reach of your dealership by helping you communicate with a niche audience. And because they’re so specific, microsites are a great way to optimize for a specific keyword or phrase, which is helpful for organic search as well. At the average car dealership, there are many stakeholders, including those who want to buy a car, finance a car, service a car, detail a car, etc. For those stakeholders that matter most, or for those who may otherwise would not respond to the content on your primary website, a microsite is the simple solution to drive additional leads. Continue reading ‘Microsites Produce Big Opportunities’

Top 10 Dealer Website Usability Tips

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on May 4, 2009
in SEO Tips
. 0 Comments

SEO Checklist for Usability image

Usability should be a top concern when building any website. Not only does proper design, navigation, and information architecture lead to more conversions than an unorganized, convoluted mess, but paying keen attention to usability also delivers greater SEO-friendliness. Low conversion may be attributed to an array of variables and not just one single factor, but usability can often be at the root of the problem as user behavior is always changing. In addition to giving users and search engines what they want, proper usability will also encourage both parties to keep coming back to the site.

More users interacting with and even returning to your website increases the potential to generate leads. Usability helps users to feel comfortable on your website, which will encourage them to reach out to your dealership via online forms, chat, or phone numbers. To gain insights into potential improvements for your website, check out these dealer website usability tips.

1. Watch someone who is unfamiliar with your website navigate through the site. What is their impression? Do they have difficulty with navigation or functionality? Do they gravitate towards the tasks that you designate, such as contact forms?

2. Do not disregard ideas that were not included in the design of your current website. As user behavior online is always changing, your design will have to change over time as well. An old idea that was excluded at one point may be considered more appropriate or valuable at another point.

3. Never build a website without a site map. Site maps can easily be a low priority on any redesign. However, having a site map not only enables search engines to find all of your site’s pages, but believe it or not a site map is also used by users!

4. Countless website providers forget that the home page is not the only entrance point for users. This makes it crucial that all web pages have consistent navigation and give plenty of attention to providing valuable content to users while offering the opportunity to generate a lead. Don’t forget that inner pages have just as much potential to convert a lead if not more potential than the home page. Looking at this Torrance body shop a user can find the service-related services they’re likely looking for, but thanks to consistent navigation they can also easily find out what other services are available.

5. Don’t disable the ‘Back’ button. All too often, website providers think they’re being clever in hopes of encouraging conversions on a specific page. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t work and almost always infuriates users.

6. Arrange content properly. Since most users visiting your website read from left to right, it’s important to structure and arrange content in that same way. Keep important elements and content along the upper left portion of a page. Reserve the bottom right portion of a page for static graphics, text that has little importance, or other content that doesn’t provide significant value. For example, if a user enters a site via organic or paid search results to a page for used cars in Los Angeles, the page should have only used car content to satisfy the user’s needs. This simple strategy will help generate a lead.

7. Simple tactics can be employed to add emphasis. For example, bolding and using italics are great for accenting important parts of text. However, don’t go overboard. If everything is in italics or bolded, then nothing stands out as being important. Colored text may also be considered, but restrict underlines to links only.

8. Website users like to scan text, not read it word for word. Knowing this, text should be easy to scan and include adequate spacing, brief headings, short paragraphs, and/or bullet points. For instance, New Jersey Hyundai uses dark text on a light background, but also includes several headings to break up a page of content about the dealership, helping to make the copy easily readable.

9. Pay attention to the contrast between text and your page’s background. Dark text on a light background always, always works well.

10. Don’t forget to optimize images. Images provide valuable onsite content and they can be optimized to load quickly and can be tagged with descriptive keywords that deliver SEO value. Continue reading ‘Top 10 Dealer Website Usability Tips’

A Quick Look at Anchor Text and Title Tags

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on May 1, 2009
in SEO Tips
. 0 Comments

Web usability

Anchor text and page title tags are among the most important aspects of onsite SEO. In many instances, SEOs and website owners tend to fumble around these fundamental SEO tactics. Let’s examine some of the requirements and mistakes of anchor text and title tag optimization.

First, it’s important to use plain language. The use of anchor text when linking to another page, and when creating title tags, should describe page content in a natural way. Of course keyword use is important, but not in such a way that sounds awkward or unnatural. The visitors to your website are looking for specific content and they need to be able to find it fast and without thinking. This is why having simple, honest, and concise anchor text and title tags are required. Encouraging readers to click from your home page to a page on San Francisco used cars with anchor text that simply says “click here” assumes that the reader is actually reading the content before the link! Make it easy and SEO-friendly by telling the users what the page is, rather than just giving users a command.

Title tags in particular are important for a few reasons. Sure they’re an important place for keywords, but they’re also crucial for basic usability. Countless eye tracking studies illustrate that Web users look at the upper left portion of every Web page first. This gives website owners the opportunity to appropriately describe what type of content is on a specific page as well as describe the benefit to the user.

Avoid being too clever. Trying to stuff in buzzwords, hip lingo, or other inflated language is usually unnecessary. In many cases, car buyers are using the same keywords and phrases over and over again in nearly every part of the country. Trying to use a unique buzzword rather than common verbiage may be more restrictive than you think. Continue reading ‘A Quick Look at Anchor Text and Title Tags’

Google Sitelinks and New One-Line Sitelinks

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on April 25, 2009
in SEO News
. 0 Comments

You’ve likely seen sitelinks before. In Google, sitelinks are shown below the first search result to help users navigate from the SERPs to inner pages. Google decides when these sitelinks should be included with your website listing and adds them when they believe it will be more useful for users. In most cases, sitelinks are attributed to large or complex websites. Sitelinks are beneficial as they give websites the ability to show off content that may otherwise receive minimal attention.

Google sitelinks image
More recently, you may be noticing some changes with how Google displays sitelinks. Sitelinks used to show only for the first search result, but have recently been expanded to show a single row of links below sites that previously did not have sitelinks. This includes website results that are not in the first position. This means that numerous websites on a results page can now benefit from sitelinks to inner pages.

One-line sitelinks image

As part of the sitelinks expansion, Google will include links in a one-line row, rather than the two-column sitelinks. Just like the standard two-column sitelinks, these new one-line rows are generated algorithmically based on expected benefit to users.

This is great news for plenty of car dealers and webmasters. If your website had previously been displayed without sitelinks, there’s now a greater possibility for your site to have them. This potentially means more visibility and traffic for your inner pages. Continue reading ‘Google Sitelinks and New One-Line Sitelinks’

Google Makes Changes to Local Search

Published
by
Top Dealer SEO
on April 3, 2009
in SEO News
. 1 Comment

When Google began showing maps and local listings within search results pages, local search marketers and businesses rejoiced. Now a couple years later, Google appears to be mixing in local listings in yet another innovative way, but this time isn’t limiting such listings to geo-specific search queries.

Google is now allowing local listings, including a map and business listings, for searches that aren’t even typical local searches. For example, queries such as “attorneys” will now bring up local listings that are based on the geographic information supplied by your IP address. In many cases, the cluster of local listings for theses non-local queries can include as many as 10 business listings. These clusters are also positioned in the fourth spot and sometimes lower in the listings.

Google local listings image
This update will no doubt be helpful for any local business, especially for car dealers. While taking the time and energy to rank for a national search term is often unnecessary due to the lack of genuine leads the added traffic will deliver, this new local search cluster may drive desired exposure regardless of having a broad or national organic ranking for  your website.

With this update, Google seems to be acknowledging that local search is a huge part of all queries. With local listings now being even more prominent within Google’s Universal Search platform, it becomes more important than ever for small or local businesses to add their listing to Google’s business directory, as well as other local search directories. Getlisted.org is a great way to start this process. Continue reading ‘Google Makes Changes to Local Search’