For those interested in learning more about the ins and outs of SEO, this Infographic by Blogging Pro really spells it out in stunning visual fashion. SEO is such an integral part of any car dealer’s marketing strategy that having a basic understanding can be helpful. With so many SEO and web providers out there claiming to have the best automotive SEO, being armed with knowledge is your best bet.

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There are countless variables that SEOs must contend with in order to attain competitive rankings. Getting to number one in the search engine results pages (SERPs) doesn’t require one or two helpful tactics, but numerous tactics and a sound strategy that will help a site battle countless competitors that are actively trying to rank above you.

Start Off Right

Time and time again, SEO can easily become an afterthought and it’s often included only after a website’s design and structure has been finalized. When this happens, SEO and usability could suffer. If rankings and the user experience begins to suffer, so too will conversion rates.

Website design can often impair search engine rankings, and SEO and design should go hand in hand from the start of the development process. If titles, headings, content, navigation, and inner page linking structures are finalized before SEO comes into the process, then the design of the website becomes impaired from the start. These components are keys to SEO and usability, so they should not be discounted or considered last minute.

Don’t Rely Solely on Flash

Flash is another huge topic of debate. Flash content is often praised by clients for its ability to provide visually appealing content and animation. Unfortunately, content developed in Flash is generally not readable by search engine crawlers at this time. While too much flash could pose as a roadblock to search engine rankings, that doesn’t mean websites have to be void of flash completely. A successful website design is one that balances eye-grabbing visual components with search engine friendly HTML and text-based content. The trick is capturing the best of both worlds!

Keep It Structured

Another area that often is left to those designing the website is the URL structure. Once pages are created and named and navigation is in place, it often becomes difficult to overcome poor naming conventions. Again, it’s crucial that SEO is infused in URL structure from the beginning so that keywords can be included not only in high level pages, but also in deeper inner pages.

Embrace CSS Styling

Cascading style sheets or CSS can actually improve the SEO friendliness of a website’s design. If your website is done with tables, there’s no need to fret. But having external CSS can reduce the amount of unnecessary code on each web page of your site, thereby improving load times. This not only appeases users, but it also appeases search engine spiders since it allows spiders to crawl your website at a faster pace.

Give Images Some Attention

Images are always going to be used in some area of your website, and while search engines can’t understand the visual content within an image, that’s not to say images can’t be SEO friendly. Use ‘Alt’ tags to infuse images with textual information. By using a keyword-rich alt tag, search engines get a sense of what an image is about. In addition, other than a website’s logo, try to avoid placing text within images. Instead, use CSS to position text around an image. This will make image sizes smaller and easier to load, and it will also make that text crawlable by search engine spiders.

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Get your fix of automotive SEO information on this blog.

It wasn’t long ago when directory submissions were one of the most important tactics available to SEOs. But these days, link building has become more diverse, and directory submissions have lost their luster in response to emerging link building tactics that have involved blogging, bookmarking, and other social media marketing tactics.

With the continuing popularity and diversity of various social media sites, directories have continued to become less popular and less relevant. In addition, since the heyday of directory submissions, Google has changed their algorithm to account for the spam that typically plagues popular free directories. Google has also warned against using paid links for link building, and this also includes directory links.

While directories may have become less influential as far as Google is concerned, this is not to say that directories should be ignored completely. As fewer SEOs are relying on directories, they may be the low-hanging fruit you need to give your website an edge. The key is to find the right directories to submit to, rather than submitting to just any directory. By exercising caution, you can avoid the low-quality, irrelevant directories and take advantage of those that can still boost page rank and referrals.

The important factor to consider with directory submissions is that your link building efforts should include other types of link building, not just those acquired through directories. If you’re able to attain that diversity, through blogging, social media, etc, then your website should remain in competitive shape in terms of off-site optimization.

Before blindly submitting to massive amounts of directories, you’ll want to first do a little bit of research. Ask yourself whether or not a directory in question will provide adequate SEO value. If you’re targeting a specific area or demographic, there may be a directory available that caters to that specific target. Once you find a directory you want to submit to, you’ll most likely have to decide which category within that directory that you would like to submit to. This seemingly obvious task of choosing a category could become quite confusing. While many categories are temping, it’s best to think of the specific services your dealership offers and who you would most like to reach.

Another factor that regularly comes up when submitting to directories is the question of the reciprocal link. Many directories allow websites to submit their directory for free in exchange for a reciprocal link from your website. At first it seems like a small and reasonable price to pay, but reciprocal linking schemes could be harmful to your website’s optimization. Avoid these schemes at all costs!

Many directories today do not count significantly towards a website’s organic performance simply because they don’t offer relevant or high-quality links. That being said, harmful traits are often obvious, and with a little bit of intuition and research, directories remain worth looking into.

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Get more automotive SEO tips and advice on this blog.

URLs are crucial building blocks within any website. The URLs that your website uses enables users to move from one page to another, and helps to organize your site’s content into organized sections. URLs also remain important for on-site search engine optimization. Changes to URL structure can significantly impact your SEO performance, and URL content should not only mesh with information architecture and website organization, but they should also include important keywords that relate to specific pages. Whether you’re considering changing URL structure or considering a redesign, here are several areas to consider.

Length

Generally speaking, the shorter the URL the better. Not only does it become easier for the user if the URL remains somewhat memorable and understandable, but it also should feature helpful keywords that provide a relevant description of what’s on the page without extraneous syntax or words. Keeping URL structures shorter also prevents them from being cut off if a user tries to copy and paste the URL, for example if they want to email it to a friend.

Content

The URL structure should include descriptive keywords for several reasons. First, if the page is present in search engine result pages (SERPs) search engines often bold keywords that match a user’s query, thereby accentuating the search result and improving click-through. Additionally, concise keyword-rich URLs are also easier to work with since you can find specific pages easier, as opposed to pages that have URLs filled with unhelpful, irrelevant numbers or letters that don’t correlate to the content.

Case Consideration

URLs may include uppercase letters, lowercase letters, or both. As a result, mixing these elements together can create unnecessary confusion. The general good practice is to use lowercase letters throughout the URLs and stick with them. If old pages are discovered that use uppercase letters apply a 301 redirect to point old pages to the appropriate new page with lowercase letters.

Separating Words

While debate may continue, search engines do not officially have preferences for hyphens versus underscores when it comes to separating words in URLs. Generally speaking a hyphen is considered more user-friendly, and therefore seem to be preferred by most SEOs. Stick with either of these and avoid other characters that may hinder SEO.

Consistency

One of the most important factors is also one of the easiest to diverge from. Consistency in your naming conversions will help to eliminate confusion between those working on the website, but most importantly consistency will help users understand how content on your website is organized.

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Read more about off-site SEO tactics soon.

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 the content. Smash Webs, a company specializing in SEO Omaha NE, agrees and adds that 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!

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Stay tuned additional video optimization insights.

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.

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.

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.

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More great examples of auto dealer microsites are coming soon.

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 warns one prominent Omaha website design company. 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.

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Helping car dealers online is what we’re all about. Check back soon for more SEO information.

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 Boston 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.

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Discover insights into online marketing for car dealers at Top Dealer SEO.

Blogging has become an important option to consider for your online marketing strategy. However, developing a blog has its own set of challenges and considerations. Many dealers may question which blog platform to use, what type of content they should provide, whether or not to allow comments, and how to build it and get the process started.

Beyond simply having a website, a blog’s real benefit is that it provides further insight into who you are and what your business is about. If you avoid rehashing press release content and provide conversational content and insights into what you offer, a blog may be what’s needed to set your dealership apart from your competitor.

So where should a car dealer begin? When planning a blog, you may want to research which blog platform you want to use. Another consideration is deciding whether to host the blog for free or to purchase hosting on your own.
Regardless of which platform you choose, a successful business blog is one that has good content and one that provides value to readers. However, an import consideration when choosing a blog platform is that your content is subject to the terms and conditions or content policies of those blog providers.

To get a quick start into blogging, Blogger and WordPress provide free alternatives that require only a couple steps to get your blog up and going. Both of these popular blogging platforms are easy to use and allow multiple authors to contribute, so potentially anyone in your dealership can get involved. Tools such as ShareThis can easily be added to your blog as well, making it easy for readers to share your content with others via social media and social networking websites or even via email.  The actual process of writing the blog can be simplified thanks to tools like Google Docs and Windows Live Writer, enabling users to save time and post blog entries without even going into the blog itself.

There are plenty of ways a dealer can communicate with potential customers via a blog. This includes discussing new model year arrivals, new additions to the dealership, and general community news. The real challenge is simply getting started and making the committment. The result will provide consumers with a greater understanding of who you are and what you’re all about. Plus, blogs are a great way to bolster your website’s visibility in the SERPs, and what car dealer wouldn’t love that?!

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Find additional tips on business blogging here.

Organic search engine optimization is often seen as complicated, confusing, and complex. While SEO overall can be a complicated process, basic on-page SEO tactics have remained fairly simple and straightforward. Since our goal is to make SEO as simple as possible, without being convoluted, we outlined the top 7 basic on page SEO tactics below.

Keyword Research – Don’t begin anything without beginning with the basic keyword research. Understand who will be looking for your dealership, where they will be coming from, what keywords they will likely be using, and what profit centers will be most important to them.

Keywords in Title Tags – Title tags have continued to be an important ranking variable for Google and other search engines. As such, featuring keywords prominently in the title should not be ignored. Keywords can also help describe the page since they are visible from the SERPs themselves, as well as visible to users on your website. For example, a look at one Boston used car dealer website and you’ll easily find what the dealer provides, and what areas they serve, as they are displayed prominently at the top.

Keyword-Rich URLs – The URL of a webpage is all too often ignored. Like the title tag, a URL is a heavily weighted on-page SEO component as it helps Google understand the content of the Web page. On a page for a Used Car Dealer Chicago, the page includes the term ‘used cars’ in the URL, helping to describe the content of the page.

H1 Header Keyword – An important area used for keywords is in a H1 header. This tag usually makes the text bold and is helpful when it features a keyword or phrase prominently. It also helps breakup content and makes it easier to read. As seen for a used cars Birmingham dealer, the H1 can be an important area for keyword targeting.

Keywords Within Page Content – The expression that ‘content is king’ holds true today when it comes to SEO. Without content, search engines struggle to understand what your webpage is really about. Without content, users will likewise struggle to find value from your site. This is why the Chapman Auto Columbia PA has provided ample content to educate users on the products and services they offer.

Meta Description – OK, so meta descriptions are generally regarded by most SEOs as having little effect on rankings, especially when it comes to Google’s algorithm. That being said, the meta description should still play an important role in your content strategy. After all, it is the description that users can see and read from the SERPs, helping to influence click-through from a search result page to your website. For example, Connecticut Honda dealers’ meta description may not be visible from their web page, but it does accurately describe the page and encourages searchers to click when looking at the website’s listing from a search engine.

Inner page linking – Just as inbound links have an effect on SEO, the way in which your Web pages link to one another internally is also important. Honda Pittsburgh for example includes links from its home page to finance, used cars, and service pages using relevant anchor text, thus helping to describe those pages and to get those inner pages crawled more easily by search engines.

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For more advanced SEO tips, keep reading Top Dealer SEO.