Monthly Archives: August 2011

Mobile Inspector Will Shake Up The Auto Industry

Brian Pasch loves to discuss digital marketing strategies with industry peers and when he sees an opportunity that can benefit the larger automotive community he is compelled to write and share.

Today, to the potential surprise of his readers, he is not writing about search marketing. He is writing about technology because he is very very excited about a new product that creates an innovative process for vehicle inventory inspection and merchandizing.

A dealer’s inventory is the primary eCommerce connection with consumers. Dealers make an significant investment to locate, appraise, purchase, recondition, and market used cars.

The physical infrastructure, human resources, insurance, financing, and marketing costs represent a large risk that dealers willingly take.

However, the attention to detail given to inspect, photograph, and merchandize their used cars on their website often does not reflect the massive investment dealers undertake to be in business. I see a costly disconnect in the auto industry on attention given to vehicle merchandizing.

You can read the rest of the article on Dealer Seo site here.

Automotive Dealer SEO and Google Related

As of August 16th 2011 evening, Google started showing Google Related for websites (I could only see a few as of now). Automotive Dealers will have a great impact on their web assets due to this.

imageGoogle Related for Automotive dealers seem to have 4 elements to it. A map, Google Reviews, Related Places and Related Searches. Although I am all for showing a map, I am not sure the other aspects of Google Related will have a positive impact on a dealership. For instance if a dealer website has a low star count, as a potential buyer I would in a second go to another place to shop for a car.

Dealers Need IRM Strategy even more now with Google Related.

imageDealer who do not invest in their IRM strategy are the ones that will get hurt most. A low star count means you lost the customer even before they read through the content on your website.

Being proactive and getting your customers post positive reviews in Google Places is the best way to get past this hurdle.

A dealer with low start count or recent low star counts need to investigate each incident and make sure have a good process in place to make sure unhappy customer reviews are limited or eliminated, especially since its easier to get bad reviews rather than good ones.

The related places tab at the bottom also shows star count for your competitors, If they have better start count, I would go shop in their dealership.

So its important not only to watch your counts but also your competitor counts, and provide best service you can to limit bad reviews and low star counts.

 

Automotive SEO and Google Related

It also seems from the Google Related bar, the related searches (last tab) shows various search results, in the searches I performed, I was looking for Toyota service in Sanford NC and I got related searches to show up for buying a new Toyota and/or a listing of Toyota dealers in the area. I believe Google will be refining the related searches even more to show more relevant results to the users. Evidently it very important to have more assets on page one for the keywords you wish to appear. This way Google Related Searches will always show more of the dealers listing and competitors.

 

So in summary it appears the strategy is 2 fold. One, to have good reviews and the other being strong Automotive Advertising in regards to Automotive SEO.

AAN can help car dealers achieve the objective of strong Automotive SEO that should include building geo targeted Automotive Microsites. PCG Digital Marketing Strategies can help in improving and retaining strong reviews. End of the day the dealer need to invest in Automotive SEO and Automotive IRM and keep up to date with changes Google is making and AAN can help.

Call us at 732 4508222 to talk to us and a quick demo of our services and tools and let us show you how you can benefit from these new changes.

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Google Related Searches for Automotive Dealers

Recently while searching for a laptop to buy, I already knew what I wanted to buy. It’s an HP Core I7 that was on sale in Staples. The zero moment of truth is I already decided not only what to buy but also where to buy.

Then I decided to test out Google and see if Google can give me the best deal in a reputed store for the laptop I am interested in for a better price. I typed “laptop” in Google. I noticed something very new showing up. Since Google wants to show the best results for my query, gave me options of highly optimized and ranking sites in my area to buy a laptop on page one. Staples is not one of them.

imageThen I noticed a new thing showing up at the top of the results and just below the paid listings. Google is now showing options to filter results based on the broad product search term I used.

What Google is actually trying to do is providing me with options to refine my search. A click on any of these options are automatically added to the search box and results are displayed for the new focused search.

Since many of my clients are auto dealers and have created numerous Automotive Microsites for dealers, I tried a few more searches for Toyota, Cars, Honda, and the results seem to be normal like old days. But when I searched for Tires, or brakes the related search option showed up.

As interesting as this seems, it appears Google started providing this option mostly for products, and is not being shown on actual OEM brand searches yet. But my gut feeling is very soon we start seeing Stores, Models, and even service centers for the keywords like “Toyota”

Impact on Dealer SEO strategies

Needless to say this will have a huge impact on organic SEO strategies for car dealers. My speculation is that Automotive Dealers who invest on the best Automotive SEO strategy now will benefit when Google opens this for other Automotive Search Terms.

imageThe trick seems to be on page one for these important keywords and right now the greater impact is on Fixed Ops Microsites related searches. Search for Tires or Brakes and you will see what I am writing about.

Members of Automotive Advertising Network have a unique opportunity that helps dealers achieve this faster with the network of sites. Dealers who understand the game changing rules of Google Optimization will be able to add custom links for these major keywords, that will help their link target rank higher and eventually when Google provides Related Searches for these terms your dealership will show up.

If you are interested in AAN and Content Syndication on Dealer Microsites give us a call for a demo at 732-450-8222.