All Posts By

Acacia Grant

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In

Ways Around Facebook Landing Tab Changes for Auto Dealers

I wrote on Friday about the changes Facebook has made to their landing tab capabilities for non-authenticated businesses, and today I want to let our auto dealer customers know a couple of ways to get around this blow to small business social media and Facebook’s marketing capabilities.  Just to make things clear, your car dealership page will still be able to create and use custom tabs on your Facebook page, however you cannot designate one of them to be the first tab visitors land on anymore.

One way to customize the content your new Facebook visitors will see is to change your profile picture.  Consider adding text or an image that directs people to the tab you would like them to see.  Some examples are “Click on the Sweepstakes tab to enter” or “Watch our video greeting on the Welcome tab.”  This way your dealership Facebook visitors will see the call to action you create regardless of the tab they land on when first reaching your page.

You can also direct your Facebook traffic to the intended tab by linking to it.  Each created tab has its own URL, so when you link to Facebook from your auto dealer website or in your emails, include the link to the intended tab.

If you have questions about your car dealership social media campaign, contact the DealerOn marketing department.  We have the tools, knowledge, and insight to help auto dealers remain successful while marketing online, no matter how many changes occur.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In

Facebook Changes Rules for Landing Tabs

Looks like Facebook isn’t just pulling the privacy rug out from under its many users, it’s also changing the way small businesses, including most auto dealerships, can use the social media platform.  Previously, Facebook allowed all business pages to create a customized landing tab that visitors would see when visiting your auto dealer’s page.  Facebook has announced that now only “authenticated pages” will be able to use a landing tab.  This means that a “page must have greater than 10,000 fans or the Page admin must work with their ads account manager” in order to be considered “authentic”.  Pages that don’t fit into those categories will not be able to use landing tabs anymore.

This latest change is in addition to the introduction of Community pages.  These are pages designed to be “the best collection of shared knowledge on a topic.”  Wikipedia information will be shown, but Facebook is looking for users to contribute information as well.  This could create a problem for small businesses as it could potentially limit the amount of control your dealership has over its brand.  These pages aren’t controlled by a business or brand, but by Facebook and user content.

Your car dealer online marketing vendor should be able to help your dealership understand these and other changes in the social media world.  I’ll have a post up Monday on ways your car dealership can get around these restrictions on using a landing tab for your auto dealer Facebook page.  Please call us at DealerOn (877-543-4200) if you would like more information regarding how to get the most out of your dealership’s presence on Facebook or other social media outlets.

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Car Dealer Websites Need to Embrace Blended Search SEO

Have you noticed that when you use Google or other search engines the results page is showing different types of media, like video, images, local info, and web search, all on one page?  This is being referred to as blended search, and it is showing up more and more on search engine result pages.  Blended search gives your auto dealer website the opportunity to use search engine optimization across multiple channels to have more entries rank well.

When things like images, video, and news items show on page one of Google’s search results page, your car dealership has an opportunity to rank in all of those categories.  SEO for images means using keyword-rich alt image tags and surrounding the image with descriptive, relative text, among other things.

The SEO efforts for video are similar to those for images.

Since search engines have a difficult time “reading” what an image or video shows, adding descriptive text near the video and even caption for the video can help.

For news, make sure your auto dealership is creating search engine optimized press releases regularly.  This way, when your dealership or relevant keywords are searched for, your car dealer press release (linking back to your website of course) will have a chance to show in the results.

Search engines like Google seem to be going full-steam towards blended search, and auto dealer websites that ignore this will be left behind.  For more information, contact DealerOn’s auto dealer search engine optimization department.  I also found this webinar to be helpful when trying to understand the importance and relevance of blended search: Search Results, SEO and the New World Order: Blended Search 2010

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google Blended Search

Have you noticed that when you use Google or other search engines the results page is showing different types of media, like video, images, local info, and web search, all on one page? This is being referred to as blended search, and it is showing up more and more on search engine result pages. Blended search gives your auto dealer website the opportunity to use search engine optimization across multiple channels to have more entries rank well.

When things like images, video, and news items show on page one of Google’s search results page, your car dealership has an opportunity to rank in all of those categories. SEO for images means using keyword-rich alt image tags and surrounding the image with descriptive, relative text, among other things.

The SEO efforts for video are similar to those for images. Since search engines have a difficult time “reading” what an image or video shows, adding descriptive text near the video and even captions for the video can help.

For news, make sure your auto dealership is creating search engine optimized press releases regularly. This way, when your dealership or relevant keywords are searched for, your car dealer press release (linking back to your website of course) will have a chance to show in the results.

Search engines like Google seem to be going full-steam towards blended search, and auto dealer websites that ignore this will be left behind. For more information, contact DealerOn’s auto dealer search engine optimization department. I also found this webinar to be helpful when trying to understand the importance and relevance of blended search: Search Results, SEO and the New World Order: Blended Search 2010

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In Best Practices

Google Browser Size Tool

It can be easy for ISM’s to forget that not everyone has the fastest Internet connections or the biggest monitors when looking at their auto dealer website. In order to maximize the power of your dealership website’s calls to action, inventory links, and specials, try using the Google Browser Size tool.

This webtool allows you to enter the URL of any website. Once the site loads, Google places an overlay showing the percentage of Google visitors that have their browser window set to a size that would allow them to see your site. For example, here is the DealerOn homepage:

In this screen shot, you can see the areas on our homepage that Google visitors can see without having to scroll. For example, the area in the orange section and over to the left can be viewed by approximately half of Google’s website visitors.

It’s important to have your calls to action, lead forms, inventory links, and other high-traffic links showing to as many website visitors as possible. You can use this Google tool to ensure as many people as possible are able to convert to a lead without having to scroll on your site.

While this information shouldn’t be treated as scientific, it’s a good tool to help check how viewable your auto dealer website is by the average Internet user. Keep this in mind when doing any website design work.

Call support
(877) 543-4200
Call Sales
(877) 543-6321