Category

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

Search Engine Optimization with your Website Vendor

Auto dealer search engine optimization is one of the most important things when it comes to the success of your car dealership website.  Without it, most of your potential car buyers wouldn’t be able to find your site online.  This is why your dealership website vendor needs to be well-versed in SEO, and be able to educate their dealership clients.

Avoid changing the keywords and SEO text on your dealership website.  When you have questions or if you disagree with what is being placed on your site, it’s important to have a discussion with your SEO vendor.  There may be a bigger plan than what you see, or your SEO vendor may have been mistaken about keywords your dealership wants to target. This is also true of other vendors that may want to change the SEO aspect of your site.

Of course, auto dealers should be (and are) in control of the search engine optimization on their dealership website.  Your SEO vendor should respect the changes you wish to make, help to educate you if they disagree, and be able to explain why they are doing what they are.  This is a huge part of being a SEO vendor, and I discourage dealers from partnering with any vendor that doesn’t abide by these practices.

Google Local Business Best Practices

Google has recently updated their Local Business listings guidelines in their efforts to further discourage any spam or inappropriate use of their Local Business listing service.  The new guidelines are listed here.

If your car dealer website provider or your Internet department has already listed your dealer website in the Google local listings, then you should probably double check to make sure that they adhere to these new rules, including:

1)      The business name on Google Maps must be your full legal business name.

2)      PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.

3)      If multiple users will be updating your business listing, use a shared, business email account.

4)      If possible, use an email account with a domain that matches your business URL. For example, if your business website is www.dealership.com, a matching email address would be you@dealership.com.

Google is always trying to refine the algorithms that they use to produce the most relevant, useful search results they can.  Either your Internet manager or your car dealer SEO consultants need to stay on top of Google’s ongoing changes and updates to make sure your dealership doesn’t get left behind.

Google Local Search

Google has done a great job making their search results better and more effective for the car buyers that use their search engine, especially when it comes to local search.  As it stands now, those who search Google for a term like “Ford dealership” or “used Nissan dealer” will see local results for these terms, even if a city isn’t included in the actual search term.

While this greatly helps searchers, and even your dealership, it isn’t helpful if you are attempting to research your competing dealership websites.  For example, if you want to see what PPC ads are appearing when you search for your competitor’s dealership name or where your dealership website ranks for those who search in the next town over, you may not be able to see what someone in that neighboring city would see.

That’s why the website SearchMuffin is great.  This site allows you to choose the city you’d like to see Google search results for, allowing your dealership to see what local searchers see when they search in Google.  You can use this information to see how well your dealership ranks in neighboring cities, as well as which PPC ads appear for those same searches.

Your dealership can use this data to tweak your website search engine optimization (SEO) to help your dealer website to rank higher in the search results of neighboring cities.  Don’t let your competing dealerships rule the search engine results without your dealership knowing about it–this could mean a loss in potential car sales.

Dealership Demographic Targeting

Knowing how different groups of people use the Internet can help your auto dealership effectively target your online marketing and earn more sales.  When you take the time to segment and understand your market, it becomes easier for your dealership to send the right message to the right people at the right time, resulting in more sales for your dealership.

It seems as though one of the factors that most determines how users browse the Internet is gender.  eMarketer recently conducted a study that found slightly more women say they use the Internet than men.  The study also found that men tend to browse the Internet longer per online session that women do.  One reason for this increase in online engagement for men could be that men are more interested in watching online videos than women are.

Your dealership can use this information to better target men who may be shopping your dealer site for their next car.  Try adding videos of your new and used inventory to increase the amount of time your web visitors spend viewing your inventory.  Online video will also help satisfy those car shoppers who spend their time online watching videos.

This is one example of how knowing what your market wants can help your dealership sell more cars.  Placing videos of your dealership inventory on your dealer website can help increase the time that web visitors spend on your site, as well as how engaged they are while viewing your videos.  If you dealership isn’t taking full advantage of car inventory videos, you are missing out on potential sales.

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