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In Mobile

Does Google Hate Your Mobile App (And Is It Costing You Money)?

On September 1, 2015, Google announced that they would begin flagging sites as “Not Mobile Friendly” in the Google Search Console if they were using a Mobile App Interstitial that “hides a significant amount of content and prompts the user to install an app”. Google is doing so because their “analysis shows that it is not a good search experience and can be frustrating for users because they are expecting to see the content of the web page.”

I didn’t think much about the announcement at the time, because I had never seen one of DealerOn’s websites use a “Download Our App” message. Early last week, I happened to come across a dealership’s group website (not one of our customer’s) that DID have this problem. I’ve obscured the dealership’s name, which otherwise would appear at the top of the screen. Here is what the site looked like on my phone:

I noticed that the site did not show as “Mobile Friendly” in Google’s search results, so I went to the Google Mobile-friendly testing tool (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/) to try and find out why. When I put the URL into the Google Mobile Friendly testing tool, this was the answer I got back from Google:

It appears that Google is now classifying websites as “not mobile friendly” if they have App Download Interstitials that cover up content from the dealer’s site.

Make sure that if you’re promoting your App on your dealership website, and encouraging your customers to download the App straight from your site, that you have run your website through Google’s Mobile-Friendly testing tool to make sure you haven’t inadvertently damaged its “mobile friendliness” with Google.

Google Search Console
About three days after I saw this, I was reminded of another important lesson from Google that I want to pass along to dealers and their vendors. It turns out that one of our clients WAS using an App very similar to the one that I just showed above. We received this email from the Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) stating that one of our sites was NOT Mobile-friendly due to “App install interstitials that hide content”.


The email that Google Search Console sent was very helpful. It even included a link to the report in Search Console that shows all of the pages on the site that are impacted by the app interstitial.

Most importantly, the notification is PRO-ACTIVE! If your site is impacted by this change Google will actually notify you or your website vendor, provided that you have Webmaster Tools/Search Console properly set up on your site. For years I’ve been telling dealers that they should make sure their website provider is not only setting up their websites in Google Webmaster Tools/Search Console, but that they also pro-actively monitor their website performance using that tool. Google’s recent change makes that more critical than ever. If your website provider has not connected your site with Google’s Search Console and aren’t vigilantly monitoring your site’s health, you may be losing traffic, leads, and money due to a problem that Google is trying to warn you about.

Wrap Up
Make sure that if you have a Mobile App and you advertise it on your website, you check your site in Google’s mobile friendly test panel. Even if you don’t have a mobile app interstitial, you should probably run your site through the mobile friendly test anyway to make sure you don’t have one of the 10-20% of dealer sites that still aren’t mobile friendly. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, make sure that your site is set up on Google Search Console, so if Google ever does flag it for any issues, you get alerted before it costs you any real money.

In Best Practices, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The Six Degrees of Automotive SEO [VIDEO]

Last week, I presented at Digital Dealer 19 in Las Vegas. Even though I got interrupted (twice!) by a fire alarm, the presentation was a huge hit with attendees. We wanted to share the presentation with everyone out there who wasn’t able to attend the conference, so we’re posting it here as this week’s Wednesday Workshop video.

Since it’s a video of the entire presentation, it’s much longer than our typical Wednesday Workshop video – so if you don’t have time to watch it right now, come back when you can take the time to absorb everything.

As always, if you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

In Best Practices, DealerOn, Events

Digital Dealer 19 Preview – Wednesday Workshop

Heading to Digital Dealer in Las Vegas next week? This week’s Wednesday Workshop gives you info on all the DealerOn speakers, events, and giveaways… make sure you watch and get all the details!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hey, and welcome back to another Wednesday Workshop with DealerOn. This week’s video is short and sweet, because we’re getting ready to head to Vegas for Digital Dealer 19. In fact, that’s what we’re going to talk about today…

If you’re going to the conference, make sure you take a look at the agenda beforehand and plan out your sessions. Once you’re there, it’s a pretty overwhelming experience, and you don’t want to get distracted. Think about your current pain points, and what you want to learn while you’re in Vegas – then check the schedule and see which sessions will help you the most.

And of course, make sure you block out the time to come see me speak on Monday at 1:30, when I’ll be sharing all the latest Local SEO tips to help your dealership get more visibility online.

I’ll also be a part of the breakfast keynote panel on Tuesday morning, along with our VP of Marketing Shaun Raines, and dealers Bobbie Herron and Jennifer Briggs.

You should also make sure to carve out time to check out our other awesome DealerOn speakers…

At 1:30 Tuesday, you’ve got two awesome speakers to choose from: Mike DeVito is going to be talking about what Google and car buyers need from a mobile website, and Shaun Raines will be partnering with Joe Webb for CSI: Dealership, helping you track down the killers of your sales and reputation.

Don’t forget to stop by our booth and pick up a temporary tattoo pass for the DealerOn VIP section of the big Digital Dealer party on Tuesday. You’ll also want to grab one of our t-shirts so you can share a selfie on Twitter or Facebook to be entered for a chance to win an Apple Watch.

Thanks for stopping by – check back next week for another Wednesday Workshop video, which we’ll be shooting in our booth at Digital Dealer!

In Press Release

DealerOn Joins Kia Digital Certified Solution Program

“We are extremely excited to begin helping even more Kia dealerships dominate their local markets”, said Ali Amirrezvani, DealerOn’s CEO and President. “Though we already have a great track record of helping Kia dealers dramatically increase their website leads, now we can offer our best products and services as a part of Kia’s official co-op package. For dealers that take advantage of both our website and digital advertising, I truly believe they’ll be unstoppable.”

Kia dealers who sign up with DealerOn will benefit from DealerOn’s fully responsive website platform, integrated reporting via KDealer.com, improved conversion rates, and compliance with KMA guidelines and standards. Digital advertising customers will also receive a Google AdWords Certified Account Manager, keyword level call tracking, and Google Analytics Integrated Reporting. In addition, Kia dealers that work with a certified provider like DealerOn will receive 100% Dealer Advertising Support fund-eligible with automated co-op submission.

DealerOn, Inc. is the leading website and digital marketing company serving the retail automotive industry. In the last 12 months DealerOn’s websites have won virtually every meaningful industry award including: Driving Sales Top-Rated Website, Digital Dealer’s Overall Website Excellence Award, AWA’s Pinnacle Award, and Dealer Marketing Magazine’s Technology Award for Website Providers. DealerOn has become noted in the industry for their Lead Guarantee, based on their Digital Marketing Dashboard. Since creating this process in 2009, DealerOn has documented an average increase of over 200% in website lead volume for their auto dealer clients. To learn more about DealerOn’s Lead Guarantee, visit our website here.

 

About Kia Motors

Kia Motors America (KMA) is the marketing and distribution arm of Kia Motors Corporation based in Seoul, South Korea.  KMA proudly serves as the “Official Automotive Partner” of the NBA and LPGA and set an all-time annual sales record in 2014, surpassing the 500,000 unit mark for the third consecutive year.   KMA offers a complete line of vehicles, including the rear-drive K9001 flagship sedan, Cadenza premium sedan, Sorento CUV, Soul urban passenger vehicle, Soul Electric Vehicle, Sportage compact CUV, Optima midsize sedan, Optima Hybrid, the Forte compact sedan, Forte5 and Forte Koup, Rio and Rio 5-door subcompacts and the Sedona midsize multi-purpose vehicle, through a network of more than 765 dealers across the United States.  Kia’s U.S. manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia, builds the Optima and Sorento and is responsible for the creation of more than 14,000 plant and supplier jobs.

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In Best Practices, Search Engine Marketing (PPC)

How to Use PPC Impression Share

If Google AdWords were a piece of juicy pie, your impression share would be the size of your dealership’s slice… Tracking impression share is important, since it shows exactly how much you’re showing up in local searches. If you’re not measuring how big your slice of pie is, you won’t know if it could (or should) be bigger! Watch our latest video to learn more about PPC impression share and how you can use it to boost your dealership’s performance online.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to another DealerOn Wednesday Workshop. This week, we’re talking about impressions in SEM campaigns. Impressions are not achievements, so how important is impression share to your SEM campaigns?

The answer is – VERY important… but you might not know why.

Impression share is basically the comparison of opportunity and reality. Google defines it as the number of impressions you’ve received, divided by the estimated number of impressions you were able to receive. Pretty simple – but why is it important?

Think of the automotive online advertising landscape as a delicious apple pie. You and your competitors are all trying to grab the biggest slice. When you track your impression share metrics, you’re keeping tabs on the size of your slice compared to the whole.

The most important factor regarding your impression share is your ad rank and quality score. If your quality score is poor, your ads will not show – regardless of what you’re willing to spend.

Tracking your impression share is a great way to determine when budget increases are necessary. If your piece of the pie isn’t as big as you want, increasing your budget can help grab more pie. Plus, maximizing your impression share helps your campaigns generate more traffic and leads.

How do you track impression share? Here’s a couple of tips:

Sign in to your AdWords account and click the campaigns tab. Then, click the columns button above your statistics table and choose “Modify Columns” from the drop down. Click competitive metrics and then add the impression share columns you’re interested in.

Another way to view impression share data for specific ad groups and keywords is to enable the “impression share” column in the Ad Groups and Keywords tabs.

Decreasing your targets can increase your impression share, but comes with the trade off of reducing the size of the pie. The fastest and most effective way to grow your impression share is by increasing your campaign budgets and bids.

If you want a serious competitive advantage, be sure you’re chasing the largest impression share in your market.

If you have questions about impression share or SEM in general, jump down to the comments section and leave your questions there. We’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.

Thanks for stopping by to watch – we’ll see you next week with another DealerOn Wednesday workshop!

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