DealerOn Appoints Jeff Clark to Chief Sales Officer

Ali Amirrezvani, DealerOn’s CEO, said, “Jeff has been a huge asset to DealerOn over his seven-year tenure with us. Given how he has grown our sales during his time focusing on business development, having him at the head of all of our sales efforts is very exciting for us. Combining his talents and automotive knowledge with DealerOn’s industry-leading Responsive Design website platform will only mean even more explosive growth for our organization.”

DealerOn websites consistently generate such high conversion rates that they are able to guarantee an increase in website leads for new customers of at least 50% within the first 90 days of site launch. Through their Digital Marketing Dashboard, all existing site metrics are documented and compared to results achieved on the DealerOn platform. DealerOn website customers see an average increase in lead volume of 250%, with a minimum of a 35% increase, across nearly 1,500 websites.

In addition to its award-winning dealership websites, DealerOn’s new offerings in automotive SEM and SEO are quickly becoming industry standards. As a Google AdWords Certified Partner, dealers that combine their Paid Search with the power of a DealerOn website see complete integration and optimization of AdWords efforts. Dealerships that opt for the Elite SEO package reap the benefits of a Google-optimized website architecture as well as custom content, on- and off-site SEO, social media and reputation management.

Said Clark, “This is such an exciting time for DealerOn, and I couldn’t be more proud to have the opportunity to help more dealers benefit from our technology and services. I’ve been running various sales channels at DealerOn for seven years, but now as Chief Sales Officer, I’ll be able to lead all of DealerOn’s sales efforts, helping dealerships dominate their local market with our powerful responsive website technology and first-class digital marketing products.”

Jeff is a decorated veteran, a renowned and respected speaker on Fixed Ops Digital Marketing, and a regular speaker at NADA, Digital Dealer, JD Power, and countless OEM and industry events. Jeff’s sales leadership was instrumental in helping DealerOn be recognized on the Inc. 500/5000 list. He is a member of Manchester’s “Who’s Who of Executives and Industry Leaders,” but he stays grounded through his family, love of baseball, golf and of course… cars. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Lydia and their two boys.

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.

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!

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!

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