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Knowledge, news, and more about Automotive SEO, SEM, and dealership websites
acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In Responsive Website Design

Clearing Up the Responsive vs. Adaptive Debate

Everyone is telling you that your dealership website NEEDS to be responsive…but what does that really mean?

Responsive web design means that the same URL and HTML are passed to each website visitor, regardless of what device they are using to view that website.  This is different from adaptive web design which first detects which device is accessing the website, then serves a potentially different site to the website visitor.  Most car dealership websites today are built on an adaptive platform.

Okay, so now you know what people mean when they say responsive…but how does having a responsive website benefit your dealership?

Google recommends responsive website design for three reasons:

  • A single URL makes it easier to share/link your content
  • Sites load faster since there is no need to redirect users in order for them to get an optimized view
  • Google site crawlers only have to crawl your pages once, on one device, thus increasing efficiency

Another thing to consider – the average dealer website gets traffic from literally hundreds of unique screen sizes each month.  Without a responsive website design, you’d have to design for every single unique screen size, or risk missing the opportunity to serve each user the best experience.  And next year, when new phones and tablets hit the market? You’ll have to add those design sizes to your portfolio as well.

MobileDevicesResponsive sites lend themselves to better SEO results as well.  Aside from being Google’s recommendation, having a single URL for each page of content, with faster load times, is a huge benefit to your site’s search engine rankings.  Also, there is less of a chance for user error – building just one version of your website means users will have a unified experience and you don’t have to worry about errors trying to communicate to Google which pages on the mobile site correspond to desktop pages.

Granted, your dealership may not be in a position to switch to a fully responsive website platform. It can take a lot of work, time and resources.  Don’t worry, you’re not destined for failure, but there are things that your website provider absolutely needs to do in order for an adaptive website platform to work effectively.

Most likely, your site is currently using a mobile sub-domain.  This would be the /mobi or m. you’ll see in the URL when on a mobile device. If your dealership website is built this way, you MUST implement switchboard tags properly – this helps Google understand the connection between your mobile and desktop pages, and tells Google which pages on your desktop platform correspond to the same page on your mobile platform.  When set up properly, switchboard tags help clear up any potential indexing and link equity issues with Google.  When correctly placed on your website, this can be a great way to see a lot of the benefits having a responsive website would give you without having to switch platforms.

Unfortunately, most of the website providers in the automotive space aren’t placing switchboard tags properly. Make sure you ask your website partner how they’re helping your adaptive website keep up in a responsive world.

In Best Practices

The Importance of a Good Reputation

Level Set

Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Charlie Sheen, Celebrities, Politicians, Musicians and… BUSINESSES.  If this is the first time you’ve heard that your business reputation is important you should consider early retirement.  Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but the truth still suggests 99.999% of those reading this understand the critical importance of a good business reputation.


Why Is Reputation So Important Today?  

We live in a world of instant gratification and the internet has only helped increase what we expect from technology, people and… businesses.  This is a selfish group known as… EVERYONE and we have zero patience.  Why should we when we have access to almost anything we want no matter what time of day?

Consider that the smart phone in your pocket makes waiting for news of any kind unnecessary.  Checking the weather includes the option of viewing Doppler radar.  I bet you haven’t bought or used a map in years.  You use your smart phone for EVERYTHING…including shopping and purchasing decisions.

How is this all affecting your business reputation?  When we don’t want to wait for anything and we don’t have to wait for anything, businesses are forced to adjust their processes to support speed and quality of service.  This is no longer an option for businesses hoping to survive long term.  I think you get the point.  Our expectations are higher than ever.  So, how is your dealership handling this today and how is your dealership going to handle the next generation of entitled, selfish brats?

 

There’s A Big Difference

It’s critical to understand the difference between product reviews and business reviews. Your dealership must have a process that includes every department.  Every employee must be focused on providing your customers excellence in all areas of your business.  Think Disney.  There’s a reason why they have one of the best business reputations in the history of EVER.  Your dealership isn’t reviewed the way someone writes a review about an iPhone case they bought on Amazon.  Your business has the dynamic quality of people and this makes or breaks dealerships.  Hold your team accountable to high customer service standards and the word on the street regarding your dealership will be music to your ears.  Don’t forget your reputation is a reflection of how you treat people in person, so why not be great?

 

You’ll Need A Plan

I talk to dealers almost every day about a wide variety of topics.  When the subject of reviews, reputation and social media come up I always talk about planning.  Success with increasing, improving and responding to reviews comes much easier to dealers that have the tools to see what’s going on.  A dealership must have complete visibility to effectively manage their online reputation.  DealerOn offers Reputation Intelligence tools that not only make monitoring all reviews in one place super simple, the tools also show dealers social signals, online mentions and increase their number of reviews.

 

May you find the determination and conviction to work hard on the reputation of your business.  You won’t regret making your customers happy and they’ll be glad to tell everyone they know about their experience.

In DealerOn, Press Release

Shaun Raines Joins DealerOn as Vice President of Marketing

DealerOn, the leading website provider to car dealers, adds Shaun Raines as their new Vice President of Marketing.

 

March 19, 2014, Derwood, MD: Today, DealerOn, the leading website provider to car dealers, announces the hiring of Shaun Raines as their new Vice President of Marketing. Since 1998, Raines has held leadership roles with Reynolds and Reynolds, DealerAdvisor LLC, ReachLocal and most recently, DrivingSales.

“Shaun is such a talented and well respected individual,” said Ali Amirrezvani, DealerOn’s CEO, “that we couldn’t be more excited to have him as a part of our Management Team. At DealerOn, our goal is to add team members that improve all facets of our business. Shaun’s experience and energy compliments our culture of high performance. His automotive digital marketing knowledge is freely shared and it’s one of the reasons why he is so highly regarded in the industry. The DealerOn family has known Shaun personally and professionally for several years and we couldn’t be happier to welcome him to the team.”

 

DealerOn’s new responsive website platform, just released at NADA 2014, was a huge success among dealers at the show. The platform automatically optimizes itself for any form factor or screen regardless of device. This platform provides a necessary solution for car dealers, given that the average dealer’s site receives traffic from nearly 1,000 unique screen resolutions each month. DealerOn’s new platform is currently in Beta, with its full release scheduled for May 1, 2014.

 

Said Raines, “I’m truly honored and excited to join one of the most amazingly competent and capable teams in the automotive industry. In the early part of my career with Reynolds Web Solutions, I discovered how much I loved working with dealer websites. Now, I get to be a part of a company with the most impressive website platform I’ve seen and digital marketing services for dealers that cover Search, Social and Reputation, and I couldn’t be happier.”

 

Before joining DealerOn, Raines worked at DrivingSales alongside Jared Hamilton and Kevin Root to plan, develop and build the automotive industries most trusted source for online education. With flexible learning options, DrivingSales University serves as a valuable knowledge and training platform for industry associations, dealer groups, OEM’s, single point dealers and individuals. Raines concluded, “I joined the DealerOn team to share every bit of my experience and ability in the effort to provide dealers with the best performing websites and complimentary digital marketing services in the industry. The opportunity is incredible and I’m so happy to be working with such a dealer focused team.”

In Press Release

Jason Ezell Joins DealerOn as Vice President of Sales

DealerOn, the leading website provider to car dealers, adds Jason Ezell as their new Vice President of Sales.

March 11, 2014, Derwood, MD: Today, DealerOn, the leading website provider to car dealers, announces the hiring of Jason Ezell as their new Vice President of Sales. Recently, Ezell resigned his role as President and active partner of Dataium, LLC, the largest aggregator of auto shopper behavioral data in the industry. Jason had previously founded and led another automotive website provider, Dealerskins, through and following its purchase by Dominion Enterprises in 2005.

Ali Amirrezvani, DealerOn’s CEO, said, “We are honored to be able to add such an amazing individual to our Management Team. Jason is often recognized throughout the industry as one of the leading experts in Automotive Consumer shopping and website optimization. While he is known as one of the smartest, most accomplished people in our industry, he is universally regarded as an even better person. That’s why we are so excited to welcome him to our team, given the explosive growth we’re experiencing with our new Responsive Design website platform.”

DealerOn’s new Responsive website platform, just released at NADA 2014, was a huge success among dealers at the show. The platform automatically optimizes itself for any form factor or screen regardless of device. This platform provides a necessary solution for car dealers, given that the average dealer’s site receives traffic from nearly 1,000 unique screen resolutions each month. DealerOn’s new platform is currently in Beta, with its full release scheduled for May 1, 2014.

Said Ezell, “After 24 years in our industry, I am not just honored and thrilled to join this amazing company, but I get to return to my first and true passion — dealer websites. Since the early years of my first company, Dealerskins, DealerOn has grown and evolved into the company I had always dreamed of creating. Now, 10 years later, I get to fulfill that dream, selling what I feel is the most dynamic, powerful and revolutionary website platform in the industry. I also get to work alongside the most passionate and professional team of people I’ve seen assembled. This is literally a dream come true.”

At Dataium, Ezell worked alongside Founder Eric Brown and their teams to start, develop, and build the first completely independent, non-biased data aggregation platform in the automotive industry. Dataium was the first to aggregate real-time shopper behavior across multiple website platforms, and normalize that data to observe the exact path to purchase for 34 million unique shoppers every month. This data has, and is, making huge positive impacts in our industry on every level.

Ezell concluded, “I want to help DealerOn incorporate everything I’ve learned over the last decade into the very epicenter of the dealer internet strategy; the dealer website. DealerOn is building a world-class sales team around a world class product, so I couldn’t ask for more. It’s what I’ve been looking for — the perfect place to utilize all of my experience and knowledge for the direct benefit of the dealer. It’s just what I know and love.”

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In Events

NADA 2014 Recap – A DealerOn Perspective

The National Automobile Dealers Association convention came back to New Orleans this year.  NOLA never disappoints with its memorable blend of unique culture, food and music.  If you’ve never attended the NADA convention you might be overwhelmed by the size difference when compared to smaller events.  NADA is the “Big Show” and anybody and everybody in the automotive space shows up.  From OEM’s like Ford, GM, Dodge to big vendors including ADP, DealerTrack and hundreds more, you can’t miss the magnitude of NADA.

DealerOn was more than ready to hit the exhibitor show floor this year and the company projected a magnetic energy that drew crowds all weekend long.  More on that later…

The convention is loaded with workshops and this year our own Chris Deringer and Jeff Clark were presenters.  This is a great accomplishment for DealerOn and for Jeff and Chris personally as NADA is known to have the strictest guidelines and review processes for selecting speakers.  The workshops are all dealer focused and intended to provide “how to” insights for dealers to take back and put their knowledge into action.  Jeff presented “Proven Digital Strategies That Increase Fixed Ops” and Chris delivered “Sell More Cars With Google Analytics”.  Along with the workshops NADA offers a select number of keynote presentations and this year they spent big bucks on Hillary Clinton as their closing keynote speaker.  In years past, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.  Bush have all keynoted NADA.


Let’s get back to how impressive DealerOn was this year at NADA.  If you’re a DealerOn team member, give yourself a pat on the back, a high five and hug another team member because the collective effort was well represented in New Orleans.  From production, design, creative, support, sales, marketing, behind the scenes and customer facing, EVERY person on the DealerOn team is related to what we go to market with and EVERY team member should be proud.


The booth was rocking all weekend!  With eight demo stations available we were able to showcase the pure awesomeness of DealerOn from a very impressive booth.  We were very excited to demonstrate our new responsive website technology and dealers loved it!  With dealers constantly in our booth we also offered the comfort of three couches where they could rest their tired feet.  If that wasn’t enough, we served them coffee, water or their choice of several tasty adult beverages.  In addition to rest, relaxation, demonstration and a beverage of choice the DealerOn booth constantly pulsed with music.  These elements combined with the DealerOn team members at the show helped us make a huge impact this year at NADA.  We were so grateful for the opportunities to spend time with current and soon-to-be clients.

Thanks to the entire DealerOn team for making NADA 2014 a smashing success!

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