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Knowledge, news, and more about Automotive SEO, SEM, and dealership websites
In Mobile

Google’s “Mobile Playbook” is a Must-Read for Auto Dealers

Google recently released an eBook (or playbook, as they call it): “The Mobile Playbook: The Busy Executive’s Guide to Winning with Mobile“.  For any dealership interested in mobile websites, mobile paid search, and how to expand your brand with mobile technology, this guide is extremely concise and helpful, answering the “5 crucial mobile questions that every business executive should be asking today”.

Their playbook is broken up into the following sections:

  • How does mobile change our value proposition?
  • How does mobile impact our digital destinations?
  • Is our organization adapting to mobile?
  • How should our marketing adapt to mobile?
  • How can we connect with our tablet audience?

 

What’s great about this playbook is that it provides actual examples of companies that are succeeding at the various points they discuss, like mobile apps, an optimized mobile site, and determining what mobile users are looking for.  Also, Google lays out some action items your dealership can start working on right away, as well as some bigger picture questions designed to get your dealership thinking about mobile in general.

Considering that mobile continues to grow and shows no sign of slowing down (95% of smartphone users have searched for local info), I highly suggest every dealership take a look at this playbook and get a mobile strategy in place.  If you don’t, ask your auto dealer mobile website provider to help guide you through the process.

In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Tips to Improve Your Dealership’s Google Places Listing Ranking

I recently found a great article that discusses very specific things businesses should be doing to help their Google Places Listing improve its ranking.  Bizible, a start-up that makes local marketing software for businesses, conducted a pretty scientific attempt to determine how best to improve the rank of your Google Places Listing.

It is also interesting because his is the first time I’ve seen a distinction between Google Places Listings for integrated search results and Google Places Listings for non-integrated search results (searches occurring directly in Google Places).

Top Factors to Improve Ranking for Pages in Integrated Results

1. Have the category of your places page match a broader category than the search.  For example, if your dealership places page is Automotive, that is a broader category than a specific make which someone may search for.

2. Have the search category appear in the name of your business.  This is great for dealerships that have the city name and make in your dealer name.

3. Make sure your search category appears in the “at a glance” section.

Top Factors to Improve Ranking for Pages Not In Integrated Results

1. Have 5 or more Google reviews.

2. Have the location in the “at a glance” section

3. Have the category term in the Google review content.  Make sure your dealership business category is in the reviews left by your customers.

4. Put the category term in the business description.

5. Make sure your category term appears in the “at a glance” section.

In Best Practices

DealerOn, Dataium, and Digital Dealer Webinar on Website Conversion Rate Optimization

I’m so excited to be a sponsor and a part of an upcoming Digital Dealer Webinar. DealerOn co-founder, Amir Amirrezvani, will be presenting with Jason Ezell from Dataium on Website Conversion Rate Optimization best practices used by dealerships like Ideal Nissan (the 2012 Digital Dealer Website Excellence Overall Award Winner and DealerOn customer).

A typical dealer implementing the full spectrum of these best practices, if they are not already using them, can expect to more than double their website lead volumes IMMEDIATELY, without spending any additional online advertising dollars.  Jason and Amir will not only walk through specific website optimization best practices, they will also detail why the practice works, what sort of impact your dealership can expect, and how to accurately measure your results.

Join Jason and Amir for a FREE Digital Dealer Webinar on Thursday, May 24 at 11:30 a.m. EST to learn more about how to optimize your website conversion.

Quick Facts:

Title: Optimize Your Website Conversion – How to Double Your Leads without Spending a Dime

Who: Amir Amirrezvani, EVP & Co-Founder, DealerOn and Jason Ezell, President & Co-Founder, Dataium, LLC.

Date: Thursday, May 24, 2012, 11:30 A.M. EST

Sponsored By: DealerOn, Inc. and Dataium, LLC

Price: FREE

Dealers in Attendance Can Expect to Learn:

  • The ENORMOUS opportunity for dealers to increase their conversion rate and the HUGE spread in conversion rates among dealers, depending on franchise, website provider, etc.
  • A number of best practices/common themes that Dataium has found across the thousands of coded websites that they analyze.
  • The most valuable conversion rate best practices, so you can focus on the highest impact items first.
  • How to effectively manage incentives and vehicle pricing/merchandising to maximize leads, appointments, showroom traffic, and sales.
  • The best website metrics to analyze and how to measure them properly.

Click here to register for this FREE Digital Dealer Webinar.

In Events

Guy Kawasaki, Digital Summit at Mountain View Speaker, Releases New Book

Even though the free copies have been exhausted, I’m definitely planning on checking out “What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us” by Guy Kawasaki, before hearing him speak at the Digital Summit at Mountain View, May 7-9.

I’ve written before about how Google+ can be used to increase the local SEO for your auto dealer website, as well as how the social network is integrated into search results, but I’m very interested in finding out how to best use Google+ from Guy.

For those interested, Guy Kawasaki will be speaking at the Digital Summit at Mountain View.  This elite digital learning conference, brought to you by DealerOn, Moore&Scarry, and DealerRefresh, is free, but requires an invitation.

Request an invitation to hear not only Guy Kawasaki, but also, Grant Cardone, Amir Amirrezvani, Duncan Scarry, Jeff Kershner, and various Google Product Specialists speak.

Hope to see you there!

 

In Search Engine Marketing (PPC)

Mobile Paid-Search Clicks Continue to Increase

A recent study by Marin, “State of Mobile Search Advertising in the US“, shows that the percent of paid-search clicks from mobile devices is growing faster than expected, and if the trend continues, is expected to account for 25% of all paid-search clicks by Google by the end of the year.  This includes not only mobile phones but also tablet computers.

This is just another reason why your dealership needs to include Mobile Ads as a part of your PPC campaigns.  These ads can run in conjunction with your traditional PPC ads, but the copy, images, and even landing pages (which are a requirement) are designed and targeted towards users seeing your ads on mobile devices.  According to Google, customers that utilize mobile-only PPC ads can increase click-through rates by 11.5%.

While the percentage of mobile clicks continues to increase, the conversion rate is not as high as desktop PPC traffic.  However, the study focuses on traditional “conversion” and “leads” – online form submissions or online purchases.  Mobile searchers are on the go, so it’s likely that the traditional conversions are not relevant for these consumers.  Instead of submitting a lead online, they are calling the business, or coming into the dealership or store.  In fact, brick-and-mortar stores that have ecommerce websites (so that they can conduct actual click-to-sale transactions online from their paid search advertising) receive $6 worth of OFFLINE, IN-STORE sales from their paid search spending for every $1 they receive in click-to-sale revenue online.  I can only imagine that this ratio would be higher than 600% when mobile PPC ads are taken into consideration.

Mobile usage, search, and pay-per-click are continuing to grow at extremely high rates.  Make sure your dealership’s online marketing campaigns are prepared and that your auto dealer website customers can find your dealership when and how they choose to do so.

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