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

Why Your Dealership Should Have a YouTube Channel

Having videos on your auto dealer website has been shown to increase website leads, and when done with video search engine optimization (VSEO), helping your site climb the search engine result pages.  If your dealership has videos on your website, you should have those videos uploaded to your own dealership YouTube channel.

Here’s why:

Popularity: YouTube is the world’s largest video search engine (and the second largest search engine) and growing every single day.  People all over the world use it to find videos, so if someone searches for a vehicle that your dealership sells, don’t you want a video from your dealership to show up?

Timing: Like most search engines, YouTube tends to give older entries a little extra edge when returning search results.  The sooner you create your channel and upload videos, the better.

Cost: YouTube is free.  Aside from the time cost of uploading (though it’s possible your auto dealer website or video provider will do this for you), YouTube has no financial cost.  This means you get all of this exposure without an additional marketing cost.

Blended Search: Google, Bing and Yahoo are integrating mixed media (images, news, videos, etc) into their search engine result pages, so having your VSEO dealership videos on a separate domain can provide an additional link on Google’s results page for any search relevant to your dealership brand or your inventory.

In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Tips for Auto Dealer Press Releases (And Why You Should Use Them)

While many dealers see press releases as a marketing strategy for larger companies, it can be (and is) a valuable and worthwhile strategy for auto dealerships as well.  It’s a great way to get news about your company out both locally and nationally.  Press releases can make their way into both local and national news sources, helping your dealership brand itself within the community, as well as show up more often and higher on the search engine result pages.

Here are some ways your dealership can get the most out of each press release you create:

Put in on your dealership website.  If you have a blog, this is a great place to add dealership news in the form of a press release.

Link back to your auto dealer website when fitting.  Some press release sites use no-follow or don’t allow links, but most local new sites and your own site should definitely use keyword-optimized anchor text to link back to your website.

Don’t assume local news websites will pick up the press release on their own–send it to them.  Make sure that you’re only sending press releases about newsworthy items, though, or your contacts will learn to quickly dismiss your future press releases.  Also, put links on your social media sites.

Press releases can be a great tool for search engine optimization when done properly.  Does anyone use press releases as a tool in their dealership to get out news or add to your search engine results?

In Best Practices

Tips for Auto Dealers to Avoid Email Spam Filters

It is so frustrating when trying to send a legitimate, valuable email to a customer (future or current), and have it be blocked by a spam filter.  While there are some auto dealers that do send emails that might be properly classified as spam, most dealers who have spam issues are sending real emails to real customers.  Their email campaigns are being inappropriately blocked by various spam filters.

Here are some tips to avoid the dreaded spam filter in your customer’s email inbox:

Avoid Sending Spam-Like Emails (Obviously): Using words like “Free” multiple times, having large images or tons of links are more likely to make your email be stopped by a spam filter.  Also, watch the ratio of text to images.  For example, try linking to your inventory instead of pasting images in the actual email.

Ask Customers to Add You to Address Book: When customers add you to their address book, your emails will get delivered to their inbox.  Add a line to your email signature or above your opt-out message that asks people to help ensure they get your emails by adding your email address to their address book.  This little step will go a long way.

Follow CAN-SPAM Guidelines: Following CAN-SPAM (which by law you should be doing anyway) will greatly reduce the chances your email gets flagged as spam.  This includes having an opt-out (that is honored), listing your physical location, and using an accurate subject line.  You can find more information on the FTC website.

In

Will Your Dealership Use Google+ For Businesses?

The verdict on Google+ for personal use still seems to be out for many (myself included).  But according to Christian Oestlien, group product manager for social advertising at Google has said that they are “close to unveiling Google+ business profiles”.

Only Ford and GM have official profiles right now (interesting that they are both automotive brands).  Some businesses have created profiles, even though most sit blank; just so you know, there isn’t a limit to how many times a name can be used, so no need to claim your dealership’s name ahead of time.  I see this being a problem in the future.  Google+ will need a way to verify business accounts, much like Twitter and Google Places have, or I think they will lose out on some trust.

Will your dealership take another look at using Google+ once businesses are allowed?  What if Google+ ends up integrating with Google Places?

In Search Engine Marketing (PPC)

Change to Google’s Quality Score Algorithm Affects Car Dealers

For those out that use Google AdWords for your auto dealer website, this is big news.  After some testing in foreign markets, Google has announced that they are changing the algorithm used to determine the Quality Score of PPC ads to give landing page quality more weight.

According to Jonathan Alferness, director of product management on Google’s ad quality team, Google wants their advertisers to focus on relevance and “choose a landing page…that is both relevant to the keywords that you’re targeting and also a good experience for end users.”

This algorithm change will “result in better quality experience for the users” and those ads with a high quality, relevant landing page will get a “strong boost” upward in the auction.

Now more than ever, your dealership can’t afford to ignore where you’re sending your PPC traffic.  Having a webpage that uses relevant keywords and gives users the content and experience that they are expecting from clicking on your ad will reduce the cost per click your dealership is paying.

Do you know where you’re sending your PPC traffic?

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