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

Auto Dealership Viral Video Tips

Everyone wants the videos they make to go viral, meaning they get spread around the Internet, sent from friend to friend.  Viral videos can give your auto dealership a huge increase in brand awareness and buzz, huge marketing benefits and an increase in car dealer website traffic with little cost.

One recent example that was ALL over Twitter and the news websites on Wednesday is the Old Spice Dude’s proposal video.  For the cost of making this viral video, Old Spice has been able to get their brand name in front of millions of people.

Viral videos can do great things for auto dealerships and their brand awareness–but the question always remains, how do you get your dealership’s videos to become viral?

There is no formula for what makes a video go viral, and I think that is really important to remember.  There are, however, guidelines to follow if you want to stand a chance:

You must capture attention within seconds.  No one is going to pass something on to their friends if it isn’t funny, shocking, surprising, or engaging within the first few seconds.  You’ll lose their attention, point blank.

It has to tie to your brand.  If you make a video that goes viral, yet has no tie or mention of your dealership or brand, all that marketing buzz and exposure will be lost.  Sure, everyone might be talking about the video, but if they don’t connect that video to your car dealership, you’ve lost a huge opportunity.

Finally, be honest.  Don’t try to make viewers think the video was made by a third party if it wasn’t.  Promote your hopefully viral video on your dealer blog, through email lists, and on your dealership’s Facebook page.  People want to be entertained, but they don’t want to feel cheated or lied to.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization for Google’s Caffeine Update

Now that Google’s search engine update, Caffeine, is live everywhere, a lot of people have questions about how it will impact search engine results, and more specifically, what car dealers can do to better optimize for this update.

I wanted to answer both questions, so let’s start with how Caffeine will impact search engine optimization in general.  Caffeine is an update to Google’s indexing system.  In other words, Caffeine helps “all content (and not just content deemed ‘real time’) can be searchable within seconds after its crawled” according to Google’s Matt Cutts.  Now that Caffeine is live, your web pages will make it from Google’s search engine crawlers to the actual search engine result pages more quickly.

The answer to the questions of what auto dealerships can do to better optimize now that Caffeine has arrived is nothing.  Nothing, that is, that you aren’t already doing to optimize your car dealer website.

Word from Google is that this update to their indexing system doesn’t make any of the crawling, indexing, or ranking factors any more or less important than they were before.  It does make content available in search engine results more quickly after being crawled by Google’s bots.

Auto dealership website search engine optimization (SEO) best practices still apply: proper keyword research, individual inventory pages, proper website structure, regularly updated content, and video optimization, just to name a few.  If you have any questions about how to properly optimize your car dealer site for Google and other search engines, ask your SEO or marketing vendor for more information.

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Internal Linking Helps With Car Dealer Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization can be a complicated process, especially since Google is rumored to use over 200 factors when determining how high (or low) your car dealership website ranks on their result pages.  While most people attribute successful SEO to things like keywords, meta tags, and external links, some SEO vendors forget about the importance of internal linking.

Internal linking is just another way to help Google, or other search engines, tell what each page on your car dealer website is about.  Essentially, internal links are those that go from one page of your site to another (external links are to another site).  One reason internal links are a valuable focus for your SEO efforts is because you can control the text that is linked (anchor text), an important aspect of SEO for your dealership site.

Another benefit of internal linking is that is helps create a content silo for your auto dealership website.  Search engines look at the internal linking structure (which pages link to which, the anchor text used) to not only learn what each page is about, but also to help judge the quality of the site.  A well maintained content silo on your auto dealership site can be an extremely valuable part of your SEO efforts.

Make sure your dealership site has internal linking that is well-planned and effective.  If it doesn’t, ask your auto dealer website provider why.  It’s an important part of a well-rounded search engine optimization strategy for car dealers.

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In

Ways Around Facebook Landing Tab Changes for Auto Dealers

I wrote on Friday about the changes Facebook has made to their landing tab capabilities for non-authenticated businesses, and today I want to let our auto dealer customers know a couple of ways to get around this blow to small business social media and Facebook’s marketing capabilities.  Just to make things clear, your car dealership page will still be able to create and use custom tabs on your Facebook page, however you cannot designate one of them to be the first tab visitors land on anymore.

One way to customize the content your new Facebook visitors will see is to change your profile picture.  Consider adding text or an image that directs people to the tab you would like them to see.  Some examples are “Click on the Sweepstakes tab to enter” or “Watch our video greeting on the Welcome tab.”  This way your dealership Facebook visitors will see the call to action you create regardless of the tab they land on when first reaching your page.

You can also direct your Facebook traffic to the intended tab by linking to it.  Each created tab has its own URL, so when you link to Facebook from your auto dealer website or in your emails, include the link to the intended tab.

If you have questions about your car dealership social media campaign, contact the DealerOn marketing department.  We have the tools, knowledge, and insight to help auto dealers remain successful while marketing online, no matter how many changes occur.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

acacia.grant@dealeron.com'
In

Facebook Changes Rules for Landing Tabs

Looks like Facebook isn’t just pulling the privacy rug out from under its many users, it’s also changing the way small businesses, including most auto dealerships, can use the social media platform.  Previously, Facebook allowed all business pages to create a customized landing tab that visitors would see when visiting your auto dealer’s page.  Facebook has announced that now only “authenticated pages” will be able to use a landing tab.  This means that a “page must have greater than 10,000 fans or the Page admin must work with their ads account manager” in order to be considered “authentic”.  Pages that don’t fit into those categories will not be able to use landing tabs anymore.

This latest change is in addition to the introduction of Community pages.  These are pages designed to be “the best collection of shared knowledge on a topic.”  Wikipedia information will be shown, but Facebook is looking for users to contribute information as well.  This could create a problem for small businesses as it could potentially limit the amount of control your dealership has over its brand.  These pages aren’t controlled by a business or brand, but by Facebook and user content.

Your car dealer online marketing vendor should be able to help your dealership understand these and other changes in the social media world.  I’ll have a post up Monday on ways your car dealership can get around these restrictions on using a landing tab for your auto dealer Facebook page.  Please call us at DealerOn (877-543-4200) if you would like more information regarding how to get the most out of your dealership’s presence on Facebook or other social media outlets.

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