Dramatically Improved Reporting, ‘Live View’ Of Potential Infractions, etc., Designed to Help Dealerships Stamp Out Costly Search Placement and Lead Theft Riverside CA- April 21, 2010 – eXtéresAUTO, the award-winning SEO and Search Asset Management (SAM™) provider for the auto dealer industry, today announced the roll out of major upgrades to its pioneering Piracy Management solution, the first technology to help dealers crack down on the growing, costly problem of online search piracy. Many dealerships remain unaware of the serious issue of online piracy, which is when third-party websites or direct competitors, for example, incorporate a dealership’s trademarked name or inventory into their site’s meta tags (organic piracy), or purchase a dealership’s name in paid search keyword buys (PPC piracy). The result: when a dealer’s potential customers are specifically searching for them, these pirate-sites ‘steal’ ...

Introduces Chatter Management, Complaint Site Management, Keyword Patrol - and Other Major Enhancements - to Make Process Easier Than Ever Riverside CA- April 20, 2010 – eXtéresAUTO, the leading SEO and Search Asset Management (SAM™) provider for the auto dealer industry, today announced major upgrades to its Online Reputation Management (ORM) technology solution. The company pioneered the first ORM solution for dealers in 2009, and over the next month they will be rolling out cutting-edge new reporting features and tools to further help dealers gain far greater control over, and capitalize on, the exploding world of online consumer reviews and social media – all from an easy-to-use back-office dashboard. From brand-new solutions like Chatter Management, Complaint Site Management and Keyword Patrol – to significantly improved Review Site Reporting/Management features – each tool is designed to help dealers establish the most powerful, positive...

President Rafi Hamid to Direct Reselling and Support of eXtéresAUTO Technology to Dealerships Across U.S.

Riverside, CA – February 24, 2010 – eXtéresAUTO, the leading provider of SEO and Search Asset Management (SAM™) solutions for the auto industry, today announced that Chicago-based Dealers Technology Inc. would become an authorized reseller for the company’s award-winning suite of search solutions. eXtéresAUTO’s technology will be the only SEO, Online Reputation Management and Piracy solutions offered by Dealers Technology to its clients.

Earlier this month, eXtéresAUTO was named the highest-rated dealership SEO provider in DrivingSales’ Vendor Ratings Awards, and the only ‘top rated’ vendor to receive an overall 4.9/5-star rating, with a dealer recommendation rate of 98%.

The agreement authorizes Dealers Technology, under the direction of President Rafi Hamid, to resell, deploy and support eXtéresAUTO’s solutions to auto dealerships across the U.S. H...

eXtéresAUTO would like to extend its deepest thanks to DrivingSales' Vendor Ratings Awards program - and ALL our dealers - for honoring us with the highest award achievable among all SEO providers.

The DrivingSales awards program represents a real breakthrough in the industry because it objectively measures the REAL experiences and satisfaction of the thousands of dealers that belong to this online community--and across all the major vendor categories.

Here's eXteresAUTO CEO, Richard Winch, with his executive team - accepting their trophy for #1 SEO Provider at the NADA Convention in Orlando this past week.

Pictured right to left: Russell Grant, Kim Orr, Richard Winch, Dawn Varga, Peter Winch, Rafi Hamid, Roberto Rivas, James Tagalu (not pictured: Merla Turner)

To read details on eXtéresAUTO's award and DrivingSales' awards and methodology, click here....

eXtéresAUTO is proud to note that it has been named a "Top 10 Company to Watch in 2010" by AutoSucccess Magazine, a list that also includes DrivingSales.com.  According to AutoSuccess, the list encompasses 10 high-growth organizations that have helped dealers dramatically improve profitability during these tough economic times and created enterprises that blaze a trail for others to follow.

Come see what the buzz is all about at AutoSuccess's VIP Dealer Cafe cocktail reception on opening day at NADA, 2:30-4:30 PM, in Booth 2307.  Several eXtéresAUTO executives, including CEO Richard Winch, will be on hand to answer questions and talk about your specific dealership.  Click here to RSVP.

Thanks to AutoSuccess for their recognition, and see you at NADA!

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AutoSuccess Magazine Releases 'Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2010'

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoSuccess Magazine recently released the 2010 Special Edition recogn...

When we started our Online Reputation Management program in 2008, talking to dealers about it was like talking to people about nuclear physics.  The concept was so new that it only seemed to add more confusion to the massive list of things dealers now needed to focus on in today’s automotive market.

Dealer awareness has radically shifted over the past 6 months: and now there’s major buzz for ‘Online Reputation Management’ – with dealers now actively seeking ways to improve, manage - and control - their presence at the review sites.  As always, the increased dealer interest/adoption has created a fairly decent-sized number of companies offering solutions. The solutions vary in concept, cost and implementation…so dealers have yet another ‘sea of information’ to wade through.

In my posts, I like to look at things (dealer Internet strategies) from the consumer position.  To keep in mind that the end consumer - that person you want to sell a vehicle to, that person ...

It’s amazing how many dealer principals and GMs I meet that don’t feel empowered to make SEO decisions. For many reasons, lots of dealers still perceive it as a ‘technical’ issue  - a more minor concept – and it either gets semi-ignored, or the SEO decision is delegated to the Internet, BDC or IT departments. Everyone at our company is living proof: we get pushed from dealer management to the IT department, over and over.

SEO is ADVERTISING pure and simple, and, done right, it’s the most powerful, sustainable advertising you can do - for the smallest amount of money. I mean, advertising is your specialty – you know advertising – you’ve always understood the importance of home-run media placement. Years ago that meant splashy radio/TV/newspaper ads, but today your highest-impact ADVERTISING is quieter, less sexy -  but totally lethal (and nearly 100% targeted): ranking high, 24/7, when your potential customer types in ‘Philadelphia…Honda…dealer…’ (or tho...

For dealers trying to make sense of SEO, Online Reputation Management, social media, or online ‘piracy’, it can get pretty confusing, pretty fast. Across the blogosphere (the ‘techie’ and dealer media) there are firestorms of articles/posts that really function as conversations BETWEEN tech vendors to educate, and mainly argue, with each other. I work in the search industry and may find (… from this week) “Diving Into Cloud-Based Search” or “ACAP Versus Robots.txt For Controlling Search Engines” a good read…but it’s hard to think of ANY industry…ANY marketing platform ever…more dominated by complex, nitpicky, mind-spinning discussions than SEO.

DrivingSales’ core base/mission is dealers, and as an industry you’re all brothers and sisters in arms, trying, in this lousy economy, to reduce your spend and reach/sell more customers by MAKING SENSE of why you should tackle new search and social media realities.

…So, I’m taking a big step back to r...

I hope you’ll enjoy this series of Q&As that will bring you answers to real questions posed by real dealers and dealership employees. I also hope you will also send me your questions – I’ll do my best to answer them simply and quickly.

My goal is to help you better understand the world of SEO and Online Reputation Management. Some answers may seem too simple, but the truth is that many people still feel like a fish out of water when it comes to using search and SEO to attract more customers and reduce marketing costs.

I believe that dealers are fully equipped to make Internet marketing decisions with the same ease that they make a decision to advertise on the radio or TV. And I want to simplify that decision process. I also firmly believe that your online search assets (SEO, online reputation, etc.) are the most important aspects of your Digital Dealership, which includes parts and service as well as sales.

Your Digital Dealership is the portal to your Brick and Mort...

Basic Tips To Ensure Your Dealership Ranks Higher in Service-Related Searches at the Googles

Here’s a well-publicized fact: the service department represents the lion’s share (now over 80%) of dealer profits--and with new-vehicle sales at 25-30-year-lows each month, it’s a bigger lifeline than ever.

A couple more facts: roughly 9 in 10 consumers now use search engines to hunt down local businesses (up from 70% just a year ago)--and 8 in 10 now use search engines to locate car dealers, making search the #1 way they find and choose dealers (handily beating out Yellow Pages, TV, print, radio, etc.). I mean, when’s the last time you picked up a Yellow Pages?

Driving more service business is more critical than ever—and consumers overwhelmingly find service providers at the search engines…You can see where I’m going… one of the most logical and effective ways to drive service business directly to your dealership is to improve your ranking/visibility at the Googles, where t...

I get it. Most dealerships don't have time to deal with various social media applications. However, even if you choose not to use these sites, it is important that you set up a dealership account for each one. Doing so will help protect your trade name and URL from use by your competitors, employees or others that may compromise your dealerships online reputation.
Sites to Lock Up!
MySpace
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Naymz
Flickr
Set up an account and be very careful to use your dealership name, i.e. ABC Motors. Huge added benefit? Using your dealership name will help your future search engine optimization results, especially if you ever decide to actually use the accounts set up.
Want more Online Reputation Tips? Request to join my Online Reputation Management Group here on drivingsales.com.
Happy Selling,
Merla Turner
Director of Dealer Training
eXtéres Auto
ask.merla@exteres.com
...

It's 2007 and I'm the Internet director at a large, family owned dealership. I type in my dealership's name on Google and what shows up on the first page? Negative customer reviews that say things like ‘Worst place to buy a car ever’ and ‘Manipulative Sales Techniques’! Now the killer was that the dealer group I worked for was not only 100% committed to customer satisfaction, but we regularly bent over backwards to do things right.

It got me thinking – we sell hundred of cars and create hundreds of happy customers a month. Why don't they go online and write something good about us? I was reminded of the old customer service adage – happy customers tell two people while unhappy customers tell 22. However, in the 21st century, the damage of an unhappy customer is far greater.
"Sharing negative customer-service experiences, both via word of mouth and particularly through the internet, has become a powerful weapon in the hands of consumers to damage companies that p...

In all my reading over the years about the SEO industry, two things stand out. First, how the conversation in the general technology/Internet press is almost entirely dominated by discussions about how this SEO strategy is ‘wrong’ or this one is the ‘ultimate’. And secondly, how relatively silent the major automotive press has been on the serious benefits of SEO. For instance, recently, when I was researching what was being written about automotive SEO at the dealer trades, I did what every other person on earth would do—I googled it and found that while there’s a towering mountain of articles on every aspect of dealer Internet marketing (leads, paid search, email, etc.) and much technical bantering and sales pitches for SEO services, there’s hardly anything written in the form of truly objective journalistic information on SEO.
And while the conversation has been trapped between nitpicking…or no conversation at all…the upshot is this: the lack of good SEO is transla...