For the last 3 years, search engine optimization has grown as one of the primary aspects of automotive internet marketing upon which dealers and vendors focus. Everyone has hear a pitch (or two, or ten) from experts and salespeople at vendors telling why SEO is important and what it takes to dominate the market area for a dealership. Much of what is out there is both legitimate and powerful. Some is antiquated. Much is simply wrong. That's not to say that there's no value in listening to the different opinions of what really drives search traffic, how to do it right, and where to find best practices, but it doesn't have to be so complicated. In the video below, we take a look at some of the readily-accepted components of SEO as described in an article by Mashable and broken down by yours truly. It's good to see efforts stronger understanding starting to permeate the internet. Here, we see how it affects dealers. If you have any questions, feel free to comment...

"Mobile has taken over." It's a subtle difference to what I've been saying for the last 3 years, but it changes everything about the way we think about automotive marketing. Just a few months ago, the statement would have been, "Mobile is taking over." See the difference. This isn't the death of laptops and desktops. It's not time to abandon traditional SEO or PPC. It simply adds another layer to our automotive marketing needs. Your customers are spending more time on their mobile devices. Some do more of their surfing and searching through iOS and Android than they do on Windows or Mac. Are you paying attention to them? You should be. To put it into perspective, here's an infographic that breaks down the rise of geosocial and location-based interactions between people and the businesses around them. Click to enlarge. ...

This is a dangerous topic and I'm heading down a steep slope on this one as people may misunderstand, but it's important to get it out anyway. Your Facebook page is important to you business, but it should only account for a small portion of your social media marketing day. Period. Most businesses that we work with have a strong leaning towards Facebook, just as they should. Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, even Google+ have a role in the social media strategy for most businesses, but Facebook covers most of the needs simply because it's where most of the people spend most of their social media time. The challenge is no longer with convincing business to use Facebook. It's in getting them to stop thinking that their Facebook page is their Facebook presence. There is so much more to Facebook than putting up landing tabs and status updates. Facebook is a communication tool that allows businesses to reach out to their customers and prospective customers while allowing ...

As more dealers and vendors start to understand the importance of link-building for organic search engine rankings, I get a lot of questions about anchor text. The actual text itself that's associated with the link is the anchor. It (as well as the link title) tell the search engines what the link is supposed to be about. I'm often quoted from a 2008 Automotive SEO video as saying that "links are like votes". If links are votes telling the search engines which URL that site is "voting for", then the anchor text and titles tell the search engines which term your vote should count towards. While most links are getting properly anchored, there are still a couple of questions that continue to pop up. I'll post some examples, but I'll use non-TK Carsites clients so it's not thought that this post is simply for our own SEO use. To those who get the links, consider it a gift. Are links without anchors worthless? No. They still give credibilit...

In 2012, there's a person you need to hire if you haven't already. Every dealership or dealer group that wants to succeed MUST hire a Digital Manager. I go into more details about what a digital manager does in a blog post on Techi, but here I want to shed some light on the differences between an internet manager/BDC manager and a true digital manager. First, digital managers are more than just the person sitting on Twitter and Facebook all day. They should be using these as tools, certainly, but that should be only a small part of it. If your dealership has a full time social media person, that's great, but that's not the end of it. You need more. You need content. Real content. You need pages added to your site constantly that are created by real people. Automated "SEO pages" are junk thanks to Google Panda (and I would happily debate that point with any vendor pushing the "more pages is better for SEO" rhetoric that simply doesn't wor...

If there's one thing that dealers shouldn't pass up, it's an easy button. There are so many complicated things in the marketing world online today that when something presents itself that is easy, fast, and has a return on investment, we can't let it go. That's why I have been so surprised lately (even at the DSES) when so many dealers have told me that they've abandoned Twitter altogether. Does it have the same value as Facebook? No. Is it loaded with noise and spam? Yes. I covered these and other reasons that Twitter is getting abandoned at Soshable. Still, there's one very compelling reason why dealers should not abandon Twitter: it simply doesn't take a lot of time. An internet manager or marketing manager (or better yet, the owner or GM) can run an extremely successful dealership Twitter account by spending less than 10 minutes a day. Here are some tips on how to do it: Monitoring Takes 1 Minute a Day (Literally) - Hop into your account...

As we prepare for the biggest Driving Sales Executive Summit in history, 3 things are clear: The future can be bright for advanced-thinking dealers. There is a shift happening in the way that dealers think and compete. Search and social are converging into a single strategy. When I speak in Las Vegas about "Search and Social for the Next Year" I will be trying to squeeze 3 hours worth of material into 30 minutes. It can be done and will not require extra-fast speaking. What it WILL require is a little prep- and post-work for the dealers. I will be going over some of the big changes that are happening now and the ones that are coming up, particularly for Google and Facebook. I will be doing something that I've never really done before at an event - recommending strategies that include other vendors (some of which are active here on Driving Sales). As always, there will be no pitching involved; anyone who has heard me speak knows that I sometimes forget ...

As in industry, automotive has had a history of being behind the times when it comes to internet adoption. That has seemed to change in the last couple of years as dealers and manufacturers have launched full-force into embracing search and social in ways that surpassed other industries. There's still a ways to go, especially in social media,. While most are taking on Facebook and YouTube and a good amount are embracing Twitter and blogging, there are platforms that all but the most forward-thinking have failed to embrace. We have often recommended to dealers that they should focus on "the big four" and leave everything else to the side, but that's only for sake of focus. It's easier to stay on target with less distractions. Those who have embraced social fully have either been met with failure or success. It sounds like an obvious statement, but the difference between social and other areas such as search or classifieds is that in those areas there is mu...

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when comparing search engines and social media for their marketing is assuming that since many of the basic activities are the same that the same strategies will work on both. While a unified approach to managing campaigns on search and social is recommended, one must understand the distinctions in not only the platforms but also the mindset of the people using them. The fishing analogy works well, here. I don't believe in calling potential customers "fish" but for the sake of understanding, it's easier that way for now. The Similarities Between Search and Social The fact that they're both almost entirely defined by how the real world interacts with people online means that some similarities are clear. Both are used to: Gather information and have questions answered Learn more about companies and other people Find alternative perspectives other than a company's website When we want a specifi...

This post is part of a series titled 10 Ways to Use Social Media for Day-to-Day Business. Every day we will be expanding upon a new tip until the list is complete. If there's one medium to bet on for the future, it's video. Tweeting may someday fall out of favor. Thousands of new blogs are popping up every day, making it hard to get in through the noise. Even Facebook, as gigantic as it is today, could collapse under its own weight from a couple of wrong moves. Video, on the other hand, is going to be around in one form or another for a long, long time on the internet. We, as humans, love the sit-back-and-enjoy style of information consumption. It's what made the television such a gargantuan medium and it will continue to drive the internet for decades to come. Your business must be using video to promote an enhance your day-to-day business. Period. End of st... well, not quite the end of the story. There's more: Frequency by Personality How often you post is...

Which way is better? This is a question for vendors, dealers, and just about everyone else. It seems that there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to working with large, multi-focus vendors who are able to unify and consolidate both efforts as well as billing. On the flip side, there are those who believe that "specialist" style vendors are better to work with, holding them accountable for their own space rather than many. Which do you prefer? What are the pros and cons as you see it? We have put up a poll on Facebook that asks the question. Please, either leave a comment here with your preference and why, vote on the issue at Facebook, or both. There's nothing better at DrivingSales than good, strong feedback. ...

There are advantages and disadvantages to building proprietary, unique automotive internet marketing software. When TK started building Connect, we knew what we were getting into and thankfully the development and testing have fallen directly in line with our expectations. Is it really better to build? The other options - white label and partnerships - have advantages of their own. As we move forward with our next batch of projects, I wanted to tap into the Driving Sales community and find out what dealers and other vendors prefer and why. Building a platform, whether it's for websites, SEO, PPC, social media, or whatever, allows for complete control and fully automotive integration. It can be expensive and time-consuming, but having control gives vendors the ability to customize as they see fit. Using white labeled products is the most common technique used by vendors. Granted, very few people know this - that's the point of white labeling. To take a pre-existing pr...

Some of the most important marketing tools start off with a completely different use in mind. Texting is one of them. Anyone who has a teen with a smartphone knows that it's a "best practice" to have an unlimited texting plan. They love it. Most adults have embraced texting over the years as a good method of communication. Whether you're one of those people or not, you should definitely at least be looking at the different ways to integrate text messaging into your marketing strategy. It doesn't necessarily even have to be outgoing. Sometimes, encouraging potential customers to contact you via text is a quick and easy way to collect more information about them. They don't always want to call and talk to a salesperson, but a text message is less direct (at least that's the perception). It offers a degree of separation that some customers crave. Texting is big and getting bigger. You should be collecting cell numbers through text messaging whenver...

The thought crossed my mind the other day to search vendors for the different SEO packages they offered. I wanted to see where the high-end was and who was still hovering in the low-end, "make your site SEO-friendly" realm. What I found surprised me. Those who have read my writing here in the past know that I do not get all controversial about topics - I prefer to stay productive and constructive at all times. However, I had to point this little tidbit out because, as someone who has been doing Automotive SEO for 4 years now, I found it disconcerting. One size cannot fit all. When it comes to search, different cities, brands, and goals determine the level of SEO. A Mercedes dealership in a small town can get away with little or no SEO as they likely have their market covered. A Honda dealer in a large metro may need to have the latest and greatest "super-awesome-mega-SEO-package-of-the-month" just to stay above the fold for important searches. I guess this i...

This is a portion of an article titled Why the Automotive Industry is Shifting to New Media. While social media is the “new sexy” in the industry, search is still the primary tool that consumers use to research different vehicles. Once they make their decision on which vehicles to consider, the go again to the search engines to find the vehicles themselves. OEMs such as General Motors may be spending millions on making a splash in social media, but they continue to use paid search as a primary means of driving traffic both to their corporate properties as well as their dealer websites. Organic search is trending as the primary method of driving traffic at the dealer level. The vast majority of dealers in the US utilize some level of search engine optimization to help get their websites ranked higher. The industry has turned into one of the most competitive with major metros crowded with dealers and 3rd-party lead vendors vying for the top 10 spots for high-volume s...

Every few months, we see a dip in sentiment regarding social media. It's been going on consistently since early 2009 and we know that it will continue. Dealers try social, see little reason to continue, and set things on autopilot or abandon it altogether. Then, something changes that makes social media more important and the searches for "Automotive Social Media" spike again. Get ready to do the search. Social just got more important again. A LOT more important. During the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa last earlier this month, I gave a keynote that highlighted Google's commitment to social media (as soon as Jared, Bart, and Arnold send me the video, I'll be happy to post it here... hint, hint). Google reaffirmed that commitment in a big way earlier today that will change the way savvy dealers do social media. Google Social Search is a game changer. It will insert links into the natural search stream based upon social connections that ...

While dealers have been paying attention to social media for a couple of years now, it hasn't been until recently that the effort and investment has been put into hiring employees directly engaged in the field. It has been pushed off on Internet managers, sales people, and occasionally college-bound children of owners and general managers (more often than you probably know). This graphic by our friends at SocialCast puts the job into perspective in a way that will hopefully shed some light on what a full-time social manager's day looks like. We don't necessarily have to understand what it is that they're doing, but we definitely need to know that there is a distinct ROI involved. When done right, there is. ...

The Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa is off to an amazing start. Following our presentation from Glenn Pasch, we moved to watch Alex Snyder from Dealer.com and DealerRefresh. We will be reviewing all 6 workshops over the next 2 days. People Are Looking For Someone They Can Like or Trust Quoting prices? Alex says no. There are so many prices out there that the need to quote a price every time is bogus. 97% of customers don't really need a price to get going. They simply want to know and like you. Sean Stapleton from VinSolutions brought up a good point that giving at the very least a range of pricing to get it out there on the table ahead of time. Can you sell a car online? Stapleton says, "Yes." The volley back and forth between the two auto-industry giants is extremely entertaining. They both seem right. It really depends on the personality of the dealership and the sales person, but not matter what, everyone agrees that people buy from othe...

For over a year, I've worn two hats. As Director of New Media for TK Carsites, it's my job to make sure that our marketing products that support websites for dealers (namely SEO and Social Media) are supercharged and kicking tail. My team is stronger than it's ever been and things have been rocking along for some time now. As President of Hasai, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TK Carsites, we've worked with major companies and publications to spread their content virally, sending around 11 million pageviews per month to just under 25 websites. Hasai hit a "tipping point" recently where it is able to run well without much of my personal bandwidth being spent on it. As a result, I've been focusing nearly all of my time on analyzing and breaking down the automotive industry's needs and "feel the pulse" of dealers as a whole. A couple of  weeks ago, I came to a conclusion that was (thankfully) wrong. During October's string ...

Wait, what? It's still 2010. Next week is, for those who are strategically minded and who understand how marketing works realize that next week is the last full week that we can dedicate completely to putting together our plans for 2011. The following week is Thanksgiving, the beginning of the crazy season we know as "The Holidays". What normally happens in our industry is this: we know that we as Internet Managers, General Managers, and Dealer Principals must make some decisions about our marketing budgets for 2011. We think, "It's mid-November, so I have to get on that soon." Then, every year, so many go through knowing that with over a month until 2011, they will be able to sit down and make it happen in an hour, maybe two. Others think they can put a full-day effort in sometime in December. For most, it doesn't happen, at least not the right way. Thanksgiving happens, then the end-of-the-month push, then the beginning-of-the-month push, the...

Many will call me crazy. Some will say that I'm recommending "bending the rules". Some will say that it's too risky. You may be right, but we're recommending it anyway. When individual employees such as Internet Managers, Sales Managers, and Salespeople utilize their Facebook profiles to enhance dealership exposure and engagement, there are many benefits that can happen. There are risks, yes, but a properly trained staff given the tools to succeed can help a dealership go to the next level in social media marketing. Below is a video tip that is part of the TK Power Social package. We made this one visible to the public because I really want to hear feedback on whether the benefits of direct Facebook engagement between employees and customers is something that should be encouraged. ...

The debate has raged since the dawn of search engines as a dramatic traffic source for websites: SEO vs PPC.  DrivingSales offers a venue for this debate to continue in the automotive arena, and despite attempts to spark a panel, nothing has transpired. Thus, I'll put down my own thoughts on the matter and hope that others confirm or deny what I say. PPC: Renting Your Search Engine Home Being flexible, nimble, and in control of your message and where it is placed is the biggest selling point for PPC. While most agree that sponsored listings only account for about 1/4th of the clicks on search engines, there are those who are willing to sacrifice the bulk in favor of that control. It's like renting a home. You aren't stuck in one place for 15-30 years (or in the case of the search engines, for months at a time). Renting search engine space means that you get to move in quickly and have an instant impact on your traffic. The bad part about renting search...

In case you missed our webinar on Driving Traffic (and Likes) to Your Facebook Page, you may not be aware that many apps on Facebook pages across the Interwebs will be cut off on the right side starting August 23rd. Last year, Facebook announced on their development blog that they would be reducing the width allowed on tabs. Many developers scrambled to fit their apps into the right size. Oddly, months after the announcement, no change had been made. The change is finally here. On August 23rd, Facebook will cut the size allowed on tabs to 520 pixels - 200 pixels shorter than before. Some apps auto-size nicely to fit. Most, however, cut off on the right side, leaving no way for people to see what is displayed there. The effect will be felt as the right side is where many buttons, links, and other calls to action are placed. Even if the apps do not put their buttons there, it still makes many pages look, well, weird. If you are the page admin, you can get a preview of all of...

So, you have a Facebook page for your dealership. You have apps, inventory, photos, and status updates galore. All you need now are a few eyeballs reading it and profiles liking it. The question is, "How?" Our webinar last week on Driving Traffic and Likes to Your Car Dealer Facebook Page goes into detail about many different ways to drive traffic, but one of the most relevant ways is to use straight-forward Facebook advertising. Advertising is simple, but here are few tips that may answer some of your questions. 1) Compel wiht your Ad Thumbnail and Copy In the example above, there are two major points. It's common to use the dealership logo for the thumbnail. It works just fine and is excellent for exposing your brand. I prefer to use a geo-targeted image whenever possible. The text should also be compelling but ONLY to the point of being realistic. Do not promise more than you can deliver. Tell people exactly why they should like your page, then deliver...

Last month, we posted a request to put together an SEO vs. PPC vs. Maps Panel. As we wrap prepare to launch, I wanted to do one last sweep through to see if anyone else was interested in being on the panel. I know there are several vendors who are here on Driving Sales that offer one or more of these products - it would be amazing to have as many involved as possible. So far, we have a potentially VERY strong panel including Brian Pasch, Paul Rushing, Eric Miltsch, Jared Hamilton, Ralph Paglia, Dave Erickson, and Volker Jaeckel, with several others chiming in and (hopefully) wanting to participate as well. Is there anyone else? I would like to get this together and make it available prior to the Driving Sales Executive Summit in October. There are many format options, but as a whole I would love to have a comprehensive discussion through video panels and articles that can assist every car dealer in America in making their choices between the 3 options. As Adam Stone from Toyota...

Despite the fact that it's a 2-year-old infographic, the 4 basic concepts remain unchanged. It's a clear way of looking at the way that we in the automotive industry should be looking at utilizing social media in our reputation management... ... by doing the things it takes to engage well with our customers. ... by being aware that having a Facebook page is not reputation management. ... by deciding that it doesn't take much time or effort to do it right rather than "manufacturing" a positive reputation for our dealerships. I'll go more into detail about why this infographic is important and how dealers can apply it, but for now take a look and try to understand why this makes perfect sense (or feel free to ask me if you don't see it clearly). * * * Via Infographics Bin. Learn more about Car Dealer Internet Marketing on Driving Sales. ...

In recent weeks I have been asked to rank the top factors for optimizing car dealer websites. Google reports to having over 200 factors, while the other search engines show similar, undeclared complexity within their own algorithms.
We posted the Top 10 Automotive SEO Factors on our blog a couple of months ago, an article that also appeared in Auto Dealer Monthly, but it was a cursory look. Here at Driving Sales, we will explore each more thoroughly. Those that we have little or no control over, such as the age of the domain, will not be covered, but we'll take a look at everything you CAN improve.
Let's start with...

Inbound Links: Diversity
In the original article, we discovered that:


"This is the least important aspect of the most important factor in SEO: link-building. Diversity is when you’re getting inbound links from many different websites on different Class-C IP addresses. The more diverse, the better, but no matter what anyone tells you, an inbound “spam” l...

As was posted on one of the official NADA Blogs, the convention will be a social media "tipping point" for many. Dealers are ready to make the jump into Web 2.0 and what better venue to learn and choose a social media partner than in a place where EVERYONE is selling social media services?

While it's a good idea to take advantage of what the NADA Convention presents as a place where everyone who has services will be pitching them, be warned: there are good ways and bad ways of engaging in social media, and both sides will be represented at NADA.

Believe it or not, it isn't easy. As simple and straight-forward as social media as an entity is, there are pitfalls that dealers must avoid. Here are a few of them:

Mass Account Creation without Management - There are benefits to creating dozens, even hundreds of social media profiles to help cross-link and generate strong search engine reputation management potential, but there are also times when this can be a detriment. Stagnant a...

Should OEM's be more active in helping their dealers in social media? I have my own opinions, but I want to start by asking the question and seeing how the community at Driving Sales feels.

Stop, think about how you currently feel, then read on.

As I've stated in previous posts, social media is a personal experience that is best handled on the local level when it comes to automotive. When I posted Car Dealer Social Media Basics: YouTube, the idea was that dealers would be able to have all of the tools that they needed to put together a proper video marketing plan. Brian Pasch did the same with Car Dealer Facebook Page Tips, and Paul Rushing showed us Automotive Blogging Advice - both of which are self-service, do-it-yourself style posts that dealers can use.

My next question is: "Why are we having to do this?"

Shouldn't the manufacturers be putting out a gameplan for their dealers? Shouldn' t they be offering training, support, and resources for their dealers to use when th...

More time has been spent watching videos online in 2009 than reading emails. This is the first time that has happened in a year, but it won't be the last. YouTube is the biggest video site on the Internet, so we will discuss it as the primary source of video marketing, but it's definitely not the only one.

This is one part of a five part series that will be posted on various sites. It covers the basics: a 30,000 foot view of the various social media sites as well as easy, practical ways that the sites can be used.
Why Do Car Dealers Need YouTube?
Videos are the easiest way to get a message out. Why? People will watch videos before they'll read. It's that simple. Videos require the least amount of effort, offer visual and audio stimulation, and are often associated with emotional responses. Some are funny, others are gross. Some are exciting, others are boring. Regardless of the intent, video encompasses what people are looking for on the Internet in a quick and neat little packa...