If you are working at a car dealership and looking for a way to show your added value to the dealer principal, I would print out Google Page One results for a search on your dealership's exact name. If you work at a typical dealership, an exact search of your dealership name will show your main website FIRST. (This is expected)
But as we have documented the importance of POD Score (www.podscore.org) in the past month, you will find that most dealers do not control the 10 results on Page One very well. They have a low POD Score because of their PPC awareness, Reputation Management, and Organic SEO.
Follow the link if you don't know how to calculate your POD Score. (www.podscore.org)
What's An Average POD Score
On average, dealer's have a POD Score of 50 or less which is a failing grade. This means that their monthly advertising budget is being used to fund their competitors. (This is bad)
If you think your dealer principal or GM would like to stop spending thousands of dollars to help your direct competitors, then you can take the actions listed below and save the day.
You might not want to continue on the steps below because you are busy and have too many things on your plate. That's understandable. This request is probably not in your job description so maybe it's just best to stop here. Better to focus on closing more leads into appointments today.
How To Add Value
To increase your POD Score and to show your dealer principal that you took initiative and added value, do the following:
1. Purchase the .net, .org, and .co domains for your dealership name. For example, if your dealership is Marlboro Nissan it is is very likely your dealership only owns the .com. So, purchase these three domains for under $70 dollars, if you don't own them already:
2. Once you purchase these domains or if you own them already, setup each domain as a hosted WordPress blog. GoDaddy.com offers dedicated WordPress hosting for about $60 a year per domain.
3. Pick a WordPress theme that is attractive to your eye. The theme should be brand consistent and if you can't find a good theme, hire a company to create a custom theme.
4. Start posting articles, stories, and items of interest on these three WordPress websites. Be mindful to make sure the content is meaningful. Add a clear call to action button(s) if they want to shop, buy, or set an appointment at your dealership.
5. Register these three WordPress sites with Google, Yahoo, and Bing Webmaster Tools.
6. Build links to these three websites from reputable websites and also link to these sites from your main website(s).
Be Patient And Smile
Now, if you add content each week for 1-2 months you will see that these 3 websites will appear on Google Page One for a search on your dealership name. You will also see that you will push lead collectors, negative reviews, and competitors OFF Google Page One.
Showing the BEFORE and AFTER search results pages will demonstrate your ability to stop brand attacks and brand leakage. You can demonstrate that this action you took increased direct leads and traffic to your website.
Are you ready to step up and serve?
Brian Pasch
http://twitter.com/automotiveseo
P.S. If you are attending the 9th Digital Dealer Conference or DrivingSales Executive Summit, drop me an email on this site. I'll be speaking at both conferences so I hope to see you in Las Vegas.
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