Google met with top automotive dealers and manufacturers at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco this week to introduce their new lead generation model for search, which one insider called "Dealer Preference". This is a new strategy for their popular Google Adwords software.

The new paid automotive advertising model by Google would create special automotive ads which are designed to generate calls or leads, which will be sold to the highest bidder. This is a game changer in my mind but people at the meeting said that dealer response was very mild.

Take a look at this screen capture for the search phrase "mortgage loans" and look at the new Adwords section that says "Comparison Ad" that is highlighted in red.

Google Automotive Lead Gen

This model is new to the automotive industry but not new to other verticals like Mortgages. You can see from the screen shot above highlighted in red, Google has created a special new pink bar for ads that it creates for lead capture and places them ABOVE normal Adwords ads. Notice that ad has radio buttons and a call to action to "Compare Rates".

On a related note, you will also see one business using Google Boost and how much more attractive PPC ads will be getting if a car dealer has high review counts!

When you click on that link, this is what you will see:



The position of this page is sold to the highest bidder, I assume. Details on the Dealer Preference advertising is forthcoming in a second post. My first guess that this will be used for New Car advertising and that some OEM's might prefer this enhanced lead generation model. The jury is still out and I need to get more information on this product offering.

This is a game changer for the automotive advertising industry. If Google starts to become a middle-man in automotive price advertising and comparisons, a whole new strategy will need to be considered. It still will have to be seen if this increases clicks on paid ads.

Automotive Advertising Changes Again

This new features does a few things:

1. It pushes other paid ads lower on the right sidebar.
2. It pushes organic search results down so positions 1-3 become even more valuable
3. Dealers that have been ignoring Adwords will need to get in the game and test things.

The idea that Google has in mind is that if a consumer types in "Used Honda Miami" it will display its OWN lead collection ad and show cars or sales based on participating dealers.

What is your reaction?

Do you have some additional information from NADA to share?

As many dealers know, I am always keeping my ear to the ground to be the first to report on the latest automotive digital marketing and social media trends that add value to the automotive industry.

This week a learned that Dealer.com has inked a deal with BMW USA to become a preferred website and digital marketing vendor for BMW dealers. This is a great news for BMW dealers that are using an inferior website platform.

Why? The deal that Dealer.com negotiated with BMW is that 50% of Dealer.com website and marketing costs will be co-op approved, up to $2,000 a month. I have to congratulate Dealer.com for pulling off this impressive deal.

For many BMW dealers, this will be a "no-brainer" switch unless they are really happy with their existing website vendor. BMW dealers will also be pleased to know that the Dealer.com platform is fully BMW compliant which is important when selecting a website vendor. BMW has been vigilant in inspecting dealer websites so BMW dealers can reduce their headaches with a pre-approved OEM compliant website platform.

2010 Automotive Website Awards

As many progressive car dealers know, Dealer.com websites won the highest recognition in website search marketing design this past year.

In October, Dealer.com was awarded in Las Vegas with the 2010 Automotive Website Awards (AWA) for search marketing. Dealer.com was one of only five companies to receive the Pinnacle Award in 2010 for website design.

The AWA awards are the highest recognition in the automotive industry for website vendors. You can download a copy of the 160 page AWA white-paper at: http://www.automotivewebsiteawards.com

Dealer.com was also recognized with a 2010 AWA Technology Award for their pay-per-click advertising product; Total Control Dominator (TCD). Total Control Dominator is a Dealer.com exclusive product that integrates Google Adwords and car dealer inventory to create a cost effect SEM strategy.

BMW Dealer Websites

If you are a BMW dealer and would like to reduce your website marketing and support costs, you should check out this new offering by Dealer.com. The website links that explain the program are: http://bmw.dealer.com.

I just recently conducted a 20 Group workshop and it reminded me that the more I speak and connect with dealer principals the more I am excited about being in the automotive industry.

I am very passionate about helping dealer principals lead their business with effective digital marketing and social media strategies. That's right, dealer principals as leaders.

Having the privilege to educate and share my passion for digital marketing to hundreds of dealers each year, it is clear to me that many dealer principals cannot effectively lead their digital marketing strategies and inspect their advertising investments.

They would like to but they don't know the right questions to ask.

All of the dealers in attendance at this meeting said that they would like more leads from their main website because those leads convert the best. Yet NONE of the dealers could recite any important data points about their website:

• How many unique visitors a month
• How many page views per visit
• How much time were they spending the their site
• Bounce Rate
• Top referring sources

For many of these dealers, they are investing thousands of dollars each month to maintain and market their website. Some advanced dealers may also be adding fresh content, videos, photos, and specials to "improve" the website experience.

Yet in spite of these significant investments, they had no clear report on their desk to say whether these investments were moving the needle. Increased visitors? Reduced bounce rate? More leads?

None of the dealers had ever tested and measured the impact of changing their home page design. Frankly, they did not know that they could ask for those types of test. None had tested different landing page designs for their pay-per-click advertising campaigns.

Larry Bruce has been like John the Baptist on this topic, as he has been trying to get dealers to do more with what traffic they are already getting. A/B Testing and conversion is surely a timely message from Larry Bruce, which can save dealers significant money if they invest in education and testing in 2011.

Ironically, the dealer principal proudly admitted to testing different radio, TV, and print ads to find the right message that worked. Yet, when it came to digital marketing they never thought they could test that medium as well. The good news is that they can.

Digital Marketing Education is NOT Sexy

Spending the dollars to educate your staff may not be sexy, but it is critical for leadership in today's automotive retailing model.

I'm not sharing this story to put down dealer principals. I'm writing to challenge the automotive industry and dealer principals to make 2011 the year of empowerment. A year where investments in digital marketing education are a priority. A year where dealer principals see the importance of leading and INSPECTING their digital marketing investments.

If dealer principals can't inspect the work of their eCommerce team, vendors, and automotive advertising partners they cannot effectively leverage the opportunities that the Internet and social media offer. If dealer principals can't speak the language associated with SEO, SEM, IRM, and social media they will not feel confident in vendor meetings.

Automotive Digital Marketing Education

In 2011 PCG Digital Marketing is committing significant resources to dealer education. The commitment started with the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC). The conference is being held February 103, 2011 just prior to NADA.

In 2011 PCG will be announcing a series of initiatives and partnerships to assist car dealers with educating their team to master the skills needed to be successful with automotive retailing.

At DMSC, attendees will be empowered to lead their dealership with effective digital marketing and social media strategies. The curriculum, speakers, and educational format will deliver solutions and processes to take back to the dealership that will move the needle in 2011. The conference diet is high protein and no junk carbs.

Do focused workshops really work?

In just three hours with this 20 Group, I was able to review a series of simple spreadsheets that I created to allow them to inspect their digital marketing investments. All of the dealer principals committed to having their reports on their desk each month and said that they would review them. They now have the ability to inspect, where a few hours earlier they did not. They were empowered to lead, from a 3 hour class.

A Budgeting Paradox

These dealers expressed their gratitude that I came out to their 20 Group. I'm not sure how many dealers, if any, would sign-up for a conference on digital marketing without having this face to face experience with me.

I find it ironic that a dealer will try a new "advertising" idea (shiny object) for $1,000 and yet they won't INVEST $1,000 to send an employee to a great educational conference. These same employees may manage hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertising and marketing investments.

It's odd that dealers’ use an excuse that the conference "is a busy time to be out of the dealership" like they don't control workload and have backup resources in case someone is sick.

When I inspect a Google Adwords campaign for a dealer, it is not uncommon that in 75% of dealers I can save them thousands of dollars a year in wasted clicks or improved conversion. Why wouldn't a dealership want this as an internal skill?

When I inspect a dealership website, it is not uncommon that 85% of website are not tagged properly for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Why wouldn't a dealership want this as an internal skill?

When surveyed, over 35% of car dealers said that they had no formal budget line item for staff education in digital marketing and social media. So it is no surprise why this important area of growth for car dealers is not being fully leveraged.

Who Will Lead in 2011?

I can go on with more examples but it is clear to me that the tools and strategies dealer principals need to succeed have changed and education has lagged. That will change when dealer principals decide to lead ALL profit centers in their business.

That gap is getting wider and I hope that we can provide the education and resources to close the gap between the haves and have-nots. I hope dealer principals reading this article will be inspired to take action and invest in education in 2011.

It’s really not an option but dealer principals can deny reality as long as they want which will allow their competitors to gain a strategic advantage.

P.S.  Please take this Digital Marketing Education Survey.  Start Here

Following the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference February 1-3rd in the Napa Valley, I will be leading workshops at the 2011 NADA Convention in San Francisco. My workshop is entitled "Blogs, Microsites, and SEO" will be repeated three times on the following days:
 

• Friday February 4^{th –} 3:15 Room 2002-2004 West
• Sunday February 7^{th –} 2:15 Room 206-2008 West
• Monday February 7^th – 8:30 am Room 2011 west

I would like to invite all DrivingSales members who are attending 2011 NADA Convention, to mark your calendar and attend my workshop. If you are not attending, but someone from your dealership is attending, please send them a link to this page.

I will be covering that latest digital marketing strategies that can help increase the visibility and relevance of your dealership website. I'll be providing step by step instructions how to increase traffic, leads, links, and grow market-share using proven contenting publishing and SEO strategies.

NADA Wine Tasting At French Restaurant

PCG is also hosting a wine tasting on the first night of NADA in San Francisco just one block from the Convention Center. What a great way to open up the NADA Convention; great wine and food.

Catch up with old friends and meet new ones. The restaurant is short walk from the Convention Center so you can walk to the restaurant when classes end.
 

• Date: Friday, February 4, 2011
• Time: 6:00pm – 10:00 pm
• Location: Le Charm Restaurant
• 315 5th Street, San Francisco
• Phone: 415-546-6128
• Website: www.lecharm.com

DrivingSales members should RSVP by January 24th. Tickets for the event are limited. Call 732-450-8200 or email Carrie Hemphill at: carrie@pcgmailer.com

Every week it seems that a new social media website or micro-blogging platform comes to market and your circle of friends invite you to join. I don't know about you but how does the average person evaluate the benefits of using these new digital marketing tools? Are you overwhelmed? Do you feel that you are dodging bullets?

In the past 60 days you may have been invited and joined:
 

• IMfaceplate.com
• CarDealerWiki.org
• Amplify.com
• Thoughts.com
• Quora.com
• Branchout.com

I thought I would share with you some of the processes I use to evaluate the many requests that come across my desk each month. In my experience, some websites serve as useful Automotive SEO tools, others as Automotive Social Media tools, and some just fail to do anything. The key is to know how to evaluate your investment in these websites. You must have the tools to evaluate which websites are worthy of your continued investment of time and energy.

Your time is valuable so treat it that way!
 

Automotive Advertising Strategies

For car dealers, automotive advertising strategies have never been as diverse and confusing as they are today. Dealers are faced with deciding how to find the correct balance of traditional marketing, social media, SEO, SEM, blogging, email marketing, re-marketing, and the list goes on. All of the sites that I listed above may have been presented to dealers as "worthy" of their staff time and content.

Which new websites are really delivering on those claims?

All of the sites listed above may be suited for car dealers. However, some may be better for personal branding. In either case, the question comes down to your time investment. Should you engage or not?
 

Sites You Think Are Good For SEO

If a website is introduced to you as a new Automotive SEO tool, there are some quick ways to measure that claim. First, make sure you are using Google Alerts, Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools. Setup Google Alerts for your dealership name and your personal name.

I like to use Google Alerts to see how fast a blog post I created is picked up by Google. This is a measure of how often Google pulls and indexes content.

For example, I posted content on www.Quora.com, recommended by my friend Eric Miltsch, under my name this past week. One question I posted was about Frank Herbert and Dune books. I received a Google Alert within an hour of posting and from the screen shot below, you can see that it is now in the Google index. This site is definitely respected by Google.



In contrast, all the social media sign-ups that I have done on Branchout.com in the past two weeks have not triggered any Google Alerts. In the first case, Quora.com is getting into the Google search stream and Branchout.com seems to be limited to inside of Facbeook. Branchout.com fails on the SEO front and we will have to see how it does on the networking front.
 

Automotive Advertising on CarDealerWiki

As I stated in another blog post this week, www.CarDealerWiki.org is showing strong SEO visibility and links. Take a look at this search query for a dealer who is leveraging the page publishing power of CarDealerWiki:

You Should Be Seeing Increased Links

Secondly, if your posts or articles on micro-blogging platforms are being respected by the search engines, any hyperlinks in your posts should be showing in Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools to your main website. If after 30-60 days your links are not showing, you can assume you are not getting SEO back-link benefits from these posts.
 

Sites You Think Are Good For Networking

Other websites that are not designed for Automotive SEO may claim to increase your networking potential. In these cases, I recommend that you use a tracking phone number on all posts to these sites. This can be in the form of a user profile or a signature block that you add to all articles. In addition to tracking numbers, you can see how many people are commenting on your posts.

For example, IMFaceplate.com is a new micro-blogging platform. I have posted about 12 articles on my profile so take a peek: Brian Pasch. The comments on my articles have not been very interactive or meaningful. In addition to low engagement, I have not been seeing Google Alerts coming in for my efforts. I will give this website another month or content and if I don't see any positive confirmations form the search engines, I will stop.

As a side note, www.imfaceplate.com has slow website response times which I think is hampering their search engine credibility.
 

Prioritizing Your Time

With so many new websites in play each month, just be careful about how you invest your time. Measure the search visibility, link counts, or contacts you get by engaging in any new community.

If you want some proven strategies for content publishing and link building, there are many articles that I have published in the past. If you need an updated Top 10 List, just send me an email: brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com. I'll send you my Top 10 Content Publishing websites that can assist car dealers with search visibility, links, and traffic generation.

P.S. Dealers who want to develop the strongest digital marketing strategies for 2011, are coming to the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference Feb 1-3rd in the Napa Valley prior to NADA. You can be there as well, register at: http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org

The best time to capture a review from a happy customer is while they are with you at your place of business. As soon as your satisfied customers leave your building, the likelihood that they will place a review on Google Places is reduced. Business owners have been struggling to establish easy processes to increase their direct Google Places reviews. Solutions are on the way!

Google introduced Google Hotpot as a way to simplify posting reviews on Google Places. Until recently there was no convenient way to post a review on Google Places from a mobile device.

Before this app was available, it was a painful process to post a review on Google Places from my iPad. This new app solves that issue and opens the door to empower business owners to collect more reviews.

Google has just published their Google Places App which is available for download on the iTunes store. This app will bring a significant change to how reviews are posted directly on Google Places.

It will also bring direct competition to Yelp.com and other platforms that have similar mobile ratings apps.

Google Places does roll-up reviews from many different review websites but my recommendation is that if you need a place to start your IRM process, begin with posting reviews directly on Google Places.

Collecting Reviews Using HotPot

For business owners, this means they can load an iPad or iPhone with the Google Places App which gives them an easy, one click path, to their business listing ratings page on Google Places.

The Google HotPot technology will automatically show all businesses near the location of the mobile device. If you have not played with Google Hotpot, get busy. It really makes posting reviews for any business a breeze.

For car dealers, imagine if during the sales and service processes you ask your customers is they have a Google Account. If they do, you can pass them an iPhone or iPad on the public 3G network and ask them to post a review using their gmail account.

The Google Places App makes it so easy for the customer and they are using their EXISTING Google email. You also have no IP address issues that prevent dealers from getting in store reviews from sites like DealerRater.com. In reality, Google wants consumers to post reviews on the spot. Did you enjoy your meal? Post a review. Did your oil change go smoothly? Post a review.

I wonder if DealerRater and other automotive specific websites will start to release mobile apps and unshackle car dealers from the duplicate IP address issues that are antiquated.

Soon, you won't have to pass them an iPad you can just ask them if they downloaded the Google Places App and they can vote from their own phone. This new app will significantly increase reviews on Google Places.
 

You Can Also Send Customized Emails

While you are implementing the mobile review process outlined above, you can also craft a special email to your customers that have given you a Google "gmail" address on their customer file. Since they have a Google account, sending them a link to your Google Places review page.

This brings your customers one click away from being able to post a review. Your email template for these customers should state that since they are Google users, they don't have to create an account to post a review. Let them know that its fast and simple.

So if you want more positive reviews, create a mobile strategy for your business and have your customers review your business while they are with you! Are you ready to be the business in your area with the highest number of reviews on Google Places? The race is on!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

See you in Napa Feb 1-3

Wikipedia made popular the technology used on many "wiki" websites which allows for web pages to be created and edited without requiring HTML programming knowledge.

The largest "wiki" website for the automotive industry is http://www.CarDealerWiki.org. This website is a great resource for dealers embarking on a Automotive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign and also for dealers who want to syndicate their used car inventory.

CarDealerWiki.org is a free website that is for employees of car dealerships, vendors of the automotive industry, and related automotive service and news providers. Getting started with CarDealerWiki is as simple as creating an account and completing the sign-up form.

It is recommended that you register with an email account from your business and NOT from Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail. Once your registration is approved, normally within 24 hours, you can claim your dealership profile page and create powerful content and backlinks. Email accounts not associated with a business website will not be approved to reduce spam.

Creating More Automotive Backlinks

One of the most powerful ways a car dealer can increase the search authority of their website is to build quality backlinks from well respected websites.

The more links a dealer has pointing to his relevant website content, the higher that page will rank in the search engines. Think of links as "votes" to your website pages.

It is a challenge to find free websites that allow car dealers to post original content and create backlinks on a variety of keywords and phrases. CarDealerWiki is one of the best websites to assist dealers with content publishing and backlink building.

In fact, the site has a number of automated features that make content generation and link building very easy, some which are shown below:

1. You can drop in your RSS feed from DealerRater.com (view example)
2. You can drop in your RSS feed of new car inventory (view example)
3. You can drop in your RSS feed of used car inventory (view example)
4. You can drop in customer testimonial videos from Youtube
5. You can drop in your RSS feed from your blog

Capital Ford Lincoln in Canada has a very detailed profile page and sub-pages that integrates their inventory, videos, and their blog posts. Take a peek by visiting their page at: http://www.cardealerwiki.org/Capital_Ford_Lincoln.

Marketing Used Cars on CarDealerWiki

CarDealerWiki.org also supports the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN) data feed so members have direct access to their inventory with searchable RSS parameters so they can create used car marketing pages for any make or model.

The architecture of CarDealerWiki.org really empowers car dealers to build links to their Vehicle Detail Pages.

This is a significant competitive edge that is little talked about in the industry. Not all website providers provide a properly formatted RSS feed of car inventory, but for those that do, dealers can really leverage this website.

Midway Motors in Kansas created a Used Car marketing page for Hillsboro Kansas and the cars shown on this page http://www.cardealerwiki.org/Hillsboro_Used_Cars provide not only more visibility for their cars but also links back to their main dealership website and Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP)

CarDealerWiki Pages Index For Automotive Search Phrases

The key with any SEO campaign is to see if Google is respecting the content and links generated from a third party website and in this matter CarDealerWiki.org is a superstar.

Take a look at the screen capture below for a search on the phrase "Nissan Altima Marlboro". Marlboro Nissan operates a dealership in Marlboro Massachusetts and the content pages he created on CarDealerWiki is helping to defend his PMA.

You will see that CarDealerWiki has two listing on Google Page One. In fact, 90% of this page is filled with search results that Tim Martell, Internet Marketing Director and founder of WikiMotive has implemented for his store.

You can also search for a Fiat Dealers in the USA with a term like "Fiat Dealers USA" and you will see that CarDealerWiki.org is on Google Page One for this national search phrases.

Type into Google "Regina Ford Service" and you will see CarDealerWiki.org on Google Page One for a dealer created service page.

Dealers Can Be Creative

The power of CarDealerWiki.org is that car dealers can create pages for new cars, used cars, service, parts, and warranty repairs in their local markets. Well formatted content pages can link back to the dealer's primary website to enhance the search authority of their main website.

Since dealers need more search visibility and links and content are a part of that solution, I encourage all car dealers in the US and Canada to create an account and get started building out content on CarDealerWiki.org for their dealership.

If you are a website provider or an SEO Consultant working on behalf of a dealership, you can assist your clients on CarDealerWiki.org as well. Register with your business email address and complete your profile and your one login can be used for all your clients. Now get to work!

Did you know that by default, Google Places is setup to market your car dealership only within a 20 mile radius of your dealership?  Do you sell and deliver cars to consumers more than 20 miles away?  Well of course you do!  Do you want to increase your automotive advertising reach? Yes!

However, many of the Google Places listing that I check for car dealers are NOT setup properly for their business. This impacts the number of times a dealership's Business Listing will appear in search results. For some dealers in metro areas, their Google Places listing will show over 15,000 a month. With this in mind, anything that could increase the visibility of your local business listing should be embraced.

As I stated above, Google Places service area DEFAULTS to a 20 mile service radius around the business address. This is one of the most important setting on your Google Places listing because it sets the geographic positioning of the consumers you serve. Car dealers routinely deliver cars to customers that are outside of a 20 mile radius of their business. With this is mind, dealers should inspect your service area settings in Google.
 

Google Places Custom Service Areas Polygons

Dealers that have physical locations near bodies of water will find that a simple radius setting is not the most accurate map of their service area.

In the screen shot below, Harris Auto Group in Canada is located on Victoria Island. If they left their Google Maps service area radius set at 20 miles, which is the default, they would not cover Victoria which is a major market for the island.



Fortunately, Google Places will allow you to enter in specific town names to create a polygon that covers the areas that the dealership serves. In the photo above, you can see that the shaded area was created by inputting the towns in the "List of Areas Served".
 

Don't Abuse The Service Area Settings

I encourage dealers not to abuse the Service Area setting and show unrealistic service coverage maps. I have a feeling that Google may penalize anything that would be contrived as scamming the system. I would say that a 50 mile radius for most dealers is reasonable. So take a minute and look into your Google Places service area setting and see if it has been set too conservatively.

Also, while you are looking at your Google Places listing, make sure that it has:

• Five great photos of customers taking delivery of cars or your work in the community. Kill the building photos.
• Five great videos. Three customer testimonial videos, one welcome video, and one service video.
• Proper categories that describe your business. There is a category for every OEM brand
• Make sure one category you select is "Used Car Dealer"

If you have any questions on Google Places, just type in your question below.  If you are going to NADA in February, make sure you stop into one of my workshops.  You can check my schedule on this link:  Brian Pasch NADA Workshops.

Jared Hamilton sent out a Tweet today about the recent report from Compete that Bing powered search is now 29% of the search market share so I thought it was time to share a few insights into Automotive SEO with Bing and Yahoo. Car dealers need to have a digital marketing strategy for Bing and Yahoo that is independent of what they are doing in Google. Do you have a Bing and Yahoo strategy?

In general, Automotive SEO "basics" apply to Google, Yahoo, and Bing which includes strong page titles, URL names, and relevant content. However there are some big differences. Yahoo and Bing favor sub-domains that are keyword targeted more than Google.

Having hundreds of SEO tests running a year, I'll share with you a two examples that demonstrate this sub-domain preference.

Toyota Sale

When you search Google for the phrase "Toyota Sale" you will see among the Page One results "www.toyotaforsale.org" which confirms what I have witnessed thousands of times; Google favors exact match domains or near match domains.

Yahoo and Bing on the other-hand will often favor sub-domains more than exact matches when they are properly optimized. A search in Yahoo and Bing show similar results and shows the site http://toyota.cardealersale.com on Page One. The Home Page title on this site is "Toyota Sale | Toyota For Sale". This sub-domain is NOT on Google Page One.

What this means is that you can get on Bing and Yahoo page one for important keywords using a sub-domain microsite strategy.

Jacksonville Hyundai

When exact match domains are not available you can see that sub-domains can also play a major role in achieving visibility for short search phrases. The sub-domain http://jacksonville-hyundai.fl.cardealersale.com is showing on Bing Page One.

You will also see in the example below that Bing shows a domain with TWO dashes in the name "www.jacksonville-hyundai-fl.com" which you will normal NOT see appear on Google Page One. Bing and Yahoo like these dashed domains!

OEM Compliance Issues Lessened With Sub-Domains

Most dealers also should know that OEM are more tolerant with sub-domain microsites that stand-alone microsites on a new domain.

For example, http://service.irvinebmw.com is a service microsite but it is associated with the primary dealer domain and thus complies with BMW microsite regulations.

For Toyota warranty information, Acton Toyota created http://warranty.actontoyota.com which indexes nationally on Page One for a search on Toyota Warranty.

In summary, there are more ways to gain Page One exposure on Yahoo and Bing than in Google and this means that the early bird will get the worm.

Automotive SEO Education

If you would like to keep up with the latest Automotive SEO Strategies, you can join a free community dedicated to Automotive SEO at http://automotive-seo.ning.com (which ranks #3 in the USA on Bing and Yahoo for the term Automotive SEO).

You can also get the latest SEO strategies live by attending the 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference February 1-3, 2011 which is right before the NADA Convention in San Francisco.

Register online at: http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org.

The conference has attracted some of the top speakers and educators in the automotive industry and if you are looking to lock in a successful digital marketing attack in your PMA in 2011, you need to be in attendance.

"If car dealers want to increase their online reviews in 2011 they need to first ask themselves why they are reluctant to vote for their own vendors online."

Over the past two months I have been watching the ratings and review counts on DrivingSales.com for their 2010 Vendor Awards. Each year car dealers have the opportunity to voice their opinion and rate the best vendors that serve the automotive industry.

The Driving Sales Vendor Awards have become a benchmark for peer review. All votes are carefully validated to ensure that the person voting is actually a dealership employee.

This year my companies were listed in the categories for which we offer products and services and each year we make sure that we ask our customers to take a minute and posted their rating for our services. We make these requests on the phone and also via email.

We have friendly "battles" with our industry competitors but it's all good for keep the competitive spirit alive. Now that the voting for the 2010 Driving Sales Vendor Awards is closed, I wanted to share an observation.

The Review Process

I'm sure you know that getting YOUR customers to post reviews on Google Places is hard.

After someone purchases their car and gets home, it is hard to motivate them to take action remotely and post a review from their home IP address.

What is even harder is to get OUR car dealer clients to rate their vendors (us) on the DrivingSales Vendor Awards. Our automotive clients put off the task just like your car buyers…its ironic.

For example, for Internet Trainer, I have trained hundreds of car dealership employees at conference, workshops, and through webinars. Many of these automotive professionals have joined one of the PCG managed online communities or they are in our email database. Only a small percentage have taken the time to read my email advising them of the voting process and visited DrivingSales to vote.

In another category, only clients of PCG can vote in the Automotive SEO Vendor category. What is ironic is that we help hundreds of rooftops with their SEO and most indicate that they are satisfied when we ask them (Does this sound familiar?) Most all have committed to voting online. (Does this sound familiar?) Yet the review counts are very low! (Does this sound familiar?)

I'm not complaining. Many of our great supporters voted this year but it did not come without a tremendous investment in time and resources. Verbal phone commitments produce low online voting results.

Rethinking The Approach

So this process has really educated me that we need to think of new ways to motivate our customers to take the time to click and post a review online once they leave the dealership.

If car dealers are coming to realize that Internet Reputation Management is important, what call to action could I have created to make our car dealer clients vote?

The answers are there....automotive retailers who are part of this community just have to ask why they didn't take time to vote for their favorite vendors?

If you did vote, what motivated you to take time to vote?

We need to start discussing the psychology behind voting online. For the record, I understand that everyone is busy. I also understand that the dealer/vendor relationship can be strong or weak.

But if car dealers are to move the needle with their own Online Reputation Management program in 2011 and increase their Google "Star Counts" on Google Places, we need to discuss what is working best.

Car dealers who are having great success getting their clients to post directly on Google Places, please speak up. I have some ideas to share but that will be in a follow-up article this month.

What ways can car dealers increase the success rate of getting their customers to vote on Google Places, DealerRater, PrestoReviews, Yelp, etc. from home?