Lately there has been significant buzz about a statement that Matt Cutts made at SXSW in regards to a project that Google has been working on.  This project, is designed, according to Cutts, to level the playing field for websites that don't do any SEO but have good content.  

If I interpret his statement correctly, Google is trying to give Page One ranking to the most relevant content to the person searching regardless if the author had a budget or knowledge about proper website page formatting, links, keywords, and/or social signals.  

Whether this can be done, will only be seen over time. White Hat SEO strategies are working well today.  It is clear to me that social signals can influence search rankings today just like White Hat SEO tactics in the past.  Companies or authors with strong social followings can already "game" SERP's with social influence and instant traffic.

I think the cheese has already moved and this clean-up is for old-time abusers.  Both JD Rucker and I have be advising dealers to update their Automotive SEO strategy because what worked in the past is not working as well today.

Overly Optimized What?

The Google project, announced by Cutts,  is designed to identify websites that are "overly optimized".   His  statement has many dealers scared. For most dealers, they do not need to be worried.

When I first heard about Matt Cutts statement,  I asked "What Does Overly Optimized Really Mean?".  

Fortunately, SearchEngineLand.com posted a transcript of the audio presentation created by Rob Snell and added some color commentary.  

Here is the piece that gets at the heart of my discussion today.

And so that’s the sort of thing where we try to make the web site, uh Google Bot smarter, we try to make our relevance more adaptive so that people don’t do SEO, we handle that, and then we also start to look at the people who sort of abuse it, whether they throw too many keywords on the page, or whether they exchange way too many links, or whatever they are doing to sort of go beyond what a normal person would expect in a particular area.

Inspecting Your Websites

The two top "clues" Matt gives for sites that are overly optimized are too many keywords on the page and too many links being exchanged on a page.  In both cases he presents, the problem lies with the activities on the website in question and not due to any outside efforts.  

Meaning, these penalties are happening because someone with access to change website content and/or place links on a dealership website is doing something "overly optimizing" to Google. I'll get back to this point and a term called Google Bowling. 

Keyword Stuffing

If a dealer is ill advised to stuff a website page with dozens of keywords in boldface, hyperlinked, or formatted to create SEO weight, it looks that they WILL be on Google's new watch list.  Do I see it often on dealership websites? Yes.

Where do I see keyword stuffing most often? Right on the HOME PAGE of dealership websites believe it or not.  

The keyword stuffing is often at the bottom of the home page.  It can be visible, contained in a scrollable region, or it can be hidden.  The hidden text can be found on some platforms by clicking on "More Information" link in the footer.

At one point this actually helped with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but now it looks like this should be removed from dealership websites.  Make sure you check your website today.

Keyword stuffing on dealership blog pages is also a common practice where zealous content writers think that they need to optimize ONE blog post for 10 keywords.  Normally, I recommend that each blog post be optimized for a single keyword goal.  

You can spot a keyword stuffed article pretty easily when you try to read it and it doesn't flow correctly.  The SEOing of the text makes it clumsy and the content often has too many boldface words or hyperlinks into the content body. 

Link Exchanges

If a dealer decides to participate in the thousands of link exchange emails that come to their email box a year, they are at risk.  Link exchanges ask dealers to place a link somewhere on their website to another website in exchange for a link back form them.  99% of the time, these links have NOTHING to do with the automotive industry.  

Link exchanges dilute the value of a dealers website because they "leak" PageRank to websites that have no relationship to the automotive industry.   Dealers should take an audit of their website to make sure that they do not have any "Link" pages that have dozens of offsite links. 

Blog Posts Using Links Properly

A well written blog post that references the 2013 Mazda CX-5, is perfectly within recommended guidelines if it includes a link to the Mazda USA website.  The article can also link to a Mazda dealer's inventory page that lists in stock CX-5's.

Google sees these links as "supportive" of the article content and it enhances the reader experience.  Google KNOWS what type of content is on the sites you link to!  Keep that in mind when you pick linking sites. 

Also keep in mind that most dealers are optimizing their content for the cities they actually serve and/or the state they live in.  They are not trying to optimize for the country which forces them to use extreme or questionable strategies.  I think this is also a factor in Google's review of content and SEO. 

Blog Posts Using Links Improperly 

Using the same post from above let's discuss what can happen when a dealer participates in a link exchange network.  The Mazda CX-5 article now has multiple additional links going to various websites of questionable value.  

For example, when the article talks about leather seats, the word "leather" is hyperlinked and points to an eCommerce site selling leather jackets.  When the article talks about the ability of the car to secure the passengers, the word "secure" is hyperlinked to an ADT alarm signup page. 

This type of practice is exactly what got JC Penny in trouble.  They had people writing "helpful tip" blogs that were filled with hyperlinked keywords going to JC Penny product pages.   If the blog post recommended to college freshman to bring a warm set of flannel pajamas, the words "Flannel Pajamas" was linked to the eCommerce page on the JC Penny site.  

Google Bowling & Inbound Links

There is a term called "Google Bowling" used by Black Hat" SEO companies that claim that they can hurt your competitor's website using aggressive and unethical SEO techniques.  

The term refers to the "Black Hat" SEO company's ability to "knock" (bowl over) the competitor off page one for your top keywords.  So they attack the competitor website with links from Poker sites, porn sites, International sites, and perform mystical practices to ban the competitor from Google.  It is supposed to work.   

So ask yourself a simple question.  Would Google allow that to happen on any grand scale? Absolutely not.

I bring this up because what Matt Cutts referred to was activities ON the dealership website.  He made no claim that links from outside websites could hurt a dealership website.  That would imply Google Bowling works.

Inbound Links Are Good and Common 

For example, if a large dealer posts all their cars to Craigslist every day and builds thousands of links to their website from Craiglist, is that bad?  No.  Craiglist is a valid inventory syndication website.

If a Nissan dealer is active on NicoForum.com and over time has hundeds of links back to their website from posts, is that bad? No.  The links are in the context of a conversation about Nissan cars within a Nissan community. 

Can a dealer have microsites that have links back to their primary dealership website? Of course, because the microsites are relevant, should have unique content and are clearly marked in their purpose.  If these microsites also have inventory, then they can generate hundreds or even thousands of links.  

Keep in mind that popular sites like Cars.com, Autotrader.com, EveryCarListed.com, GetAuto.com are all virtual microsites with dealer inventory when you consider that a portion of the pages belong exclusively to dealer inventory.  

Dealers don't have the perspective I have that has seen so many gross abuses of the Internet. 

Knowledgable Automotive SEO Companies

The key message is relevance and appropriateness. Stay away from offshore SEO companies that have no experience with automotive SEO. Find an experienced partner that you can trust and that is keeping up with the changes in Google search.

If you are getting quality one-way links from automotive websites, inventory classified websites, news websites, reputable blogs, you will not be part of this Google cleanup.  This is not about you.   

Also keep in mind that since Google Bowling does not happen, if your old SEO company signed you up for link exchange programs, all you need to do is to DELETE the links on your website that go to these questionable websites.  

Google is cleaning up questionable blog networks, article networks, and news sites that are overly optimized.  Google will likely de-index these websites NOT your dealer website.   So, continue best practices for building great content and use the appropriate titles, tags, and links that generate the right visibility for the right audience.

I hope this post sheds some light on the topic.  Is SEO still important? Yes.  It's what constitutes good SEO is what is changing.  I've dedicated much time to this topic and have tested time and time again the strategies I recommend to dealers.  

Have Questions?

If you have specific questions about your website that you do not want to discuss publically, send me an email:  seo@pcgdigitalmarketing.com, otherwise let's discuss them right here. 

I will also be participating in an SEO roundtable at the 2012 Automotive Boot Camp with JD Rucker and a number of top SEO strategists to further delve into this topic.  

Details on the conference can be found at:  2012 Automotive Boot Camp  (Yes, that is an inbound link that I created!)

Brian

Bian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200 

Dealers, if you have been having problems with Google Places, this may be the right time to join the Google+ Hangout.

I just received a call from the Google Jumpstart Auto Team about an event that is scheduled for tomorrw.

Join +Joel Headley and +Vanessa Schneider at 11 a.m. PST this Wednesday, April 4, 2012, as they discuss Google Places for business. 

To join the Hangout, follow this link:  Google Places Hangout

I know that many of you have tried to escalate your questions and issues with Google Places and have not gotten very far.  I understand your frustration, and I encourage you to be patient.  Things will be getting better in the future.

How do I join a hangout?

I hope this forum provides some help.  Share your experience if you attend.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

The last time I wrote about specific dealership practices online, I got tremendous negative feedback from the dealer community about calling out a dealer by name.  Fortunately, this time someone else started the ball rolling and I thought it was important enough to volley back.

+Ben Popken is the founding editor of Consumerist, and runs Stealerships, Jalopnik's aptly-named consumer protection section.  In an article he posted on Jalopnik, Ben shares how College Park Hyundai was marking up Door Edge Guards $1,495 when other dealers in the market were so much more realistic.

Ben called a few local dealerships, including my client Pohanka Hyundai of Marlow Heights,  to compare costs.  Pohanka told Ben the door guards were $100 at their store and could not explain the price demanded by College Park Hyundai.

Commenting about the markup practice, Popken closes he piece with these words.

"With such a huge markup, College Park is able to advertise a lower base price and then make up for it with an inflated markup. Interestingly, on their Google review page there is a comment listed as being from the dealership owner that says, "We are under new mgmt as of Jan 2010. While we sell 140+ vehicles and service 800+ vehicles per month, we have work to do!" Well, if by "work" they meant cranking out a 200x markup for an ancillary part, then they are crushing it."

The Internet Punishes Bait & Switch

The Internet is a great tool for research and comparison shopping tools.  Dealers need to understand that "bait and switch" marketing practices, although still very popular, will be the downfall of dealers over time.  It will impact their online reputation greatly.

All of us know dealers that advertising new cars in the newspaper at deep deep discounts.  The fine print says that the price is based on a series of rebates and incentives, that in all probability no single consumer can qualify for.

You seen them:

• - Military Rebate
• - First Time Buyer Rebate
• - College Graduate Rebate
• - Conquest Rebate
• - Pink Elephant Owner Rebate
• - Dealer Cash
• - Delta Airline Employee Rebate
• - OEM Rebate
• - Webbed Foot Rebate

The result of a consumer being promised a low price on the phone, only to walk into the dealership to get a much higher price will create an online stream of ill will that is not easily removed.  Here is an actual Google Places review for a dealership that practices this tactic:

"I can't stress enough how you should avoid this place. Unless you want to be fooled, bullied around from sales person to sales manager, only to find out that the price they advertise on the internet is completely phony, as it considers every possible discount, for which you will never qualify. Or, do you think you can be in the armed forces, working for UPs and Delta Airlines, have a current car lease, all at the same time??? So the price went from $34k advertised on their own website to a MSRP of $40.5k, that would come down to a mere $37.5 with the discounts I "qualified" for... A complete SCAM, with shady and rude people, that forced me get up and say I was leaving, only to hear, "Where are you going?" and I said "Home!" and heard back "That is some way of negotiating"... They even asked me, since I am a salesman myself, if I told my customers "all the truth" when advertising... I said, this is not advertising, This is misleading your consumers!!! Their answer: "Haven't you heard of creative advertising?". So, if you go there... Good luck."

Is this the type of information you want consumers to read in the Zero Moment of Truth?

These two examples should be a hard wakeup call for any business owner that thinks they can treat people poorly or try to pull a fast one because they can.

Does your dealership understand the power of transparency? 

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

http://www.pcgdigitalmarketing.com

Tonight I was speaking with some very successful Wall Street executives at a cocktail party.

I asked one gentleman: "What is the formula for success for a Wall Street trader in today's market?"  

His response triggered a number of thoughts about the automotive industry that I would liek to share.

He told me that success was not guaranteed year after year or month after month.  

What worked very well last year was not necessarily what would work this year.  

The formula for "success" in fact was the trader's ability to adapt and change to market conditions.

Moreover, he stated that successful traders reinvented themselves on a regular basis.  At this point I started to see some parallel paths in the automotive industry.

Is Your Dealership Structured To Adapt To Change?

How many dealers are sticking to advertising, marketing, and customer service strategies that worked 5, 10, 15, or 20 years ago?  These dealers may be convinced that staying with what worked "back in the day" can still be relevant today.

To their credit, some things never change.  However, this does not excuse the lost opportunity to leverage Automotive SEO, SEM, Retargeting, Social Media, or Mobile Marketing.

Providing a great customer experience and exceptional value never gets old.  However, what constitutes a great experience does change over time.  This is where some may be holding on to "ghosts" of the past.

I have interviewed hundreds of Dealer Principals and General Managers on their choices for advertising and marketing partners. For many dealers, the reasons why their current vendor was chosen was surprisingly not based on data and analytics.  

For some, it was based on long term relationships. For others it was how many rounds of golf were exchanged over the past 10 years!

Asking Yourself The Hard Questions

I want to encourage all DrivingSales readers to ask yourself a very hard question.  Is your automotive advertising and marketing dollars invested in strategies that are "flexible"?  Do they change based on market conditions or are they set on auto pilot?

Are you using data and analytical tools to refine your decisions?  Are you going by "gut" decisions?

If Wall Street traders implode and fail because their inability to adapt and change to market conditions, are car dealers exempt from the same market conditions?

What do you see at your dealership?  Share your insights here on DrivingSales!

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200

So a week has passed since dozens of dealers found out that their Google Places pages were updated inadvertantly by a massive update by Google.  

The original goal of this update was to "claim" and/create listings for dealers that had never claimed their Google Places pages.

The blogs have been filled with critical commentary regarding the update which GM participated in with Google, but as we have come to find out, the update impacted more than just GM stores.  

For many dealers their listing is in a state of "purgatory"; not publicly fixed although their Google Places login shows the correct data.

Without any direct conversations with GM, I think that GM recognized that a percentage of their dealer body was missing free traffic generated by Google Places.  Their intent was to help their dealer body get more traffic, leads, and calls.

For most dealers, Google Places ranks in the top 3 referring websites to a dealer's main domain.  In fact, I have clients that receive over 4,000 referral visits a month from Google Places.  

When dealers properly update all online directories with correct information and website address, traffic does noticably increase.  This is all fine, as long as the updates to public directories are done correctly.

Digital Awareness and Dealership Call To Action

Today I conducted a training workshop in Detroit and I would estimate that at least 15% of the dealerships represented in the room had zero reviews.  I estimate that over 50% had incomplete data and improper categories.  Basically, they did not know how to inspect their Google Places page.

In my mind, the real life examples in the classroom gave some "justification" that dealers needed help. Of course, this would have been welcomed if Google didn't touch claimed or fully optimized listings.

Without the proper optimization of Google Places, dealers are missing valuable free traffic and phone calls.  If dealers were better trained on the value of Google Places, then maybe this global update project would never have been scheduled.

I am also sure that all dealers reading this blog post would like to get as much free traffic as possible. Especially, local pre-qualified traffic that Google Places can generate.

Be Patient - Inspect Your Listing

It is clear that things are still a mess for some dealers  from the calls I get from clients and friends.  If your dealership is unclear on how to properly optimize their Google Places listing,  

I'll be more than happy to send you a PDF document that outlines what you need to do.

Please take action to inspect and optimize your Google Places listing  with this document in hand so that the need for OEM's to step in to update your primary business listing will be avoided.

Request the PDF by sending an email to me by clicking on this link:

googleplaces@pcgdigitalmarketing.com

I know it will help!

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

732.450.8200

Lexus compliance has been reminding dealers that they may only use their factory approved URL for marketing if the word "Lexus" is in the URL.  

This is not new in regards to their prohibition on microsites with the word "Lexus" in the domain name but recently I saw another variation on domain compliance.

Social Media & Online Directory Compliance

Dealers need to make sure that their primary OEM approved domain is the only website used to register business profiles on review sites like Google Places, DealerRater, Yelp, etc.  This also applies to any social media profiles that are setup with the dealership name.

Lexus is intent on making sure that all public directories or social media sites that have a website URL are all directing to the approved domain. So before you get a compliance "strike" for your dealership, make sure you check all your business and social media assets carefully.

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Consulting Services

If you are looking for ways to bring your search marketing strategy to the next level, one of the strongest opportunities will be to show your employees how to expand the visibility of their social connections to Google.

Why should you take that action?  

When a consumer (i.e. your employees) click on the  Google +1 button, their connected network of "friends" is influenced.  The greater the consumer's network, the greater their influence.

I recently visited a dealer group that had 1,200 employees.  If each of these employees were trained on how to maximize their social network connections visible to Google, they could help the dealer increase their local search visibility very quickly. 

This dealer could easily impact 30,000 - 50,000 local consumers if they trained their employees to invest 15-30 minutes of their time to assist the dealership with their local search visibility

I hope you would agree that increasing local search visibility is key to attracting local car buyers.

Lead Google To Your Socially Connected Friends

The best was to accelerate Google's ability to know your friends is to fully optimize your Google account profile.   If you have a Google account, you have a Google profile page.

In each user profile, the account owner can link their social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, LinkedIn, Yelp, Plaxo, Quora, etc as shown below in the red box on my profile.  

You can also connect your blogs or websites that you contribute to as shown in the green box.

The more accounts you link, the faster Google and scan these networks to find your friends.  The reason WHY you want to optimize your profile is to MAXIMIZE the influence of your social media "likes".

For me, when I click on the "+1 button" for any website, I influence thousands of my friends that also have a Google account.  This impact in local search is really amazing.  So what are you waiting for?

Social Influence Must Include A Google+ Strategy

In Part II of this topic, I will show you how expanding your network also applies to Google+.  I will also document the impact of leveraging your Google visibile network on specific local search phrases.  

In the meantime, open up your Google profile and complete all the fields that are provided to connect your social networks.  Then plan a training session at your dealership to show everyone how to maximize the socialization of Internet search results on Google.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Consulting

732.450.8200

Google's use of cookies to track consumer behavior on the web has been front and center in the news this past week.

According to The Christian Science Monitor article Jeff Ward-Bailey:

"Google spent much of last week dodging criticism from Apple users about its online privacy practices. But when Microsoft got involved this week, that's when things got really interesting.

Users of Apple's Safari browser recently claimed that Google was violating their privacy by circumventing a mechanism the browser uses to disable tracking.

Here's what's (apparently) going on under the hood: by default, Safari disables third-party cookies, nuggets of code that companies can use to identify users returning to a site they've visited before, or to track what other sites they visit. Safari can accept cookies if a user explicitly gives permission, but Google's ad platform reportedly used a workaround to mimic approval of its cookies."

Will ReTargeting Campaigns Be Impacted?

Just like the Do Not Call law had dramatic impact on the telemarketing industry, will new browser cookie privacy laws but a huge dent in the ability to build retargeting audiences?

There will be an impact for sure but how the privacy filters will be implemented are just no clear.  If all web browsers ship with cookies blocked, this could change the landscape on behavioral targeting.

If websites start requiring consumers to turn on cookie tracking to use their website, the benefits must be very strong.  In any case, business owners should be tracking this privacy issue carefully because it will have a significant impact on digital marketing strategies.

Privacy Laws May Expedite Mobile Apps

With this recent uproar, I would think that dealers would expedite the roll-out of dealer branded mobile apps.  

The apps provide a direct communication channel with customers. With email delivery rates low and privacy concerns on the rise, custom mobile apps are a strong way to have two-way communications with your customers.

As part of the delivery process or service process dealers can encourage smartphone owners to download the dealership's custom app right in the store.

Recently, PCG awarded the Spotlight Award to one such customizable app from Dominion Dealer Solutions called "Be Back App".  

There are many new dealership apps coming on market that dealers should investigate and implement as part of their sales and service processes.

The digital landscape continues to change, and I'll do my best to keep you ahead of your competitors on DrivingSales.com!    

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO 

PCG Consulting

brian@pcgmailer.com

732.672.2356  

There are many reasons why your dealership should be using Google+.  

Content on the portal is being indexed well in Google search if you have the right strategy in place.

One thing that you may not know is how to create a Title for your Google+ post when it only have ONE open box for content.

The trick is to start your article off with a one line title.  

Then surround the First Line of your post with an asterisk at each end,  

The title of the blog post I created here in Google+ would look like:

*Create Title Tags in Google+*

When you save the post, Google+ will make what is BETWEEN the asterisks the title and use it as the title for search engines result pages.  

This of course makes the Title part of your Google+ SEO strategy so think on the best balance between social and search.

I hope you enjoyed the tip!

Brian 

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing

 Brian Pasch

American Express and Twitter announced a new pilot program starting in March for 10,000 Amex small business owners.  

Car dealers looking for new tools in their Automotive Advertising strategy, should take note of this limited trial. The Amex program will allow business owners to fund sponsored Tweets, similar to how Pay-Per-Click advertising works.

It is performance based so the dealer would only be charged if a consumer decided to  "Follow" your Twitter account or click through to your linked page.

Could this be a new powerful way to drive traffic to your website?

This may be another tactic in a powerful Automotive Advertising strategy. I will be testing this new program and I think that this is very worthwhile to test and measure the best ways to create Sponsored Tweets that attract qualified traffic and local car buyers.

Sign-up For Twitter Pilot With American Express

To sign-up for the pilot, you need to visit this registration page:  https://ads.twitter.com/amex.  After you login with your Twitter Account, you need to verify that you are an American Express cardholder or merchant.

You are asked a few basic questions, like shown below:

And when you are done, you will get a confirmation message that your account has been submitted to the pilot, as shown below:

If you sign-up for the program, let me know what your strategy and success is with the new program.  

I will follow-up with another post once I have some data to share.

Brian

Brian Pasch, CEO

PCG Digital Marketing 

Brian Pasch