I recently wrote about how important it is to keep the NAP (name, address, phone number) the same across all local listing sites.  Typically this isn't a problem, but if your dealership wants to use tracking numbers for auto dealer website, you usually won't be able to keep your NAP the same across the board.

Luckily, a call measurement firm, Telmetrics, has a solution that can help with that, especially for mobile users.  Their product, m.Call, uses an icon or button to track the call, instead of a separate phone number.  Essentially, users will click or touch the icon or button which initiates the tracking process and calls your dealership.

Since m.Call doesn't involve adding/buying/renting additional phone numbers, the cost for this type of call tracking is less expensive than most.  Also, the company uses a pay for performance pricing model, so instead of a fixed fee, your dealership only pays each time someone clicks the icon.

While this product is probably more effective for mobile devices (I haven’t seen the actual numbers), I see this growing.  With the increase in tablet computers, laptops with microphones, and even desktop computers having touch screen technology, I think people will embrace the “touch to call” more and more.

Is anyone using something like this?  What about traditional call tracking for your local listings?

Most people tend to focus a lot of their local search engine marketing for their auto dealer website on Google Places.  While it's true that a lot, if not most, of your search traffic comes from Google, it's still important to make sure your dealership is properly optimized for the other major players as well.

Here are directions to set up a free local business presence on both Yahoo and Bing:

Yahoo

Create a Yahoo account for your auto dealership.  While signed in, go to Yahoo Search Marketing and click "sign up".  Make sure you enter all of your business information including name, address, phone number, and hours.  The preview page lets you edit or submit; click submit once all the information is accurate.

Bing

Click "get started now" in the Bing Business Portal.  You'll have to check to make sure your business isn't already listed, so enter your dealership's information when asked.  If not already there, enter all business information, then verify your dealership.  Bing also allows you to add photos and deals (coupons) for free.

Make sure the details you enter into these and any other local search directory (Yellowpages, Yelp, etc) match those you have listed in Google Places.  The first rule of local directory consistency is to focus on NPA:

-Name – Your business name needs to EXACTLY match across all of these properties

-Phone – Your phone # (hopefully local phone number) should EXACTLY match across all of
these properties.

-Address – Your business address should EXACTLY match across all of these properties.

Having consistent dealership data across the Internet will help each rank higher than those dealerships that don't.  Also, use related keywords as much as possible (as long as they are relevant).

What is designed to be a way for users to let Google know when a business has been closed is, in some cases, being abused by local competitors.  Since it is so easy to mark a business closed in Google Places, some business are being tagged as closed when they aren't.  When enough people mark a business as closed, Google will review whether or not this is true, though their review process isn't public.

Google seems to be doing what they can to address the issue.  In the past, an interim notification would appear on the Google Places page, "Reported to Be Closed", which users could mark as "Not True".  However, imagine if someone came looking for your dealership online and was greeted with that message.  The chances of them investigating whether or not that was actually true are slim--they would just head to the next dealership.  Luckily, Google no longer shows this interim message, and will only show a business as closed once reviewed.

To help protect your business from having this happen, make sure your dealership follows Google Local Places best practices like:

Claim Your Google Places Page:  This ensures your dealership has control over their own listing.  If you haven't, go to your Places Page, and in the top right corner you'll see a link that says "business owner?".  Follow the steps to claim your page.

Check the Email Listed: Google will attempt to verify with the email address listed with the Places Page when a business is marked as closed.  If you don't respond, you may just be out of luck.

Update Your Listing Often: The more often you're adding reviews, keeping products and hours up to date, etc, the less likely someone will be able to get away with marking your business as closed without it looking suspicious.

Has anyone had trouble with your dealership being marked as closed?  What did you do to fix the issue?

If you aren't happy with the way your dealership website is performing in terms of search engine results (and you aren't violating Google's webmaster guidelines), you can ask Google to "reconsider" your site.  Essentially, you can ask Google to take a look at your site to see if it was manually marked as spam.

Over the years, Google has improved this process to make it more transparent.  After submitting a site, Google will let the webmaster know that they received the request and when the request is processed.

Now, if your website has been found to be affected by a manual spam action, Google will let you know and whether or not they are able to revoke that action.  They will also let the webmaster know if the site is in violation of their guidelines.  If your website isn't ranking poorly due to either of these two issues, Google may let you know.

If you have questions about why your dealership website isn’t ranking as well as you’d like, I suggest talking to your car dealership website provider before submitting your site to Google for review.  They should be able to help you decide if your site just has poor SEO, or if something more serious is going on.  Has anyone ever used this tool from Google?  If so, what were the results?

I try to spend at least a little time each day reading forums and blogs from outside the auto industry because I think there is a lot to learn from other business communities.  Today, I found an interesting question up for discussion, and would like to pose the same to you.

What would it take for you to leave the auto industry?

More money? More interesting work? Better benefits, or hours?

And reversely (and I think I'll get more responses to this question than the previous),

What are the reasons you wouldn't leave the auto industry?

The community?  Your love of cars?  The thrill of the sale?

Regardless of how you initially got into the industry, I would argue that those that stay do so because they truly love something about their job.  Working in a car dealership isn’t for just anyone, so what is it about the auto industry that you wouldn't give up for the world, and what could a different industry offer you that you just wouldn't be able to turn down?

Google has just bought Zagat, a company that provides ratings and reviews of restaurants, entertainment venues, and travel locations.  Known primarily for their yearly restaurant book guides, they have been doing quite well with their online subscription based site and community.

Google plans for Zagat to be the "cornerstone of our local offering", helping them  to compete directly with Yelp and other online review sites.  Think it was a coincidence that Google recently removed these other review sites from their Google Local pages and search results?

While Zagat doesn't have a history of rating small businesses, like car dealerships, this only adds to the credibility that Google Reviews will continue to have.  Google seems to realize that online reviews are becoming more and more important to consumers, and doing all they can to make their offering the most trusted, reliable, and complete place to find review information.

So, what is your dealership doing to make sure your customers looking for dealer reviews will find your dealership on Google?

Google is at it again.  According to the Google Operating System Blog, an unofficial source of news and tips about Google, the search engine giant will soon be launching Google Trusted Stores.  This new service is designed to make it "easy for online shoppers to identify stores that provide an excellent online shopping experience."

I have to wonder how closely this will be tied to the reviews a business receives.  Or perhaps, it will be a reflection of a business' AdWord spend or a completely separate offering.  There is a lot of speculation on what this new feature will really entail since the landing page google.com/trustedstores isn't live.

If I had to guess, I'd say Trusted Stores will be similar to what already exists in the automotive industry: all businesses will be a part of the offering, using reviews to help rank which are more "trusted" than others.  And of course, an option for businesses to pay to be a highlighted, trusted store.

What do you think?  Is this another way to force business' to focus on Google Reviews, or could this be a valuable way to differentiate your auto dealership from those around you?

DealerOn, the premier car dealer website provider, has been named to 2011 Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies at #2002, based on a three-year sales growth of 127%.  "DealerOn is thrilled to be a part of such an elite group of companies," said DealerOn co-founder and CEO, Ali Amirrezvani.  "This recognition means so much to the DealerOn family.  It is confirmation of, and a testament to, our employees’ hard work, dedication, and willingness to go above and beyond for our customers."

The Inc. 5000 List ranks the fastest growing private American companies by the percentage of revenue growth over a three year period.  To be considered, a company must have generated at least $100,000 in revenue by March 31, 2007, have $2 million in revenue in 2010, and be an independent, privately held U.S. for-profit company.

DealerOn, Inc. is one of the premier online marketing companies serving the retail automotive industry. They provide a full spectrum of online marketing solutions to car dealer customers including car dealer websites, automotive service websites, SEO, paid search, social media, and online reputation management (including managed blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and press releases).

DealerOn was founded in 2003 by auto industry veterans to help auto dealers leverage online marketing best practices and technology to maximize the return on their marketing time and resources.  Their executive team combines 30 years of auto industry expertise with 30 years of online marketing leadership.

DealerOn continues to utilize their unique combination of auto industry and online ecommerce experience to pioneer tools like their analytics-based marketing tool designed for the retail auto industry, the Digital Marketing Dashboard^TM.  Since its inception, DealerOn’s Digital Dashboard process has provided a documented lead volume increase of over 250% for their clients.

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that deliver real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. With a total paid circulation of 712,647, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology. Visit them online at www.inc.com.

Within the past year, Maryland has been hit by an earthquake and a hurricane (in the same week!), as well as a huge snowstorm, all fairly uncommon occurrences in our state.  While DealerOn, both the office and our employees, were lucky enough to dodge any real damage, it definitely made us all think about how prepared we are for these kinds of emergencies.

DealerOn had enough warning before Hurricane Irene (and dodged damage from the earthquake) to ensure our account managers were set up to work remotely if necessary.  That way we knew that all of our customers’ dealership websites wouldn’t be affected, and we could continue to provide the exceptional customer service on which we pride ourselves.  And while we were lucky to avoid damage, many in our area were not, and are still without power.

After a natural disaster, your first priority will obviously be to ensure your friends, family, and co-workers are safe.  But after that?  Here are some things to think about to keep your dealership up and running:

Who is expected to report to work?  What if they can't get there?  What are your leave policies for those without power, damaged homes, etc?

How will you let your employees know if you are open for business?  Does a phone tree exist?  Will you have every employee call you to report their status?

What about dealership customers that have appointments set?  Is your service manager responsible for contacting his/her customers, and a sales manager responsible for contacting theirs?

Taking the time to think about, plan, and inform your dealership staff about these things could reduce a huge headache (as well as save money) after a natural disaster.  As we recently learned ourselves, no natural disaster scenario (or two) is too far-fetched.

How prepared for such an emergency is your dealership?  For those affected by Irene, what steps did your dealership take to get ready?

After writing my post on QR Codes Best Practices, I wanted to make sure those dealerships interested in starting a QR code marketing campaign knew to create QR codes in a way that will allow your dealership to track them through the Google Analytics on your car dealership website.

Here's how to create a QR code that is trackable by Google Analytics:

First, make sure you are signed into Google (in the account that houses your dealership’s analytics).

Next, go to the Google URL Builder.  Enter the URL that you would like the QR Code to link to.  Choose "QR Code" for campaign source, and then choose your campaign medium and name.  For example, if you're going to put the QR Code on window stickers for a Chevy Cruze, your Campaign Medium could be “Window Stickers” and the Campaign Name could be “2011 Chevy Cruze”.  Once you’ve entered these fields, click Generate URL.

Copy the URL you've just created and go to goo.gl.  Here, you'll shorten your newly created QR Code tracking URL, and click "Details" to generate the QR Code. By shortening the URL before generating the QR Code, you will make the QR code less dense, and therefore easier for your customers to scan. 

Now that you’ve created the QR Code, you can use the link that Google provides to put your QR Code graphic onto your site, or you can right click on the generated QR Code and click “Save Image As” to save it to your machine or servers.  You are now ready to start tracking your QR code campaigns!  Let me know if you’ve found other ways to effectively track your QR campaigns.