eXtéresAUTO is proud to note that it has been named a "Top 10 Company to Watch in 2010" by AutoSucccess Magazine, a list that also includes DrivingSales.com.  According to AutoSuccess, the list encompasses 10 high-growth organizations that have helped dealers dramatically improve profitability during these tough economic times and created enterprises that blaze a trail for others to follow. Come see what the buzz is all about at AutoSuccess's VIP Dealer Cafe cocktail reception on opening day at NADA, 2:30-4:30 PM, in Booth 2307.  Several eXtéresAUTO executives, including CEO Richard Winch, will be on hand to answer questions and talk about your specific dealership.  Click here to RSVP. Thanks to AutoSuccess for their recognition, and see you at NADA! ___________________________________________ AutoSuccess Magazine Releases 'Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2010' LOUISVILLE, Ky., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoSuccess Magazine recently released the 2010 Special Edition recognizing the "Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2010" (click to view Special Edition). "The Top 10 Companies are high-growth organizations who have helped dealers dramatically improve their profitability during a difficult time in the automotive industry," said Susan Givens, the publisher of AutoSuccess Magazine. Each of the companies chosen by AutoSuccess, provide unique areas of expertise that together generated measurable profits and outstanding achievements in an otherwise difficult year for the automotive industry. AutoSuccess is pleased to shine a spotlight on the companies who, through their vision and vigor, have created enterprises that blaze trails for others to follow. Dealers from the top 1000 Automotive Retailers have been invited to attend the prestigious AutoSuccess Reception on NADA's opening day, Saturday, February 13th, honoring the Dealer of the Year, Brian Benstock and Edith Singer of Paragon Automotive, and the Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2010. To read more about the award winners visit www.AutoSuccessTop10.com, brief summaries of the Top 10 are listed below. eXtéresAuto helps dealers appear at the top of search engines while protecting and promoting their online reputations on peer-peer consumer review sites. Visit www.exteresauto.com. vAuto is the fastest-growing provider of web-based inventory-management systems for the automotive industry. Visit www.vauto.com. DrivingSales is the industry's largest best practice social network and vendor ratings community. Visit www.DrivingSales.com. Tier 10 delivers a holistic marketing system that integrates all 10 tiers of marketing under one roof. Visit www.Tier10marketing.com. Level 5 Marketing specializes in working with regional automotive associations to build their brand, increase their market share and help their retailers attract, sell and retain more customers profitably. Visit www.L5Digital.com. Team Velocity is a digital targeted marketing company exclusively devoted to the automotive industry, serving dealers and associations throughout the U.S. Visit www.thevdrive.com. HomeNet's signature solution, Inventory Online (IOL) vehicle marketing suite, is an industry-leading vehicle inventory management and marketing system.  Visit http://www.homenetauto.com. Car-mercial's proprietary digital marketing platform automates thousands of activities to ensure dealers dominate the most popular search terms. Visit www.car-mercial.com. CallRevu provides the Profit Saver System, an integrated solution to one of dealers' largest profit leaks: the phone system. Visit www.CallRevu.com. Black Book Daily is the most recent innovation from Black Book. Visit www.blackbookusa.com. About AutoSuccess AutoSuccess addresses the specific researched needs of new car and light truck dealerships by providing entrepreneurial, cutting-edge, solution-based editorials to increase dealership profits and reduce expenses. AutoSuccess Magazine is released to Owners/General Managers at over 22,500 new car and light truck dealerships from coast to coast. AutoSuccess is a member of the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE), and is listed in SRDS's Business Publication Advertising Source and Bacon's Media Directories. AutoSuccess' parent company, Systems Marketing Inc., is a Dun and Bradstreet listed company.

When we started our Online Reputation Management program in 2008, talking to dealers about it was like talking to people about nuclear physics.  The concept was so new that it only seemed to add more confusion to the massive list of things dealers now needed to focus on in today’s automotive market. Dealer awareness has radically shifted over the past 6 months: and now there’s major buzz for ‘Online Reputation Management’ – with dealers now actively seeking ways to improve, manage - and control - their presence at the review sites.  As always, the increased dealer interest/adoption has created a fairly decent-sized number of companies offering solutions. The solutions vary in concept, cost and implementation…so dealers have yet another ‘sea of information’ to wade through. In my posts, I like to look at things (dealer Internet strategies) from the consumer position.  To keep in mind that the end consumer - that person you want to sell a vehicle to, that person you want to choose you for service  - is the most critical. A new wave seems to be now unfolding in this young arena of Online Reputation Management, and it concerns me:  it’s new concepts and strategies specifically designed to manipulate consumer reviews, and this is really what I want to talk about. I firmly believe that all review sites should have a resolution system. (Some sites don’t allow this at all – and some only if you pay extortion fees - but that is a whole other conversation). A number of consumer reviews posted will contain foul language, slanderous remarks and outright lies.  And I firmly believe it’s important that all merchants have a process through the review sites where they can dispute these inappropriate reviews. But is it a good thing for dealers to manipulate, eliminate and control every bad review written about them online? Consider this:  Some bad reviews are honest and well deserved.  Yes, it’s true.  Sometimes we, as business people, really anger our customers.  They have their right to free speech and if they want to share their experience with the world shouldn’t they be allowed to?  For example, we received a negative review at the DrivingSales Vendor Ratings site - and we deserved it.  And the best thing about this negative review was it allowed us to look at a process that we needed to fix.  If we hadn’t received the review, we never would have known.  And consider this: if DrivingSales allowed us to remove the review arbitrarily, and we did, how would this make the dealer who submitted it feel?  Again, if they used abusive language or slandered us, it would be different - but this was simply an honest, bad review. But what I’m seeing now is Reputation Management companies and review sites that are either encouraging or allowing dealers (and all merchants – not just auto-specific) to remove every single bad review - sometimes even before it’s posted!  Some companies are now offering to create review sites for dealers: they look like regular review sites but are fully controlled by the dealer, and the dealer has the ability to eliminate any reviews they see fit.  One national review site - a major review site - is now allowing merchants to remove ANY review, for ANY reason.  The list goes on… This is a danger zone. The more reviews are controlled, the more they will look fake, and ultimately this will breed serious distrust amongst consumers.  I think we can all agree that the last thing the auto industry needs is bad publicity about manipulating consumer reviews. So, this new wave - this new Reputation Management approach - could erode consumer trust to the point where it completely backfires on dealers.  And that means it will even backfire on those dealers who are improving their reputation honestly, as all positive reviews could come under suspicion. We’ve had dealers that have experienced this first-hand with well-known and trusted review sites.  In one instance, a client had so many positive reviews that some consumers at the site raised a question about their validity.  While it was confirmed that the reviews were real - every single one of them - the review site still chose to eliminate all of them.  Why?  Because their culture values negative reviews - and has an inherent distrust of positive reviews. So we work with that extreme online reality in mind. But the point is consumers really read these reviews and they look for some balance of positive and negative.  ` The idea is this: rather than making the focus of your Online Reputation process and energies revolve around manipulation, keep the process focused on the needs and demands of real-world consumers. Get your happy customers submitting reviews, dispute the offensive/slanderous ones and embrace the bad reviews that you earned.  The first thing a dealer should do is reach out to their disgruntled customers and try to make things right – this pays great dividends as consumers really respect a business that makes right on a bad experience (and they can change their review or post a new one). Consider it a blessing that your customers are letting you know where you fell short of their expectations and where you can improve your business.  Earn your positive online reputation - it’s easier than you think. Please feel free to contact me with any (and all) questions. Thanks! Kim Orr: k.orr@exteres.com or 866.994.2613.

It’s amazing how many dealer principals and GMs I meet that don’t feel empowered to make SEO decisions. For many reasons, lots of dealers still perceive it as a ‘technical’ issue  - a more minor concept – and it either gets semi-ignored, or the SEO decision is delegated to the Internet, BDC or IT departments. Everyone at our company is living proof: we get pushed from dealer management to the IT department, over and over. SEO is ADVERTISING pure and simple, and, done right, it’s the most powerful, sustainable advertising you can do - for the smallest amount of money. I mean, advertising is your specialty – you know advertising – you’ve always understood the importance of home-run media placement. Years ago that meant splashy radio/TV/newspaper ads, but today your highest-impact ADVERTISING is quieter, less sexy -  but totally lethal (and nearly 100% targeted): ranking high, 24/7, when your potential customer types in ‘Philadelphia…Honda…dealer…’ (or those thousand-plus other relevant keyword combinations) and finds you – calls you. You’d never tap your IT dept. to create your next TV spot or newspaper ad. Given the staggering consumer use of search engines, you GMs and dealer principals need to be making the SEO decisions – and SEO needs to move INTO your overall marketing budget and then move to the TOP of your ad plans. It’s arguably the most important ADVERTISING decision you can make. It’s not ‘techie,’ and despite the speed of discussions that have people constantly a-Twitter, it’s not ‘old hat’ - advanced SEO is still far too untapped. What are you advertising with SEO?  Obviously, your most potent online tool - your website.   Where do you want to advertise it?  Everywhere a consumer will look for you online. And you need to feel comfortable not mastering, or even understanding, the intricacies of SEO. What you really need to know? Find a reputable company, with known and satisfied clients that can provide proof of their effectiveness…and let them do all of the work. Your SEO specialist should not boggle you with technical jargon – because you probably don’t really care about the complex ways SEO functions, you care about results and ROI. Your SEO company should optimize your dealer website(s) to reach the maximum number of potential customers that are searching for your brand for sales, service and parts. Your search engine ‘reach’ (like any media buy) is important, because today’s consumer is more likely than ever to travel further for sales and service. You should demand a realistically good- sized demographic market. Your SEO company should only focus on one thing: delivering relevancy to your consumer. Giving searchers what they want, when they want it. And we feel strongly that your SEO provider should guarantee you total market exclusivity, and promise to work with only one brand dealer in your (extended) market. I mean, really…think about it: how can two competitive brand dealers both ‘dominate’ the same market in search? The consumer types in ‘Toyota Matrix Philadelphia’ and both ‘Ben Frankin Toyota’ and ‘Independence Toyota’ achieve top placement and visibility? Powerful SEO packs a powerful punch.  Roughly 60% of local auto searches are generic brand/model searches, like ‘Honda, Philadelphia PA,’ and that’s what SEO tackles. Our studies show that dealers experience a pretty astounding lift in site visits, leads and calls when their SEO reaches critical mass of 60%-plus, 1st-page search placement rates, on all of their 1,000-plus, relevant brand-specific sales, service and parts phrases. When you cross that horizon, SEO quickly becomes responsible for the lion’s share of a dealer’s website traffic, and many hundreds of monthly Internet-generated calls. SEO should be your online advertising foundation (and it can be your advertising foundation, period!) – and PPC, third-party leads, Online Reputation Management, blogs, social media, micro-sites, etc. will pack a more powerful, precise punch, at a lower cost, with a great SEO program in place. Dealers’ perception of the importance of SEO is, of course, changing. In October, DrivingSales released the findings of a dealer survey, showing that if dealers’ ad budgets were upped by 10%, the top two things they would invest in now were SEO and their websites. Funny thing is, if you invest in great SEO, you’ll be able to significantly shrink your overall marketing budget… Please feel free to contact me with any (and all) questions. Thanks! Kim Orr: k.orr@exteres.com or 866.994.2613.

For dealers trying to make sense of SEO, Online Reputation Management, social media, or online ‘piracy’, it can get pretty confusing, pretty fast. Across the blogosphere (the ‘techie’ and dealer media) there are firestorms of articles/posts that really function as conversations BETWEEN tech vendors to educate, and mainly argue, with each other. I work in the search industry and may find (… from this week) “Diving Into Cloud-Based Search” or “ACAP Versus Robots.txt For Controlling Search Engines” a good read…but it’s hard to think of ANY industry…ANY marketing platform ever…more dominated by complex, nitpicky, mind-spinning discussions than SEO. DrivingSales’ core base/mission is dealers, and as an industry you’re all brothers and sisters in arms, trying, in this lousy economy, to reduce your spend and reach/sell more customers by MAKING SENSE of why you should tackle new search and social media realities. …So, I’m taking a big step back to re-sketch a ‘bigger picture’ - not what’s best from a vendor or even a dealer standpoint, but what’s best in search from a CONSUMER point of view. The SEO and Online Reputation Management horizons get much clearer when your focus is actual consumers: what those MILLIONS are actually seeking, those 4 in 5 that use search engines while car shopping or selecting dealers - those 3 in 4 that now read online dealership reviews. A simple mantra: Deliver what the consumer wants to find/values when they’re searching for either your trade/dealership name or your specific brand.  What do they want to see?  Same exact thing search engines want to deliver: Relevancy.  Base your search strategies from the consumer up, and the Googles will reward you. So, for the remainder of this post, I’m taking off any SEO vendor hat – and adopting a consumer point of view… 1) Roughly 60% of all local/geo-specific auto searches are of the generic make/model variety. (Typically further up-funnel, these consumers are seeking diverse types of info.) Viewpoint of that Searcher: When I’m searching for something generic like “Honda Santa Fe New Mexico,” I want/expect to see general Honda information.  I want multiple dealer sites, OEM site(s) and, yes, review sites. I recognize/value information-rich, third-party sites like an AutoTrader.com or Edmunds, but not some other ‘quasi-third-party’ sites that pop up. I’m gathering info. And remember, if I find what I’m looking for I won’t change/redefine my search.   If you’re a dealer within reach, your website should be right there. Are review sites really that important to me? I assert they’re as important as your (nice) website. As I said, I’m just beginning to zero in on the brand I want to buy, and where I will buy it. If your site isn’t there, I had a chance to find out about you from consumer reviews. In fact, I’m likely to narrow down whom I think I might purchase from before I ever leave my desk.  What I find in this generic search, on these diverse sites, is shaping my opinion of your dealership. What don’t I want? The same thing dealers don’t want. I don’t want to see a different brand competitor in the organic results—Ford when I’m searching Honda.  Anything irrelevant may mean I redefine my search. And, no, I can’t be fooled into clicking on a Toyota site when I just searched for Honda, or a business in Baltimore when I’m clearly in Santa Fe. 2) 40% of all local auto searches specifically involve a dealership's name. (These consumers, typically further down-funnel, have isolated potential dealers.) Viewpoint of that Searcher: When I search for “John Smith Honda” I want to find relevant information for John Smith Honda.  Period. I want immediate, top-of-page access to their website, I want to see reviews, maybe their Facebook page.  I’m so used to seeing reviews (in top results) for everything I search (and I value them so highly), that if they’re missing – I’ll probably simply add ‘reviews’ to my query. I’ve already narrowed my choice, decided to investigate your dealership, and it would be great if I could firm this decision up before I leave my computer. I’m doing this before I make a call…and if I have the convincing info I need, I may only make one.  If you’re presented richly and positively, and your info aligns with what I need to know and want to hear about you (given this scary, expensive purchase), you may have made a sale. When I do a dealership search like this I don’t want to see your competitors in either the paid ads or organic listings.  In fact, being the savvy searcher that I am, I view this as sleazy on your competitor’s part. I understand now how search engines work.  What I used to think was a mistake, I now realize is intentional.  When I search “John Smith Honda” and “Joe Brown Honda” flies up, I won’t be ‘accidentally’ tricked into switching to Joe Brown.  It basically confirmed what I thought: ‘John Smith’ seems pretty cool and the bad review I just read about Joe Brown, when I searched for ‘Honda Santa Fe New Mexico,’ was probably true! Ok…I’m back. There are multiplying ways to spread news of your dealership online - from microsites – to blogs - to Facebook and Twitter – to traditional third-party sites.  Each consumer leans towards different mediums, and all can prove important. But your meat-and-potatoes (for both major categories of search) will always be strong SEO (the best organic website placement) and an indisputably solid online reputation. This is your digital foundation, and other blanks can be filled in… (And, yes, you can tell I’ve MORE to say about search piracy…to be taken up in my follow-up posts.) Making sense of the new search/review world is understandably daunting. Please feel free to contact me with any (and all) questions k.orr@exteres.com or 866.994.2613.

I hope you’ll enjoy this series of Q&As that will bring you answers to real questions posed by real dealers and dealership employees. I also hope you will also send me your questions – I’ll do my best to answer them simply and quickly. My goal is to help you better understand the world of SEO and Online Reputation Management. Some answers may seem too simple, but the truth is that many people still feel like a fish out of water when it comes to using search and SEO to attract more customers and reduce marketing costs. I believe that dealers are fully equipped to make Internet marketing decisions with the same ease that they make a decision to advertise on the radio or TV. And I want to simplify that decision process. I also firmly believe that your online search assets (SEO, online reputation, etc.) are the most important aspects of your Digital Dealership, which includes parts and service as well as sales. Your Digital Dealership is the portal to your Brick and Mortar Dealerships – it is too important to ignore. Luckily, my beliefs are based on facts and real data. Question # 1: “SEO is supposed to be free, why should I have to pay for it?” Honda Dealer, Louisiana There is a difference between SEO and FREE organic search results. Unlike guaranteed pay-per-click positions, you will never get a bill from Google if they choose to place your dealer website on the 1st page of the consumer search results. It’s FREE! Yippee. However this organic placement is based on the relevancy of the site compared to key word search. For example, the search: ‘Honda Dealers Atlanta Georgia’ returns results for Honda Dealerships in Atlanta Georgia. To see how many results Google found for this key word search, just look in the right hand corner of the results page. You’ll see ‘Honda Dealers Atlanta Georgia’ has roughly 815,000 relevant listings according to Google – but here is the tricky part! There are only 10 results on the 1st page, and Google has literally returned 81,500 websites, online reviews, articles and documents for consumers to view. This means the cost of SEO is much less important than placement on the first page of results. Understanding consumer habit is critical at this juncture. I assert that understanding consumer habit, not disbelieving it, will be the most important factor in your dealership’s success. The fact is that consumers rarely go to the second page of the search results, let alone the last! In fact, consumers are more likely to try new search words before they go to the second page. Achieving first page SEO placement is a flashing neon billboard directed at all of the consumers searching for your brand. Now how do you compete with 815,000 search results? How do you get the Googles to choose your site over every other relevant choice? SEO is the actual Search Engine Optimization done to your site by your web host or a third party SEO provider. The goal is to make your site appealing to the Googles. Some vendors are great at it and some…not so great. OK, SEO can actually be free, depending on your web host (there are a few web hosts who perform SEO for ‘free’ and they do it well enough). But most of you get very mediocre results from SEO and this is not a time for mediocrity! In a world where there are 815,000 relevant search results to a simple request of ‘Honda Dealers Atlanta Georgia’ you owe it to your Digital Dealership to seek the best and never settle for less. The good news about third party SEO companies is that they can optimize any site – it doesn’t matter who is the web host. This gives you quicker access to great results without having to reinvent your Digital Dealership. With over 81,500 results just for one search term, isn’t it important that your dealership’s website be properly optimized in your city and in your closest competitors’ cities? Without professional optimization your dealership will be buried among tens of thousands of results – and you’ll miss that coveted first page placement. Kim Orr - Vice President, eXtéresAUTO

Basic Tips To Ensure Your Dealership Ranks Higher in Service-Related Searches at the Googles Here’s a well-publicized fact: the service department represents the lion’s share (now over 80%) of dealer profits--and with new-vehicle sales at 25-30-year-lows each month, it’s a bigger lifeline than ever. A couple more facts: roughly 9 in 10 consumers now use search engines to hunt down local businesses (up from 70% just a year ago)--and 8 in 10 now use search engines to locate car dealers, making search the #1 way they find and choose dealers (handily beating out Yellow Pages, TV, print, radio, etc.). I mean, when’s the last time you picked up a Yellow Pages? Driving more service business is more critical than ever—and consumers overwhelmingly find service providers at the search engines…You can see where I’m going… one of the most logical and effective ways to drive service business directly to your dealership is to improve your ranking/visibility at the Googles, where the vast majority of your potential customers are turning when they’re hunting down maintenance, repairs, parts and accessories. And yet, while the SERVICE DEPARTMENT PLUS SEO is a very smart strategy, it’s one of the most under-utilized, as most discussions of SEO revolve around new and used sales. I admit that a serious, technical discussion of the complexities of Automotive SEO could fill every page of this website, but the central fact is simple: high search rankings are a relevance game. You can argue about inbound links, page rank and fresh content, which all play key roles--but relevance is always king. An SEO guru would complain I’m over-simplifying below, and they’d be right—but just as in life and business, I often find, the simpler the better. 5 super-simple things you can do to improve your search placement for Fixed Ops: 1) Because relevance is king, separate out a page, or better yet, a group of pages at your website, solely dedicated to service, parts and accessories. By building this mini-site, you’re creating more concentrated relevance for service searches, which will continue to elevate your value (relevance) in the eyes of the Googles, pushing you closer to the top results. 2) When creating these service pages, make sure you create unique meta-tags specific to service, parts and accessories. Just carrying over your templated tags to each new page won’t work: it dilutes the message of service with your sales, certified and used cars focus. This may require a little wrangling with your web provider, as many have restrictive templated designs, but it’s worth it. 3) Create service, parts and accessories content within each of the service sub-pages to give the page body--and make sure to keep your tags and content fresh over time, to maximize your value to the ‘ever-spidering’ search engines. 4) While the use of Flash may wow your site-users, be sure to retain some contextual service-related relevance on the page--and/or employ new best practice techniques for making flash files relevant to search engines. As a rule, simpler, flash-free sites are more search-friendly. 5) Place your service department phone number on the results links that come up in searches. A significant percentage of searchers grab your number without clicking through to your site. Make sure separate, prominently placed numbers to your sales and service departments appear on every page of your site. Set up a dedicated ‘800’ number for service, to manage inbound calls. The Internet is all about instant gratification…make it easy for people to reach your service department, without bouncing around reception, etc. Of course the difference between ‘pretty good’ and awesome search penetration is a function of many more complex, small details in aggregate--and this is where it can get challenging for your Internet team to keep up with your competitors who are increasingly taking SEO many steps further. But these tips provide a super-basic foundation on which more advanced tactics can be built. Ideally, it takes an expert, or better yet, a dynamic, automated technology to manage SEO tasks—for both sales AND service. That’s because optimizing a website is not a ‘one-off’ deal: search placement is a constantly moving target, and always requires a constant, ongoing process for meaningful long-term results. At my company, eXtéres, we’ve performed objective studies (using only third-party call tracking data from the Who’s Callings, etc) that show that dealers who’ve adopted our SEO technology are now seeing an average 165% growth in Internet-generated service calls directly into their dealership. Or a jump from 78 to 206 additional inbound service calls every month! And that’s just service…the impact on new and used sales is a whole other, happy story. When even the most advanced dealer SEO solutions run about a $1000 a month, and you think about the uniquely sustainable high volume of direct leads, calls and sales being generated …the math kind of does itself…. So, whether you start with the very basics, or want to get more aggressive, dealers really need to get an SEO game plan for their service business…. If you have any questions, just drop me an email at: ask.Richard@exteres.com Richard Winch, CEO, eXtéres Corporation, eXtéresAUTO LLC

I get it. Most dealerships don't have time to deal with various social media applications. However, even if you choose not to use these sites, it is important that you set up a dealership account for each one. Doing so will help protect your trade name and URL from use by your competitors, employees or others that may compromise your dealerships online reputation.

Sites to Lock Up!
MySpace
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Naymz
Flickr

Set up an account and be very careful to use your dealership name, i.e. ABC Motors. Huge added benefit? Using your dealership name will help your future search engine optimization results, especially if you ever decide to actually use the accounts set up.

Want more Online Reputation Tips? Request to join my Online Reputation Management Group here on drivingsales.com.

Happy Selling,

Merla Turner
Director of Dealer Training
eXtéres Auto
ask.merla@exteres.com

It's 2007 and I'm the Internet director at a large, family owned dealership. I type in my dealership's name on Google and what shows up on the first page? Negative customer reviews that say things like ‘Worst place to buy a car ever’ and ‘Manipulative Sales Techniques’! Now the killer was that the dealer group I worked for was not only 100% committed to customer satisfaction, but we regularly bent over backwards to do things right.

It got me thinking – we sell hundred of cars and create hundreds of happy customers a month. Why don't they go online and write something good about us? I was reminded of the old customer service adage – happy customers tell two people while unhappy customers tell 22. However, in the 21st century, the damage of an unhappy customer is far greater.

"Sharing negative customer-service experiences, both via word of mouth and particularly through the internet, has become a powerful weapon in the hands of consumers to damage companies that provide mediocre or bad customer service." -Accenture Study; May, 2007

So I began my quest to change and manage my dealerships’ online reputation. Over the next year I learned a lot and had many failures and successes. But the good news is that the result was a drastic increase in sales and service calls. I will be sharing what I learned over my next posts and hope these ideas and tips save you a lot of time and bring you more business. And if you need more suggestions, please let me know!

Breaking It Down:

What is A Consumer Review?
A consumer review is a review written by someone who either purchased a product or has used a service. Writers typically comment on their experience and offer feedback about reliability, quality, customer service and more. Most of the time a customer can rate the business, typically with stars. (1 star stinks, 5 stars rock). In a nutshell? Good or bad, today your customers can easily write a review about your dealership online - where the whole world can see it.

What is an Internet Directory?
An Internet Directory is the online version of the old phone book. Just like the paper phonebooks dumped on your doorstep, Internet directories typically contain your dealership name, address, phone number and website address (URL). Unlike the paper phone book there are also maps, links to your site, and customer reviews.

Well known Internet directories include Yellowpages, Superpages, Google Maps & Yahoo Local, etc. There are countless more with new sites popping up all the time.

Many Internet directories have incorrect information; it is important to read and edit them to be sure they contain maps, photos, custom messages and most importantly – correct contact info.

What are Customer Review Sites?
In addition to standard Internet Directories there are many sites online for customer reviews. Examples include Yelp, Citysearch, Insiderpages and several auto industry related customer reviews sites. Additional sites are constantly being created to meet consumer’s needs.

Why do these sites matter?

1. You can drive a ton of phone and click through traffic from these sites to your dealership if you correct your listings and gather positive customer reviews. Once set up properly the phone calls for sales, services and parts, directly from the Review Sites, increased by 50-75 calls per month in 2008.

2. Consumers now pay attention to what their peers are writing online. Both JDPowers and Yahoo! have done extensive studies showing that three out of four customers view online reviews prior to making a purchase decision.

3. These sites show up high in search engine results. Try this: Search for your dealership and city on Google. Chances are a review site will show up pretty high on the page. Note: some of these sites have the first sentence of the last review posted show on the search results. Do you really want your customers reading bad things about your dealership on the first page search results when they search for your dealership online?

What do I do first?
My first piece of advice is deceptively simple - become aware of what your dealership’s online reputation is. What do you see when you search for your dealership on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and more? What are customers saying? Do you see negative or positive reviews? Do you see correct or incorrect information? You won’t know what to fix if you don’t know what is wrong.

Do you see a common issue or concern? Address it within your management team to fix any obvious issues.

What do I do next?
Stay tuned for my next post – it’s all about getting started and join my Online Reputation Management Group here on drivingsales.com.

If you have any questions I am here to help! Drop me an email at ask.merla@exteres.com.

Happy Selling,

Merla Turner
Director of Dealer Training
eXtéres Auto

In all my reading over the years about the SEO industry, two things stand out. First, how the conversation in the general technology/Internet press is almost entirely dominated by discussions about how this SEO strategy is ‘wrong’ or this one is the ‘ultimate’. And secondly, how relatively silent the major automotive press has been on the serious benefits of SEO. For instance, recently, when I was researching what was being written about automotive SEO at the dealer trades, I did what every other person on earth would do—I googled it and found that while there’s a towering mountain of articles on every aspect of dealer Internet marketing (leads, paid search, email, etc.) and much technical bantering and sales pitches for SEO services, there’s hardly anything written in the form of truly objective journalistic information on SEO.

And while the conversation has been trapped between nitpicking…or no conversation at all…the upshot is this: the lack of good SEO is translating into a ton of lost business for dealers.

I think it’s high time to start a real, ‘big picture’, positive conversation about SEO, because the fact is there’s no single more sustainable and affordable way to drive sales and service business into your dealership than by improving your placement at the big search engines--where the vast majority of your customers turn when car shopping or hunting down service providers. And in this terrible economy, finding new, smart and super-affordable ways to drive calls and leads directly to your websites and stores has never been more crucial.

I would venture to say there’s NEVER been a greater disconnect between the consumer’s rapid adoption of a medium, the high ROI of search solutions and marketers’ slow reaction, than in the case of SEO. We all know search is huge and it’s not going anywhere, but dealers also need to know that advanced, professional SEO really works. It’s not black magic...it’s a real science and an art, with measurable, powerful results.

Despite all the confusion, I know that dealers understand the importance of home-run media placement better than anyone. A decade ago that meant a full-page ad in the paper or Yellow Pages or a catchy TV spot. Today the highest-impact media placement is less sexy, but lethal: coming up first 24 hours a day when that consumer types in, say, ‘Ford Dealer Miami,’ and finds you, not your competitor, and gives you the call.

As more dealers realize they’d be crazy not to promote their websites at the search engines (after all search results are the #1 way consumers are choosing car dealers), they need an honest, informed conversation to guide them.

And there’s so much to talk about. How do I get started? How does it work? What results can I expect? How to choose vendors and what you need to do to stay on top.

To that end, I will be posting regularly on many aspects of online marketing and how to leverage ALL of your dealership’s online assets to drive more sales. And I welcome all questions and comments—because it’s time to get real about SEO.

Richard Winch, CEO, eXtéres Corporation
Ask.Richard@exteres.com

PS Don’t take my word for it. These facts speak for themselves.

Search is the #1 Way People Find/Select Dealers:

* When’s the last time you picked up the Yellow Pages? Search engines have overtaken Yellow Pages as the first place Americans turn when looking for local businesses, and roughly 9 in 10 consumers now use search to select local businesses from which to shop.

* 4 in 5 consumers now primarily using search engines to locate auto dealerships.

Why A Dealership Has to Own The First Page (Or Might As Well Not Come Up At All)

* A typical Google search for local dealership information yields an avalanche of results. For example, ‘Honda Dealer Cleveland’ or ‘Toyota Dealer Chicago’ each generates well over a million hits at Google on a typical day.

* Searchers are more impatient than ever: nearly 7 out of 10 search engine users only click on results on the first page of results—the top 10 ‘hits.’

Vast Majority Choose ‘Organic’ Search Results Over Paid Ads

* 87% of all search clicks come from organic search—not pay-per-click ads.

* 95% of all paid search impressions on Google do not result in a single click.

SEO Becoming a Hot Priority—Especially In Tough Times:

* In 2009, numerous surveys reveal that SEO is quickly becoming a top online marketing priority. For instance, Internet Retailer recently reported that SEO now ranked as the #1 priority for retailers (73%)—and a TopRank survey showed SEO was the #1 Internet tactic marketers would focus on in the near future—beating paid search, email, social networking, etc.