Lots of dealers are up in arms about the recent change to paid listings on Craigslist, and everyone is in a frenzy to figure out what's going on. Check out this quick video to hear the truth about Craigslist and any possible integrations:

AutoRevo has undergone a significant management change, and the company is taking a new turn for enhanced productivity. Several important office policies have been updated to help allow for a more productive and customer-friendly work environment.  If our employees are happy and productive, we know that our customers will feel the benefits.

We know there will be some questions about the change, so we created a quick video to explain all the details about the management update:

One question we hear from auto dealers all the time is “Why don’t I rank higher in Google?” Most business owners don’t understand how Google (or other search engines) work or why their sites don’t show up higher in search results. When you start looking at local results, it can get confusing quickly – and the top ranking results don’t always make sense if you don’t understand how the search engines calculate the results.

Let’s start with a 10,000 foot view. At the most basic level, Google is dedicated to serving up the most relevant results possible to any search query entered. Think about how Google makes its money. Pay Per Click (PPC) ads, right? If Google didn’t provide accurate search results, users would flock to other more reliable search engines… and with less people using the site, there are less clicks on PPC ads – which means less money in their coffers. So Google’s entire revenue stream hinges on providing awesome results so that people will continue to use it.

When someone enters a search on Google, it tries to provide the most relevant results to that question, based on information that it has in its massive servers. To get the information into the servers so that calculations can be run, Google uses automated programs called “spiders” to explore websites and examine the content found. Once the websites have been crawled, algorithms are used to determine how the content on each website relates to possible search queries.

Important Signals Used For Ranking

There are hundreds of signals used by the algorithms, all weighted differently. While no one outside of Google knows exactly what goes into the algorithm, constant testing has shown us what some of the more important signals are. To be relevant for a certain search phrase, your website needs:

• The keyword phrase in the title tag
• The keyword phrase in the H1 heading
• The keyword phrase in the page text
• They keyword phrase in the alt text of an image

These are common sense – if you’re not talking about a certain subject on your website, you’re not going to come up in search results for that subject. A great example of this is the age-old debate about using “pre-owned vehicles” instead of “used cars” (I wrote a great blog post about this if you’d like more info). Basically, if you use the phrase “pre-owned vehicles” because you think it sounds better, you’re not going to show up in searches for “used cars” because you don’t have the phrase “used cars” anywhere on your website.

You also have to look at the scope of your search. A search for “used cars New Jersey” is going to be much more competitive than a local search for “used cars South River.” Instead of competing against local dealers, you’ve got every dealer in the state fighting for the 10 spots on page one. You’ve got to optimize for variations on keywords as well, since people won’t always search using the same phrases.

Links to your website are another extremely powerful signal. Google looks at links to your site as “votes” that you have useful content. More links usually means higher rankings. With recent updates to the algorithm, Google has placed less value on the overall quantity of links and more value on the relevancy of links. In other words, a link from a plumber 3 states away won’t count as much for your dealership as a link from a local automotive blogger.

Citations are another important off-site signal for local rankings. Citations are mentions of your dealership’s name, address, and phone number on another website (usually without a link).

Why Is The Guy Across Town Ranking Higher?

This is another question we hear all the time. You do a simple search on Google and not only do you not show up on page one, your competitor across down does… and he’s got an awful website. You know he’s not doing any SEO, but there he sits, near the top of the page.

While it could be any number of factors, it’s most likely one (or a combination) of these:

Your competitor has more links

It really could be as simple as the number of links he’s got pointed to his website. Head over to opensiteexplorer.org and run a quick test. Enter your domain name, and then add your competitor so you can compare results. Look at the Domain Authority – this number represents the predicted “strength” of a website, compared to all other websites, on a scale of 0-100. The example below is a real-world example, looking at a car dealer in New Jersey and a few competitors. Notice how the dealer on the right has a higher Domain Authority – and he also has a substantially higher number of inbound links. Since the dealer on the right has nearly 10 times the number of links, it’s easy to figure out why he’s ranking higher.

Your competitor has more citations

While they’re not as powerful as links, citations are still a very strong signal for local rankings. It’s entirely possible that your competitor simply has more citations than you do. Check your site on getlisted.org – it’s a good starting point for local citation sources. If you want to get more advanced, use Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder (it costs money, but it’s very affordable and worth the cost). Again, run a comparison against your competitor and see how you stack up.

Your competitor has an older domain name

We often hear the “Why don’t I rank?” question from new dealerships. The age of your domain name matters. It can take several months for a brand new site to get indexed fully. Also, age is a factor in citations and links – the longer a site has been around, the more likely it is that it has inbound links and various citations. If you’ve got a new dealership, make sure you use getlisted.org, make sure you claim your location on Google+ Local, Yahoo! Local, and Bing Local.

Your competitor has different inventory

You’ve got to compare apples to apples. The average age of your inventory might be different. You might lean more in the direction of trucks and SUVs, while your competitor sells more highline cars.

Your competitor has more cars

One of the first things we check when we get the “Why does this guy rank higher?” question is the inventory page. If you have 30 cars and your competitor has 100 cars, the odds are much more in his favor. Remember, we’re talking relevancy. If he’s got 3 times the inventory, he’s also got 3 times more pages on his site, and also 3 times the number of listings for all of his exports.

It’s important to realize that none of these are the “silver bullet” – you can’t expect to jump to page one with a simple fix. Many times, it’s a combination of factors that lead to your competitor ranking higher. Google is constantly updating its algorithm, making things even more complicated. Many dealers are still using outdated SEO tactics that haven’t worked in years.

You can’t just throw up a website for your dealership and expect to show up on page one of Google. Those days are long gone. If you want to improve how your site ranks, you’ve got to optimize your site, you’ve got to get links, and you’ve got to get citations. If you’d like help, AutoRevo’s automotive SEO team can take over the strategy and implementation of your SEO efforts. Wouldn’t you rather have an expert in your corner so you don’t have to do it all yourself?

(originally posted over on blog.autorevo.com)

If you’ve ever had to deal with verifying your business through Google Places or Google+ Local, you know that the process is pretty painful. Phone calls won’t work with automated phone systems, postcards take forever to arrive or never arrive at all – it’s notoriously chaotic.

Just a few days ago, Google quietly released a new feature that should have business owners across the country doing the happy dance and throwing up fist pumps…

Google now offers phone support for businesses that are having problems with verification.

Yes, you read that correctly…

Google now offers phone support for businesses
that are having problems with verification.

Even better – you’re not going to get stuck with an outsourced support member who barely speaks English. The phone support is staffed by actual US-based Google support employees.

So if you’ve had problems getting verified, here’s how you can reach the new phone support. You’ve got to use the
I’m having a problem verifying my listing(s) troubleshooter
in Google Places for Business.

Once you’re there, select the radio button for “I tried PIN verification for a single listing” and that your status is not “Needs Action.”

Then, select the option for “postcard” and let them know that you waited the required 15 days.

Once you’ve clicked these options, you’ll be given an option to fill out a form or “call us.” When you click the “call us” option, it asks you for your phone number, and Google will call you back immediately.

Obviously, I wanted to test it, so I typed in my digits and almost as soon as I hit submit, the phone rang. An automated voice told me that I was being connected to support, and in just a few short seconds, a friendly guy named Calvin picked up. I didn’t really have a verification issue, but he was very knowledgeable and was able to help me quickly diagnose the data problems we were having with one of our dealers.

IMPORTANT NOTE #1: This phone support is ONLY for verification problems. There are about a bazillion other problems with the Google+ Local system, and they won’t help you with any of those. He WAS able to figure out our issue, and he told me to put his name in my support request so that he could quickly take care of the problem once it was forwarded to him. So it looks like these are actual support staff members, not just phone operators reading a script.

IMPORTANT NOTE #2: This phone support in ONLY for Google+ Local (Google Places) verification issues, not Google+ Business. If you’re having problems merging your +Business page with your +Local page, or if you’re just trying to claim your +Business page, the phone support won’t do anything for you.

Even with those two drawbacks, this is a HUGE step for Google. For once, they actually care about the businesses that rely on their local listings, and they’re making an effort to help navigate their incredibly buggy platform.

The car business is insanely competitive, and dealers are starting to realize that if they're not doing SEO and social media, they're going to get left in the dust. Google is the elephant in the room - you've got to play by Google's rules or suffer the consequences of zero search engine traffic.

If Google were to give you a tool to track how your website was doing and what sort of visitors your site had, wouldn't you want to use it? It did, and it's called Google Analytics. If you're not using it, stop reading right now and go set it up.

What about a dashboard that would tell you if there were any problems on your website that alerted you to any performance issues? It's called Google Webmaster Tools... again, if you're not using it, go set it up.

What if Google gave you a tool that would allow you to completely and totally dominate your competition? We're talking about the proverbial silver bullet here, people... and it exists...

Hold on, hold on - I know what you're thinking. "Google+ is a ghost town" or "Google+ is a failure" - You're thinking that your customers aren't there, so there's no point.

Why +1 Buttons Are Important

If you haven't heard about it yet, Google personalizes search results. If you're logged in to Gmail or Google+, you'll see different search results based on your search history and the influence of your connections. +1s have a DIRECT influence on where a site appears on search results. If a single customer +1s your site, then your site will rank better  in search results of anyone connected to that customer - as far out as second degree connections!

I'm going to type that out again, in bold - just to be sure you're getting it:

If someone gives a +1 to your dealership's website, your site will rank higher in Google search results for anyone that's connected to them, or anyone that's connected to any of those connections.

Let's Do Some Simple Math

For the sake of this example, let's say that I was on your dealer website and gave it a +1. I have about 150 people that I email through Gmail, and I have 176 people in Google+ circles. Add those together, and Google has me logged at 226 connections. To make the math easier, let's round that down to 200. Also, for the sake of the example and easy math, let's say that each of my 200 connections has just 100 connections. Multiply my 200 connections by their 100 connections and you get 20,000... So my single +1 to your dealer website now results in your site getting ranked higher in the search results of 20,000 people!

I'm completely serious here. Even if your dealership only has a single customer who uses Gmail or Google+, you're still able to boost your rankings in thousands of potential searches.

Obviously, the user base for Google+ is still pretty low, so let's try another example for the naysayers out there. Let's assume that none of your website visitors use Google+, and that the user who clicks the +1 button only has 50 Gmail contacts. Let's also assume that those 50 contacts only have 50 contacts each. 50 times 50 gives us 2,500... so even in an example like this, you're still able to boost your rankings in potential searches from 2,500 users.

One More Thing...

You do not have to have a Google+ business page to use a +1 button on your website - so I'm not suggesting that you jump in to another social network. In fact, you don't have to even use Gmail or Google+ at all - you just need to put the button on your dealer website so that customers who DO use Google can click the +1.

Also - There are companies out there that sell +1s. That's not what we're talking about here, so please don't misinterpret what I'm saying. Buying +1s is just like buying Facebook friends - they're fake and it's not going to do anything for you. I'm talking about legitimate +1 clicks from real people with real Google accounts that they actually use.  

A final point: It's up to Google how powerful the +1 button will be in search rankings. The impact could be huge, or it might only change things slightly. Obviously, you're only going to rank higher in searches related to your business - so while you could potentially influence the results of 2,500 people, it isn't going to matter unless any of those users are in the market to buy a car. The important point here is that there is zero reason not to add the +1 button to your site. It requires almost no effort, and the potential gains are huge.

If you have any thoughts on +1 buttons or installing them on your dealer website, please leave a comment and we'll continue the discussion.

(this was originally posted over on AutoRevo's blog on 9-12-12)

Brace yourselves, car dealers - things are about to get interesting...

Local search has become increasingly vital to success in the auto industry, and today, Google made a huge change that will change the way that every auto dealer optimizes for local search. Say goodbye to Google Places... And say hello to Google+ Local.

Google Places has been the go-to destination for local search dominance, and now Google is replacing them entirely with Google+ Local pages. As of this morning, approximately 80 million Google Place pages were automatically converted to Google+ Local pages. Apparently, this isn't a typical staggered rollout either - all of the Places pages will be converted to Google+ Local pages within a matter of days.

As of this morning (Thursday, May 31st), it looks like Google has rolled out the changes across all of its properties.

If you're an auto dealer who's been relying heavily on Google Places and Google Reviews, you'll need to update your strategy ASAP. If you haven't gotten into local optimization yet, there's never been a better time to start.

Here are the most important changes that have been made:

• Google+ Local pages will replace Google Places pages.
• Google+ Local pages will be indexed by Google. That means that unlike the old Places pages, they'll show up in search results.
• Google+ has a new "Local" tab
• The old 5-star review system has been replaced with the Zagat 30-point review system.
• Google+ Local pages will be integrated across Google properties (Google+, standard search, Google Maps, mobile)
• A Google+ circles filter has been added so you can find reviews from people you know

New Google+ Local page layout

Here are a few screen captures that show mow much the page layout has changed. The first image is the old Google Places page, and the second image is the new Google+ Local layout.

Notice that Google has gone back to the two-box approach for searches. You'll enter what you're looking for in the first box, and then enter the city you're searching in the second box.

New Google+ Local search results

Check out this before and after shot of what the search results look like. The top shot is the old Places layout, and the bottom shot is the new results with the Zagat rating system.

According to Google, the Zagat rating system can provide a much more nuanced differentiation between establishments. Instead of a simple 5-star scale, auto dealers will be rated from 0-3 in three different categories: Quality, Appeal, and Service. Each section is then multiplied by 10 and every review is averaged for your overall score.

The conversion to Google+ Local pages is happening whether your Places page is claimed or not. If you've already claimed your Places page, you'll continue to manage your information and reviews through Google Places for Business - so your back end won't change. We mentioned it above, but in case you missed it - Google+ Local pages will be indexed. That means your Google+ Local page can show up in search results in local searches. It's more important than ever to get on Google and claim your listing - your listing could potentially show up on Page One, so you should claim it and control it. There's HUGE potential for SEO benefits from this update - you'll want to be sure that you get up to speed with Google+ as soon as possible.

Google provided a few examples of businesses that were invited to enhance their Google+ Local pages before the rollout. Check out Mio Restaurant to see what you'll soon be able to do with your dealership. It looks like you'll be able to merge your Google+ Business Page with your Google+ Local page, so your customers can follow your dealership and subscribe to your posts. Think of it like your dealership's Facebook page, but on steroids. You get a social hub where customers can interact with you, read reviews, leave reviews, and more - and it's all going to be indexed by Google.

Final Thoughts on Google+ Local pages

This is a pretty major change, and nobody really knows where the dust will settle. The big benefit is that your page will be much more user-friendly and easier to find. The expanded Zagat review system will be much more useful to potential customers, and the expanded scoring system will help the dealers who are doing it right stand out from the crowd. Customers won't have to be logged into Google+ to access your information, but if they are logged in, the experience will be even more engaging.

Obviously, Google is hoping that their forced play to get millions of local businesses to jump into Google+ Local pages will bring more of the masses to Google+. They haven't had much success yet, but considering how important Google Places was to local search, we're guessing that a lot of businesses are going to be jumping in to Google+. We'll have to see how things go.

While customers will have a fairly seamless transition, it's going to be more difficult for dealers. Most dealers have been ignoring Google+ so far, due to lack of customer engagement, but now every dealer will be pretty much forced to integrate Google+ into their business strategy. This isn't like Facebook Business pages, where you can choose to ignore it and still get by... If you want to succeed in local search, you're going to HAVE TO start using Google+.

One big head-scratcher - Google still doesn't give API access to any of the common Social Media Management tools (like Hootsuite). Instead of being able to easily integrate Google+ into their marketing routine, dealers are going to have to log directly into Google+ to post updates. This will be a headache for individual stores, at the very least - and a nightmare for dealer groups who have to juggle multiple locations.

Stay tuned - we're going to follow the situation closely, and we'll keep you updated.

You’ve probably seen those shows on cable where designers flip a trashed out house or they take a normal garage and turn it into a luxurious “man-cave.” With just a little bit of time, they take ordinary spaces and make them flashy and incredible… and you can do the same thing for your Google Places page. Most car dealers have a Google Places page now, so you’ve got to do everything you can to make your Places page outshine your competitors. With just a little effort, your Google Places page will be more visible, bring you more business, and completely blow away your competitors.

6 TIPS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR GOOGLE PLACES PAGE

(not in any specific order)

1. Get your Google Places page to 100% completeness. Before you use any of these other tips, you should get your Google Places page to 100%. Fill out your info, upload pictures, upload videos… Google tells you right there in your dashboard how complete your page is – pay attention to what Google wants!

2. Add a post to your Google Places page with a link. Your Places page is there to help draw attention to your website. Most dealers don’t know about the “post” feature that lets you put an update on your Places page. Link to important, relevant information – your about us page, your specials page, your service page, or anything else that helps draw attention to your website.

3. Make sure you get at least 5 reviews from your customers. Your average star review rating won’t show up until you get 5 reviews. Those review stars are critical for clickthroughs from the SERPs – don’t miss out on business because you don’t have any stars!

4. Upload photos to major third-party sites. Google only allows you to upload 10 pictures to your Google Places page, but it’s possible to have more than 10 pictures show up. If you upload pictures to your profile on major third-party photo sites (like Flickr, CitySearch, and InsiderPages, to name a few), Google will grab those photos and add them to your Places page.

5. Get your loyal customers (or friends) to upload pictures to your Places page. If they upload a photo through their Google account, it will show up as “From a Google user.” Again, Google only lets you upload 10 pictures to your Places page, but if you have customers upload photos, they’ll be added to your 10 and you’ll be able to showcase more photos. Plus, if potential customers see that you have customers uploading pictures to your Places page, they’ll see that your customers care enough about you to upload pictures – and that will help with clickthroughs.

6. Reply to every review on your Places page. OK, so maybe you don’t have to reply to EVERY review – but why should you only reply to negative reviews? Leave a reply to positive reviews as well – it looks great to potential customers and it helps to fill out the review area of your page. Plus, you can sometimes slip in a bit of info on your services that might not be mentioned in your reviews.

Local search is vital for car dealers – experts in the industry have been preaching it for a while now, but thanks to the explosion of mobile devices and recent changes to Google, auto dealers are finally catching on. If you want to stay competitive, you’ve got to get your dealership’s Google Places page to rank high.

After Google’s update that blends Place-related results with standard organic results, Google Places has become a powerful tool for auto dealers to grab traffic. In many cases, smaller independent dealers are able to rank on page 1 of Google with a well-optimized Place page and compete against the larger franchise stores.

Amazingly enough, there are still a huge number of dealers who have not claimed their Google Places page. If you’re reading this post and your Place page isn’t “owner verified”, stop reading right now, head over to Google, and verify your listing!

If you’ve already verified your Place page, read on. David Mihm, a local search expert, recently conducted a survey of experts in the local search arena to find out what business owners should focus on to achieve higher rankings. Here’s the list of top 10 factors to focus on for Google Place page success: (listed in descending order of importance)

1) Physical Address in the city being searched - (data on your Place page) 
Obviously, if your address is in the city, you’re more likely to rank for that city.

2) Manually Owner-verified Place page - (data on your Place page) 
If you verify your page, Google knows that you’re a real business at a real address.

3) Proper category associations – (data on your Place page)
Don’t create categories that no one searches for – stick with “car dealer”, “car dealership”, “used car dealer”, and/or “new car dealer”

4) Volume of traditional structured citations - (data on your Place page)
Citations are listings for your dealership (name, phone number and address) on other websites, even if they’re not linked to you.

5) Crawlable address matching Place page address - (data on your website)
Make sure that the address on your website is text (not an image) and exactly matches your address listed on your Place page.

6) PageRank/Authority of website home page or highest ranked page - (data on your website)
Your PageRank is a numerical value of your “importance” on the Internet. The more optimized/relevant your site is (and the more inbound links you have), the higher your PageRank. Place pages for websites with higher PageRank will usually rank higher.

7) Quality of inbound links to website - (data off-site)
Google sees links as “votes” for your website. More links signify that your site is useful and relevant to people browsing the web.

8) Crawlable phone number matching Place page phone number - (data on your website)
Make sure that your phone number on your website is text (not an image) and exactly matches your phone number on your Place page.

9) Local area code on Place page - (data on your Place page)
Don’t use an 800 number on your Place page. A local area code helps to verify your location (make sure you’ve got your local number on your site as well).

10) City, State in Places landing page title - (data on your website)
Make sure that you have your city and state in the title tag of your home page.

BONUS TIPS:

11) Name Address Phone number (NAP) consistency is extremely important – Make sure that your information is identical everywhere you’re listed online: Dealership name, phone number, and address should match CHARACTER FOR CHARACTER.

12) You can upload up to 10 images of your dealership – take advantage of the opportunity to showcase your location and give people a reason to call you or click through to your website.

13) Reviews are critical for higher click-throughs – Put a link to your Google Places page on your website so it’s easy to send customers to your Place page to leave a review.

There’s no excuse not to follow these tips – you don’t have to be an SEO expert to apply all 10 of these factors to your Google Places page and your website. You’ll be surprised at how many dealers in your area haven’t even claimed their Place page… but even if there are other claimed pages, you’ll help yours stand out by following these tips. If you have any questions about local search optimization or automotive SEO in general, please call us at 888-311-7386 today and we’ll be glad to help you.

Yes, you read that right – there’s a car dealership in Chicago that’s offering FREE cars if the Packers get shut out by the Bears this Sunday. For any vehicle sold from December 16th through this Friday, Sawicki Motors will rebate 100% of the purchase price if the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers on Christmas Day.

They’re limiting the payout to the first $1 million worth of vehicles sold during that period, but it’s still a potentially costly bet. Sawicki Motors averages about 35-40 sales a month, with an average price of $22,000. the most expensive car on their lot is an Escalade listed at $76,000. If you really look at the numbers, though, it’s clear that there’s not much risk for Sawicki to make the offer. The Packers have the best offense in the NFL with an average of 34.3 points per game, and there have only been 4 shutouts in the 224 NFL games played this season.

“Bears fans mostly have been laughing about it because the likelihood (of the Bears preventing the Packers from scoring) is not that great,” said Ron Matula, sales manager of the dealership that sells new Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick vehicles as well as used cars. “None of the Packers fans have called me names or swore at me yet. They have just been saying ‘it’s not going to happen.’”

But it could happen… Last week when the Packers played the Chiefs, the Green Bay had a 13-0 record and an average of 36 points per game. The lowly Chiefs beat up on the Packers and held them scoreless until late in the third quarter – and they ended up beating the Packers. Chicago has a much better defense than Green Bay and desperately needs a win to stay in the playoff race. There’s always a chance of injury – if something happened to a key player, things could go south quickly for the Packers.

So what do you think? Is Sawicki Motors brilliant for making the offer and drumming up a lot of free press? Or are they crazy for making such a risky bet? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Craigslist is one of the most important weapons in an auto dealer’s arsenal. The most successful dealers know that there’s simply no better free source for leads in the industry. Unfortunately, because it’s free, the level of competition is almost unbelievable. To make things even more difficult, you’re not just fighting to stand out from other dealers, you have to play be the rules to avoid being ghosted by Craigslist. This whitepaper was originally created for our Elite Dealers, but now we’re making it available to everyone – the information and tips are just too useful to keep to ourselves.

Boost your results and bring in more leads

Our whitepaper shares inside information about Craigslist – why it started, how it’s run, and why it’s so hard to work with. We also share several tips on how to avoid “ghosting” and how to post the correct way. If you’re not posting on Craigslist yet, this whitepaper is the perfect help to get your started, and if you’re already posting, it will help you get more out of your posts.

Here’s what’s included in the Whitepaper:

• Craigslist company information and statistics
• Interview with Craigslist founder
• Craigslist definitions
• Top 10 FAQs about Craigslist
• 8 Key practices for Craigslist success

If you’re one of the few dealers who’s not posting to Craigslist, you can’t afford to sit back and let your competitors take potential leads from you. You’ve got to start posting immediately, and this whitepaper is the perfect guide to jumpstart your success on Cragislist. If you’re already a Craigslist veteran, the tips in this whitepaper will help you list more successfully and boost your results. Just head over to our site, fill out the form, and download the whitepaper today – you’ll be glad you did!