RUN! THE SEO SKY IS FALLING! ROLL UP THE SIDEWALKS! SEO'S FIND A NEW PROFESSION! DOOM! GLOOM! BLAH!

If you've been following the digital marketing blogosphere for the last week, by now you've probably concluded that SEO is dead because within 3 months there will be no more keyword data in Google Analytics. Right? Its the end of SEO. No more measuring. No more valuable data. Its Adwords or nothing.

 Let's just stop the madness right now. This is a load of BS. Yes, as usual, Google has shaken the SEO world to its core. In case you haven't noticed, these major shake ups happen, at least, once a year. What does it mean? It means we evolve. Is this a frustration for marketers? Sure! No one likes change and with so many scam artists in the SEO industry, this will make it very difficult for shoddy SEO companies that provide pretty SEO reports that don't mean much to continue on the way they have... unless of course they're just going to completely fabricate reporting, which I suppose isn't out of the realm of possibilities given the loose ethics already being employed, but I digress... SEO isn't dead.

So why all the doom and gloom? You know the old saying in news media, "if it bleeds, it leads." Its an attention grabber and not to mislead you, this is an important change, but thats all it is -- a change. The way we measure will change. The depth at which SEO's will need to research and compile data will be more involved. Reporting valuable metrics will become more time consuming. But those of us providing a real SEO service are already well on our way to sorting this out -- AND IT HASN'T EVEN HAPPENED YET! So, you can take a deep breath and stop panicking.

Wondering about the solutions in the works? Rand Fishkin of Moz has already begun to trudge the path. You can see his suggestions in this short video.

Still not convinced? How many times have you heard SEO is dead before? You know what happens every time people write that SEO is dead? SEO company's website traffic spikes through the roof and leads pour in. Don't believe me? Here is our website traffic for the last 7 days. This is all a direct result of the pandemonium surrounding Google's latest shake up.

The real question is what to do as a business owner to make sure you're ready to compete in the new SEO landscape that is fast approaching. For one thing, call your SEO company. Ask how they are preparing for the shift ahead.

Look at the reporting you've been receiving. Is it solely keyword based? Are there metrics on specific landing pages? Do you get reports that show the actual content created by your SEO company? Does reporting connect the dots from keywords, to traffic, to landing pages, to leads, to conversion? Is your SEO company talking about shifting focus from high level metrics to conversion based metrics? If not, why not?

Here are some questions to ask yourself as a business owner. Is your SEO company, just an SEO company? SEO isn't a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy consists of many components of which SEO is one of them, but the should be part of a greater overall strategy and those components should all be tied together for the purpose of definable goals that can be measured and held accountable. If you're just "paying for SEO," then you're probably missing the boat.

OK. Crisis averted. Let's work on answering your specific concerns now! What challenges are you having inside your dealerships with SEO or your SEO company?

Original article posted on Wikimotive's blog.

When it comes to marketing, usually making a splash is the goal. You want to run a campaign that will have such a large area of effect, people will be feeling its ripples for a long time after it lands. When you're designing a website though, making a splash is just about the last thing you want to do. And when I say splash in the context of websites, let me make this clear, I'm talking about splash screens. They're terrible for your users, and their terrible for automotive SEO.

In case you don't know, splash screens are those (annoying) full screen welcome pages that some businesses (including far too many car dealerships) use as their home page. They were once regarded as stylish (along with flash intros) and they usually feature a logo and some kind of supposedly catchy slogan. All that they really do is hurt your page, for both user experience and SEO.

For SEO, splash screens can be a death knell. Search engines like Google and Bing will take one look at the splash screen, see that it has very light content, and then adjust your rankings accordingly. In today's SEO world, content (lots of content) is the king, so having a pretty little splash is just a bad idea.

It's even worse for customers. For starters, most customers these days see a splash screen and immediately think they've traveled back into the early 2000s. It's just a played out technique that screams "out of touch." What's more, splash screens when a user is expecting content can be confusing and cause them to simply navigate back instead of moving forward.

This may seem a little basic, but there are still splash screens being used in the automotive world ever day. Please, for your own sake, don't be one of them.  

Originally found on Automotive SEO.

Here at Wikimotive, we have a backlog of content that goes back years. We have multiple ebooks and podcasts and infographics, and we have material published all over the web. We get emails all the time from people, intelligent people, who want to get into the game but don't know where to start. They see the volume and the quality of work in the industry and they just find it so overwhelming, so purely and completely daunting, that they shrink away from ever starting in the first place. Worse, they create one thing, one blog or video or SEO campaign, and it doesn't live up to their own expectations so they scrap it and call it quits.

This is one of the most toxic attitudes you can have, and it needs to stop. It's only natural for your first effort to (if you'll excuse my language) suck a little bit. All that great stuff you're hearing and watching and reading, that wasn't created overnight. All of that amazing work only represents the latest step in a very long journey, one that started as low or lower than you are now.

This idea was communicated best by Ira Glass, the creator of This American Life and public radio legend. This quote has always been an inspiration to us, and we hope you'll also find some value in it:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

And in poster form:   Original post can be found on Wikimotive's blog.

Take a moment. Think about why we do what we do. Dealers? GM's? GSM's? SM's? Some of us have been around the block. Others are new to the game, but one thing seems certain; most have realized the need to focus on the needs of our consumers in ways we never thought we might have needed to prior to the new millennium. 

But, in all the hubbub, have we forgotten why we do what we do? Have we forgotten why consumers come to us? There are amazing advancements in technology and marketing gadgets and widgets and process and buzzwords... When you step back and look at it, its a wonder we even have time to sell cars anymore. 

One fundamental will never change as long as the automobile is the primary form of transportation. People buy cars from people they like.

With all of the experts, guru’s, trainer’s and advice though, it seems there are still a few dealer’s lost along the way. I was reminded of it when I saw a Facebook post from a sales person this morning. It was in no way special, a simple question. “What do y’all think about the new Nissan Altima? Do you like the body style?”

For some reason, I decided to comment, “Who doesn’t live the Altima? Now “Bob” (name changed to protect the innocent), the next time you post on Facebook about the #Nissan #Altima use a hash-tag or two and a link to your dealer’s website like this one: “website.com” then you’ll be upping your #onlinemarketing game!”

“Bob” then privately messaged me and said, “Thanks for the advice, Tim. Now how would I do that AND make sure the website visitor asks for me? If they go to that site and put in for info, it gets turned in to an “internet lead” and the Internet dept gets a customer instead of me.” One of the most powerful marketing platforms today - social media - and here is a salesperson that actually wants to help the dealer sell more cars, but can’t because he’ll lose income by doing it. Let that sink in for a minute.

The “Internet Department...” This made me wonder. How many dealers still have an “Internet Department?” Hmm.. How many dealer’s have a TV department? A radio Department? Newsp...Ok no one reads the newspaper. But seriously, what sort of delusion have we crammed down dealer’s throats to make them believe that people who shop via the internet are from a different planet and need special people to help them buy a car? The internet isn’t another planet, its just marketing; no different than the traditional medium that have been around for decades.

I’ve got news for you - the entire store is the internet department! I know, somewhere in North Dakota no one has a computer and they just happen to ride their horse down the road and “WOAH! A car dealership! Maybe I oughta trade this horse in and get me one a dem auto-mo-biles.” And that becomes a “traffic source.”

Fact is, it doesn’t matter if they’re 16 or 106. They’re aware of a technology called the internet and have been exposed to it in some form or another. Even if you’re a Jag dealer and all you’re customers are on the last time buyer’s program in Boca Raton, FL - THEY’VE SEEN THE INTERNET! OR They have kids who’s seen it... Or grand kids... Whatever. They have a connection to online marketing in some way. They may not go there themselves, but they’ll ask someone who will. Just accept it. Its 100%. I know how much certainly freaks out people who need stats so 99.99999% if that helps you sleep at night.

Wait, I already know what you’ll say next. My demographic is older folks. Even if they know how to use the internet, my salespeople can’t even send an e-mail let alone do it in whatever response time my OEM demands! Or I’m in the inner city and some of my sales people can’t string a coherent sentence together.

Seriously? Thats your excuse? So when the shovel got replaced by the bulldozer did we not use bulldozers to clear land because the shoveler’s were afraid to learn how to operate the bulldozer?

Its time to evolve again folks. If your salesperson doesn’t care about his trade enough to learn what is necessary to practice it successfully, you don’t need them. If they are willing, TRAIN THEM!

Don’t misunderstand. BDC’s are very necessary. The talent of selling an appointment via phone or email is very different than the talent of closing someone in your store. So find the talent and delegate. But the idea that some sales person is qualified to work with someone who wants to buy a car and didn’t bother to submit a lead online but not one who does isn’t just stupid, it might very well be discriminatory. And lets not forget to mention the fact that by adhering to this ludicrous practice, you’re subverting the innate desire of your greatest asset - your sales people - to sell the way they always have - by networking - which they can now do ten thousand times over via social media - for free!

SEO is ruining car dealer's websites. 

Its an awkward thing to write as the president of an SEO company that serves car dealers. Inherently, SEO should be a good thing...nay...a great thing. A core marketing practice that benefits consumers by allowing them to find the products and services they are looking for -- YOUR products and services! A good thing indeed!

The problem is, it seems there are thousands of companies practicing Search Engine Fraud and calling themselves SEO companies. In most verticals they are fairly easy to spot. They offer $99/month services and "work for very established executive firm with 600 professionals in India." But in automotive retail, the problem is much worse. Sure, you might get emails from the overseas spam companies too, but they're likely not the ones ruining your business.

The problem with car dealer SEO, is that the people who have already earned your trust seem to have no problem taking a little more of your money, telling you they've got you covered and then destroying your online presence. I'm talking about your website provider. Yup, your website provider -- no no... trust me, yours too.

The problem is two-fold, and sadly, car dealers are also partially at fault. It’s not so much that they are to blame, its just human nature. When you find out you need to spend money on something new, naturally, you don't want to add an expense -- and if you have to add one, you want it to be cheap and easy. Duh! Right?

There is nothing cheap and easy about SEO, though. Sure, there was a time when it was. But that time has come, gone, passed and is barely even a glimmer in the sea of what SEO has evolved to become. The other issue is the desire for one-stop shopping; the vendor-do-it-all approach. In some cases, a really ancient and useless business model plays a role as well -- "the ad agency." Where you get to pay someone to find people to charge you money. Seriously? Why is anyone still doing this!? Pay to pay?

What has happened is that you have asked people with no expertise to provide expertise -- BUT cheap. SEO is an online thing right? So the online guys should handle it! And if they're already in your website, what better way? MAKES PERFECT SENSE! Except that automotive website providers don't do custom -- and SEO is all about custom. (I know, every website provider talks about their custom approach and customizability and lots of words that are just like the word custom. There's no custom.)

For the automotive website provider its all about scalability. Understand, that’s not a bad thing. Most of the websites that car dealers use would cost $100,000 or more (2-3 times more in some cases) if they were retaining the services of a custom provider. So website providers are doing you a favor by taking on the R & D to make it all scalable and able to fit in to a nice affordable monthly package. 

The problem is they've mistakenly tried to apply that mentality to a service that does not scale in that way. The - make it quick and easy and automatic - may be what the dealer ordered, but its killing you. Marketing isn't quick and easy. There's a reason only 18% of TV ads are successful at producing ROI. The same applies to online marketing. Its about quality. Its about connecting your brand or products or services or whatever your message is that make you - just you - special. You can't automate that. You can't write an algorithm for success. That takes the expertise and ingenuity of... dare I say... EXPERTS!

Naturally, you'll wonder why this has just become a problem now. For simplicity sake, I'm just going to talk Google for a minute. It’s all about Google. "It" gets smarter every day. At this point, it’s really smart. Scary smart. Not perfect, but really frighteningly smart. It’s not about keyword density and links anymore. Sure, those things still matter too, but Google can "look" at your site now. It "sees" a site like a person. It recognizes ease of use and ease of navigation. It understands written language. "It knows" when you just crammed a keyword in a paragraph for the sake of the keyword or if it fits within the context of the sentence, the paragraph, the article, related articles that link to the article and so on. Scary. Smart. 

What’s worse, "it judges" and ultimately punishes. That’s where the scalability problem comes in. Many of the older techniques website providers have used for scalability and to offer SEO services the quick and dirty way are now direct violations of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Let me say that again, YOUR WEBSITE PROVIDER IS VIOLATING GOOGLE'S WEBMASTER GUIDELINES. Yes, yours too.

There are no plans for these vendors to change what they are doing either. The saddest part is that most if not all could make the necessary changes with little to no cost other than minor code modifications. BUT, they would have to stop their "SEO package" and that would cost them revenue. 

Therein lies the rub.

I've worked really hard to get any website provider to acknowledge the problem. The bottom line is, they think you as a dealer are too stupid to realize that you are paying extra to lessen your exposure. And, they have too much invested in R & D to abandon it for the "good of the dealer."

This is why SEO will N E V E R be a realistic service for a website provider to offer. It will always directly conflict with their business model. SEO is constantly changing. Website providers do R & D to produce duplicatable, scalable options that can be rolled out globally and last for a period of time to recoup the R & D. It doesn't work.

Whats the solution? Where do you go from here? First, prove to yourself that I am right. This is very easy to do. I'll give you a few simple steps:

1) http://marketing.grader.com - This is a free online tool. Plug in your website address. It gives you a grade on a 0-100 scale. If you have a real SEO service, your grade will be at least a 75 or higher. Make sure you see that it’s the SEO section that is giving you the score and not social media or some other aspect.

2) Click on some different pages of your website. Look at the title of your browser window its the bar above where you type in a web address in the container of the window itself. Does it look like this:

ABC Nissan | Nissan Dealer in Anytown | 2014 Altima 2.5S in Anytown

If so, you're paying to destroy your SEO.

3) Log in to the back end of your website. Go to the part where you can add or edit pages. There is probably a section for "Meta Data" (or worse there isn't one because they're hiding it from you). If you can see it does it look something like this:

[Dealer Name] | [OEM] [Vehicle1] [DealerCity1] | [OEM Cars for sale in] [DealerCity1]

If so, you're paying to destroy your SEO.

If you can't see your meta data, ask your rep to turn it on. Do they refuse or give you a run around? ALL of the website providers have the ability to turn this on for you, but most will try their hardest to keep this feature away from you so you don't "mess it up."

4) Do you have Google's webmaster tools configured for your dealership? IMPORTANT: THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS GOOGLE ANALYTICS THIS IS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. Again it is called, Google Webmaster Tools. If not, ask your website provider to configure it. You should use the same account you use to access your google analytics. 

Once in Webmaster tools choose your site and select "Search Appearance" from the left sidebar navigation. Within that section choose HTML improvements. That will bring up a page that reports on the various forms of meta data on your website. Are they all zeros? If not, your website provider is destroying your SEO...and now Google is telling you they are doing it. 

OK now you believe. Whats next?

1) Stop them! Stop paying for something that is a lie. It’s not SEO and it’s not a service. Its an automated process that is ruining your website and your ability to rank in search.

2) Get educated and/or get help. Either dedicate internal resources in the training and ongoing education of a staff member to manage the digital marketing of your dealership or hire a company that does only that without conflict of interest. Sure, I'd love it if everyone just called my company to do it, but there are a handful of good SEO companies out there who can undo the damage your website provider caused and then provide a real SEO service that will benefit your business. 

OK forget about my soap box for a moment. The best part about the reality here is that 90% of dealers will do nothing about this. But...you could! That would give you an INCREDIBLE competitive edge against all of your competition who will either never read this or not do anything about this. 

Think about it this way. The site quality among dealers is so low (because web providers have been doing this for so long) that even a little improvement would give you an edge to rank in search. An edge that other dealers wouldn't be able to compete with without taking the steps mentioned here. Isn't that worth trying what I suggest?

OMG! You're still saying it? "Not my website provider!" No really, yours too! The one with all the awards? Yup! That one! Even the one that got awards given from that SEO company thats supposed to be so great? YES! Even the awards I saw them get at that conference where I learned so much?! YES! THEM TOO! 

Don't take my word for it. Check. Now sound off! What did you find out? Post your results.

Does Google+ influence search rankings to any noticeable degree? It's one of the most hotly debated issues in all of search engine optimization and digital marketing right now. A lot of people, experts included, are claiming that not only does Google+ have an affect on rankings, it is one of the most important ranking factors going. Other people, also experts included, are saying that it makes no appreciable difference. Who's right? Who's wrong? Let's take a look at the newest opinion to hit the scene, one that carries a lot of weight.

Did you read the title? It's Google's own resident SEO ambassador and mouthpiece, Matt Cutts. He has come out to say that there is absolutely no relation between Google +1s and search rankings. Now, anecdotal evidence points to him being wrong, but anecdotal evidence is just that: anecdotal. According to Matt Cutts, “correlation != causation.”  In case you aren't code literate, != means "not equal to."

It's not just Google+ either. According to Cutts, Facebook likes also do nothing for your ranking. What actually influences rankings, according to Cutts, is compelling content. Getting a lot of likes and +1s is just a symptom. When you make great content, Google loves it, and so do people, so they share it around. Here's how Matt sums it up:

“If you make compelling content, people will link to it, like it, share it on Facebook, +1 it, etc. But that doesn’t mean that Google is using those signals in our ranking. Rather than chasing +1s of content, your time is much better spent making great content.”

Is Matt telling the truth here? That's the real question. A common theory is that Matt Cutts works for Google, and job is to preserve the secret sauce, giving away just enough info to help without ever actually showing Google's hand. That may be what's happening here. We'd say that focusing on creating great content is a good primary objective, but paying attention to the social side at least a little never hurt anyone. Original post on Wikimotive's Blog.

  Is there anything better than a nice breakfast of crispy hot spam? Oh...what's that you say? Pretty much anything? Well, guess what buttercup...Google feels the same way, but people keep trying to serve up spam all the same. One technique is hammered and gets you penalized, and the army of  spammers (the ones who give SEO a bad name to begin with) just move on like locusts, looking for the next technique to earn them a few bucks before Google catches on, leaving a landscape of destroyed sites in their wake. Let's take a look at the newest SEO spam technique, what is is, and why you shouldn't use it.

It's called the perpetual update trick, and this is how it works.

It's been known for awhile now that Google values fresh content. It's also been known that Google doesn't advocate making a new page for an addition to an old story, they'd rather you add a time/date-stamp to the old story and post your update right there. Neither of these facts are speculation, they come right from the mouth of babes Matt Cutts.

Can you see where the spam is getting fried yet? Armed with this knowledge, websites have begun to use the perpetual update trick to keep their websites at the top of SERPs.

Basically, they take old stories and update them with zero-value content. Often times, nothing is even added, they just put on the time/date-stamp and reshuffle the content a tiny bit so it appears different. Then, when they republish these articles, they get the "new content" bump from Google and Bing, and they get pushed out to RSS feed readers all over again.

WHY THIS IS BAD

People are already beginning to preach this as a white hat technique. You should be aware that this is absolutely not the case. Reheating old content with no additional value is spam, pure and simple. When Google catches on, and I'm sure they already have...   And, honestly, it's not just about Google. It's embarrassing to even have to say this, but it needs to be said: think of your audience! Do they want to be served reheated spam? You know they don't, so don't try and achieve rankings at the expense of your fans. All the rankings in the world won't help if everyone hates your guts.

Original post cant be found on Wikimotive's blog.

Here at Wikimotive, we get questions in the mail every day looking for advice. We want to help everyone, and we gladly do it free of charge, but we know that sometimes your questions can get lost in the shuffle of the daily mail. To ensure that we see every question that you may have for us, we're creating a dedicated email address. From now on, you can send any questions you have to questions@wikimotive.com, and we promise to get back to you as soon as possible. In most cases, it'll be right away, and it will never be longer than 24 hours. What kinds of questions can we answer? We have experts in the following areas:

• SEO
• Automotive Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Web Development
• Graphic Design
• Copywriting

  WHY WOULD WE OFFER THIS? We see people getting bad advice all the time, and it kills us. We understand that not everyone can afford to pay for a digital marketing company, but that doesn't mean you can't have one in your corner. Wikimotive has a long-standing tradition of standing up for the little guy, and we were forged in the automotive marketing industry. We're here to help you. Whether it's setting up a Facebook Ad, optimizing a landing page, or ensuring you aren't getting scammed, Wikimotive has your back. Original post on Wikimotive's blog.

Over the course of this last year, Facebook has proven itself to be a viable advertising platform. They've increased the total adspace on users' feeds and have also gotten better at targeting those ads with graph search. The only problem has been that Facebook's ad creation center has been pretty weak. It was usable, but it was not intuitive or especially robust. Now Facebook is setting out to change that though, and they've just released their new advertising hub for your business's social media marketing.

Let's take a look at what it has to offer.

For starters, you can check out the new Facebook for Business hub right here. As you can see, it has the suite of Facebook business tools as well as case studies and other related news. The whole thing is really an upgrade on the guide they originally published back in 2011, but it's massively more useful and streamlined.

If you're just getting started with Facebook advertising, you should start with the Facebook Basics section. It explains things like how to set up your Facebook business page, content creation best practices, the basics of using Facebook analytics, and how to set up Facebook ads. Basically, everything you need to know to hit the ground running.

If you already know the basics of Facebook advertising, you can check out the advanced tips and techniques on offer. These show you how other businesses have created successful campaigns and turned digital Facebook traffic into brick and mortar traffic. The great part about these examples is that they are plentiful and you can sort through them by industry, product type, country, business size, and even goal. With that level of depth, it's easy to find a great example to emulate for your business.

Check out what they have to offer and let us know what you think is the most useful part.