It's been known that for a while social media signals have been used by Google in their algorithms to determine search results. What was unclear was just how much correlation there was between social signals and search results. Fortunately Searchmetrics did a study to find out just that and they've recently published their results.

To see the results of this exciting study and read more about the importance of social signals in search results go to Wikimotive's blog.

Twitter is becoming a vital part of many dealers social media marketing solution. The audience you can reach and the frequency with which you can reach them make it an invaluable tool. Are you using it correctly though? We've read the recent study done by Buddy Media, and pulled out five quick tips to improve your Twitter success!

The full story on how to manage your Twitter account is here.

Google+ is a little undesireable for car dealers because of the seeming lack of engagement there, and adoption is still very low even among those dealers who have already gotten into social media marketing. Google+ doesn't come close to the level of interaction that Facebook has, but it is still a very important place to be. Since Google moved places to Google+ Local now you have to have Google+ to have a local listing, and Google favors their own content when evaluating search and serving results so it has a clear SEO advantage as well.

Check out the full story about Google+ Marketing here.

Recently there have been a lot of articles popping up with titles like “comprehensive 18 point SEO checklist” or “Are you optimized for the Google Panda/Penguin updates? Here are 10 things you need to change” etc. The problem is that most of those “25 steps to good SEO” are extraneous BS (pardon my french). If there’s ONE thing that you need to know about SEO it’s that content is everything. There are no shortcuts, no corners to cut, and no get rich quick schemes. Proper SEO is done through commitment hard work, planning, and organization.

If you are unfortunate enough to practice, or employ someone who practices, black hat SEO I’ve got news for you, it isn’t going to pay off. Black hat SEO can be effective for a short time but Google is cracking down more and more and the penalties are much worse than the benefits. Unfortunately these days people don’t like the hard work aspect that comes with doing SEO the right way so even grey and white hat SEO’s tend to cut corners and try the easy cookie cutter way out.

The way to do search engine optimization the right way has always been through great optimized content. Recent Google updates have only served to reinforce this idea. This is where the hard work and commitment come in, because you actually have to write and optimize the content. You also have to formulate a plan and get organized with regards to what keywords you want to optimize for, which I can tell you takes a lot of research when done properly. If you can manage to commit to this, along with a consistent and strong blog, and social media presence then you should be well on your way to great search rankings.

Keep in mind that the content is everything here. You need to make sure that you don’t alienate your reader with horribly written, or otherwise indecipherable text. This means absolutely no keyword stuffing, it is not hard to include keywords in an article or blog naturally and still make it interesting and readable for humans. In fact it’s necessary to do so because Google’s algorithms don’t just see the words in your content anymore, they also see context and relevancy. Besides the whole goal with SEO is to get traffic to your website, don’t you think it would be important to keep the visitors interest after they’ve gotten to your page, so that they may click through or fill out a lead form.

Make sure that you, or whom ever is managing your SEO strategy, is creating the best content possible. Every business is different and they all deserve a uniquely organized strategy not some cookie cutter plan from a giant SEO company.

When it comes to your company’s SEO, it’s always important to rank on the first page for all the terms relevant to your business. Sometimes though, it is MORE important for your business to rank highly on the local scale. If that applies to you, than you’re in luck. A survey outlining some of the best local SEO practices has just been published.

Looking to jumpstart your local Seo? Here are the five key factors to look at:

1. The physical address in the city of search
2. Proper category association
3. The proximity of the address to centroid
4. The domain authority of the website
The quantity of structured citations on Internet yellow pages websites and data aggregators

So what does this list mean to you? Let’s dig a little deeper.

When it comes to physical address, you need to make sure you have it correctly listed on, at least, the landing page of your site. This is even more important if you’re in a big city and want to stand out. Remember, you’ll always rank better if you are physically located in the area you want to rank in.

For your category association, make sure you’re selecting all categories that directly relate to your business. It’s important to not get too ambitious though, if you start categorizing yourself in fields that are only vaguely related, Google may take notice, and not in a positive way!

A centroid is a geographic center. So proximity to centroid is expressing the importance of being near the center of the area you are trying to rank for. Within 5 miles is best, but you can still do well if you’re outside of that radius!

Anyone familiar with SEO will tell you the importance of Domain Authority. It’s no different when it comes to local SEO. Just make sure you’re site is quality and locally relevant.

Finally, we come to structured citations. You want to give your accurate business information to as many citation sites as you possibly can. You here a lot about quality versus quantity, but this is one instance where you definitely need both. You can do a search for “local citation sites” and you’ll find more than enough to get your local SEO started!

 

Not long ago I saw an article on DealerRefresh titled: “Dealership Employees Blogging in the Land of Unicorns and Rainbows." It’s a silly, catchy title that hits upon an important misconception. Namely, the wrongly perpetuated idea that car dealers are lazy.  

I worked in the automotive retail industry for over 20 years, but recently I’ve changed paths. I am now a full time vendor and founder of Wikimotive, and I’ve realized that car dealers aren’t the lazy ones...we are.  

The car dealer business hasn’t changed much over the past fifty years. When my father began working in this industry, there wasn’t even microfilm to look up parts; today, computers connect  the world. People haven’t been replaced though. People are still needed to find the right part for the right car, and people still like purchasing things from other people, especially ones they like.  

TV, radio, newspaper, direct mail, e-mail, the internet, blogging, SEO, social media, ORM, ZMOT, CRM, DMS systems have all facilitated the modern dealership, but the car business itself remains unchanged. With every new technological advance, people start predicting the demise of the traditional business models, but really, nothing has changed...at least not for the car dealer.  

The real change in the industry hasn’t come from the dealerships but from us, the Vendors. We serve the dealers with all the brightest and flashiest new toys, screaming at the top of our lungs  to be recognized. We preach fire and brimstone on all the non-adapters and hint that if they don’t buy in now, RIGHT NOW, then they probably won’t be around to change their minds in 5 years.  

Frankly, it’s bull.  

It’s a silly attempt to make ourselves seem more important in the eyes of the dealers we cater to. I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I’ve seen dealer’s with terrible reputations and reviews go out there and sell the most cars in their market. I’ve seen sales managers who still plug power-strips into themselves sell thousands of new and used cars in a month without even knowing AutoTrader and blogging exist. I’ve even seem the biggest anti-social jerks top the sales board while some of the finest dealers I’ve known have gone under.  

It may seem like I’m painting a pretty depressing picture for vendors, especially considering I recently got into the vendor space, that isn’t really true though. I honestly believe that when we do it just right, when value delivered matches the value promised, being a vendor who serves dealers is the ideal place to be. Full disclosure, you make everyone happy, and you make lots of money.  

What everyone needs to understand is that dealership employees and owners don’t need to learn how automotive SEO works anymore than they need to understand how newspaper printing works; its just another means to an end. All that decision makers need to know is the value it represents. Just like any traditional medium, SEO is a vital, lasting part of modern advertising. That’s the important fact to remember.  

If a dealer can acknowledge our success when they see it (and throw out our BS when they don’t) then they’ll be in good shape.    

A carpenter wouldn’t give a customer a hammer and nails and then walk away saying job well done, but that’s what automotive vendors have been doing for years. Why? Because we’re LAZY! We can no longer simply give a dealership the basic tools and call it quits, it doesn’t work! We need to help them develop and cultivate until their project is complete.  

Why have we been half-assing everything we do? Why aren’t we sending reps to the dealerships to learn about the personnel? If getting quality content for websites and blogs is as important as we claim, why aren’t we providing said content? If social media is so pivotal, why aren’t we managing and engaging dealers’ social networks? Why aren’t we doing it all? We tell dealers what they’re doing it wrong, so doesn’t that mean we should know how to do it right?  

Newspapers don’t ask dealers to fire up the printing press and put their ads on paper. Television stations don’t have them installing antennae. So why do we expect clients to be the masters of the medium, of OUR medium? Any guesses?  

It’s because WE’RE LAZY! Lazy and afraid. Afraid that if we start providing everything, costs will go up and we’ll have to change how we do business...but maybe changing how we do business is what’s needed, because it’s difficult to figure out why we aren’t doing more. That’s why I modeled my new company on just that: DOING MORE. No more half-assing, no more handing clients a hammer and nails and telling them to build their own damn shop.  

Just doing more, so the client can worry less.  

And if doing more for your clients doesn’t seem like the right move, maybe it’s time to look in the mirror and ask, “Who’s the lazy one?”