The most common questions dealers ask us when we talk about Power SEO for their websites that are not on the TK Carsites platform is, "How can we do it if it's on a website built by {some other vendor}?"

There are really two answers to the question, but the first is the most important. We build high-quality, relevant, well-indexed inbound links to dealers' websites. It's that simple. As many have stated, the search engines look at inbound links as "votes" and measures of authority for websites for particular keywords. The more high-quality links you have going to your pages, the better they'll rank.

I highlighted high-quality because there is a large distinction between the different types of links. Our success is hung on our network of properties that have been accumulating search engine credibility for several years versus the JohnnyComeLately link-building schemes that have no juice.

The key to offsite Automotive SEO is a combination of quality and quantity. Our network is huge and it has been seasoned over the years to be considered high-quality by the search engines. The addition of the Automotive Advertising Network to our product offering helps to make it even more powerful.

If it ever became necessary, we could propel sites to the top of relevant and important search terms on the merits of link-building alone. Luckily, the second part to the answer of the question makes it easier...

We have been working with the backend tools for all major website vendors (and most minor ones) for some time now and we're adept at taking the generic content on most websites and transforming it into SEO gold. If you see a site that is ranking very high for a lot of challenging keywords that is built by another vendor, call the dealership and ask them who does their SEO. You may be surprised.

Our recent webinar about "Do It Yourself Link-Building" shows dealers how they can use the same techniques to supplement their own SEO. We encourage dealers to take charge of their SEO and not leave it up to just any old vendor. With that said, I welcome any questions and inquiries if you want to see what TK Carsites can do for your websites.

For the past 10 months, we have been travelling around the country as an executive staff, talking to current and future clients to get an understanding of what they are really looking for in a complete Internet marketing solution. We've taken this information and worked with leaders in marketing and strategy to harness what we know about automotive in an environment tempered by best practices in other industries.

The general theme that we've discovered is that dealers and marketing professionals agree on most (not all) aspects of Internet marketing, but one thing stood out as a clear "must have" across the board: integrating search, social, and website lead generation was the key to success going forward in 2011 and into 2012.

We have been doing this to gain an understanding of how to build and position the newest variation of our award-winning Power of 5 marketing platform to be unveiled in the Spring. What we learned is that "variation" was not appropriate. This is a complete re-imagination.

But that's not the point of this article. This knowledge that we've acquired has opened our eyes to how dealers should be positioning their Internet marketing strategies. Seeing your website, SEO, and social media as three separate activities is not the best way to take advantage of any of the three. An integrated strategy allows the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts.

When improving and implementing your strategies, keep this in mind. Keeping them as separate activities is not as effective. When you design or improve your website, ask yourself some questions:

• - Do I have a strong inbound linking strategy to compliment my onsite design and structure?
• - Is the message and design of my website a match for what I will be doing in social media?

When putting together your SEO strategy, ask yourself a couple of more questions:

• - Is my website designed with SEO in mind and how will I link to the pages that are best converting?
• - What can I do from a social perspective to enhance link-building and to take advantage of the social signals component of SEO?

Finally, when considering a vendor or internal strategy for social media, ask these questions:

• - How easy is it for people who visit my website to interact with me on social media?
• - Are my social pages properly optimized and are they going to enhance my search engine placement?

With these questions in mind, you'll be able to see the correlation between the three most important aspects of automotive Internet marketing.

It's been discussed for years by some and is finally starting to be accepted by most. Content may be king in search engine optimization, but the key to getting the most challenging terms is link-building. Without valid, quality, relevant inbound links, the best content in the world will not rank for the high-volume keywords on the search engines.

It's that simple.

We will be doing a webinar on Wednesday morning to address the issue, but here are some tips you can use to get started today.

• - Build a blog. And then another. And then another. - The biggest challenge dealers often have when doing their own link-building is having the time to create and maintain multiple blogs. It's a must - putting all of your content on a single blog will not be as effective in link-building because additional links from the same domain start to lose their effects.
• - Social Bookmarking - No, I'm not talking about Twitter and Facebook. Those links are worthwhile for SEO for other reasons other than link-building. Social bookmarking is using many of the thousands of sites out there that generate followed, indexed links to various websites. The process is tedious because it's a numbers game, but each individual bookmark can normally be generated very quickly.
• - Article Syndication - Sites such as ArticleBase offer a directory where people can take their content and republish it across other channels. This is a technique that is secondary and complimentary to blogging - you post to your blogs, get the posts indexed in the search engines, then syndicate to the article directories (often using different anchor text in the links).

We will be discussing other link-building techniques in Wednesday's webinar. Be sure to check it out!

While Toyota claims that everything is fine, the recent news says otherwise. The media has turned against them, and as a result much of the once-mightiest-brand has been dipping for a couple of years now.

The example can be turned to the store level where reliance on the branding of the manufacturer is a crutch, a way of piggybacking during the good times. But what happens when things go bad? Even if they never go bad, is it really a best practice to rely on the OEM?

Building a Brand

Most dealers want a brand identity that they can be proud of. Gateway, for example, had a strong brand in the early days of consumer computing. Dell came and changed that when they made it "your way." That was, in essence, the branding message that helped to make Dell successful.

One of the best ways to do this for dealers is to use a "CAB Ride." A Customer Advisory Board held once or twice a year is a way to get the feedback of the customers in a way that is very inexpensive and potentially hugely beneficial.

Another way is to utilize events. Being involved in charity and local work efforts are another way to demonstrate involvement and build a brand for your dealership.

Finding Your Brand Essence

I got an email from someone who had hired a consulting firm to help his company find their true brand selves. They failed. He failed. He asked me if I could recommend a better one.

This email sent to Seth Godin helps to demonstrate the core reason why most companies fail. They aren't asking the right questions. Stepping away from the business and bringint it all together from the outside by talking to customers and accepting criticism is the key.

One MUST accept criticism to improve.

The greatest hinderance is not the negative review. The golden opportunity comes during these moments of criticism. You learn more from complaints than you do from complements.

Brand Recognition is a Winning Way of Life

"Once you have a brand, it is much easier to be consistent and lead," May said.

Conversely, not having a brand identity can hurt dealers. It's as simple as that. The local dealer website has emerged as the primary portal through which customers make their decisions. There is no place where branding can be more controlled than on the dealers' own website.

In the coming years (months?) the dealer website will become the highest-traffic resource for dealers, period. Currently, it's the manufacturers' sites. That will change soon, according to May.

Setting it up considering brand recognition as the winning way of life makes turning the site into the key branding tool. Commitment to the cause is the way to set expectations for the customers. They need to know that they can count on your dealership, whether it's the price or some other aspect of the experience.

The Dealers' Homepage

One of the areas with a drastic need for improvement comes on the homepage of the dealers' websites themselves. When building a brand, there are so many ways a dealership can use images, messages, and videos to help.

Video testimonials. Welcome pages. Messages that guaranty things. These are some of the ways that dealers can influence their brand with their websites.

Brand Considerations Tied to Social and Search

Searchers engaged with brand-influenced social media studied:

• - 2.8c more likely to search for brand compared to those brands only found in paid search
  
• - 50% increased CTR when exposed to both social media and paid search over just paid search
  
• - CTR for searchers using brand name exposed to both increased from 4.5% to 11.8%
  
• - Time spent online cinreased 20% for brand-engaged social media compared to category-engaged social media

These make complete sense.

Read the full review on the TK Carsites blog.

Over the next 3 days we will be updating regularly with "the takeaways" from the various speakers at the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa. Dealers who were not able to attend can refer to Driving Sales to see what we're learning. You can also watch the 4 keynotes live when they happen at Driving Sales TV.

Glenn Pasch discussed reputation management. It's a subject that often gets beaten up because it truly is a hot topic, but the ideas that Glenn is sharing are fresh, true, and useful from a "hands-on, real-world" perspective. No "rainbows and butterflies" here, just hard-hitting stuff that dealers can apply today.

Here are some of the more unique takeaways:

"Reviews beget reviews"

The psychology makes sense. Few people want to be singled-out. When there are 5, 10, 50 reviews available for a particular business, people are more inclined to get involved than they would if they were going to be one of the first ones out there.

The more reviews you get, the better off you'll be and the more likely people will be willing to participate.

"Write your script like a human being."

Most give the advice of "ask for them" when referring to reviews, but few go into detail of how. Glenn takes the subject by the horns and tells us the simple advice of "script like a human."

In other words, whether it's on the phone from the BDC, in an email, or in a real mailer, our best chance of getting a review when we ask for them is when we actually ask for them from a human perspective.

"Attack - Go into offensive mode."

Waiting around for a need to do reputation management is silly. Eventually, everyone will need it. If you're sitting there with 4 reviews and a 4.5-Star rating, you're not safe. Now is the time to go on the offensive.

"We do business with people we like."

Don't skip Facebook. Don't skip Twitter. More and more people are getting involved with social media and using it as a venue for reviews is a very large key. People trust other people and therefore seeing their friends and relatives on Facebook or Twitter liking a business will make it that much more relevant to them.

People buy cars. When they decide the people from which they are going to buy, in many cases they do it based upon the recommendations of the people they know.

"Video testimonials are amazing."

Ask. The worst they can say is no. The best they can say is, "Of course!"

In the videos, which should be 30-second videos where you are asking customers questions on tape, you want to get people when they're happy and excited. In other words, right after they get their new car, that's the best time to grab them.

For more details on Glenn's training, we wrote him a review on the TK Carsites blog.

Most who read Driving Sales would agree that social media is emerging as an important part of a car dealer's marketing plan going into 2011. With Blogworld, arguably the most important social media conference of the year, positioned nicely between the Digital Dealer Conference and Driving Sales Executive Summit, we were expecting to see a handful of dealers and vendors present. Many stayed in Vegas for both, so Blogworld seemed like a natural fit.

We didn't see many. Scott Monty from Ford was there delivering an excellent speech and his team was in full force. We saw one dealer, Tracy Myers from Frank Myers Auto Maxx, but with 3 TK people combing the halls and looking for others in the automotive industry, we were disappointed that as far as we can tell, that was it.

The information we gained from attending was invaluable for our dealers as many of the cutting-edge and emerging technologies were on display. We learned a lot about how to improve our Automotive Social Media product as we begin development on 2.0.

Perhaps a "guilt trip" is not in order. Perhaps a strong encouragement to ask dealers (and yes, even vendors) to attend a conference or two next year about social media will better serve the industry. Ford is one of the primary sponsors of BlogWorld. General Motors is a big sponsor for SXSW (the other contender for "most important social media conference of the year") which we will be attending in March.

Sending a representative to these conferences is a pain. We know, we sent 3. It's not cheap and it takes valuable people away from the company. Still, it's an important thing that dealers and vendors need to do in 2011 because the takeaways are often more valuable than even at the automotive conferences.

At NADA and other conferences, there is a lot of pitching going on. At the social media, SEO, and Internet marketing conferences, it's really geared more towards education. That education is imperative to an industry where exposure is everything.

Here's a video that one of our social media specialists took while down in BlogWorld last month:

Nearly all of the recent changes at Google, many of which have been well documented here, are pointing to a change in company direction. The most successful and profitable online advertising platform ever, Adwords, is slowly but surely being trended out with Google favoring the future of both search and Internet browsing in general: mobile and social.

TK's JD Rucker had an article featured in Fast Company that points to why we believe this and how Google is moving away from old-school search ads to more "iPad- and Android-friendly" styles of serving people the data they want.

As of now, the article has received over 70,000 views worldwide and has made the most popular stories section of Digg and other social networks. It is relevant to car dealers because our industry is extremely reliant on PPC advertising to deliver traffic. If PPC is on its way out, where will your traffic come from tomorrow?

Here are the key points in the article:

• Integration of Places and Reviews into Google's organic listings will reduce sponsored clicks. If that's the case, they must be hoping to replace that revenue with something else.
• Google recently moved the most fiscally successful Internet company executive of all time, Marissa Mayer, from leading their "bread and butter" search products department over to geo/local.
• Recent moves and hints of future moves indicate that Google is attempting to implement social media into all of their core products and services, including good ol' search.

Are you ready for the changes that are coming? Have you prepared for the changes that are already here? One way to do it is to watch the videos that JD is posting on Driving Sales every day. The next video, part 2 in his series about taking advantage of Google's changes, should be posted any time. Yesterday's video regarding the adjustments people should be making to their Google Places profile can be found on this post titled "Google Places Change: Step 1 - Clean Your 'House'".

Watch it and check Driving Sales every day as JD posts a new one, and don't forget to read our blog about Automotive SEO.

"Yes Mr Dealer, I did."

If you would have asked me 2 years ago how much a dealership would be willing to spend on their search marketing, I would have said the savvy dealers that recognized SEO and PPC as necessities would pay up to $1500 a month. Most wouldn't pay more than $500.

Times have changed. Competition is stiff for car dealers as more are bidding on Adwords and more are finding success in SEO. The biggest challenge we faced as a marketing company in 2009 was in maintaining our top position in the automotive SEO world with products that could be priced under $1000.

I'm here to tell you, my friends, that many dealers recognize that what would once be considered an outlandish number to pay for search engine optimization is simply not that much anymore when you consider the ROI.

This is not a pitch. The next section of the article will sound as if I'm pitching you a product, but stay with me and you'll see where I'm getting at shortly.

The BEST SEO = Unimaginable ROI

Many dealers have heard the pitch that says they'll double or triple their traffic through SEO or PPC advertising. In 2008 and 2009, that was possible, as there were dealers getting 500-1500 unique visits per month.

Today, getting an increase of 1000 targeted visitors through strong SEO can equate as such:

1000 visitors * 5% lead conversion * 20% closing rate = 10 sales * $1400 F/B gross = $14,000 additional profit.

You would ask, "But Jim, why would I spend $4000 to get $14,000 gross? That's not that great."

I would reply, "Oh, did I say $4000? That is the price of TK Power Elite SEO. Those numbers I just gave you are typical for our TK Power Premium SEO at $1500 a month."

And That's When it Hits Me

For years, I have been answering the question of "how much would a dealer spend on SEO" with a flat answer. In 2008, I would answer the question as $500. In 2009, I would have bumped that up to $1000. In 2010, many dealers are spending several thousands of dollars a month on PPC, and yet we would hesitate when we had to tell a dealer that it cost $2000 a month for top-level SEO.

Recently, I finally realized I was answering the question wrong. When asked, "how much will a dealer spend on SEO," I can't spit out a number. I have to ask the question to our SEO department, "what will the dealer get for the SEO they purchase?"

So, I did. Our SEO department is currently the largest single department in our company. Our SEO, which has been considered top-notch for years, has evolved into a fine-tuned machine with more people, processes, and activity than any other in the company.

I asked them to show me stats. I called dealers. I looked at what an average dealership could reasonably expect if we them a complete, no-holds barred, earth shaking Elite SEO product that kept them constantly expanding their market and owning the search engines.

We came to the conclusion that the ROI and work involved dictated a $4500 price tag. I dropped it to retail at $3499 and started pitching it.

What's the Point?

Would you spend $50,000 a month on SEO? You would if it could generate $250,000 in gross profits. Unfortunately, no SEO on a single dealership can deliver that, but you get my point. When dealers ask us about price and compare vendors to one another, they are doing a disservice to themselves. The real question for anything - SEO, websites, social media, classified listings - is simple:

"What is my ROI? What will my cost of acquisition be with Power SEO?"

Now you're asking the right question.

Understanding the Numbers

Our biggest obstacle today is selling against PPC. Yes, PPC can deliver clicks. But are they "additional" clicks. I was looking at a report the other day that showed me a dealer was getting over 1000 clicks a month from $1200 PPC budget. I wasn't sure what to say because the conversion rates were great and they were selling more cars than what $1200 worth of SEO could do for them, so I went to JD Rucker.

He looked at the reports and noted that over 40% of the clicks were coming from the dealer's exact name and another 20% were coming from variations of the name. While there are benefits to buying the dealership name, JD told me that these weren't 1000 additional clicks but rather closer to 300.

People that search for you by name want to buy a car from you. Yes, the traffic will be high. Yes the conversions will be high. But if you're really wanting to see what the ROI is on a PPC campaign, you must parse out the clicks for you by name because there is a very easy case that can be made that the vast majority of those who clicked on the ad would have clicked on your organic #1 listing anyway.

In 2011, we are recommending to all of our dealers that the establish a Digital Marketing Strategy. We’ll be talking more about it in the weeks to come, but no strategy works if you don’t understand the numbers.

They say, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” I say, “You can’t measure if you don’t cut through to the core of the numbers.” That, my friends, is the key to success in 2011.

We posted initially about the changes that Google made last week here on Driving Sales and now we will go into more details about what it means to dealers.

Is your SEO up to snuff? Ranking well for the "money terms" has just become much more important as Google Places and reviews from sites across the Internet are now attached to many of your search results. This is currently only appearing in high-volume general searches, not for searches of your dealership by name, but as they they continue to tinker we expect to see these changes universally.

There are currently 4 different types of search results (that we've found) but the one illustrated in the video is perhaps the most important to dominate (other than owning your name, of course). Check out the video and feel free to comment or ask questions. We'll be monitoring this thread.

Ten months down, two to go. 2010 was an interesting "rebound" year for many (particularly, I'm sure, those who are active on Driving Sales). What's next? What is emerging or what will emerge in 2011 that will push the industry to an even better year?

2010 saw the (belated) emergence of SEO and PPC as needs rather than wants. It saw social media become a player in many dealers' marketing budgets. Reputation management has taken center stage of late. What's next?

Will it be even more focused on reputation management based upon the recent Google changes? How about mobile and Location-based automotive marketing? Is car dealer Facebook going to get even bigger or will it prove to be smoke and mirrors?

Sales will always be in focus, but what about customer retention and reclamation? Are we going to focus on using the Internet for fixed-op marketing? What about using it for finance penetration?

Will dealers continue to focus on their dealer PPC budgets or will they switch to dealer SEO? Why not PPC AND SEO?

Perhaps the biggest question is WHO we will listen to when making our decisions. Will be it Joe Webb or Gary May? Paul Potratz or Volker Jaeckel? Missy Jensen or Larry Bruce? Why not all of them?

Luckily, we have those choices here at Driving Sales.

What do you think? What's "the next big thing" in 2011? Comment here or post your thoughts on the discussion about Automotive Marketing 2011.