I would love to tell you that this is breaking information, the type of news that you absolutely must hear in order to succeed in 2014, and that if you don't heed my advice your dealership will probably crumble in the earthquake of financial ruin by mid-March, but I just can't say that. This is a subtle post. It's a reminder of things that you should know, but just…

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There was a cry that was heard amongst many in the search engine optimization world on April 24th, 2012, as if thousands of SEOs suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. It was the day that Google Penguin broke link-building...

...or at least that's…

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Let there be absolutely, positively no mistake here. "Tags" have completely different uses depending on the platform on which they're used. We're going to take a look at three of the most popular platforms and how tags affect them: Wordpress,…

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There's something that can be said about transparency. It's hard as an automotive vendor to be completely transparent. I know because for the first few years that I worked in the industry there were many things in the world of SEO and social media marketing in particular that could not be shared with our clients. It…

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In April, 2012, Google began rolling out major changes to their search algorithm. The update, known as "Penguin", had dramatic effects on many of the searches that people do on a regular basis. In the automotive industry, the effects were felt by thousands of dealers. Some moved up if they had quality SEO practices being employed on their sites. As a result, others moved down.

This graphic goes into a little detail about the philosophies that dealers and their search partners should…

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In all of my years of doing presentations at conferences, I don't believe I've put one together that was as important as this one. Google's adjustments from just a few days ago are changing the game for many in the automotive industry. Sites are moving up. Sites are moving down. Being on the right side of the moves comes down to some simply yet important actions that dealers and their vendors need to make as soon as…

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The question that most automotive SEO vendors hate answering is, "How much traffic will I get?" In PPC, estimates are easy. In SEO, they are often harder to find and more importantly they're misunderstood.

Vendors often point to the Google Keyword Tool or other tools that allow dealers to see how many searches are done per month on a given keyword. This can be an…

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It's not necessary for most dealers to have a complete understanding of the art and science surrounding automotive SEO. What is important is realizing that whether you're doing it yourself, working together with a partner vendor, or having the vendor do all the work, your overall search (and social) strategy should be intimately tied in together to make sure you're getting the most out of…

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Every few months, I read articles or hear at a conference about how search engine optimization is dead. I've heard these statements for the last 5 years and they often attribute the same reasons for the demise of SEO (even years later).

Search engine optimization is still the single most important component for driving additional buyer traffic to a car dealer's website. Period. I would absolutely love to…

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If you take a look at this heatmap, you'll see something very interesting. People don't scroll unless they have to. If they find what they're looking for in the first 4 or 5 results, they won't even look to see what's "below the fold". I only bring this up because we're due for one of those studies that comes out…

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I just got finished with a fun session at the Innovative Dealer Summit in Denver and as promised to the DE community, I'll be doing a video on the topic. We decided to do it in the form of a webinar to keep it on pace with the original presentation, so I'll post it here once it's done on March 28th.

In the meantime, there's no need for suspense. Here are the daily activities that will allow you to make a difference in your SEO. One of the participants at the session asked me…

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There has been a lot of discussion on the various automotive social networks about SEO of late. That's good - dealers need to stay focused on search despite all of the other things out there that are pulling our attention away from the single most powerful traffic-driving tool to our websites.

One thing that hasn't been discussed enough is the art and science of keyword research. I often field questions from dealers asking why this keyword or that keyword doesn't show them. They're…

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If your website isn't built on a true content management system (CMS) that allows you to put up pages in minutes without technical experience, don't read this article. It'll only make you jealous.

If you are on one of the various platforms (TK Carsites, Dealer.com, etc) that has a robust and easy-to-use CMS, today's the day to start using it more often. Google (and…

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If you thought reviews were important before, be ready. The importance just become exponentially higher.



Google's recent changes of integrating and highlighting reviews into their organic listings is making many of the most high-volume local searches a draw for people to click through to see what others are saying about dealers. Most dealers are starting to focus on DealerRater and other review sites, but some are taking it down the wrong path.



This video shows why diversity… Continue

The recent changes at Google have everyone hustling to understand what it means and what they need to do to take advantage of it. This video, the 1st in a 7-part series, focuses on the easiest and highest-impact action that dealers can take today: editing and maximizing their Google Places Profile.



We will be post on dE daily until all of the tips and tricks are out there. Watch it and then take action… Continue

SEO for Car Dealers has been hugely important for years now, but the recent changes at Google have made strong SEO that much more powerful in driving traffic to your websites.



The changes really come down to three things:

• Places (the maps listings) have moved to the right sidebar and stay persistent with the page as you scroll down.
• The organic ranking algorithm now controls the rankings on Places.
• Reviews are now visible on your standard Google…

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