Content. That word scares a lot of dealerships. They’re told they need it from every vendor, at every conference and in every article. They need it for SEO, for blogs, social media, and their website. Advertisements? No problem. They have tons of cars and know what is a good deal in their market. They have ad agencies designing the ads and helping to assemble them. Content,…

Being different will get you more service business, according to a recent study published by Google. In a study titled “The Road to Winning Drivers: What Drivers Want In the Automotive Aftermarket Service,” Google shared some interesting insights into how service…

Frequently, I write about how dealerships (or any company for that matter) need to have efficient, reliable communication tools in place so that all departments can access information at a glance. Quite ironically, one of the largest tech companies in the world, Microsoft, just proved that best practice as completely true.

People rely on Google to access many…

Google can’t seem to make up their minds. That being said, they sneakily introduced a change that I believe most businesses (and consumers) will welcome.

In May of 2012, Google implemented their Zagat rating system which was confusing for both businesses and…

Press releases are a great way to promote and disseminate information about your company.  I’ve written many articles on how to write and optimize press releases to increase the chance of being discovered amongst the hundred or thousands published every day. Most of the major press release services…

DID YOU AUTHORIZE YOUR INVENTORY TO BE POSTED ON ANTI-DEALER OR HOSTILE WEBSITES?

5:00 AM and the Alpha Dawg is on the…

Do you know who the author of your blog is? Well, it's mostly likely  you (or a team of handsome ghostwriters cleverly disguised as you), and if you are truly invested in a successful SEO strategy, you're blogging every single day, and even the occasional wild and crazy night. It's easy to get caught up in the flashy blogger lifestyle; the fast women, the loose…

Thor is a god, specifically, he's the thunder god, super specifically, he's the Norse god of thunder, storms, and beating the pulp out of things with his magic hammer, Mjolnir (just imagine I did the umlaut on the o). Thor is an unruly god, short on temper and long on power. When he approached, you never knew for sure if you were getting the clenched fist or the open palm (though smart money…

We've all seen them. The market is been flooded with it. "How to succeed with Social Media," Top 10 Facebook Tips and Tricks," "Best Practices on Twitter." Don't get me wrong, the information is very useful and appreciated, but there is one problem... it's all the same information over and over again.

In the spirit of something new, the exact opposite…

Is your dealership leveraging the power of video marketing?  Today, video ad formats are the most effective way to communicate with consumers during their shopping cycle.  

Video marketing includes direct video posting on YouTube, but that is nothing new. Dealers…

It’s A Game Changer: Start Producing Video. If You Dare

Think you should leave Britney alone? Think again.

I’m about to do a 180 degree turn on something I’ve said here a few times. Pay attention, though, because as I turn, I’m also going to be moving the circle.

Just like YouTube has.

Last week, Google announced that they…

It’s been a few months since I have written for SEL. I had to take a short ‘sabbatical’ to hunker down and focus on a major phase of development and updates on our own site.

It’s nice to get back to blogging but I have to admit that I feel a bit off the pace. Writing is like exercise; once you are out of practice the first time back takes longer and…

Anyone with a computer and 5 minutes of spare time has probably sat down to play with the Google Maps “Street View” application before. You’ve probably zoomed way into your own…

As I write this article, I am in literally sitting at an Internet Sales 20 Group where my colleagues and I are sharing best practices with over 50 dealers.  It seems that auto dealers are concerned more about their online reputation now than ever before.  While it is great to see dealers place a focus on it there still needs to be a structure in place that will create a strong reputation for the dealership.  Once a structure is in place, managing an online reputation is actually a very…

I am a vocal advocate for leveraging Google Analytics to guide a dealership's online marketing strategy.  Despite my pleas, a small percentage of dealer operators have a consistent process for analyzing Google Analytics data every month to spot trends or to prioritize marketing investments.

So I thought that I would write a few articles that utilize Google Analytics data charts to show hungry automotive marketing professionals and dealer operators how to leverage this great…

Google announced this week that they would be making further adjustments to their algorithms, specifically with the Penguin and Panda parts of it. If you’ve been reading our blog and following our advice you should have nothing to worry about because you will already be creating good content. If not you might want to pay attention because the adjustments to the algorithm are…

I recently read an article published by Forbes titled …

If you didn't get a chance to read or hear about this on Friday, here is a great, legitimate way to fight back with Google's decision to remove dealers positive reviews, leaving behind only negative and damaging a dealers reputation.It was written by Greg Goebel, CEO of Auto Dealer Monthly magazine.

No different than numerous dealers, a client of mine, 25-year dealer Mohammad Ahmed―president of Northend Motors in Canton, Mass., in the Boston area―had numerbous positive…