Women-Drivers.com announced new features to its no-cost brand reputation management tools available to car dealerships. The site connects women buyers and browsers with Certified Women-Drivers Friendly™ Dealers, and allows users to locate…

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Google continues to amaze me with a tsunami of changes to search and new products this summer.  The team at Google is not taking any vacation time this year.



Google announced today Google Related, a free toolbar that is available for Google Chrome and…

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As I reported yesterday, Google has stopped including 3rd Party Review counts into their yellow stars.  There was some disagreement if this change was permanent, and today we see that it is.

 

The product manager for Google Local had this to say in an article posted on…

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Change once again is rocking the automotive digital marketing world as Google today drops the third party review counts from its yellow stars. ONLY reviews directly posted on Google Places are showing. This screen shot of BMW of Scherville showed all the DealerRater reviews last week in their star counts but not today.

This is what their Google Places account…

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Don’t be afraid of bad reviews.  More and more consumers are going online and posting reviews, and other consumers are reading these reviews and using them in their purchase decision process.  With the growth of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, mylife, Friendster (and the list goes on and on)  these reviews are getting shared with larger and larger audiences. According to a recent study, 70% of online consumers consult ratings or reviews before purchasing, and that same…

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So a woman has stepped onto your lot and is looking to purchase a vehicle. What happens next and the direction the visit goes is largely determined by how the dealership, specifically the salesperson, engages and influences her experience. Research shows that 45% of women feel apprehensive and 34% are intimidated when shopping at new car dealerships. The factors that lead to whether she stays or goes to the… Continue

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There are those who may be too busy, don't believe in the use of 'social media' or think it's going away, but just as it is with any business, the automotive industry can only benefit from its use. Social Media can be defined as "media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques"1. There are many…

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It's hard keeping pace with Google in the past month and I bet you haven't thought about how Google Hotpot will impact your dealership. Read my thoughts at the end of this post but let me help you catch-up on terminology first.



It's been a busy month for Google: Google Instant, Google Preview, Google Boost, and now Google Hotpot. It seems that I'm chasing Google's product team to understand the implications of all these new… Continue

I visited a website called Car Dealer Check (CarDealerCheck.com) by a Twitter comment on an unrelated topic and when I landed on the page for a Nissan Dealer in Florida.



I was taken back by how many paid ads were running on this dealership listing page. Take a look at the page that I found for Sutherlin Nissan of Fort Meyers below:…



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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