In an ideal world, we would have the time and resources to create four types of content: converting website content, engaging website content, SEO content, and social media content.

Throw in public relations content,…

Most businesses understand the benefits of search engine optimization, but they waste all that hard SEO work by not having decent landing pages. Getting clicked is only the first step, once a potential customer is on your page, you need to be able to convert them into…

Google is the best there is at what they do, and it’s because they never become complacent. Even when a program is working, they are always seeking out ways that it could be improved. That’s why Google should always be the first thing you consider when you are planning your …

Google is full of surprises. This week, they went out and acquired the company Incentive Targeting. What will this mean for your search engine optimization efforts moving forward? Lets break it down a little and see if we can piece together part of their master plan.

There…

Some people have a misunderstanding about what is seen and heard through social media. It's happening on two major fronts: personal communications and business communications. Both are completely separate, but the fact that the same basic premise popped up from both angles made picking out this blog topic a no-brainer.

I was talking…

It’s common to spend so much time trying to get pages to rank that we overlook the images we use on said pages. Sometimes, it’s just as important for a …

In May, 2010, Matt Cutts denied that social signals had an effect on search rankings. In December of the same year, he declared that they were actually starting to work in the buzz and signals they were able to get through social media into the site authority factor of their ranking algorithm. Six months later, Google+ was born.

The Penguin Update and subsequent tweaks to it have changed the way that search engine marketers approach aggressive optimization. The days…

Google has been taking a lot of heat lately for some alleged shady business practices. We told you last week about the FTC's plan to file an anti-trust case against them, now it seems the non-profit organization SEMPO is trying to get their licks in as…

The United States FTC is looking into the possibility of pursuing an anti-trust case against search engine giant Google. Sources close to the FTC say that four FTC commissioners "have become convinced after more than a year of investigation that Google illegally used its dominance of the search market to hurt its rivals." A decision to file a law suit against Google could…

Everyone wants a more powerful search engine, and that includes the United States Government. As anyone who watched School House Rock knows, our law-making system can be fairly convoluted. That’s why this week the U.S. government is rolling out a new search engine to help the politically minded population research legislation being discussed in the House and…

How to Improve Internet Lead Quality from KPA - DealerWebinars.com on Vimeo.

How to Improve Internet Lead Quality from KPA - DealerWebinars.com on Vimeo. Instead of changing the status for an internet lead to "dead" or "bad" because there is no phone number…

Listen, sorry about the headline, that’s not actually what this is about (though it is a true story)…but it proves a point: people can’t help but click on weird news headlines!

We all know blogging is a crucial aspect of any business’s search engine optimization…

Do You Have An SEM Strategy For Service? from Potratz on Vimeo.

Search engine marketing is an excellent tool to increase awareness and profit for your service department. Why focus only on those looking to purchase a vehicle when you can also target…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

As some of you may know, I served as the director of ecommerce for the Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE: ABG) a few years ago. One of the most rewarding things about working for a publicly-traded MegaDealer Group was the ability to not only negotiate from a position of strength (we had over 120 franchises back then), but also the luxury of relying on a team of experts to help us always select the best of the best providers of any product or service.

While our process was exhaustive (we…

Right now, automotive dealerships across the globe are seeking ways to sell more vehicles in a market that appears to be on the upswing.  2012 will see a majority of dealerships dedicating more resources to their …