Your Dealership and Search Engines

For the savvy dealership, the internet has evolved from a


business card type website to a full, interactive web presence


that drives traffic, leads, and sales. If you study the top


selling internet dealerships in the country, several key details


set them apart from the average dealership. Fortunately, these


details can be mastered by any store, in any part of the


country, driving significant sales profit and advertising


savings to the bottom line.





We will begin this week by taking a look at the huge


opportunity that search engines can provide your store.





There are two distinct opportunities to capitalize on in search


engine traffic.





1) People looking for you specifically - These are people trying


to find your store information or your website..they could be


looking for a way to get in touch with service or parts. They


could be trying to contact sales...who knows? We just know they


are looking for you. The questions are:





a) Can they find you when they are using the name of your


dealership? If you're website is not present in the top 5


listings when somebody is searching for your dealership name,


chances are you are losing that potential customer to a lead


generation company (for more on how this happens to you everyday


look here).





b) Can they find you when they are looking for a dealership in


your market that sells your products (that's still you right?)?


Potential customers may search for "Charlotte ford dealers". If


you're a Ford dealer in Charlotte don't you want to get in front


of that client?





c) Can they find you when they know you exist but can't remember


your name? If you are a Honda dealer in Arlington and there are


searches for "Arlington Honda" but your dealership name is Billy


Johnson Honda, who do you think they are trying to find? You of


course.





d) Can they find you when they can't spell your name? Whether


they hit the wrong key or they just can't spell..we still want


to sell them something! But are they finding you when they can't


spell your name?





2) People shopping in your market - These people are trying to


find a specific dealer (not you) or information about specific


products or services in your market. When they are looking for


information about a product you sell or they are looking for one


of your competitors wouldn't you want to have an opportunity to


get your name in front of them?





Let's talk briefly about search engines in general.





They don't care if you rank first, last or anywhere in between.


It's up to you to develop a strategy that puts you where you


want to be in each engine. They will ban (throw out your site)


you for activity that they believe to be detrimental to their


goal..serving good search results to their end-users. Banning


doesn't happen often but we have seen a local Toyota dealership


get banned from Google and they are still doing things that will


get them banned from the other two major engines. Different


search engines look for different things to determine where you


will rank. They all consider what is on your pages...appropriate


titles, good content, etc. Some will also weigh factors that are


not on your website, like links to your site, and terms used in


those links as well as who is linking to you.





Search engines can be a real hassle to keep up with...but if you


develop a plan to get on top, I can guarantee that you will sell


more cars and spend less on advertising doing it. It is one


thing you can do today that can impact your sales today.



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