@Susan
When I type in "Millington Ford" you have a GPOM issue indeed. In the organic listings you only have 2 of the 10. Here are all the people optimized for Millington Ford:

ford.com
autotropolis.com
cars.com
motortrend.com
automobilemag.com
cars.trovit.com
commercialappeal.com

This is a BIG LEAK. Then you also have four people in the Adwords section. If the average Joe know you as Milling Ford, you are losing ALOT of direct leads.

Zoran - you're totally missing the point. Yes, you can do that, but I don't pay you. You're not a business partner. Edmunds is (was).

Zoran
Of course anyone can write an article and express their opinion. That is not the point here.

We are talking about website pages that are designed and optimized to collect consumers leads for profit off a dealers name. Many of these same sites, dealers have a business relationship with.

Those sites we would like to push off of GPO. A consumer, a blogger or a news source will always have the freedom to write and have the opportunity to be on Page One.

It's freedom of speech as you pointed out. We are suggesting that the barrier should not be so easy for lead collectors to jump over.

you guys are funny. If you have trademarked your name you can submit to google claim and block all ads that use your trademark as a part of ad content. You cannot prevent anybody in USA to bid on your trademark name.

You cannot forbid me to talk about you, it is freedom of speech, and I can put page about your business on my website and give my opinion and if google finds it the most relevant, comprehensive and interesting/unique article on the web about your business then you have a problem and me #1 position.

Well, Google got us with the "area specific search term PPC"- "Ford Millington".

Just not right when our website name is "millingtonford.com". Thank you for the heads up, Alex- we're not a true partner with Edmunds- I've not been a fan of them since working for a Toyota dealership and the fact customers have to click too many times to get the disclaimer about the "invoice" price Edmunds gives them. I can't remember offhand if AutoTrader is paired up with Edmunds or not. I know AutoUSA used to be- frustrating to keep up with how long it took for leads to get to me after multiple scrubbings.
I struggle enough to reclaim page one with a sister Ford store that's been part of the group for 20 years versus this location only joining the group in March 2009- the heck if I want to be blindsided by a third party aggregate who's then going to try to sell me a lead that started off typing in search terms that could have brought them straight to me! Grrrrrrr.....

Yep Alex;

This is kind of like when I discovered that AutoUSA was an aggregator of redistributed leads which had been worked by AutoNation stores.

Oh, and did I mention that AutoUSA was an AutoNation store/company!

World Wide Web, or Wild Wild West? You tell me...

Now Hiring; Google Page One Manager.

"OUR" is right.

That's awesome Tim - lol

OEM - if you can pull that off, without a lawsuit, I'm all for that! These are all OUR trademarked names right?

This is why I agree with Alex about focusing on 1st party leads. What I need to do is get on the phone with Google and find out how to enforce the trademark of the brand name. If this could be done, only the OEM and the dealers could use the brand name in their PPC campaigns. Lead Arbitrage sites would have to come up with generic text and thus experience a lower CTR, thus increasing their keywords bids. Once we get the dealers to engage in SEM, we will find ourselves owning the 1st page for sponsored links.

On that topic, how does a search for “Lexus” result in dealer ads vs. a search for “ford” which results in lead arbitrage? Below are some of the sites stealing our names and leads from the "ford" example.
NewJerseyFord.SmartAutoSavings.com
Ford.DealersClearingLots.com
Cheap.2009Ford.net/Clearance

Long live GPOM

I was fine last month for Google page one "Tom Sparks Buick". This month, 3 new worms came out of their holes on Google. So, 3 hours yesterday bloging. This G.P.O.M. (Google Page, One, Management.) has and will become like changing oil in our cars. Some will do it 2000, 3000, 4000 miles some lease and will never change their oil So, how important is GPOM? The test is how much time we spend on it. Add it you your already full plate. Someone tell me, When do I have time to sell cars? By the way, did I just coin; G.P.O.M.? It should become as-known-as SEO, SEM, ISM all the M’S

I was fine last month for page Google page one, this month. 3 new worms came out of their holes on Google page one this month. So, 3 hours yesterday bloging. This G.P.O.M. (Google Page, One, Management.) has and will become like changing oil in our cars. Some will do it 2000, 3000, 4000 miles some lease and will never change their oil So, how important is GPOM? The test is how much time we spend on it. Add it you your already full plate. Someone tell me, When do I have time to sell cars? By the way, did I just coin; G.P.O.M.? It should become as-known-as SEO, SEM, ISM all the M’S

@OEM
Dealers need the combination of SEO and SEM to best capture leads from their local market. The SEM is needed when consumers type short, broad phrases like "Jeep Dealer" or "Jeep Sale".

SEO is best used for three or more word searches that include any city in their PMA, and beyond as well as they state or their name. Example: "Used BMW X5 Boston" or "NJ BMW Service"

In addition to SEO/SEM they need to have a strategy to clear off Google Page One and Two, any competitive listings and lead arbitrage sites, as you suggest.

Pushing off sites that leach off dealer brand names will increase the leads that come to their website directly.

It's the simplest of concepts but the most misunderstood. Dealers really can own the entire first page of Google results for their name.

It's one of the most satisfying things I do for my clients because their "brand" is what has used the most money to build.

Also, by owning page one, dealers have less immediate impact when a negative review is written about their dealership. Internet Reputation Management (IRM)strategies have a proactive element and owning Page One also assists with IRM.

So, if dealers joined together to achieve a national awareness about owning page one for their brand name, third party lead collectors would most likely see their lead volume drop 25%.

That would send a financial signal to NOT mess with a dealer's brand name.

Has everyone checked their own brand name?
How many spots of the 10 organic listings on Google Page One do you own?

P.S. I practice what I preach. I own my pages for "Brian Pasch" and "Pasch Consulting".

Collectively we can limit lead arbitrage.

1.OEM’s need to enforce trade mark name usage. Google keeps giving me pushback on this. They don’t want to kill their advertisers.
2.Dealers need to engage in SEM. Lead arbitrage sites are preying on you via Adwords, Adcenter etc.

@john c - I think you will find that most contracts with any third party provider will grant them the right to use your name in promotional material and that right is even transferred to affiliates.

What does that mean? Aggressive affiliate marketers can and will optimize pages for your brand name. Good examples of sites that do this now are www.dealerdex.com and www.dealerrater.com. Basically affiliate sites that have a paid component for dealers.

Many well known third party sites that dealers pay to be on rely on third party affiliates to drive them traffic, which benefits the dealer.

www.ebay.com, www.edmunds.com, www.cars.com, www.automotive.com, and www.vehix.com just to name a handful.

They in turn to look to monetize the traffic that that does not convert on their site via the very prevalent leaks found on all of these "resources". I first wrote about this over two years ago http://www.ismintraining.com/providers/online-classifieds/online-auto-leaks/ and was deemed a heretic. :P

Does your contract express that Edmunds.com is allowed to do use your tradename? If not there's a definite trademark infringement legal issue here.

There's a line we'd expect 3rd party lead providers never to cross and its crossed too often for short term profits jeopardizing the vendor-dealer relationship. Edmunds and those like them, are supposed to offer services to dealers which compliment dealers existent organic measures, to fill the "gap" but not capitalize on dealer's holistic online visibility efforts and hold dealers hostage to 3rd party paid services by stealing leads. It's a betrayal of the dealer with the intention of benefiting of the car buyer and their short term profitability.

Excellent post Alex, and Brian has some great recommendations for dealers to fight back.....seems like autotropolis is another culprit in regards to optimized SEO pages for dealer brand names after doing some research. Also, I'd like to echo Alex's sentiments about first page results, looks as if Edmunds' optimized pages appear when searching for dealers outside their PMA's.....again, great topic to post on

Brian - you're getting different first page results, sitting in Jersey, than we're seeing in our own zip codes. But, if that is what you're seeing outside of our market places, then there is definitely still a need to push them off the page.

I just dropped John Giamalvo a line on his ADM page, asking to open a discussion on this matter as well as a resloution. John has always been a solid guy as well as one who can see things from the dealers side.

Thanks Brian,
I am really looking foward to the Boot camp in Orlando this February. I am sure I will come away from it with a ton of good information and practices.

You say this like big company's have morals? Their main job is to get the information before you do so they can charge you for it. But, not many dealers are smart enough or care enough to catch it as you did. I am sure they filter it by searches made in the area and did not catch that it was a company name...at least that will be the story. Good luck and keep up the great information.

@Rob
Excellent job at owning page one for your name. It's almost perfect.

Edmunds.com is still on Google Page One for your name from New Jersey so since you are a stand-up guy and a member of DealerRefresh..

I'll place a Google Page one listing for your dealership that hopefully will push Edmunds.com off page one for you...as a gift.

I decided five years ago that I would break my dealerships dependence on third party lead providers as much as possible. The focus would be on branding our store, and our websites. I would make it on mostly organic leads, and (please don’t take this personally if you work for one of them) happily cancel one contract after.

We have and still do use Auto Trader and Cars.com for used car exposure. I feel that it is valuable; however we only purchase one hundred leads a month from Dealix. Why Dealix, partly customer service and partly because we have a good negotiated price per lead and they just seem to close better for us. I have spent 7-10 times what I am currently spending for third party leads.

We have been successful at breaking the addiction to buying as many leads as we could so that our competition didn't get them. It's easy to call and cancel your contract, but if you’re not yet branded and fully optimized on the search engines it would be "internetmanager-icide" to do so. The internet still is in many ways the Wild West. I think that is why I fell in love with this gig in the first place. (Ever notice how many of us used to be in bands, some kind of comedy or entertainment? Well the really good ones anyway.)

My first line of attack was on my dealerships name(s). I consider that my real estate! So I launched an all out attack to take the hill. I have taken that hill in two different dealerships one a Toyota and currently a Nissan store. I used Video, Press Releases, blogs, paid constant attention to my website content and meta tags, descriptions, titles etc.

Once you conquer your own dealers name SERP, you have to hold it. This takes a constant flow of fresh infantry. You’ll have to consistently add video content and fresh Press Releases (I have never paid a dime for them, but you can.) As I write this there are no other parties sharing my SERP, including the Nissan dealer down the road. He is not so lucky and since he wouldn’t possibly read this, I have no fear of a sneak attack.


This is not meant to sound braggadocios, although I am proud of what we have accomplished. What makes me scratch my head is why everyone isn’t doing it. If you really want to screw with the third party providers, force them to earn their place on your real estate. CHARGE!!!!!

I finally got a call as well from my rep today. Since we only have 2 1/2 stores (Subaru franchise on the way) I guess I'm not important enough for the big dogs to call me...LOL
Anyhow - Those PPC campaigns that were showing for our dealer name have been removed or possibly "paused" until we stop looking. I'm still taking a deeper look into in all.
Brian - Thanks for the insight and you are 100% Correct! I went through almost every dealership in my city and Edmunds has an organic page targeting EVERY SINGLE ONE! I have to pat myself on the back a little because we are the one dealer group that they didn't make the first page..."applause for Alex J"