"Blogs" are still the hype, though it seems as if we have been talking about them forever here on DealerRefresh.

Should dealers be blogging?

My question for the community is IF you have a dealership blog, what is your main reason for the blog?

OR for some, what WAS your main purpose for your dealership blog?

You have to choose one of the 2 in the survey!

1. SEO to drive traffic to your dealer website

Or

2. To build transparency between your dealer and consumer

If it's 49% transparency 51% SEO, then your answer would be number 1.

Yeah, we know there are benefits to both but let's be honest..what is/was your true driver for even taking the time and resources to have a blog?

Another question to toss out there. Is your blog part of your dealer website or is it hosted with a completely separate domain and what do you believe are the pros ad cons of each?

Not sure how many people are using Google's Webmaster Tools for your dealership websites, but with the amount of information they just released on Top Search Queries, now's the time if you were holding out!

You can now see more detailed information for each query including the number of impressions that query got, how many times your link was clicked on out of those impressions and what position it was in, in the SERPs when it was clicked on. Amazing amount of information, really.

A couple of big things to note:

After position 3, the chance of someone clicking on your link go basically to 0 in relation to the CTR of position 1, 2 and 3.

Google was rumored to bounce around sites for certain keywords for testing who performed best, and this seems to confirm that rumor. What's even more interesting is the impact of placing first for a keyword/phrase as opposed to second. For our site, it looks like they took the phrase "dealership reviews" and gave us the top two SERP links (perhaps one was a supplemental?). For a given time period, we had 210 impressions in the top spot and 210 impressions in the second spot. The first spot received 140 clicks and the second spot received < 10.

It also shows which of your pages you were ranking for and which pages the user clicked on through too.

Unbelievably useful data. So useful, I'm amazed they released this.

Chip-

A few weeks ago I turned a Mac Mini into my home entertainment hub and discovered the wonderful world of TV broadcasting through things like Hulu, Boxee, and Plex. In fact, I am enjoying streaming my TV shows so much that I am considering canceling Cable (huge savings for me).

This has got me thinking a lot about the future of television. Right now it is the king of traditional advertising, but I am starting to think its days are numbered. What do you guys think?

By the way, here is my Mac Mini project: Mac Mini as Home Entertainment Hub Photographic Expeditions of Alex Snyder if you need further clarification of what the future could be.

Who did you use to build your website? A small independent agency or a larger templated solution like Dealer.com or dealercarsearch.com? If you were picking a new vendor now, what would you look for?

I've got about 25-30 vehicles in inventory and do not have a website now.

Dealers - has facebook sourced you any extra car deals?


Vendors - I respectfully ask that you DO NOT answer the poll in regards to whether you have sourced any business for your product off facebook, but I welcome you to answer on behalf of any of your clients who are not participating on DealerRefresh.

I just got back from a Dealer.com visit and when I visit they ask me to spend some time with their Account Management/Support team for some Q/A time. The biggest question I was asked was "should dealers be on facebook" and I not only gave my opinion, but promised I would write a DealerRefresh Blog article that they (anyone) could use as a reference for dealers who ask if they should start a facebook account or fan page. I don't want to only include my own experiences though, so I'm asking for your help first.

I would also like to see any opinions or best practices you may have for doing business on facebook. Vendors - this is something you can talk about in regards to how you've faired on sourcing clients from facebook for your non-driveable product.

Are you using your CRM company's provided lead address? Are your leads being sent to [email protected]?

Maybe you should rethink this setup... Dealership lead routing procedure for CRM and ILM

How do people go about pricing vehicles online and what works / what doesn't?

Right now the main issue for dealers is most likely going to be their already depleted inventory getting even smaller.

This leaves us with a VERY limited amount of vehicles to show customers.

My standard answer to the question "How many do you have?" is "How many do you NEED??"

They have ALWAYS said "One". But these customers, for whatever reason, need to know you have more on your lot than just one.

Do you delete the cars as you sell off two of your last three?

OR do you leave them in place to get the leads and hopefully sell what you have as well as have that name on file for when you DO have the cars you need in place?

My own thought is; As long as I have ONE that they can see and test drive, regardless of the trim level, I want them to come in to see me - especially if I can swap or order something for them.

What do you think?

Just curious as to who is leading the automotive accounting world for the DealerRefresh Community?

Just curious to see what the favored social media powers are being utilized to help market your dealership.

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We recognize the need for a vendor to offer a solution to any user who is struggling with something. There are tactful ways to do this so that you are not in violation of the forum rules. If you need help constructing a post or thread that does not violate the DealerRefresh rules, feel free to ask me for assistance. Moderators have discretion in determining what is a helpful posting and what is purely a solicitation. Please respect their decisions.

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