SEO vs SOCIAL MEDIA - which one ?

[Jeff Kershner]

If you could choose only one and ONLY one - which would you choose to add to your dealers marketing mix?

SEO or SOCIAL MEDIA?

Now, before you jump the gun and start commenting, allow me to define the two for the purpose of this thread...



When referring to SEO: traditional on page SEO content for your dealership website. This includes the optimization of individual content pages, inventory pages (VDP) with the addition of a strong blogging platform (preferably an extension of your dealers primary domain).

Your dealer website / blog can include social "share" buttons but remember, if you choose SEO you have none of your own (dealer) social pages/accounts. So only social share buttons would be permitted.

When referring to Social Media: the use of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and such. The sharing of self generated or outside content but used ONLY within your social pages.

If you choose Social - you're opting OUT of any onsite / on page SEO. This includes anything past generic tagging and content on your dealership website.

I know many of you will feel obligated to speak up and comment on the fact that SEO and Social go hand in hand and the fact that SEO has "changed". I believe most of us reading this are already in the know, BUT for the sake of this conversation, lets separate the two.

Consider - If you only have the bandwidth to seriously dedicate resources to one or the other which of the 2 are you going to choose?

Once you've voted and shared your answer here in the comments... share WHY.

WHY did you choose the one you did?

Which do you believe will deliver your dealership more opportunities and better results?

 

[cmjerry4531]

You make no mention to link building when you talk about SEO, so are you counting that in the mix?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

You make no mention to link building when you talk about SEO, so are you counting that in the mix?

"Your dealer website / blog can include social "share" buttons." - yes SEO would include link building.

 

[ddavis]

To me that is an easy choice: SEO. The public has a low opinion of dealerships and car people. They want to know if you have it and what you will sell it for. They don't want to be your friend.

 

[Manny Luna]

Jeff,

I Say no to SEO and yes to SOCIAL MEDIA

Thank you for giving us a non-seo website to work with! That's all we need! We don't need a blog on the dealers website either.
I do need to let everyone know that we own a search engine marketing company and this is all we do without ever touching or linking to the dealers website. We do set up Google analytic code to give to the dealer to drop on every page of their website. We do look over their website and help them make the website a cleaner and user friendly site. NOTE: They make the changes or call on the vendor.

WHY did you choose the one you did?

Why? Optimized Social Media Content is the food that Google is feeding off right now!

Yes all types of optimized engaging geo-targeting and local community content!
From Community Events, building geo -targeted micro sites with embedded videos on every blog. Community Events, customer testimony's, walk arounds, how to videos blogs, and promotional videos are very powerful. We never stop building, pushing, Social Bookmarking, tagging, and hash tagging content.
Social Sites to share, push, tag, and bookmark the content.

LinkedIn
G+
FaceBook
Pinterest
YouTube
Twitter
Scoopit
Bogpost
Tumblr

Thank you Jeff for a great post!
Now if you can give us our Website back fully optimized with SEO and the above to add to the mix. I'd say we would have a good thing going

Note: It's very important to have a website fully optimized with SEO as a foundation for the dealership. That is the first thing to do!

 

[cmjerry4531]

"Your dealer website / blog can include social "share" buttons." - yes SEO would include link building.

I meant actively building links, but anyway.

I'm definitely biased, but I choose SEO. Social Media takes consistent effort to keep in front of your customers, while SEO allows you to do what is needed to get in front of people that are interested in buying a vehicle, and keep it with just some basic maintenance. Plus, you only have to compete with other dealers when it comes to SEO, but you have to compete with cute cat pictures on Facebook.

 

[mcampo2501]

Depends on the brand. If your selling used cars on a buy here pay here lot, social media probably isn't your friend. The same could be said for many high line brands. Most of the people following said brands are fanboy types not customers. Put me down for SEO. We all know website leads close at the highest rate. Why wouldn't we want to push more people there?

 

[cmjerry4531]

You must be a mind reader, Jeff, because Search Engine Watch just posted an article on this: 5 Reasons SMBs Should Focus on Search, Not Social for Customer Acquisition - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

 

[roryellis]

If we must make the distinction for the sake of this discussion, and you are including a blogging platform as a function of SEO, then I would choose SEO.

I will, however, make the point that if you are taking the effort to manage a well written and regularly updated blog, it would be a poor choice not to take the small extra step to distribute that blog content through Social. If you are maintaining a blog with good content, the hard part of Social is already done.

 

[csabatka1]

SEO without a doubt.

With Social Media you tend to get lost in the feed mix of other pages people like and with friends/family's posts/pictures. A typical non-paid post on Facebook is seen by only 2-4% of the total number of people who like you fan page. Since Facebook introduced the paid Promote A Post user engagement on free posts has dropped off substantially. Additionally, how many people actually visit Facebook and Twitter to research or look for vehicles. Your captive audience if very few.

SEO on the other hand you have 100% control over and is free (if you have a good developer). For example, I developed our dealership's website in-house, taking it away from DealerFire. When comparing January 2012 (DealerFire) to January 2013 (in-house) I was able to increase our Organic Search Engine traffic by 4,352. Our in-house website produced on average 3,396 more visitors a month from Organic Search Engine traffic sources. When doing the math, this equates to around 1,900 visitors a month increase visiting our inventory pages. Continuing with our average conversion rateof those visitors to a lead, we have seen around 90-100 leads a month increase across our group just by focusing on SEO and Organic Search Result visitors.