4 Myths of Automotive SEO - By J.D Rucker

[Guest Poster]

Car dealers are usually a year or two behind the internet trends. Some companies are taking advantage of that fact.

Doing search engine optimization for auto dealers is difficult, as the market is extremely competitive. Selling search engine optimization to car dealers makes doing the SEO seem like childsplay.

Since the beginning of the world wide web, the automotive industry, car dealers in particular, have been a year or two behind the trends. Whether it is their reluctance to let go of the "glory days" in the 80's and early 90's or simply a lack of time to devote to understanding the technology, car dealers seem to be the last to know when it comes to the internet.

This creates problems for those selling SEO services. There are so many companies out there who are selling services that are not adequate to use against the highly-competitive world of automotive marketing. Here are some "smoke and mirrors" tactics that are currently being used to get dealers to sign on the dotted line for "snake-oil SEO":



Myth #1: Thousand of Indexed Pages are Necessary

It has become a catch-phrase for website providers who create separate pages for each individual car.

The Pitch: "Search engines read web pages like we read books. They give more weight to websites with thousands of pages than they give to websites with dozens of pages."

The Truth: In many industries, having thousands of pages available for "long tail searches" (covered later) for individual items is a good thing. People look for "round blue widgets in ireland" and having a page for that is good. People do not search for individual cars, which leads to the next myth...



Myth #2: People search for individual cars or by VIN

The Pitch: "Pick a car from one of our dealers. If you type in the VIN (vehicle identification number) you will see a ton of listings to the website. Competitors don't list their vehicles like this."

The Truth: In the automotive industry, people wanting a new or used car will search for "minneapolis toyota" or "used cars oklahoma city". They do not search for "used toyota camry in minneapolis". According to Overture, here are the searches from January:

"used toyota camry minneapolis" - 28
"toyota minneapolis" - 32,430

Real humans search for dealers. They do not search for individual cars. They do not search by VIN. They do not search by model year unless they are looking for reviews. The search for dealers when they are ready to buy a car.



Myth #3: SEM Certification Means Better SEO

When I first heard of this, I was appalled. Some providers use their Google Certified Reseller and their Yahoo! Ambassador badges as indications of their search engine optimization prowess. This couldn't be seen as anything other than a lie.

These certifications are nice, as they mean that someone at the company took the time to learn what Google and Yahoo! wanted to teach about their Pay-Per-Click, sponsored results programs. They have no SEO benefits. There was a company that promoted their "inside track" to search engine optimization using these badges in a press release.

Yahoo! certification costs $50. Google requires a certain spend on Adwords. They both have eBooks and tests that are required. They have NOTHING to do with search engine optimization for natural listings. Sadly, most dealers do not research what the programs are really about.



Myth #4: Flash Websites cannot be optimized

The Pitch: "Our templates are completely HTML. They don't look as good, but the search engines prefer no flash."

The Truth: There are ways to allow the search engines to read flash. Even more importantly, most automotive websites that are built with flash technology are built with enough HTML content to give the search engines all that they need.

* * *

There are so many more tactics used on car dealers, but this is a good start. In today's ultra-competitive automotive marketplace, it is so important for dealers to look at examples and to check more websites than the few that the SEO companies provide.

A company with 5,000 websites is bound to have a few that were optimized. It's in checking some of the other 4,995 that car dealers can keep from falling for the smoke and mirrors.
Guest Posting by J.D. Rucker
J.D. is an automotive search engine optimization specialist
Original Post on PromotionWorld

 

[Brandon Hoffman]

Fantastic, informative & Dead-On post!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

J.D. my only concern is Myth #4 - "Flash Websites cannot be optimized". Flash can be optimized but most of the techniques could be considered "Blackhat" by many Search Engines.

In my experience, a properly coded HTML website will consistently out rank a Flash designed website competing for the same keywords.

Here are a few quotes from the Google WebMaster Central Blog post
Best uses of Flash

"Flash is inherently a visual medium, and Googlebot doesn't have eyes. Googlebot can typically read Flash files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing"

"So what's an honest web designer to do? The only hard and fast rule is to show Googlebot the exact same thing as your users."

Flash no doubt gives your consumers a great visual experience and it's great for WOWING the old school GM but at the end of the day I think a mixture of flash elements for the wow factor and good' ol properly coded HTML with the right tags and content is the way to go.

Thanks for your posting J.D!

 

[Jake]

SEO for auto dealers is a big problem as I've also found out recently. There seem to be a lot of companies out there who are trying to take advantage of the fact that most dealers don't know much about proper SEO tactics, and I've had several clients who have wasted a lot of money on these companies. At the request of one of my dealers I actually spoke with a PPC management company a few weeks ago and was appalled by the lack of knowledge and how they tried to snowball me into signing up with them. I wrote a blog post about it and details of that experience can be seen here.

My advice to dealers considering use of an SEO company is in line with what JD writes. Check references, but pay more attention to the websites that are not given as references. Any company is going to have well optimized sites, but are they consistent with all of their sites, or only for their references? Knowledge is power, and places like Dealer Refresh are a great resource to gain insight into topics that you may not fully understand.

I also have to agree with Jeff in that "a properly coded HTML website will consistently out rank a Flash designed website competing for the same keywords." Sure, Flash is visually appealing, but when you go overboard it begins to hurt the search engine rankings. Personally I stay away from it as much as possible. A little Flash here and there is OK but we've had much better results (from both SE crawlers and car shoppers) on simple designs. It makes for a tough call from the dealer point of view because Flash does make a site look a lot better, but the SE's have a way to go before they get their "eyes".

 

[Joe Pistell]

Here's a twist on this theme.

It's a battle out there...
The SEO firm you hire is fighting against your competitor's SEO firm. Do you have an exclusive?

You hire the SEO firm to place unique information in your site to elevate/improve your search results. Should your SEO firm offer this same marketing package to your near-by competitor, then you've dilluted your ROI.

I am building a SEO measurement tool.

Question1:
Would a SEO Marketing Measurement Tool be a help to a Dealer?
I see a need to use the tool to pay your SEO on click thrus (woa... wailing and knashing of teeth heard from within the SEO firms)

Question2:
Would a SEO want to be paid on performance? (more wailing and gringing of teeth)

IMO:
I know it takes months of SEO work to produce results. A SEO should become an exclusive marketing partner with the dealer. It is my job (as a SEO) to CRUSH my fellow SEOs in what ever territory I am contracted in. Because of this, I want to be REWARDED for performance.

To my knowledge, no 3rd party measurement tool exists. I prefer a SEO business model that is more transparent and I'd like to empower the performance pay model.

Joe

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Joe, this is why I use the company that I use for SEO. They give me some exclusivity plus I work with them 1 on 1 and so far it has paid off!! Google "Mercedes Dealer" - we usually are on the top 3. Add Maryland into the mix and we dominate the #1-5 positions (give or take) with our main site and a few other micro sites and pages.

I also feel as if that once you have your website performing well in the SERPS, it makes sense to start adding pages and content to target some long tail keywords. Absolutely most consumers are searching Maryland Honda Dealer but if you rank in the #1 position for that why not go after "Used Honda Civic in Maryland" - a long tail targeted keyword phrase like this can yield a much higher converting customer.

 

[Lau Pan]

Myth #3: SEM Certification Means Better SEO

There is no industry standards established. This does not mean there will not be standards in the future; developing an industry wide acceptable certification would be difficult but not impossible and it will come.

I’d like to see some independent organization rate the training programs and help integrate an experience component to the certification. As the ecommerce industry grows there will be a need for formalizing standards to manage the huge volume, deleting useless information and filtering the good from evil as they say

There will be more and more SEM training and certification courses popping up as the need for search engine marketing experts grow. The good ones will rise to the top as people who took the courses get hired by leading search marketing firms and the others will struggle. Experience will always trump a certification so people should make sure they develop a portfolio of their work.

There is a good forum on this: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/member.php?u=76

The guy is Aaron Wall SEObook: We Love SEO

There will always be a wild web however it will probably not be the one we use today as this will become “more sophisticated as they say” which means more regulated and taxed!!!

Myth #4: Flash Websites cannot be optimized

Websites that focus on flash technology but really have no substance in terms of content or message distracts from the message the dealer wises to send out are an insult to the client and a waste of time and money.

This is also true for websites that focus on flashy technology that doesn't work properly or causes the site to be slow-functioning.

Anything that diminishes from your visitor's ability to have a wonderful, effortless experience in using your site

When you look at a site that Jeff created, looking out of the living room window at the image of the vehicle parked in the driveway. There was no flash or “Pimp” here; just the message clear, concise and too the point.

Today with video no longer on the horizon but here amongst us why bother with flash? It is old school already.

Show your prospective customers what you can do for them, and not overwhelm them with too much garbage and information. You want them to have a reason to contact you to learn more and want to visit you free of the worry they are going to be attacked when they walk in the store by a “hungry lion” out for the immediate kill, pounded into submission and bullied in to a vehicle they did not really want at a price they did not have in their budget.

 

[J.D. Rucker]

Brandon-
Thank you for the kind words!

* * *

Jeff-
You're absolutely right. I believe in some flash mixed with true SEO content, namely good HTML content. The "ways to allow search engines to read flash" are bad, which is why I didn't recommend them. I should have been more clear -- thank you saying it for me!

* * *

Jake-
Same as with my comment to Jeff, I agree with you. The balance between some flash for better conversions and some HTML for better rankings is a tough formula to master.

* * *

Joe-
Very interesting point. I have been working on a "pay for performance" model for SEO. This is not the place to pitch it -- self promotion is not what dealerrefresh is about -- but I agree there should be some measurements and accountability in the industry.

* * *

Jeff again-
Yep. THAT's the right plan that dealers should employ. We are seeing the beginning of the trend right here. More dealers are becoming aware of SEO. Soon, they will become more knowledgeable or hire those who are. I can't wait!

* * *

Lau-
Excellent points! Now I feel really silly for not being more clear with my opinions of flash. My condemnation was really directed towards the "majors" in the industry who use completely HTLM sites that do not compel the visitors to submit leads. These templated, boring, poorly designed sites get visitors, but cannot turn the visitors into leads.

I do believe in some flash for better conversion, but not those that become a distraction and DEFINITELY not 100% flash sites. As I said, the recipe for the right mixture is the key to get the traffic and convert them to leads.

 

[Auto Industry Startups]

Useful SEOBlogs

Given the recent buzz on SEO, I thought itd be helpful to start compiling a list of good SEO blogs. Email me if you think of any others to add.

SEOMoz - well written informative
SEOBook - ibid
Matt Cutts - Googles point guy on sear...

 

[The King of Automotive SEO]

Claimed Myths More Factual Than Comments

Myth #1: Thousand of Indexed Pages are Necessary

If you are going for a small set of keywords this myth could very well be true, however if you would like to achieve high rankings for more than a couple of keywords the number of relevant pages that you have in the index does in fact increase overall coverage and therefore increases a websites chance of being found. With that said I would say that thousands of unique relevant indexed pages are very much a necessity.

On a side note: Auto dealer websites often contain indexed pages (usually inventory related pages that no longer exist) that should be removed from the index. In cases such as these website providers should ensure requests for the page return an HTTP status code of either 404 or 410, block the page using a robots.txt file or block the page using a meta noindex tag.

Myth #3: SEM Certification Means Better SEO.

This could very well be true but certification does provide validity to the company’s claim that they know what they’re doing. If anything it without a doubt proves that they have some product knowledge and at least took the time to get certified. If given the choice of between a “Board Certified” physician and a midwife to deliver a baby, who would you choose?

Myth #4: Flash Websites cannot be optimized

There is a way to optimize flash sites however most dealer website providers do not provide or allow the access needed to do this ethically. Until I see a TK, BZ, Dealer Skins or any other dealer website provider that uses flash provide and accurate html representation of a flash based site along with a valid robots.txt file that disallows the flash pages from getting indexed this myth is not a myth at all, it is fact.

Here is Google's take on flash...

"You may want to consider creating HTML copies of these Flash pages for our crawler. If you create HTML copies, please be sure to include a robots.txt file that disallows the Flash pages in order to ensure that our crawler doesn't recognize these pages as duplicate content."

Latest Google Search Documentation Updates | Google Search Central | What's new | Google for Developers

"Flash is inherently a visual medium, and Googlebot doesn't have eyes. Googlebot can typically read Flash files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Moreover, textual contents are sometimes stored in Flash as graphics, and since Googlebot doesn't currently have the algorithmic eyes needed to read these graphics, these important keywords can be missed entirely. All of this means that even if your Flash content is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links. Worse, while Googlebot can understand some Flash files, not all Internet spiders can."

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/best-uses-of-flash.html

Lastly I feel that Dealer Refresh should add a new rule banning the use of one’s personal opinions to be fact and remove comments like this for the site all together. If the dealers are 1-2 years behind, posts like this will only add to the confusion and that’s not what DealerRefresh is all about.