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Getting found is only half the battle - SEO is NOT enough

Back to Ed's post, isn't using a service to create listings more about "Being Found"? I think Ed's post was more about "Getting Chosen", with reviews being the primary driving force.

I do agree that NAP consistency is important (albeit not as much recently) to being found though. We use WhiteSpark.ca to handle our citation cleanup and management which sounds similar to Vendesta.
Whitespark isn't bad either, but they dropped the ball with me not too long ago. Just stopped responding to us.

It's a combination of both, being found and chosen. If you're absent on the major local listing outlets, there is no choice. Your credentials are going to be whacked. I see loads of dealers that aren't even close to where they should be. I can query them locally and see it. It's fairly pathetic. Like I said, a protocol has to be introduced asking customers for their reviews (content). There are a few automotive-centric systems out there outlining this stuff.
 
Yes agreed, there are two halves in the battle. :)

Some dealers may have become too focused on the SEO getting FOUND aspect, and forgot about the other half - working on giving customers an actual reason to CHOOSE them.
And I actually feel the 'getting found' part is way less than half of the true equation -- Getting found is but a fraction...
 
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How can someone choose you if they can't find you?
Great question @Rick Buffkin! Hell yes at some point you have to come the prospective buyer's attention. Well, your store, your car, or your salesperson has to come to the prospect's attention. But you are still a LONG way from being chosen. This is a complex decision for most buyers. You've made the consideration set, but your price, your reputation, the specific vehicle you have, your competition, etc., can knock you out of contention.
 
Great question @Rick Buffkin! Hell yes at some point you have to come the prospective buyer's attention. Well, your store, your car, or your salesperson has to come to the prospect's attention. But you are still a LONG way from being chosen. This is a complex decision for most buyers. You've made the consideration set, but your price, your reputation, the specific vehicle you have, your competition, etc., can knock you out of contention.
Well, that's sorta what I was poking at in my replies. It has to be a combination of both (being found and caring for your properties). Typically speaking, if a dealer has incorrectly set up best practice, vital, 3rd party listings correctly, potential buyers might not find them well. Credentials are incomplete, etc. This affects SEO as well as reputation management and brand analytics.

Plenty of 3rd party listing sites that have applied incomplete dealer locations within their dB (without dealer knowledge). At that point, the dealers that ignore those listings can be screwed (I think of DealerRater and the like, dealers can ignore them if they like, but negative reviews fester). However, that does depend on how well Google respects those properties. In many ways, I see small dealers behind the eight ball on this level.
 
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#This Love it Tom - and right on point.

This is so true and goes to my neverending point that it doesn't matter how great your SEM, SEO, website or marketing are if the in-dealership experience sucks. Dealers need to be proactive in collecting reviews and there are several good tools to help with that ... but to push for reviews when you havent earned them in any way, shape, or form is useless