Google Places Review Response (NEW)

[ryan.leslie]

Thanks for the clarification and I hope my original post didn't come off anything less than respectful. I understand your original comment better now and I completely agree that internet marketing strategies need to include more than Autotrader and Cars.com. That is certainly a popular opinion around here. You can find 27 active threads on ROI from 3rd party on DR so that debate will continue to play out.

I misunderstood your post to mean that you were advocating for Google tunnel-vision. Obviously that is what my comment was referring to. I don't think that is wise at all to ignore a targeted minority, especially in the "Wild West" of automotive Internet marketing.

Nobody can disagree that Google is currently the dominant player, but very few people at Prodigy or AOL or Netzero saw the rapid loss of market share for those companies. Somebody else came in with a "better" product, or better said a product that "better met the customers need."

The quickest thing to disrupt Google's dominance is specialization. Google is aptly called the phonebook of the internet because it is a catch-all. Even in the days of phonebooks you also had a local directory and a residential listing. I think the same concept is coming. YouTube was enough of a threat to the video channel to get bought, right? That is not a sustainable model for dealing with competition.

How solid is a market share lead in search? Here is an interesting answer to that question from some guys that are a lot smarter than me.

 

[Chip Grueter]

Speaking with Chip over at DealerRater - their star ratings should soon push to Google. If that's the case - no more having to share the love between DR and Google Places. I'd rather manage 1 less site and get the same benefit.

Stars are now active!

Younger Toyota - Google Maps

 

[mhilger]

Ryan its what I get for posting during a baseball game, incomplete thoughts are never understood properly. So no offense taken.
Specialization is a great point. The reason I mentioned moving away from auttrader.com specifically is because I am hearing some grumblings from clients and my SEO consultant that I just hired has been signing up lots of dealerships lately due to the same issue.