In-House SEO vs Hiring a Marketing Company

[joe.pistell]

Google hard codes national classified sites into the top 5-ish positions for the majority of automotive retail SERPs. No dealer SEO will ever break this hard-coded hold.

Is there any study into the reach of this hard coding? IS there any strategic plan to work within this framework?

 

[Greg_Gifford]

just fyi - there isn't any hard coding in Google search results...

 

[GerryFoster]

Google hard codes national classified sites into the top 5-ish positions for the majority of automotive retail SERPs. No dealer SEO will ever break this hard-coded hold.

Is there any study into the reach of this hard coding? IS there any strategic plan to work within this framework?

what do you mean when you say "hard coding?"

 

[craigh]

what do you mean when you say "hard coding?"

FYI this comment is from 2018...

 

[GerryFoster]

FYI this comment is from 2018...

time travel! Still curious about what he meant though.

 

[craigh]

time travel! Still curious about what he meant though.

I don't think the results were ever hardcoded, but back in 2018 I think it is fair to say that the classifieds sites owned the top 2-3 listings.
In my market, it was often due to dealerships not ranking well for off-make vehicles or used vehicles, but being seen as more of a corporate store.

These days I see dealers outrank the classifieds all the time.

 

[Ryan Everson]

For <year> <make> <model> used car searches, it's still almost impossible for dealers to outrank classified sites organically.

Difficult for a dealership vin-specific VDP that may only be live for as little as 14 days to outrank a third party's dedicated <year> <make> <model> landing page full of content, resources, and inventory.