Excellent post Alex, and Brian has some great recommendations for dealers to fight back.....seems like autotropolis is another culprit in regards to optimized SEO pages for dealer brand names after doing some research. Also, I'd like to echo Alex's sentiments about first page results, looks as if Edmunds' optimized pages appear when searching for dealers outside their PMA's.....again, great topic to post on
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Is Edmunds STEALING from you?
- Thread starter Alex Snyder
- Start date
Does your contract express that Edmunds.com is allowed to do use your tradename? If not there's a definite trademark infringement legal issue here.
There's a line we'd expect 3rd party lead providers never to cross and its crossed too often for short term profits jeopardizing the vendor-dealer relationship. Edmunds and those like them, are supposed to offer services to dealers which compliment dealers existent organic measures, to fill the "gap" but not capitalize on dealer's holistic online visibility efforts and hold dealers hostage to 3rd party paid services by stealing leads. It's a betrayal of the dealer with the intention of benefiting of the car buyer and their short term profitability.
There's a line we'd expect 3rd party lead providers never to cross and its crossed too often for short term profits jeopardizing the vendor-dealer relationship. Edmunds and those like them, are supposed to offer services to dealers which compliment dealers existent organic measures, to fill the "gap" but not capitalize on dealer's holistic online visibility efforts and hold dealers hostage to 3rd party paid services by stealing leads. It's a betrayal of the dealer with the intention of benefiting of the car buyer and their short term profitability.
- Apr 13, 2009
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- Paul
@john c - I think you will find that most contracts with any third party provider will grant them the right to use your name in promotional material and that right is even transferred to affiliates.
What does that mean? Aggressive affiliate marketers can and will optimize pages for your brand name. Good examples of sites that do this now are www.dealerdex.com and www.dealerrater.com. Basically affiliate sites that have a paid component for dealers.
Many well known third party sites that dealers pay to be on rely on third party affiliates to drive them traffic, which benefits the dealer.
www.ebay.com, www.edmunds.com, www.cars.com, www.automotive.com, and www.vehix.com just to name a handful.
They in turn to look to monetize the traffic that that does not convert on their site via the very prevalent leaks found on all of these "resources". I first wrote about this over two years ago http://www.ismintraining.com/providers/online-classifieds/online-auto-leaks/ and was deemed a heretic. :P
What does that mean? Aggressive affiliate marketers can and will optimize pages for your brand name. Good examples of sites that do this now are www.dealerdex.com and www.dealerrater.com. Basically affiliate sites that have a paid component for dealers.
Many well known third party sites that dealers pay to be on rely on third party affiliates to drive them traffic, which benefits the dealer.
www.ebay.com, www.edmunds.com, www.cars.com, www.automotive.com, and www.vehix.com just to name a handful.
They in turn to look to monetize the traffic that that does not convert on their site via the very prevalent leaks found on all of these "resources". I first wrote about this over two years ago http://www.ismintraining.com/providers/online-classifieds/online-auto-leaks/ and was deemed a heretic. :P
Collectively we can limit lead arbitrage.
1.OEM’s need to enforce trade mark name usage. Google keeps giving me pushback on this. They don’t want to kill their advertisers.
2.Dealers need to engage in SEM. Lead arbitrage sites are preying on you via Adwords, Adcenter etc.
1.OEM’s need to enforce trade mark name usage. Google keeps giving me pushback on this. They don’t want to kill their advertisers.
2.Dealers need to engage in SEM. Lead arbitrage sites are preying on you via Adwords, Adcenter etc.
- Apr 26, 2009
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- Brian
@OEM
Dealers need the combination of SEO and SEM to best capture leads from their local market. The SEM is needed when consumers type short, broad phrases like "Jeep Dealer" or "Jeep Sale".
SEO is best used for three or more word searches that include any city in their PMA, and beyond as well as they state or their name. Example: "Used BMW X5 Boston" or "NJ BMW Service"
In addition to SEO/SEM they need to have a strategy to clear off Google Page One and Two, any competitive listings and lead arbitrage sites, as you suggest.
Pushing off sites that leach off dealer brand names will increase the leads that come to their website directly.
It's the simplest of concepts but the most misunderstood. Dealers really can own the entire first page of Google results for their name.
It's one of the most satisfying things I do for my clients because their "brand" is what has used the most money to build.
Also, by owning page one, dealers have less immediate impact when a negative review is written about their dealership. Internet Reputation Management (IRM)strategies have a proactive element and owning Page One also assists with IRM.
So, if dealers joined together to achieve a national awareness about owning page one for their brand name, third party lead collectors would most likely see their lead volume drop 25%.
That would send a financial signal to NOT mess with a dealer's brand name.
Has everyone checked their own brand name?
How many spots of the 10 organic listings on Google Page One do you own?
P.S. I practice what I preach. I own my pages for "Brian Pasch" and "Pasch Consulting".
Dealers need the combination of SEO and SEM to best capture leads from their local market. The SEM is needed when consumers type short, broad phrases like "Jeep Dealer" or "Jeep Sale".
SEO is best used for three or more word searches that include any city in their PMA, and beyond as well as they state or their name. Example: "Used BMW X5 Boston" or "NJ BMW Service"
In addition to SEO/SEM they need to have a strategy to clear off Google Page One and Two, any competitive listings and lead arbitrage sites, as you suggest.
Pushing off sites that leach off dealer brand names will increase the leads that come to their website directly.
It's the simplest of concepts but the most misunderstood. Dealers really can own the entire first page of Google results for their name.
It's one of the most satisfying things I do for my clients because their "brand" is what has used the most money to build.
Also, by owning page one, dealers have less immediate impact when a negative review is written about their dealership. Internet Reputation Management (IRM)strategies have a proactive element and owning Page One also assists with IRM.
So, if dealers joined together to achieve a national awareness about owning page one for their brand name, third party lead collectors would most likely see their lead volume drop 25%.
That would send a financial signal to NOT mess with a dealer's brand name.
Has everyone checked their own brand name?
How many spots of the 10 organic listings on Google Page One do you own?
P.S. I practice what I preach. I own my pages for "Brian Pasch" and "Pasch Consulting".
I was fine last month for page Google page one, this month. 3 new worms came out of their holes on Google page one this month. So, 3 hours yesterday bloging. This G.P.O.M. (Google Page, One, Management.) has and will become like changing oil in our cars. Some will do it 2000, 3000, 4000 miles some lease and will never change their oil So, how important is GPOM? The test is how much time we spend on it. Add it you your already full plate. Someone tell me, When do I have time to sell cars? 
By the way, did I just coin; G.P.O.M.? It should become as-known-as SEO, SEM, ISM all the M’S
By the way, did I just coin; G.P.O.M.? It should become as-known-as SEO, SEM, ISM all the M’SI was fine last month for Google page one "Tom Sparks Buick". This month, 3 new worms came out of their holes on Google. So, 3 hours yesterday bloging. This G.P.O.M. (Google Page, One, Management.) has and will become like changing oil in our cars. Some will do it 2000, 3000, 4000 miles some lease and will never change their oil So, how important is GPOM? The test is how much time we spend on it. Add it you your already full plate. Someone tell me, When do I have time to sell cars? By the way, did I just coin; G.P.O.M.? It should become as-known-as SEO, SEM, ISM all the M’S
By the way, did I just coin; G.P.O.M.? It should become as-known-as SEO, SEM, ISM all the M’S
- Apr 26, 2009
- 155
- 17
- First Name
- Brian
This is why I agree with Alex about focusing on 1st party leads. What I need to do is get on the phone with Google and find out how to enforce the trademark of the brand name. If this could be done, only the OEM and the dealers could use the brand name in their PPC campaigns. Lead Arbitrage sites would have to come up with generic text and thus experience a lower CTR, thus increasing their keywords bids. Once we get the dealers to engage in SEM, we will find ourselves owning the 1st page for sponsored links.
On that topic, how does a search for “Lexus” result in dealer ads vs. a search for “ford” which results in lead arbitrage? Below are some of the sites stealing our names and leads from the "ford" example.
NewJerseyFord.SmartAutoSavings.com
Ford.DealersClearingLots.com
Cheap.2009Ford.net/Clearance
On that topic, how does a search for “Lexus” result in dealer ads vs. a search for “ford” which results in lead arbitrage? Below are some of the sites stealing our names and leads from the "ford" example.
NewJerseyFord.SmartAutoSavings.com
Ford.DealersClearingLots.com
Cheap.2009Ford.net/Clearance
That's awesome Tim - lol
OEM - if you can pull that off, without a lawsuit, I'm all for that! These are all OUR trademarked names right?
OEM - if you can pull that off, without a lawsuit, I'm all for that! These are all OUR trademarked names right?
