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Mitch Gallant

Mitch Gallant

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Apr 6, 2009
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Mitch
#1
I'm in the process of adding TK Carsites to the short list of new providers but I'd like to know what the downfalls of TK are. I'm sold on their SEO pitch and if I'm stubborn and picky, I'm sure we can make one of their sites work for our purposes. The main dislike I have is the layout of the sites, there's something about it that drives me banana's and just doesn't seem user friendly. They seem to have the data to back up the effectiveness of the sites though... anyone experienced otherwise?
 
#2
We are a new dealership as of last June, and signed up with TK to do our web-site. We too were impressed with their pitch on the SEO, however, results have been a bit dodgy to this point. The overall web-site seems to make sense to our customers, and it does generate plenty of leads for us. Their customer service also is pretty nimble if you need to make any changes to the basic design & layout. The control panel for managing the web-site is pretty straightforward and intuitive.

You can certainly check out our live site at Liberty Hyundai | Detroit Hyundai Dealers | New Hudson Hyundai | Hyundai Waterford | Hyundai Farmington Hill to get an idea of what to expect on the finished product.
 
#4
It took them about 5 1/2 months to finish our site.
Backend is very easy, and we use HomeNet.

When the website first went live we experienced a number of problems, from email issues to inventory showing 0 cars on our site. Eventually after a month of doing so on and off they said they fixed their servers and since then I havent had an issue.

The Power Indexed Inventory could be a better, with RSS, manual feed, option to send or post to a social network, and adding certain js or app scripts like our Chat platform that we pay a lot of money for, but will only work on our homepage/about us/any page other than our inventory.

Overall, i'm still happy. We've almost tripled our sales from our homepage alone. They leave the homepage to me to customize and make banners or place promotions on to alert users that land there.

If they would just answer a support email once in a while.
 
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#6
Mitch, we seem to be in quite similar situations. During the end of my DDC debacle I signed on with TK (did a couple months of research on some providers) their SEO and Power of 6 platform play to the strengths of some great domains names our company has. I have to admit I to was a little concerned that the inventory cannot be easily reached in 1 click unless you are familiar with the site. I ended up deciding that in my competitive market it was a great choice since there SEO seems like it is top notch and they gave me many examples that they had great lead conversion.

I won't be live for another 3 or 4 weeks, if you’re still up in the air at the point I go live I can give you my first impression.
 
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#7
Thanks for your feedback guys, i really do appreciate it! @Hixie, it's certainly a mirror case, it's such a painful process to switch providers. Like my old man always says... "If it were easy, anyone could do it!" Did you find the build of the sites to be fairly customizable or was it pretty cookie cutter? Anyone have any feedback on launching a TK site and how much is tailored to what the dealer is looking for?

I have the same concern with the access to the inventory along with the look of some of their sites. I wouldn't contest that Homer Skelton Ford doesn't produce big numbers but my impression of the look look is like a 6/10.
 
#8
Mitch,

Remember, it looks like a Cookie cutter design to you and me 'cuz we look at them all day long. If you're a car shopper, it's been 2-4 years since your last walk thru our vertical... looks fresh to them!


IMO, SEO ranks 3rd. My $0.02


  1. Usability
    • What good is traffic if it converts poorly. Another way to say it is... I'll take a 20% SEO hit for a 10% GAIN IN CONVERSIONS ANY DAY! I'd get it down to 3 vendors, pick examples of their work and then put them to YOUR test at: Tour: How our usability testing works - UserTesting.com
  2. Fast and friendly support (for custom tweaks)
    • How flexible is support to your wishes? Got a special sale you want up? Took in a wacked out trade that is not a car and you want a dedicated page for it?? Want to survey your shoppers? Have a special charity or local event you'd like to promote?
  3. SEO
    • SEO falls into 2 camps. Short Tail: (Audi Dealer) or Long Tail: (Audi SUV all wheel drive near city) My PPC work shows me that long tail SERPs rarely click a 2nd page, so, for ANY long tail ROI, either its a direct hit or you shopper is outta there. That my friends, is VERY VERY DIFFICULT. So difficult, I've never seen it done right yet. IMO, for SEO results, jump on Pasch's Car Ad network and wait for Site architecture to grow and mature (see below).


Lastly, I'd want to know "Where are they going". This is wicked important. I'd ask each finalist vendor to show you all open betas are on NOW and what projects are in alpha. You want to get a taste of what they think is important in the next 12 months and see if that matches with your view of the next 12 months.
 
#10
Just to pimp the company I'm using:

Izmocars builds a really well designed website based around the brand of the car and your personal dealership's connection to that. They focus on clean, simple, and customizable sites with good SEO.

one of my websites:
New Ford Dealer - Wilmington, Newark | Used Car Chester | Porter Ford, Delaware

I have the ability to create new webpages from scratch framed into their menu system. Either iFrames or straight HTML.
 
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