Really debating running my own managed dealer website. Who's running their own dealer website or con

[Billy Pickering]

I have to agree with Jeff on this one. If you are going to build and run your own dealership website it is still important to focus on a longtail strategy and site architecture. It will also help usability and PPC efficiency by doing so.

Even though Google is pushing businesses towards PPC, a well built site coupled with a well maintained Google Places page is still hugely important. Support your places page with citation sites and support your website with other relevant sites and Social network sites of your own. All of this of course requires someone at the dealer to be the GC as Joe points out.

My take is SEO isn't dead nor is it dying, it is being redefined just like the web as a whole.

Mike, you absolutely nailed it with that last line.

SEO has been everchanging from the beginning of search engines. While I agree with some here that social media is an integral part of SEO now, there are some basics that many folks are missing.

When I last posted on DR alot (couple years ago or so), there was a ton of discussion regarding hiring the right person to head up the internet department in the dealership. The answer was and still is spending the money to have a person in-house that's a strong marketer, especially internet marketing, and has some technical know-how to develop and/or oversee development of a self-managed dealer website or sites. I created countless sites (separate urls, not just landing pages) for my dealerships using different server IPs in order to help with link popularity (STILL A CRITICAL SEO ASPECT) and constantly changed the content (daily) using news and blog pages.

Those 3 items I just mentioned are the most critical aspects for SEO which again, isn't dying, it's changing.
1. link popularity
2. constantly changing content
3. news/blog pages

while there still are some aspects within those that you must have to take advantage of those 3, (keyword density, specific inventory links, etc...) those are the basis of successful SEO.

I've done countless tests over the years regarding the benefits of SEO and SEM (PPC). To this day, the number of website visitors that clicked the organic listing at or near the top of the results page outnumbered those clicking the PPC ad not just by a wide margin, but in multiples. At a couple of my dealerships a few years back, the GM, after some test runs, committed to the internet and budgeted to prove it. We'd spend $25k to $30k per month (no kidding) for PPC while working on the SEO then scaling it back as the organic results continued to improve. Within 5-6 months we completely blacked out traditional media (TV, Radio, Print) and focused strictly on internet except for big events. All the while going from the bottom of the list to the near or at the top statewide, regionally and nationally.

 

[yagoparamo]

About the frame in inventory issue;

Playing with things internaly we managed to highly modify wordpress to grab a file from an FTP server on a daily schedule and create dipalys pages iwhtin wordpress. So far so good:

Northwest Auto Credit and Loan » Inventory

 

[terrencegordon]

I'd like to highlight that the "digital marketing boss" is really a "General Contractor" (GC) on a construction site. The GC's job is to see the whole project and know that the plumber can't lay the foundation. The electrician can't roof. The GC needs specialists and so does the "digital marketing boss".

Joe, I like this analogy and refer to a blog I posted regarding keeping your SEO and PPC under one roof and one "GC". The days of separating SEO management from PPC management are coming to an end. You can't have clean hands without the right washing the left...and vice versa:
The Inevitable Amalgamation of SEO & SEM | eCarList Blog

 

[Tom Seven]

kcar & yagoparamo,

I want to offer a suggestion for the inventory issue. I don't know what vendors this would work with, but if you can get your vendor to offer an API, then you can use their inventory software and pull in the data server-side with a Wordpress plugin or whatever fits your site architecture.

Also, instead of using an iFrame, you could insert the inventory dynamically with JavaScript.

Actually, now that I'm writing this, I don't understand why you'd use an iFrame at all. Even if there is no API available, just scrape the inventory data from your vendor once an hour or so and mirror it in your own database. I guess this is similar to the approach yagoparamo is using now.

Even if it took eight hours to build the scraper/database, its way easier than building your own inventory software. Of course, having the vendor make an API available would be optimal.

 

[joe.pistell]

Joe, I like this analogy and refer to a blog I posted regarding keeping your SEO and PPC under one roof and one "GC". The days of separating SEO management from PPC management are coming to an end. You can't have clean hands without the right washing the left...and vice versa:
The Inevitable Amalgamation of SEO & SEM | eCarList Blog

I'm with ya Terrance!

Add to that a UI expert.

Google PPC started this with the "Quality Score" (CTR, Relavence, Site Speed), it only makes sense that Google moved this into SEO.

Google's Panda is all about grading the "user experience" and rewarding sites with that make the users the most happy. A UI expert is critical to delivering what the shopper wants (NOT what the dealer wants

 

[terrencegordon]

...you can get your vendor to offer an API, then you can use their inventory software and pull in the data server-side with a Wordpress plugin or whatever fits your site architecture. Also, instead of using an iFrame, you could insert the inventory dynamically with JavaScript.

...even if there is no API available, just scrape the inventory data from your vendor once an hour or so and mirror it in your own database. I guess this is similar to the approach yagoparamo is using now. Even if it took eight hours to build the scraper/database, its way easier than building your own inventory software. Of course, having the vendor make an API available would be optimal.

OR you could use a vendor that has inventory management and great existing website integration...for less money...and I'm assuming less headache?

Just thinking out loud

 

[Chris Cachor]

Speaking of SEO, check this out:

http://jonahan.com/2011/turning-to-the-dark-side-a-grey-hat-linkbuilding-story/

Haven't done my homework yet, just saw the article. Thought I'd share

 

[Billy Pickering]

Speaking of SEO, check this out:

http://jonahan.com/2011/turning-to-the-dark-side-a-grey-hat-linkbuilding-story/

Haven't done my homework yet, just saw the article. Thought I'd share

VERY effective use of backlinking. Someone there understands its still the most critical aspect of SEO. I'd also guarantee each of those sites mentioned in the article are hosted on different IPs blocks.

 

[yagoparamo]

kcar & yagoparamo,

I want to offer a suggestion for the inventory issue. I don't know what vendors this would work with, but if you can get your vendor to offer an API, then you can use their inventory software and pull in the data server-side with a Wordpress plugin or whatever fits your site architecture.

Also, instead of using an iFrame, you could insert the inventory dynamically with JavaScript.

Actually, now that I'm writing this, I don't understand why you'd use an iFrame at all. Even if there is no API available, just scrape the inventory data from your vendor once an hour or so and mirror it in your own database. I guess this is similar to the approach yagoparamo is using now.

Even if it took eight hours to build the scraper/database, its way easier than building your own inventory software. Of course, having the vendor make an API available would be optimal.

Tom,

We own a data collection company so we have all the tools to do what you suggest, most people dealing with an API will work on larger type of systems. One guy working on an API for one dealer would be crazy... We have had a few cases where the dealer still wants to play with the data so what we do is provide a raw file (xml, csv, etc) on a push or pull request and they can do whatever they want with it.

We created a wordpress plug in solution because it is a lot easier for people to work with.

 

[Jason Walter]

We manage our own in house. We use Click here publishing to host but only have them as a back up. We have complete access to the code and do it all in house. We use Homenet hosting 2.0 inventory so we have an inventory solution that is not framed in and other plugins from ADP for credit applications, real time service appointments and quotes. Our inventory is completely indexed and we can change the look and feel with our own custom css... Homenet is the way to go. You just setup a came redirect and add you own custom header that matches your main site. If you go to my website you can see that it is seamless going to my inventory...I cannot tell you how nice it is to be able to make changes on the fly.

The bottom-line is that there is enough plugins out there that you do not need an all in one provider. I am not saying that the all-in-one providers don't have there advantages but we just prefer having more control. I do have a full time web designer on staff who is a tremendous asset. It has allowed us to design and maintain a bunch of websites....So the downside is that you have to have the time and someone to do the work. Prior to maintaining our own site we had a flash site with about 400 indexed pages. Now I have over 10,400 pages. Big difference!