Tim Martell SLAMS Industry SEO Vendors

[Chris Cachor]

That vendor that you used to work for got the Datium award for the most leads generated per page.
As far as I know... pretty hard to buy Datium to give you the award.
The 21 leads per page (25 now) seems to be working.

I think you should take some of these awards with a grain of salt. 21 ways to get a lead or 25 ways to get a lead doesn't really matter. You can have 6 ways to get a lead and still out-generate your competition. The fact that you mention that some of these awards are purchased (maybe not in this case) makes me question the motives for the award in the first place.

My post earlier should have been more direct in that these vendors should spend less time throwing around buzzwords and acronyms. It just seems to create a lot "noise" and I think confusion among dealers that are buying into these things. Video SEO doesn't really matter. Video does. Sales copy matters, large photos matter, smart search (think Carmax -- did you mean?) matters. So, while I was poking fun, I did mean that I think some of these vendors should strive to deliver some more clarity into how and why this will help their clients market more effectively online.

 

[yagoparamo]

I think you should take some of these awards with a grain of salt.

I guess any reward should... right? Look at Lance Armstrong. Rewards are not perfect, there may be an obscure company somewhere that has great software but nobody knows about it that better deserved the award. But these rewards at least offer some type of guideline or starting point then do your homework.

21 ways to get a lead or 25 ways to get a lead doesn't really matter. You can have 6 ways to get a lead and still out-generate your competition.

This is one of those things were you can have 20 people in a room and get 20 different opinions.

That is why I brought Datium's report to the light: They don't speculate, they don't say it should or it may, they have data that shows that the pages you referred to as an example did produce more leads than others. I could be that the moon and Mars aligned that week and that we don't know yet it affects how humans buy cars, but the data that we have indicated that it does make a difference.

The fact that you mention that some of these awards are purchased (maybe not in this case) makes me question the motives for the award in the first place.

I mentioned it because Tim spoke of it. Being involved and around some of these events I have come to believe that the awards are not bought. I do understand though that if you are a large company and sponsor a lot of things and have people present at a lot of events you have more time to put your 2 cents into things and advance your products that way. But funny thing Brian Pash just gave awards to a lot of companies that didn't even come to the event (so therefore that didn't pay for anything).

Awards are not perfect, just like a missed call in one play in the Super Bowl that changes the game but we still use referees (anyone that likes boxing saw Paquiato loss against Bradley!), but again at least we have some guidelines.

My post earlier should have been more direct in that these vendors should spend less time throwing around buzzwords and acronyms. It just seems to create a lot "noise" and I think confusion among dealers that are buying into these things.

I think that you have not sold to dealers... As a vendor I find dealers that have time to dive into technology and I also find those that run their business and hope to find someone that will guide them. Sometimes is the time they can invest in learning, sometimes is education (I find dealers that studied accounting so technology comes in harder to learn), age difference, etc.

As a vendor you must find ways to showcase tour products with the maximum level of understanding and clarity. What is easy for you and I is a world apart to other people. Buzzwords and acronyms help brings things down to an easier to understand language.

Video SEO doesn't really matter. Video does. Sales copy matters, large photos matter, smart search (think Carmax -- did you mean?) matters. So, while I was poking fun, I did mean that I think some of these vendors should strive to deliver some more clarity into how and why this will help their clients market more effectively online.

I agree with you, there is a great push for dealer education and a great need for vendor product clarity. However to call everyone a cheat and a liar like Tim did is beyond what was needed.

 

[ddavis]

YES - thanks Eley. This thread was not started to be a back-n-forth on SEO techniques. Start another thread for that.

We want to know as Dealers, how do you feel about your current SEO provider? Do you trust them or not?

I've never outsourced my SEO efforts on the dealer level since I would do much of it myself. I hated to pay for something that I felt as if I could do a better job myself - resulting in full transparency. Plus I never felt like explaining to the dealers each month over month what SEO was and what they were getting from it.


I've heard the stories and I've seen some of these reports that Tim mentions. I've often said to myself that it would suck if I didn't know what I was looking at because the average dealer would be completely oblivious to what was being reported.

Back to the poll question at hand. How Much Do You Trust Your SEO Provider? Why and Why Not?



oh too - I just receive a text from Difeo. He said to add this emoticon to my next comment. This is for you Difeo ..

Back on track

 

[yagoparamo]

Back on track

I don't think this thread is about how you feel about SEO... I think this thread is about how Tim Martell's fake Face Book friend program got nuked and how HE FEELS about other people SEO so he can gain notoriety and jump-start his business.

 

[emilymoore]

I have a website vendor that I am forced to work with (Manufacturer site) that is charging us for an upgraded package that includes an "SEO expert". When I took a look at our site, there was no evidence that any SEO was even attempted. When I called them for a meeting to discuss what exactly this "SEO expert" was supposed to be doing, I was told that they only optimize the homepage; they don't actually do anything with the rest of the site.... Really?!

 

[Jeremy Gould]

After just attending the AWA award ceremony in Vegas last week at AutoCon, I would say that it seems very suspicious to me, especially since one particular vendor (the largest one for Dealer websites) wiped the floor with everyone else! You can check the list to see who appeared 5 times if you don't know who I'm talking about: Automotive Website Awards Announced | 2012 AWA Winners.

 

[yagoparamo]

I have a website vendor that I am forced to work with (Manufacturer site) that is charging us for an upgraded package that includes an "SEO expert". When I took a look at our site, there was no evidence that any SEO was even attempted. When I called them for a meeting to discuss what exactly this "SEO expert" was supposed to be doing, I was told that they only optimize the homepage; they don't actually do anything with the rest of the site.... Really?!

First of all you are not forced to work with them. You can ask Cobalt for their cheapest website then have a second one with a company that you like work with.

Secondly, that SEO expert is not an SEO expert. The manufacturer programs are what they are.

 

[emilymoore]

Secondly, that SEO expert is not an SEO expert. The manufacturer programs are what they are.

Wasn't that what this thread was about- Vendors claiming "SEO expertise" and not delivering squat?

 

[yagoparamo]

Wasn't that what this thread was about- Vendors claiming "SEO expertise" and not delivering squat?

Well... this is the tittle of the thread:

• Tim Martell SLAMS Industry SEO Vendors

So Tim, you, and anyone can have an opinion on what people do or don't do SEO wise but the tittle didn't suggest a wide search for SEO standards but rather a drive for attention from Mr. Martell.

If you want to have a thread about SEO, what delivers, etc you need to narrow a few things:

How is the SEO being done:

On page SEO? Key words, code? Page building? Content building? Targeted? Broad?

You also need to look at what kind of money is involved:

Is the SEO included with the $599/month website fee!? or is this an extra fee?

 

[Eley Duke]

Yago, did you read this;

But I do agree that SEO is an oversold and under performed service on our industry and rarely reported as it should be.


Question and Poll for the DR Community.


On a scale of 1-5 - How much do you trust your SEO provider and their provided reports?


1 being I have NO trust
5 being I have Complete trust

Or maybe you skipped over this;

This thread was not started to be a back-n-forth on SEO techniques. Start another thread for that.

We want to know as Dealers, how do you feel about your current SEO provider? Do you trust them or not.

Back to the poll question at hand. How Much Do You Trust Your SEO Provider? Why and Why not?

You must have missed those parts about why Jeff started this thread. It's not about vendors opinion on SEO, about Tim or other SEO vendors. Go start another one if you want that please. I certainly don't think Jeff started it to promote Tim or a platform for you to attack Tim. Jeff asked Dealers to answer a poll on what they think about their SEO providers. He asked this to Dealers! It got hijacked once so please don't hijack it a second time for reasons it wasn't intended for so that we can here from Dealers!

Thanks for letting dealers speak, after all, this is "dealer" refresh!