Some relevant news to anyone that uses Who’s Calling like myself.

”The eight-year-old company has agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Vista Equity Partners for about $55 million, according to a person who was familiar with the transaction. The deal is expected to close next month.”

I know The Cobalt Group has had some tight relationships with Who’s Calling. In the past I thought that The Cobalt Group would had acquired them. I’m sure they thought about it.

I’ve used several call tracking services and who’s calling is my personal favorite, so I hope this will not have any negative effect on their service and products.

Here is a link to
Who’s Calling gets $55 million answer – seattlepi.com

Get your dealership website listed these main online business directories.

Do yourself a favor and take the time and the small amount of money to get your dealers business information and dealers website listed in these top business directories (especially if you are publishing a new website with a new URL). It can help prevent your website from being sandboxed in the beginning and can help with your overall dealerships website (SEO) search engine indexing.

UPDATED: Sept 3rd 2009

Google Directory – Powered by the ODP
Submit: http://directory.google.com/

Yahoo! Directory
Paid submission review $299.00  (Renewed Annually)
Submit: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/express/intro/

Best of the Web
Paid Submission $99.95 USD (Renewed Annually) or $299.95 USD (One Time Fee)
Submit: http://botw.org/helpcenter/submitcommercial.aspx

GoGuides
Submit: http://www.goguides.org/info/addurl.htm

ODP – Open Directory Project – dMOZ
Submit: http://dmoz.org/add.html

Don’t forget to submit and optimize your dealer listings on Google Maps as well!!

Remember, when you are listed in a top directory, the directory is ofcourse linking to yourdealers website. This is considered high-quality link and is very good for your overall link popularity or Page Rank, which is an influential factor when it comes to ranking in the search egines.

I had a nice conversation with someone the other day and we were talking about how it’s so easy to get all these acronyms mixed up. You read an article in one magazine that talks about SEM and the next article you read refers to what seems to be the same thing as SEO. I myself have even been guilty of using different acronyms but not necessarily clarifying with the right terms.

So, I thought I would put together a few of the common acronyms to help clarify. I know these might seem elementary and obvious to many of us but it’s easy to get confused or just forget sometimes.

So lets review;

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
The term used to describe the technique of preparing your dealerships website to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken. A number of factors are important when optimizing a website, including the content and structure of the website’s copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process. This can also be referred to as Search Engine Positioning (SEP). Some companies commonly include SEO under the same umbrella as search engine marketing (SEM).

Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
The act of marketing your dealership website via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings (search engine optimization), purchasing paid listings (PPC management) or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities (i.e. local listings, the new Google local coupon or link development). SEM is not always include SEO, so be sure to clarify this when you are speaking with an SEM vendor.

Cost-per-Click (CPC) or Pay-per-Click (PPC):
This is where an advertiser (or you the dealer) pays an agreed amount for each click a consumer makes on a link leading to your dealers web site. This is also known as “Paid Placement.”

Organic/Natural Listings:
Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings, CPC and PPC). Instead, your dealer’s website appears solely because the search engine has deemed it editorially important for your web site to be included. There is where your dealers’ website SEO comes into play.

There you have it. If anyone would like to share some thought or comments, please do so.

Firstly, I want to thank EVERYONE that visits dealerrefresh on a frequent basis. I get a lot of feedback, emails, and some really awesome comments from many of my readers. It’s truly a pleasure to get those comments.

To be honest, this site is heading in a direction that I never really intended. I have NEVER thought myself to be the writer or someone that can easily get my thoughts out on print for others to read. But I find with a few beers or a Beam and coke, the words seem to just pour out at times. Ha-ha!

With that being said, I thought it was time for a new and improved look! Along with the new look, I have a few new features I’m going to be adding in the near future. Speaking of that, if you are 1 franchise Internet Sales Manager, please contact me if you would like to be a part of my new PodCast interviews. We are going to keep it real, no holding back and since I don’t rely on vendors for advertising and making money we can even get our hands dirty in the bucket of truth.

A few notable changes; I have myself a real logo now! (courtesy of Chad over at AutoOne Media..Thanks Chad!).  It’s now easier to share DealerRefresh with others with my new “Send to Friend Link”. An easier to use Newsletter sign-up form for my “Random Newsletter”.. and yes I know I need to be more consistent with the newsletter. As much as I hate to do this, but I have added a few advertisements to help pay for the time and sweat  I put towards the site. Please note; these are advertisements NOT endorsements.

This business is only going to continue to evolve. The dealers and manufacturers that are not onboard now are going to find themselves stumbling in the years to come! Our consumers are changing and the way we market to them has to change. I remember over 6 years ago, asking the GM at the dealer I was working for at the time; where do you think this Internet thing is going to take us? He replied; “it’ll be a craze for awhile but then sizzle after a short period”. I guess it’s still sizzling?

Thanks again to all of my readers and hope you’re having a productive year!

I know this is not huge news by now and it’s more of a
merger then a buyout. I was waiting to get an
actual document from Reynolds&Reynolds before posting it. Click here for the document. The combined company will
continue to be named Reynolds & Reynolds, and the UCS brand will be
discontinued.

Today is a great day for Reynolds," said Finbar O’Neill.
"We’re creating the world’s pre-eminent dealer services provider by
leveraging the great product and strong technical capabilities of UCS while
continuing to build on Reynolds’ relentless focus on serving our
customers."

Now if they could only build a CRM system that actually works well.