We are approaching a fork in the road for organic search.  Search engines are either going to become more powerful, or they’re going to shed enough leaves to make us ask whether sustaining our current investment is sound.

Google released Realtime search, Yahoo and Bing are merging, and facebook is jumping into the search game.  Those are big things, but what do they really mean?  Let’s take a few steps back for a minute.

Search engines, traditionally, look for a few things when deciding which website to serve-up in the results:

These are things that are technically done and can be quite complex depending on who you speak with.  There is a big problem with this model though:  it is highly corruptible.  Not pointing any fingers, but as an example of the corruption, SEO “experts” and “gurus” make their livings by taking advantage of this model.  For the pure fact that this model is corruptible, it will never be the true long-term ruler.  Corruption is one simple and logical reason why we’re approaching this fork.

But let’s jump down the rabbit hole a little further and talk about social media.  Yes, I know, we’re all sick of hearing about how wonderful social media is and blah, blah, blah.  But I would advise you to not stop reading just yet because I’m not here to praise it.  Social Media is not ruled by a technical system.  There is no algorithm for results.  The content is completely provided based on judgement by the people you have chosen to hear from.

Want to buy something?  Ask your friends on facebook what they think.  That is a lot trustier than some review from a stranger you might find on Yelp after being directed there by Google.

This is technology simply getting to the roots of human nature.  We place more value on the things we hear from people we know.  And we seek that higher-valued system over any other.  The big search engines see this and they’re trying to position themselves to have a future by reorganizing and adding new features.

To all our DealerRefresh readers I am sorry to say that we have watched the plight of the newspaper, the radio, we’ll see the drop of TV ads as we know them today, and we’re starting to find that this other advertising source we are just beginning to really capitalize on could find itself as an advertising “has-been”.  We are approaching a fork in the road.

The fork might be closer than I’m letting on….

From the Nielsen Wire on Top U.S. search sites for July 2010:

The number of searches conducted in the U.S. over the last year has decreased by 16% from 10.5 billion in July 2009 to 8.8 billion in July 2010. MSN/Windows Live/Bing was the only one of the top three engines to have experienced an increase in search volume – a 28% increase from 0.9 billion to 1.2 billion.

Why do you think this is?

If you are not using Google Webmaster Tools to analyze your website architecture and search data you are missing some very valuable information. Google Webmaster Tools has been significantly enhanced over the past 6 months to provide business owners with KEY marketing data.

If you feel uncomfortable reading Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools reports, the good news is you can join me for a DealerRefresh webinar on Tuesday June 22, 2010 on this very topic.

You can get more information on the webinar on this link: Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Webinar

Webmaster Tools Tip #1

If you can’t make it, here is a great starting point to see how Google Webmaster Tools can help your digital marketing success.

Now of course, I am sure that you will clear your schedule if I told you that by attending the DealerRefresh webinar you will have more knowledge and data to improve your digital marketing success.

So, Tip #1 from the upcoming webinar will see if your website complies with one of the basic rules of Automotive SEO:

Create website pages with unique  page titles and META descriptions.

Some people have dismissed this scoring as important for car dealer search results. I think this is because their website technology is flawed.

My argument is simple. If Google includes the tracking of duplicate page titles and META descriptions in their HTML diagnostic tools, it is important.

Here is Google’s exact wording in their diagnostic page on duplicate titles and META descriptions:

When Googlebot crawled your site, it found some issues with your content. These issues won’t prevent your site from appearing in Google search results, but addressing them may help your site’s user experience and performance.

This is an interesting choice of words but the reality is more harsh. If you have dozens or hundreds of duplicate Page Titles and META descriptions, it will hurt your ability to appear on Google Page One for searches on the content found on the page.

If you don’t believe that statement, congratulations. You make an excellent competitor for online marketing; you’ll be the easiest to roll-over when someone works for your competitors.

Google Webmaster Tools Screens

When you login to Webmaster Tools, you would click on the website you want to see and then you will come to a dashboard screen. On the left hand side you will see the diagnostic link, as shown below in red:

Click on the “Diagnostics” links and you will see the menu expand. Click on the “HTML Suggestions” link and you will be greeted with a screen that will look one of two ways.

The first way will show you just how many errors are on your website or you will find Google Webmaster Tools “Nirvana”.

Do you know where you are at?

Here is what the error screen will show. You should try to reduce the number of duplicate  or missing Titles and META descriptions on your website. You may be shocked to see that many car dealer website platforms ignore Google’s advice.

Google Nirvana

If your website has no errors, you will get this message:

The text reads:

We didn’t detect any content issues with your site. As we crawl your site, we check it to detect any potential issues with content on your pages, including duplicate, missing, or problematic title tags or meta descriptions. These issues won’t prevent your site from appearing in Google search results, but paying attention to them can provide Google with more information and even help drive traffic to your site. For example, title and meta description text can appear in search results, and useful, descriptive text is more likely to be clicked on by users.

So, please check your Webmaster Tools Account or setup it up and if you wants TONS of great marketing data, make sure you setup Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools Webinar.

The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, 2010 from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon. Cost is $25 per dealership.

Sign-up Here

Google Maps and Geo Targeting Your Websites

Google Maps is the #1 organic advertising tool for most car dealers but how Google Maps actually works is a mystery to many of us in the SEO community.  For example, one New Jersey car dealer’s Google Maps listing is displayed over 17,000 a month.

What has been a challenge for many car dealers is determining why certain car dealer listings show in Google Maps when consumers do a county or statewide search.  I have tested hundreds of scenarios where a Google Local Business listing is correct but it does not show for searches that you would expect it to appear.

With GPS enabled mobile phones and geo targeted search marketing applications like FourSquare.com on the rise, I started to look into how websites are geo-targeted.  It started with a conversation with Alex Snyder at Checkered Flag because all his dealer websites are a sub-domain off of www.checkeredflag.com and not on a standalone domain name.  What that means is that Checkered Flag Toyota is located at http://toyota.checkeredflag.com and not on www.checkeredflagtoyota.com.

In the case of all the Checkered Flag store websites, they are hosted off a primary domain and Google Maps was not behaving properly for some of the store listings.  As Alex and I discussed this matter, Alex took it on his own initiative to see how other franchise chains handled mapping multiple stores off a central website.

A recent article here on DealerRefresh.com written by Alex Snyder entitled Is Edmunds Stealing From You? has generated a tsunami of comments and reactions from the automotive community. For some automotive professionals, the tactics recently used by Edmunds using Checkered Flag MINI’s brand was a revelation on the topic of online brand leakage Edmunds** and a number of other websites have been leveraging car dealer trademarked names and/or business names for financial gain.

I wrote a whitepaper entitled “Your Online Brand is Leaking” in response to the outcry from dealers. I posted the paper online for car dealers to read and distribute throughout their 20 groups and professional networks. (Download White Paper)

** According to a recent post by Edmunds on DealerRefresh.com, they have stopped Adwords campaigns that were targeting dealership names.

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Guest Posting by Rebecca Lieb

Everyone’s Local Somewhere

As far back as 2004, local search accounted for up to 25 percent of commercial activity on the Web, according to a Kelsey Group study. No wonder large and small players alike have been striving to build a better local search mousetrap. Of all the large and small search verticals out there, local is the fastest-growing and probably, most important.

It’s not hard to understand why. A dealership in Des Moines may have a Web presence, but it’s unlikely he’ll be selling cars in Cleveland. If your engine needs a tune up in Denver, a mechanic in Pittsburgh isn’t what you need now. The major search engines know this, in fact. Various geolocation technologies are baked into their algorithms. So when someone shopping for a Honda Element in Des Moines searches for a “Honda dealership,” one of the Big Three search engines is likely to figure out where she is (IP addresses are one indicator) and shove that local dentist’s site to the top of the results.

Pretty neat, right?

Well, it works for the dealer the search engines knows is in Des Moines, and therein lies much of the wisdom when it comes to optimizing for local search: defining locality.