To Micro-site or not to Micro-site?

Manny - my opinion hasn't changed much.  I even gave microsites a solid try with a strategy that involved over 40 URL's and it was too much work for too little return.  I had much better results putting my time and energy into my own website.

As Jeff mentioned, now OEMs are dictating what you can and can't use inside domains which limit microsite strategies.  

I'm sure Alex will respond to this at some point but what concerns me is that we had over 85 comments for this post that are not showing up. So thanks for digging into the archive. Maybe we need to have a "updated" post around micro sites.

Micro sites / pages still have their place and can be effective at the right moment. Micro sites miss out when they only geared towards the form conversion only.

Manufacturers have also tightened up since this article was first written. Most not allowing micro sites, nor anymore than 1 URL. Heck, I cant even have a dedicated Service Site for my Toyota dealership.

Alex this was posted in 2008, please tell me your thoughts about micro sites now that were in 2011. Do you still feel the same way about them?

Micro-Sites absolutely work, but not to belabor the great points already made, it's all about conversions. 1 micro-site or 20 micro-sites don't matter much if you can't correlate sales back to each one (or whatever your metric is).

With regard to the expense of building a micro-website Wordpress is a great platform. You can get hosting for $10 per month to test.

With regard to auto dealers having to pay through the nose for services, the auto industry has painted itself into a corner.

Here's my take: Back in 2000-2001 I worked for a pre-dot-com crash company pioneering VoIP and click talk technology. Our test bed were auto dealers across the country. We even participated in the nation-wide roll out for MBUSA.com

We tried to offer the service to dealers at just $25 per month to pilot test with us. Most dealers balked at the service as the price was too low. Once we came out of testing and the price went to $150 for the low end package dealers signed up left and right.

Most GM's won't give a company the time of day if a service appears to be cheap. On the other hand, with effectiveness of online advertising I don't understand why dealers will pay autotrader.com or some other company $6,000+ per month to market their inventory.

In a test I conducted with a local micro-site, we outperformed traffic from autotrader with just organic SEO alone.

Quote: Ryan Lucia

"Leads from your site are the best or close to it. Response time is critical. Most people submit a lead to more than 2 places before visiting a store."

Ryan is dead-on. As a company that generates leads for auto dealers nation-wide micro-sites have reduced lead costs for some of our test dealers by 25-30%. Response time to leads will be a critical factor in 2009. We have seen in some cases where the same individual hits 5 of our sites and submits the same lead within minutes. (no loyalty until you earn it)

Great news! Add chat to your micro site and watch it blow up. Yep, you have confusion, unwillingness to give info, personal uncertainty. All of those are the exact reason to add chat to your dealership websites. Try it, trust me you will love it. A lot of times the reason you don't see results are because people don't like giving info (filling out forms) to capture what they are looking for. I have seen great success on our micro sites from live chat. We are a new micro site company that has hit the scene and we see huge results. Toyota of Orlando get over 1100 leads a month from chat. They pay less than $200 a month. Talking about ROI. Add 20 micro sites and chat to all of them you can do some major damage. I have over 10 years in the automotive industry and micro sites and chat are the best advantages you can have. Leads from your site are the best or close to it. Response time is critical. Most people submit a lead to more than 2 places before visiting a store. Site back and imagine having someone land on your micro site and start chatting with you. How does it give you an advantage? How does it now? So does it take away from our standard leads from email and phone? NOPE! 1% change in both. Just increase your leads by 25% to 400%.

This will make you different, easy to work with, and you get that instant gratification you always want from your clients. At the end of the conversation you will know where you stand.

Joe,

Funny that you mention CMS sites. I am actually in the process to create my own platform based on an open source CMS. The great potential here would be to create a platform that allows me to create content seperate from lead creation ( e.g. create content that you can combine with a form that makes sense for that content) Now we have to create a content page and then link it to a standard form page. This means you lose visitors with the extra click. I want to create a platform that allows a dealer to place different pieces of content on one page. Give me about 3 months and I will be done. Have the layout and basic design done, just need to put all the pieces together (new inventory feed, used inventory feed, flexible forms, etc)

These vendors get to set in telling dealers how it should be done eventhough they all used to work at a dealer themselves and most have no clue.

Regarding the pop up and pop under. Call dealeron (dot) com and tell them that you want to try this tool. It definately increased my conversion ratio ( I had dealeron place this tool for free on my dealerskins site which gave me an increase of 1-2% conversion, which equated to about 50-100 leads)

With dealerskins I converted about 5-6%, now with dealeron site I am converting 9-12% and with dealerskins it included service appointments and with dealeron it does not, so the difference is even bigger.

I will keep working on this open and flexible platform for dealers so you can change themes with the click of a button, add content with the click of a button, seo friendly, etc...

Oscar,
One more thing.

How do those pop-under and over coupons work for you? I havent tried it and I'll try anything as long as it sells cars.

Joe

Oscar writes:

---I would prefer to see a vendor that allows me to build my own marketing messages on my website, and allows me to add a form to this page with the fields I want, and allows me to optimize this page based on what my marketing message is. That is basically what you want with a microsite, but our website providers do not allow us to do with our own website.---

Ahhh... music to my ears. We speak the same language! This is one of my pet rants. It's July dammit, why can't I have a July sales theme? Why does my site look the same when we're running a huge campaign and when we're not?

What you (and I want) is a CMS site (Content Management System). It has been done to near perfection by Alex at CheckeredFlag.com. For us mere mortals Jeff K has recommended Joomla.com that is open source. Get yourself a personal Joomla hack and your off to the races.

I am totally rebuilding UsedCarKing.com from the ground up. It is a SEO engineered CMS, built in CSS so I can change the look and feel without an act of congress to get it done.

Stay tuned...
Joe

I have to agree with Alex' initial posting. I have build my own microsites both branded and non branded to see what kind of success they would give me. In addition, we use a dealer ad association with a website. It might be easy to rank well for certain keywords, but conversion is way lower then the 9-12% I get on my main website.

I just do not see the value in them other then creating very focused messages to your potential customers. That is exactly where the problem is. All of the website providers for car dealers are very inflexible and do not allow you to create mini advertising campaigns on your own site.

I would prefer to see a vendor that allows me to build my own marketing messages on my website, and allows me to add a form to this page with the fields I want, and allows me to optimize this page based on what my marketing message is. That is basically what you want with a microsite, but our website providers do not allow us to do with our own website.

Content is King and putting the content on multiple sites instead of one does not help you. Instead of creating multiple micro sites, I see more value in creating one non branded website next to your own dealer site. This way, you can go after traffic that you are not getting now.

Regarding price. In order for a microsite to successfully index organically in the search engines, you need at least 3-6 months, thus you are paying $1000 plus $200 per month. So let's say $2,000 to get started and then you have to maintain your keywords, content and keep track of your results. I created the sites myself with a cost of about $90 per year and I still did not see the value. It is too much work. As for the person that commented about getting 5,000+ leads a month from microsites (don't believe it). Please show me what you did and I will give you a big fat check!!!

Joe,

First, I do not claim that Ralphs success is due to us, why would I? I merely claim that Ralph is not the only reason OUR efforts are successful. Like I said, RP asked for a particular site, and it was up to us to design, build, optimize and market the site organically. At the time, RP was one man asking us to build a web site for something and make it successful. It takes a certain skill to rank your site naturally/organically on the first page of Google, especially for multiple brands and multiple markets.

It is always good to hear that a dealer is knowledgeable in SEO. Do you remember when you contacted us for Micro Sites last year in May of 2007? At the time you were working at a dealership. We spoke several times about SEO back then. I am the type of company that remebers its clients or potential clients, and is ALWAYS just an email or phone call away. We provide a valuable solution for dealers at a very affordable cost.

Here are some examples.

Example of a Non Dealer Micro Site 2 pages
One such non-dealer micro site we built is in the mortgage industry. We built a 2 page micro site and in 3 months it has received about 10 leads. It ranks on the first page of Google with no other advertising, not even PPC.

For Example: Keyword M&I Bank Construction Loan
Page #1 - Position #1
For Example: Keyword M&I Financing
Page #1 - Position #3
For Example: Keyword Scottsdale Lot Loans
Page #1 - Position #1
And so on...

Micro Sites work so well for dealers in particular because when a potential customer is researching a new vehicle, they usually type in the following combinations of keywords:

"year, model" or "year, make, model" or "year, model, location".

Take the 2007 Tahoe site we built a couple of years ago. Our statistics show that customers are finding the site by Googling the following terms:

2007 Tahoe: position #3
2008 Chevy Tahoe: position #10
New Tahoe: position #2
2008 Tahoe, Phoenix: position #1
and so on...

McCombs in San Antonio built several micro sites with us, and one of them, RedSaysYes[dot]com has high organic raking for the following:
bankruptcy dealers: position #1
bankruptcy dealerships: position #1

To answer what you claim is my tactical error:
We are just one dealer solution provider in a sea of many many choices dealers have. RP now working at one of the biggest companies in this industry does good for what we provide, but does nothing for me directly. RP promotes what ADP/BZ does not what we do. If RP promotes one of our micro sites, his next sentence is, "We (ADP) or I(RP) can do that". I really don't think it is in RP's best interest to promote another companies wares when he is paid by ADP to promote that same service. Other dealer web site providers have approached us to partner with them in the micro site arena and we have approached others too. ADP is not the only solution provider. Before RP joined ADP, ADP refused to even consider Micro Sites. If any bridges were burned, it was by RP claiming those sites as his own and as a BZ site by ONLY changing the copyright notice and then promoting them to dealers as an ADP/BZ solution. It would be like me taking your site and using every word and image and putting it under a new domain name and copyrighting it as my own. No dealer would want the exact same site being used by a competitor, oh wait, BZ does do that already. ;)

Bottom line Joe, we have been in the web development industry since 1995, and for Dealers, we specialize in building micro sites and provide online marketing via SEO & SEM.

David

Mr Jackson,
When I read your post, it was quite clear that you felt that Ralph Paglia’s success is due to you. I happen to think it’s the other way around.

I am a site builder, webmaster, site project manager, marketing director and I am SEO literate. I see all the parts in the puzzle. I will use this analytical method to highlight my opinions.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Internet SEO to this vertical?
>>>answer: 10 <<< (one is not important, ten being very important) On a scale of 1 to 10, looking at this industry as a whole, how “densely populated and SEO developed” are the dealer sites that connect to this space today? >>>answer: 3, just 2 years ago it was a 1 <<< On a scale of difficulty, ranking 1 to 10, how difficult is making a microsite? >>>answer 1<<< (one is easy, ten being very difficult) On a scale of difficulty, ranking 1 to 10, how difficult is making a microsite rank well for “Life Insurance Quotes”? >>>answer 11<<< (11 = damn near impossible) On a scale of difficulty, ranking 1 to 10, how difficult is making a microsite rank well for “2008 Camaro” when it’s created in 2005?? >>>answer 2

to Alex,

Thank you for the followup post and apology. I appreciate it.

Then I misread your comment David. I apologize. I keep up with Dealer Refresh daily and when there are days (almost a month in this case) between comments it is hard to recollect what exactly has been said before.

URL's are definitely allowed and encouraged - I wish TypaPad was able to convert them into hyperlinks though.

To Joe...
What do you disagree with? I gave information do dealers on how to run a PPC campaign. I gave testimony that Micro Sites do work. I responded to a few comments asking for feedback from a dealer, I believe I even gave you props for reaching out to other areas of your dealership, and I responded to Ralph's claim of owning the design of OUR micro sites as his own. Ralph merely asked us to design those sites while at Courtesy Chevrolet. He is now at a competitor ADP or BZResults and using our designs to sell micro sites. Would you want a competitor to copy your exact web site and use it to compete against you? They are exact. I'm sure you wouldn't.

To Alex...
Did you read Ralph Paglia's posts? He riddles his comment with URL's claiming he designed them and NO ONE says a thing. Not even you had a comment for Ralph. I merely responded to his claim of owning those example sites. He never paid us for those, Courtesy Chevrolet did. He never came up with the design layout, we did. Ralph merely asked us to design and build a site and we did.

I know this forum is not for link posting, but when someone directly takes code, copies it and even copyrights it as their own (BZResults/Ralph Paglia), they should be outed. Dealers I have spoken with that know about this situation even question what he did. I don't think anyone can agree with what Ralph is doing.

David

You may not agree with him Joe, but he sure does know how to stick an advertisement into a comment on Dealer Refresh. That's the best under-the-radar solicitation I've seen yet! Nicely done David - it is so good, I think we should leave it up.

I'm not saying I agree with anything you're saying, I'm simply stating that was one hell of a job of sliding an ad message in. Now you get to reap the SEO benefits, so please send some appreciation back to Dealer Refresh.

woa... remind me to not hire Mr Jackson to execute any idea that I have (or would like to share). Talk about hubris! Yuk!

Joe

It is always interesting to see how one subject can have so many different opinions on what works and why to do them. Bottom line is they work. All you have to ask yourself is, is it worth me to do them?

I'm glad to see that Micro Sites have caught on so well and that the future is still so hot. Most dealers are finally seeing the huge benefits to using them. When we started designing & building Micro Sites for Courtesy Chevrolet with Ralph Paglia 2.5 years ago, we saw an immediate success rate with leads. Since then their Micro Sites, 26 in all, have generated over 14,000 leads, all at NO COST PER LEAD.

We designed many different types of Micro Sites for Courtesy. We designed the 2008 Chevy Malibu, 2008 Chevy Camaro (I know it's not an 08 but more on this later), we designed a Phx Finance site, special financing sites like bankruptcy, Ok Credit, Price Quote, Bad Credit, Good Credit, Got Gas, Free GM Oil Change, other specific model sites and even generic non branded Chevy sites. We have a Red Carpet and Red Tag Event Micro Site. Oh, and there is even a Chevy Pride site.

Most of these Micro Sites had PPC campaigns driving traffic to them. BTW, if you are going to advertise a specific message on GOOGLE via PPC, then you better deliver a page that supports your ad. If you are going to build a landing page or micro site, they both better deliver the message and what you promised the customer when they clicked on your link. Don't just throw up an ad that says 2008 Chevy Malibu, $200 discount when you click, and all they get is your main dealership homepage. I'll assume you all know the difference between a landing page and a micro site.

So back to the 2008 Chevy Camaro. I know this is not the year it will be released, but my theory is why change something that is already working so well. If you GOOGLE 2008 Chevy Camaro, the micro site will be the #1 position, beating out Chevrolet. This week alone, the site has received 41 leads. Hard to change something that still works so well. This site has generated over 11,000 leads on its own. There has been no PPC driving traffic to the site, it is all organic ranking.

Dealers should branch out and develop eye pleasing organic ranking micro sites to gain widespread exposure. 1 Dealership web site may be enough, or it may not be. Third party vendors provide leads but at what cost per lead? And you all know your not the only dealer to get that lead. Micro Sites are in-house leads and only yours.

One hot topic for customers right now is the gas prices and hybrid vehicles. Check out this page and see for yourself the number of Daily Hybrid Searches going on. This was an email campaign we sent out, so please excuse the marketing messages.

http://www.freshstartstudio.com/microsites/email/h...

To Wayne...
You asked, if a Micro Site can provide good ROI, then do it. What is your idea of good ROI? 1 lead can pay for the cost of a Micro Site, so is that good? Is there a higher number? 10, 100? What does a dealer consider good ROI? Are you relying on Organic Ranking, or will you combine PPC? Do different dealers have diferent ideas on a good ROI? This would help me understand your expectations of a Micro Site.

To Tim...
Some dealers purchase their competitors name and redirect traffic, while I don't think this is a good idea, buying URL's for areas you are targeting is. The more specific you can be the better. I like the examples you gave.

To Joe...
Great idea. And it works. Phoenix Chevy did a Tucson Micro Site and Tucson is about a 3 hour drive. They received about 25 leads from the Micro Site.

To Ralph...
I like how you have listed these sites as YOUR Micro Site examples. I urge all dealers to take 5 minutes and look at how EXACT these "examples" are to the sites my company designed and built for Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix. While I respect Ralph in his achievements, and his self promotion, Ralph does not own any right to the following "examples". Ralph was involved, but only in asking Fresh Start to build a micro site based on a topic for Courtesy Chevrolet who DID pay for them.

"Paglia Example" www.Chevy-Malibu.com - Fresh Start Site www.2008ChevyMalibu.com
Please note the built by at the bottom of the pages.

"Paglia Example" www.tahoe-Chevy.com - Fresh Start Site www.2007Tahoe.com
Please note the built by at the bottom of the pages.

"Paglia Example" www.ChevyPriceQuote.com - Fresh Start Site www.chevypricequotes.com
Please note the built by at the bottom of the pages.

"Paglia Example" www.ChevyGas.com - Fresh Start Site www.yougotgas.com
Please note the built by at the bottom of the pages.

While imitation is the best form of flattery, I think this goes beyond that and is called, stealing code, using someone else’s design to get ahead, and Copyright infringement seeing how we post Copyright notices on all Micro Sites.

To all the dealers thinking about Micro Sites. Just Google "dealer micro sites", or "Micro Sites" and you'll see what all the buzz is about on Micro Sites. We’ll be the first organic listing. Oh and yes, this is even considered a Micro Site. :)

David Jackson
President/CEO
Fresh Start Studio, LLC.
www.FreshMicroSites.com

Chip I have some price comparison sites... targeting competitors name and niche... works out nicely...

First GM needs to build a 30MPG car, then they can worry about buying the URL! ;) jk. I'd buy www.over75mpg.com, setup a forum and let people talk about how they've modified their hybrids to achieve this goal, and have it all sponsored by "Dealer X".

--

Long tail SEO traffic, while potentially noisy, is extremely important for small, new, websites (micro sites). It's the only type of SE traffic you can go after in the beginning, unless you're lucky enough to have an authority site pointing to you. Plus the more narrow that query is, the better chance of getting some one in-market.

Additionally, SEO success breeds SEO success, so one day you're ranking well for "Used 2007 BMW 535xi, Boston, MA" and the next quarter you're now ranking for "2008 BMW 535xi, Boston, MA" and then in another quarter you're ranking for "BMW 535xi, Boston, MA" and then "BMW, Boston, MA" until you reach something like "Massachusetts BMW Dealers" and you've gone from a very long tail search, to "stealing" traffic away from your competitors in droves. The important thing is to have a clear-cut plan of what your ultimate goal is and prepare your campaign around it. Ideally you want to be ranking for specific vehicles, regardless of the manufacture year, that you can keep building on year after year.

--

While I can use only the tools provided to me, I suspect that search engine traffic for region, specific cars pales in comparison to region, specific dealer queries. By now, I think most shoppers are going straight to autotrader, cars, ebay, craigslist... when they know what car they want and they'll have used non-region specific queries to figure out what that car is. And no micro site is going to be able to compete with the results for "2008 Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Ford Explorer...". So, I think long tail is very important for the success of a micro site.

Is anyone doing conquest micro sites? Building micro sites to rank high for your competitor's name?

Chip-

Entertaining Offers:

www.Over30mpg.com
(GM should own this URL)
I bought the URL the day oil broke over $40 a bbl. The current site is just a simple template and has no real value. The value lies in the URL itself.

Send contact info to joepistell-at-gmail.com, or to Jeff K here at DR, he'll get it to me.

thnx,
joe

Alex,
I have plans, big plans, but, nothing as ambitious as yours! ;-)

Plus, I'd like our readers to consider their market size.
If you're within a one hour drive of a very large maket (or in one),
excellent ROI from SEO is far more easy to obtain. SEO construction costs (and level of difficulty) are the same in Philly or in Peoria.

Joe

Thanks for the props on the new site Joe! Can't wait to see yours, but I'm hoping you don't one-up me :)

Not discounting if long tail works... it WORKS... but is it worth putting up a micro site just for that, in my opinion it is not, when you can spend that money on your primary site or a blog by autoconversion.com.

Joe -

The Long Tail can in fact be your friend - wondering though if you are relying soley on log files as a measure of your keyword success?

My philosophy has always been to go after the "heavy terms" and get to the 1st page for those terms...go where the people are.

Eventually the long tail can be identified from the site analytics; obviously each store needs to leverage what works for the type of market, customer, dealer type, etc...

Eventually it all comes down to making sure the choices made at the store level are as cost-effective as possible while helping deliver more units.

Doesn't matter If its long tail, targeted 6 word phrases for a micro-site, or broad based 2-3 word phrases for the main site - as long as it works for your store, then work it hard.

I am done trying to wake up people about the value of long tail.

If you want real proof, take a good look at the behemoth content monster that our comrade Alex has put together. Here is a man that has seen the back end of his old site and has "doubled down" on his success and attacked the long tail even harder.

personally, I know Long Tail works because I've studied it from the bottom up (like Alex). I've studied our sites LOG FILES, listened to 100's and hundreds of hours of recorded calls coming from our assorted web properties (via CallBright.com). I've trailed shoppers all the way to a post sale surveys and post sale reviews with sales reps.

I am done preaching LT, my conscience is cleared and I hope you remain unconvinced.

Joe

James,

Why does Click Motive still use landing pages for their PPC? Aren't the new websites being sold as conversion tools?

Also, after 10 years in ASEV (Automotive Search Engine Visibility) I can tell you that having a phrase like the one above is an extremely low percentage of real searches.

Can you show some successful searches that would actually drive traffic to a dealer? I have current SEV reports on several of the Wyler sites.

Steve
ScreenCrafters

Joe do you have any stats to back this up... how many visitors did you really get on these key phrases... 1 or two... in a month. Given you will only convert 3%-6% of your traffic it is a long shot.

I don't think it is worth the money and effort for a micro site for such a long key phrase. When your main site can do the same thing... since you are just competing with less then 5,000 pages.

Now if your micro site ranks well for these...

Used Cars Buffalo
Used saturn buffalo

it's a different game.

Umer writes:
>>Wow micro sites for SEO/SERP... hmm that is a new one for me. Someone point out a micro site that ranks well for any good keyword on any SERP. 4 word keywords don't count.

Alex excellent post...

Wow micro sites for SEO/SERP... hmm that is a new one for me. Someone point out a micro site that ranks well for any good keyword on any SERP. 4 word keywords don't count.

If you are doing PPC sure special finance micro site makes sense... but why bother... when you can do sub domains (taken as separate sites anyhow). Keeps the brand and less chancing of dupe penalty.

I'm always for sites with personalized URL. So if you are doing a postcard get a personalized URL for each recepient but don't get a micro site to go along with it... single page... site is not really worth it.

Why pay for static micro site... host it on Google for free...

Jeff... ahaha... I am the KING of MicroMedia websites!!
http://www.micromediasites.com/

Hey Joe:)

Thx..however, I was trying to drill down further as to where James was getting his info from...

Tone is always a difficult thing to gauge in the written word - but there was a sublte amount of dry sarcasm in my post to James.

Eric

Eric writes:
"...Gotta ask...where are you seeing that people are asking (Googling) for "2008 Chevy Tahoe Cincinnati?"..."

May I suggest:
http://www.google.com/urchin/
http://www.google.com/analytics/indexu.html
http://www.webtrends.com/products.aspx

Eric's in my back yard, Oh the pain I suffer to be a good DR citizen.
Joe

James -

I understand the concept of driving visitors to pages w/content related to their search terms.

However, using a search phrase that isn't a real word example of user behavior as a reference point to your "proven success" may be confusing to dealers who may not be familiar w/this concept.

I've heard so many dealers tell me about how unsatisfied they are with the results their vendors deliver - if automotive vendors want to earn, and retain, more business - they need to explain things in easy to understand language, show case studies and service the hell out of their customers.

If you haven't seen them, check out Ralph P's presentation decks & case studies. (It'll take you the entire month of May, but it'll be worth it)

Eric

Eric,

I was just using that term as an example, but the point was more on where you deliver someone who does search specific terms like that. By taking the comsumer to a "tahoe" specific page we are increasing the chance of converting the customer into a lead (same concept as a microsite), but at the same time giving them the freedom to browse your entire site. I wouldn't expect terms like that to give a dealer an avalanche of traffic, but I sure don't want to ignore the fact that people are typing longer search queries, and if presented with what they ask for with one click, then the odds of them converting go up dramatically. Our CTO just returned from the Goolge Auto Exec conference, and Google now says that the average search term is 4 words. So things are trending towards people typing exactly what they want.

A great non auto example is:

Google - spiderman dvd

The first organic link is Amazon. Do you go to the homepage or directly to the dvd?

James Kovacs
ClickMotive
www.clickmotive.com

Eric,

I was just using that term as an example, but the point was more on where you deliver someone who does search specific terms like that. By taking the comsumer to a "tahoe" specific page we are increasing the chance of converting the customer into a lead (same concept as a microsite), but at the same time giving them the freedom to browse your entire site. I wouldn't expect terms like that to give a dealer an avalanche of traffic, but I sure don't want to ignore the fact that people are typing longer search queries, and if presented with what they ask for with one click, then the odds of them converting go up dramatically. Our CTO just returned from the Goolge Auto Exec conference, and Google now says that the average search term is 4 words. So things are trending towards people typing exactly what they want.

A great non auto example is:

Google - spiderman dvd

The first organic link is Amazon. Do you go to the homepage or directly to the dvd?

Great thread but I'm wondering if I should be selling micro sites instead of cars.

James -

You say ..."By delivering the consumer directly to the page they asked for..."

Gotta ask...where are you seeing that people are asking (Googling) for "2008 Chevy Tahoe Cincinnati?"

Mouse to House Delivery.

Good one Alex!

Thnx,
Joe

This will have an impact on Micro Sites as well as Flash Sites. It is expected we will see more of these types of "Quality Control" solutions added in the future in an atttempt to clean and streamline the web.

"Landing page load time will soon be incorporated into Quality Score"

As part of our continuing efforts to improve the user experience, we will soon incorporate an additional factor into Quality Score: landing page load time. Load time is the amount of time it takes for a user to see the landing page after clicking an ad.

Why are we doing this?
Two reasons: first, users have the best experience when they don't have to wait a long time for landing pages to load. Interstitial pages, multiple redirects, excessively slow servers, and other things that can increase load times only keep users from getting what they want: information about your business. Second, users are more likely to abandon landing pages that load slowly, which can hurt your conversion rate.

When are we making this change?
In the next few weeks, we will add load time evaluations to the Keyword Analysis page (we'll notify you when they are available). You will then have one month to review your site and make necessary adjustments.

After the one month review period, this load time factor will be incorporated into your keywords' Quality Scores. Keywords with landing pages that load very slowly may get lower Quality Scores (and thus higher minimum bids). Conversely, keywords with landing pages that load very quickly may get higher Quality Scores and lower minimum bids.

To learn more about the upcoming change, please see this article in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Great topic Alex.

We have found that the best way to utilize microsites, and to keep the consumer confortable within the confines of your dealer branded site is to incorporate the two. By delivering the consumer directly to the page they asked for, they can still convert at a high rate, or click to another area within the site quickly and easily. We have went beyond A/B testing on this issue and have shown proven results.

Example:

Google - 2008 Chevy Tahoe Cincinnati

The first organic listing is for Jeff Wyler Chevrolet. When you click on the link, you don't go to the home page or inventory, but rather to a page designed specifically for the Chevy Tahoe customer. It includes all of the information on researching/buying a new Tahoe, Tahoe video/pics, plus links to specific pages on Tahoe service or parts. Pages like these convert very well, plus allow consumers to navigate to any other page within the site.

These pages can also be used for SEM campaigns.

James Kovacs
ClickMotive
www.clickmotive.com

Hi Everyone,

This question is for the "experienced micro site developers". Have you ever witnessed a site of yours generate a great deal of leads in a short time and then all of a sudden die out ? Do a lot of your micro sites generate a stable amount of leads over time ? Or do you need to keep adding to your portfolio ?

Thanks

Joe - what about offering a delivery service coupled with some kind of "do the deal from your house" ad campaign? Flat bed deliveries aren't that much - we do them all the time with our highline franchises.

If microsites can generate a good ROI, its good. If not, don't do it. Generating leads is not enough anymore in this current business climate.

I'm always reminded by dealers - "Wayne, if we're not selling cars, none of what you are doing really matters."

"Moral of the story? If you are a Honda dealer selling cars in Torrance, you are VERY OK when acquiring URL's that contain "TorranceHonda" in them!"

What if you are a Ford dealer in a small town 20 minutes from, let's say...Knoxville, TN? Would it be ok, in your opinion, to use KnoxvilleFordF150.com or FordFocusKnoxville.com in order to draw web traffic from a more metropolitan, more heavily populated area??? Does that infringe upon the Ford dealers who are actually INSIDE Knoxville city limits?

I like this thread, I have already learned quite a bit!

Ralph P. and the group, I’d love your opinion on a microsite project.

Topic: Adjoining Market Microsites.
This whole concept needs one of two "engines" to drive commerce. #1) is large amounts of population in adjoining markets
#2) Enormous inventory

We're a number2 dealer (aka big fish in small pond). I’ve got 3 microsites on the drawing table built specifically for SEO'ing into the rural regions that surround me.

IMO, because we have no brand established in these markets and we're far away, I need to get the surfer comfortable with contemplating a long distance transaction into a strange place. I am thinking that we'll profit from having a "point man" or a go to person assigned to the region (read: microsite). This sales rep should have a personal connection to the region so the rep can demonstrate local authority making our caller more at ease. We'll create an personal intro video and assign the rep a toll free# to a cell phone. We'll make any deal we can to the 1st dozen buyers to create Local Testimonials (with photos/videos) to help that shopper visualize a successful transaction.

I assume that I am not the 1st person with this concept, I'd like to benchmark, can you think of another dealer that has done this? The URLs?

Any other ideas/examples?
Joe

Hi Ralph,

Thanks for the reply. Does it matter what the extension is ? .net, .org, .info etc... ?

In regards to the post below... During my consulting visit to Scott Robinson Honda when we developed the strategy and acquired the URL's, I had an AHM eBusiness executive with me as an observer. He had no problem with the URL's because they were geographically localized to the community that is in the dealer's primary area of responsibility. The URL acquisition was not the reason I brought Honda management with me, but it sure made the dealer principal more comfortable with the URL acquisitions with the factory guy present. Since 1994 I have bought THOUSANDS of URL's for many dealers, and for my own purposes. In my opinion, the acquisition o keyword laden URL's is an important aspect of an effective microsite strategy. I have been to court, deposed, sued... won and lost several cases. I get attorneys calling me all the time as both an expert witness and to testify on "customs and practices" in the auto industry. I have reviewed nasty, threatening letters from just about every car company in America... And, I have had Mike Devereaux at GM come to my dealership in person, with his entourage to discuss my store's acquisition and use of over 350 URL's that GM decided they wanted us to transfer... When the dust settled We kept them, and used them is a responsible and legitimate manner. I am not sure that all the battles I have fought on the URL issue have been worth the time and energy, but when you win it feels great! When you lose because of intimidation tactics and unfair business practices, it does not. If anyone ever gets in a jam, or a pissing match with an OEM, give me a call or write and I can refer you to an experienced attorney.

Oh yeah, one last thing... We did buy www.TorranceCarMax.com and www.CarMaxTorrance.com while I was at Scott Robinson Honda... One quick visit to the URL's will show you what the dealer decided to do when he got the letter from Carmax's Legal Eagles!

Moral of the story? If you are a Honda dealer selling cars in Torrance, you are VERY OK when acquiring URL's that contain "TorranceHonda" in them! And the same applies to just about every other make and location... BUT... What If you are a Hyundai dealer in Tucson and you already own www.HyundaiTucson.com when Hyundai decides to come out with a new model called a "Tucson"? Yummy... Let me be THAT Dealer!!!!
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Hi Everyone,

I'm new with dealerrefresh.com and I have one issue regarding micro sites. Whats does everyone think about the trademark issues regarding these domain names ? For example,

www.TorrnaceHondaAccord.com
www.TorranceHondaPilot.com
www.TorranceHondaCivic.com
www.TorranceHondaCivicGX.com
www.TorranceHondaCivicSI.com
www.TorranceHondaCRV.com
www.TorranceHondaElement.com
www.TorranceHondaFit.com
www.TorranceHondaOdyssey.com
www.TorranceHondaPilot.com
www.TorranceHondaS2000.com

Notice the terms "Honda Accord", "Honda Civic SI" etc.....

Don't those terms belong to Honda Motor Company ?

All comments and opinions are welcomed.

SCM

How many micro sites does one need to expect to build before they starting seeing results in search engines ?

You don't get it. Listing a site into "Google's Webmaster Tools" is submitting it to Google. Especially if you listed a site map for them to spider.

Nobody has said that they will not help your site rank for other terms. That should be one of the primary reasons to have one unless it is unbranded to "trick" people into submitting a lead.

You keyed in on "Special Finance Tulsa" not being a high competition keyword and got your feathers ruffled. It may be a very highly competitive part of your business but it just does not have much search volume. You will never get the search numbers out of google for any term. Tools like Word Tracker do help estimate them. Google will help you measure the amount of traffic though for your keywords.

What is the amount of traffic you get for the search term "Special Finance Tulsa" that converts to leads then to sales. That is the real value of having those keywords and it all can be done in Google Analytics. (Measuring ROI on Search Terms)

One of the benefits for having two pages on the front of the serps for that term you will capture most of the traffic from the occasional search. Kudos...

you just dont get it, thats ok. you read into it what you want to but just go back and read between the lines. You might be able to fiqure it out. Wait let me help you again, from five websites covering 20 keywords or phrases I rank 1 to 3 for those terms, which are relevant to what Google has told me, not word tracker whew. I have nothing to do with Riverside Nissan as they are sonic automotive. Being involved in Google webmaster tools has nothing to do with submitting sites to search engines, geezzz. Last but not least I will try one more time, Micro sites assist my main website in search engine rankings for search terms that did not rank well for before. Next.

Sorry your smarter than me, my bad