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Search engine marketing drives
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Support & Resources > Dealer Articles > Search engine marketing drives more visitors to your website

November 14, 2005
By Peter Cameron-Inglis

In part one of this three part series you read about how leads can be converted into sales. In part two I wrote about how you can convert a higher percentage of your Web site visitors into leads. But it's not just all about closing techniques and lead generation.

The winning score, the bottom line, the name of the game, the cutting edge, the point of it all... is not just getting the sale. It's also getting the visitors (the numbers) in the first place. If you don't have a copy of part 1 or part 2 please feel free to email me at peter@agedstock.com and I'll be happy to send it to you.

I've given you lots of techniques for building trust, presenting your inventory, capturing and recapturing leads, and closing the sale - and they're all very important. But unless you can drive traffic to your Web site they're all pointless. What good are these techniques if there isn't anyone on your Web site to whom you can sell in the first place?

So, welcome to the delightful world of Search Engines. If you don't love them now, start falling in love, because this is where the money is. Make no mistake about it: The money isn't anywhere else to the same degree of opportunity. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the day is fast approaching when the Internet will generate more than half of a dealership's gross new and used vehicle sales. Don't get left behind. If you're not appearing in Internet search engine results you are going to lose! This is where most of your Web site traffic could and should be coming from.

Now, please do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I'm not telling you to stop advertising your Web site address on your signs and business cards or stop mentioning it in your newspaper, radio and other advertising. In fact you should be doing quite the opposite. If anything your Web site should be featured more than any other single point in all of your advertising.

But, if someone comes to your Web site because he or she has seen your web address advertised somewhere then they're already aware of you and you're already moving in the right direction with them. They're part of your existing market and you should be working hard to keep them.

However, what about increasing your market share? What about the people in the communities outside of your own that would be willing to travel to your dealership for the right deal? Can you advertise to these people through the TV, radio and newspapers? If you're like most dealership franchises the answer is, no. You cannot advertise in these communities using traditional methods because your manufacturer won't allow it. But, you can still reach them through the search engines. The great advantage to you is that manufacturers have not yet started to regulate how you can market your dealership through the search engines.

80% of new and used vehicle purchasers do their car buying research and window-shopping online. These people are using search engines to find what they are looking for and I've got news for you. They're not looking for your company. Is your market share growing or is your competition's growing? It can only be one or the other.

Okay now back to the topic at hand. What's the secret? Well, I'm not going to make it that easy. I'm not going to tell you all of the secrets here. I usually save all of this information exclusively for the dealerships that pay our team to keep them ahead of their competitors but I will give you enough to make sure that you know what questions to ask your web site designer to make sure that it's being done right.

There are a few basic steps that must be done repeatedly. These steps must be continued again and again because the search engines continually change. Just because you have a top ranking today doesn't mean you're going to keep it.

Search engines owe the Internet user (the consumer) guaranteed fresh and accurate search results. They don't owe anything to the auto dealer who is listed in the results. If for example the Google search engine were to stop giving accurate search results then Google would lose everything simply because people would stop using it. If people stopped using Google then the advertisers that pay Google would in turn stop advertising.

This is why search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Alta Vista and many others continually change their scoring criteria on a quarterly and sometimes even on a monthly basis. So companies cannot, without a lot of ongoing hard work, stay at the top of the search results for terms that people are actually entering in the search engines.

So what are these basic steps that you should do over and over again? Here they are.

Choose the right "Key Words" and "Key Phrases".
Optimize (program) your site with these "Key Words" and avoid pitfalls.
Increase your "Link Popularity".
After getting your site listed on the search engines, maintain and/or improve your ranking.

I'll break this down and explain it for you but please forgive me if it's a little technical. I'll try and keep it as easy to understand as possible.

A. Choose the right keywords and key phrases

Key words are words (or phrases) that are programmed into your Web site and registered with the search engines so that your site is ranked for those words and phrases when someone searches for them.

The biggest mistake that Web site owners make when preparing for search engines is guessing what words should be their key words. Optimizing (programming) your Web site for top search results takes a lot of time and effort. What good is getting a top ranking for a word or phrase that customers aren't looking for? It's a total waste of time.

Are your customers typing your company name or product name correctly or are they misspelling it? For example, are they typing "MacGuinness Motors" or "McGuinness Motors" or "MacGuiness Motors" or "McGuiness Motors"? If you don't optimize your site for the misspellings your customers may never find you.

Instead, as a Web site owner, you should make sure that the key words that you choose to go after are exactly what people are looking for. Do your homework. Do the research. Let your competition waste their time with poor assumptions and badly chosen key words.

Here are some great ways to find out exactly what people are searching for:

To narrow down a list of terms that your potential customers might actually search for, start by talking to your existing customers and the staff who deal with them regularly, and read mainstream media coverage in the newspapers to see which words they use.
Your webmaster or web hosting company should be able to review your server logs to see which terms visitors used to find you through a search engine.
Sign up for a Google's Adwords service and use their key word suggestion tool.
Use the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool. Go to: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Sign up for the WordTracker service at www.wordtracker.com
Use the search engines yourself in order to find successful auto dealer Web sites. If they keep coming up again and again in all of your searches then they are doing something right. Once you've found a good competitor use your Internet browser's menu and view the source code. You'll find two things called meta tags which will look like this <meta name="keywords" content=""> ... and ... <meta name="description" content=""> . The words after the "content=" part are generally some of the words you'll be looking for.

B. Optimize (Program) Your Web Site & Avoid Pitfalls

Now that you know how to pick your key words and view the source code of a Web page you'll see many areas in a Web page that are using tags. Your key words should be programmed into all of them. Here are the top ten areas of your web pages you should ask your webmaster about. Your keywords should be repeating in all of them but don't try using more than two or three key phrases per web page or you'll risk lessening your effectiveness.

Title Tags <title>keywords in here</title>
Header Tags <h1>keywords in here</h1>, <h2>keywords in here</h2>, etc
Alternative Image Tags <alt="keywords in here">
The URL of your website (the domain name and the web page address)
The body text of your page
Text that appears within links to your other pages and other sites
Text on other web sites that appears within links to your site
Bold text contained between bold or strong tags <b></b> or <strong></strong>
Meta Tags for Keywords
Meta Tags for Description

It is important to also be aware of Key Word Weight and Key Word Prominence. Key Word Weight is the number of times your key word appears on your page divided by the number of words on your page multiplied by 100 to result in a percentage. Generally you need to have between 300 and 700 words on a page with a key word weight of between 2 to 5 percent. Keyword Prominence is the term used to describe how close to the beginning of each tag your keyword appears. It doesn't have to be always at the beginning but you should try to have the first appearance of your keyword come as close to the beginning as you can. Avoid putting your keywords near the end of the page.

PITFALLS:

Here are some common pitfalls you should discuss with your webmaster or your web site host to avoid search engines skipping over your web site. There are many things that can make search engines ignore your web site. Here are the top five things you should avoid:

Framed Web site content. Do not use frames.
Content from databases that cannot be indexed by search engines
Macromedia Flash and lots of graphics with very little text.
Don't forget to check cross browser and cross platform compatibility. Test your web site with other browser programs like Mozilla Firefox (free) and Opera (free) and not just with Internet Explorer.
Don't forget to register your web site with the search engines. It doesn't happen automatically. You need to go to each site and complete the online forms. At the very least you should register and list your site at: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Sympatico, AOL, Alta Vista and DMOZ. Do it manually and for Pete's sake don't use automated submission software. Search engines generally do not like this software and it can do more harm than good.

Don't expect to get a high listing by simply repeating your keywords. Search engines can calculate the weight of certain words and phrases. You cannot trick the search engines. The optimum number of keywords has a floor and a ceiling on how many each search engine likes to see per page. This differs from one search engine to another. If you exceed the ideal keyword weight, repetition will work against you.

You should also remember to include a site map and by this I don't mean a page that gives directions about how to get to your dealership. A site map is a page on your web site that lists all of the other pages within your web site. Search engine spiders (indexing programs from the search engines) love site maps because they make indexing your web site a snap. Web sites with site maps generally do better in the search engines than those that are missing them.

C. Increasing your Link Popularity

From a search engine's perspective, the Web is also a popularity contest. The more popular you are with other web sites in the automotive industry and within your city the better you'll do. That means you need to get other sites to link to your web site but don't waste your time getting every dot-com you can think of to link to you. A few well-chosen web sites linking to your site is far better than a hundred that are poorly chosen.

The first thing you want to be sure of is that the site you're going to approach to link to you is showing up in the search engines itself. If it's not listed then the search engines won't know that the link is even there.

If you feature history, scientific data or other useful information on your site related to your product line it should make it easier to attract links. Get creative. The more quality links you can get pointing to your site the better. Places to start are your manufacturer, your Chamber of Commerce, and your well-known business clients. If you have time you can try your hand at writing a few articles, blogs or even a column or editorial for a popular automotive Web site or your local business association.

If you've been surfing the web for the last couple of years you have undoubtedly come across a blog or "weblog". These personal Internet journals have taken the Internet by storm. They are frequently written and updated in a personal tone like a diary or journal where the writer or "blogger" records his or her observations on items and events that interest them. Many blogs will provide links to other useful web sites. Bloggers write about different themes in the same way that newspaper columnists write about different topics but no specialized training is required. If you're not ready for this challenge quite yet don't worry. You can still find many bloggers who will provide links to your web site if you have useful information. Try searching for blogs in Google that relate to your city or automotive brands.

It is also recommended to have automotive related web site directories link to your site. This can increase your link popularity and also attract traffic from each directory.

If you are interested in finding out what you link popularity rating is or if you'd like to compare your link popularity to that of your competitors you can go to one of these web sites (I personally like the first one better than the second):

D. After you're listed, maintain and/or improve your ranking.

Search engine optimization is not a one-time activity. To keep your rankings high in the search results you need monitor and continually massage your optimization all of the time. This will keep your site in the race against your competition.

In closing here are some interesting statistics from a recent survey conducted by Google with 921 Canadian vehicle consumers that are actively in the market to purchase a vehicle:

62 percent - use search engines to find new car info
57 percent - use search engines to search for used car data
11 percent - use search engines to find certified information
78 percent - are researching car prices online
69 percent - are researching specific vehicle information
67 percent - are comparing vehicle models
67 percent - view interior and exterior pictures and information
84 percent - are researching their next vehicle purchase
85 percent - use search engines to find auto sites
79 percent - are searching for brands and models
62 percent - use search engines to find automakers
43 percent - use search engines to find dealers
07 percent - are looking to purchase a vehicle directly online
55 percent - after finding a vehicle they want will visit the dealer
68 percent - say search engines are important in making a purchasing decision

You've invested some of your hard earned money in a Web site for your dealership. Hopefully you're already implementing the techniques and information I have shared with you in these last three articles. Although I don't know if you've done this, at the very least, I know that you have at least invested the time to sit down and read this article. Will you now invest the effort that's required if you're to make it all work? It's your life, it's your dealership and it's your decision. I hope you'll make the right one.

If you would like a copy of the complete research material from Google that I have quoted please contact me and I will be happy to send copies of the published research study to you for free by email.

We would love to hear what you think of this article. And of course, if you have any suggestions for future articles that you'd like to share with us, please send those, too!

Need some fresh, free content for your web site or e-zine? You are welcome to reprint this article on your web site or in your e-zine. We simply ask that you let us know where the article will be appearing, and include our byline with a link to the ASLInternet.com website.

Peter Cameron-Inglis is a co-founder and the Vice-President of Marketing & Operations at ASL (Aged Stock Ltd), a company that provides Internet and sales systems for automotive dealers to increase traffic, increase leads and increase the sales closing ratio.

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