CF Search Marketing Monthly Newsletter, where we bring you up to date on what’s important in Internet Search Marketing, what trends are happening and what is new and exciting at CF Search Marketing.

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This month’s Webinar info

DealerConNEXTion

VIDorini

Employment Opportunities

Calls2Text

Mobile Search Rising & Its Connection with Local Search

Free Website Analysis

PPC Advertising

Do you know how URL Structure Affects Search Engine Rankings?

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Mobile Search

Recent studies have shown that Mobile search traffic trends are rising and will overtake desktop internet search in the near future. This makes sense from the standpoint of consumers becoming more mobile and connected through pervasive mobile networks that are now achieving functionality and download speeds equivalent to their desktop equivalents. The implication of this is the burgeoning of area Mobile Search Optimization (MSEO). So then, given these trends, what is MSEO? What does MSEO mean to car dealers? In this article, we address these issues.

It is important to understand that with MSEO, Google, Bing & Yahoo don’t care if you have a mobile Web site or not. Web sites designed for mobile users do not get any special treatment in Google search, regardless of what device the user has.

When you observe the search results using a smartphone, you’ll see that search engines do not rank mobile Web sites higher, in fact you’ll rarely even see a m.domain.com or other mobile site listed unless you add the word Mobile or anther unique keyword to your phrase.

Note that we are specifically talking about smartphones, like Android and iPhones – not WAP enabled “dumb” phones. WAP Search is managed by a separate spider at Google, and WAP phones do get a different search result set. However, WAP phones are not growing at a 400% rate per year like smartphones are – they are on their way out. The new smartphones are treated just like desktop search by Google, so you need to plan accordingly if you want to be able to access that market.

It is important to have a site optimized for mobile users, but this is a usability issue – not a ranking problem. A mobile site is not a requirement to rank in the top for smartphone or tablet users. In fact, if you build a dedicated mobile Web site, that site is unlikely ever outrank your desktop or main site.

Does Google Treat Mobile Searches Differently?

Yes. Search results at Google, Bing and Yahoo do treat mobile search differently than desktop search. However search results aren’t different because they treat mobile sites better than desktop, the big difference is that they often view mobile search as meaning Local. That is, the search engines assume the surfer is looking for some local product or local information.

How else does Mobile Search Differ from Desktop?

1. Mobile Search tends to return local results far more often than Desktop. Google has stated that if you’re using a phone, there is a 33% or higher chance that you are looking for something local. Thus, search ranking is swayed towards local results; again, this also depends on the search query.

1. Non-local search results also look different, you’ll probably see less video and image results blended into the Universal Search Results.
2. If you search for an App, or use the keyword download, you’ll likely get results for Apps and not PC software programs.

1. PPC ads sometimes have special features like a Map within the ad. Features like this can take up the entire screen of a mobile device.
2. Having an optimized Google Place Page, Yahoo Local and Bing Local page are very important to rank well in Mobile as a local search is often assumed.
3. Keywords return different results when using a Mobile Device, such as Weather

1. Local is assumed. For example if you search for Best Buy in most cities, Google will think you’re looking for directions or a phone number for the nearest store and they would typically be correct. They also know Best Buy is a Brand, which also keys a different result set. If you try a search for Acme Auto Body Shop – you’ll likely get a result coming from Google Places, or if Acme Auto Body has a Web site, you might get a blended Places and Organic result.

1. Mobile users are almost always signed in to their Google accounts, Facebook accounts, etc – this increases the likelihood of Social Signals impacting search results in the future. It’s very likely these Social Likes, +1′s, etc. will impact Mobile search in the near future. However, at this time in Google Mobile Search, Social doesn’t appear to be showing up in search results.

Thus, the key to ranking well in mobile is to know where your ad spend needs to be. It might be Google Places, It might be a PPC Ad, it might be your desktop or mobile site listing in regular organic search – or it might be a blended combination of all of the above.

So How does Google Places & Local Search Fit in to All of this?

Google pushes Google Places to the top in the majority of locally related keyword phrases; therefore, if your customers are local you must have a very strong focus on ranking well in Google Places. That is, to rank well in mobile search, you need a strong local search strategy. The same goes for Bing & Yahoo Local. Your business listing in these services are extremely important for showing up on the first page for a local query.

Are Strong Organic Rankings Still Important?

Absolutely. While Google does push Google Places in Mobile Search, they also frequently show merged Organic and Place Page listings for local keywords, such as the result for Dodge Dealers NC. This requires that your Organic ranking for your Web site be well optimized – but what does this mean for your Mobile Web site? What is it going to take to get your mobile site ranking well?

How Do I Get My Mobile Content to Rank?

You may not need to do anything to rank well for mobile users, as we discussed earlier. Your main Web site may already be ranking quite well for mobile smartphone search. However assuming you do want to get your mobile content to rank, CF Search Marketing’s best advice is to take advantage of your main Web site to help out. With the assumption that Google will not be giving special ranking bonuses to a mobile designed site for mobile search in the near future, your best bet is to drive all traffic to your main Web site and put your mobile optimized site within a subdirectory as compared to using an m.domain.com sub-domain.

There are a number of very large benefits in using www.domain.com/m vs. m.domain.com for your mobile site such as:

• The Trust and Authority of your main site will be available to the mobile site.
• All your link building activity can be focused on the main site vs. splitting your efforts on multiple sites.
• Setting of cookies is less problematic when you don’t have to go cross domain.

If you’ve already set your mobile site up as an m.domain.com sub-domain, you’ve likely already encountered problems in getting the new domain to rank. It’s probably not too late to just 301 redirect that sub-domain over to a /mobile (or /m) subdirectory off the main site where you can start taking advantage of the main site’s authority.

Conclusions & Summary

Mobile Search & Local SEO are big topics and becoming more and more important these days. Mobile search is clearly a growing area that is and will affect every part of search. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us CF Search Marketing. We are here to help!

CF Search Marketing now offers you customized iPhone & iPad App that will allow your customers to schedule service, lube, and oil change appointments, view service history, approve & get service and part quotes, receive coupons and specials. Go to http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reedmantoll/id455239713 to download our free App to check it out and to be part of our pilot program. Once downloaded enter registration code apple_test.
Check out this great New iPad App for your car

Leveraging Google+ for SEO

Chances are, you’ve been hearing about this new social network Google+ and its potential to help businesses. But the reality is, it’s hard enough finding time to juggle all the different marketing initiatives you’re already part of and you’re hesitant to add another social site to the mix.  But the simple truth is, as time goes on, Google+ will grow and an increasing number of your potential audience will be there. In fact getting in on the ground floor ahead of your competition will have benefits as this network grows and prospers.

Google+ & SEO

The SEO benefits of Google+ are sure to be a hit with businesses looking to gain free organic search traffic (which is pretty much every business out there). Google explains,

“Once these pages/profiles arrive they will probably operate in a way that’s pretty similar to Facebook Pages, but with some Google SEO benefits. They will be indexed, ‘followable’ and individual updates or posts can be +1′d — much or all of which will be fed back into search results and rankings.”

Here are a few of the ways Google + can affect your SEO

1. Most social sites place a ‘no follow’ attribute to outgoing links from their site, this tells search engine crawl bots not the follow the link. This minimizes spamming for SEO purposes. On the other hand, outgoing links from Google+ have the ‘follow’ attribute for plenty of link juices to your website.

1. When someone clicks on the +1 button on your website, it prompts Google to crawl and index your website usually within an hour. Add the +1 button to your site and share it on Google plus to get it crawled faster. The more +1’s the better.

1. Your Google Plus profile is also shown in the search results. This is your chance to capture a free listing on the search results. The best part is you can include clickable links in your Google+ profile result on the search engines. Just like PPC Advertising, you can direct potential customers to specific sale and promotions pages or any page you want to specifically promote.

1. When you post something into Google +, people in your circle who are logged into their account will see your post on the first page of the search results when they search for a relevant topic

Can businesses create Business Profiles?

You may have heard the news that Google has been suspending unauthorized business profiles on Google +? Well, the good news is that you don’t need to wait for their new Business Profiles to roll out. Google has recommended you use a “real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself“.  So choose an appropriate spokesperson for your company and start leveraging Google’s new Social Network now.

So you’re interested, what now?

Call us at 1-800-217-0762 or email us at sales@cfsearchmarketing.com to find out:

• Everything you need to know about creating and managing a Google+ account
• How to use Google+ to market your business and effectively engage with customers
• How to optimize your Google+ account for the search engines
• Advanced tips & tricks to make sure your profile stands out and maximize the SEO rewards from using Google+

Back by popular demand! Pierre M. Fiorini Ph.D. will be offering a free webinar on Local Search. You won’t want to miss out on this important topic. Local Search is an integral piece of your internet strategy.

Local Search

Ranking high in Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Maps is becoming increasingly necessary. It is well known that approximately 50% of all searches have local intent. When shoppers want to buy something, 70% of all searches have local intent. This is huge and why it’s important for car dealers to rank high.    C&F Search Marketing will get you to the top in Local Search. Our packages include: Places Page set up on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Local competition, and keyword research, places page content creation, submission to citation sources and local directories.

Local Search Optimization – Making Sure Your Dealership Ranks High in Google Places, Yahoo Local, & Bing Maps — Pierre Fiorini

Join us for a Webinar on August 31 Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/184304046

Hot New Topics & Trends!

We will be hosting a webinar monthly on hot new trends and topics! Visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CFSearchMarketing for details on the next webinar and information on C&F Search Marketing’s hottest new products, software and iPhone & iPad Apps. C&F Search Marketing is your one stop solution!

What is Google+?

Google+ is a social networking service operated by Google Inc. The service launched on June 2011. Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces new services Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Huddles. Google+ is available on the Web, and will be available as a desktop application, and is already available as a mobile application, but only on the Android and iOS operating systems. This is Google’s biggest attempt to rival Facebook, which is by far the largest social network.

Cool Google+ Features

• Google+’s “Circles” feature enables users to organize contacts into groups for sharing across Google services like Gmail, Calendar, documents, etc. Privacy settings allow users to hide users from others in their circles. Organization is done via a drag-and-drop interface which is functionally similar to the “Friend” function used by Facebook.
• “Hangouts” are used to facilitate group video chat with a current maximum of 10 people that can participate in a single “Hangout” at any point in time.
• “Huddle” is a feature available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices for communicating through instant messaging within circles.
• “Instant Upload” is specific to Android mobile devices; it stores photos or video in a private album for sharing later.
• “Sparks” is a front-end to Google Search, enabling users to identify topics they might be interested in sharing with others; “featured interests” sparks are also available, based on topics others globally are finding interesting. Sparks helps to keep users posted on the latest updates on the topics of their interest.
• Google+’s “Stream” enables users see updates from those in their circles. The input box allows users to enter a status update or use icons to upload and share photo and videos. The Stream can be filtered to show only posts from specific Circles. This is identical to “streams” in Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.
• Google+ has a “+1” button to allow people to recommend items to users in their circles.
• “Data Liberation” provides the ability to download one’s content from Google+.

Will Google+ be the “Next Great Thing”?

The Google+ Circle’s feature is a great way to allow users to incorporate every facet of their life under a single account. It allows posts to be sent to specific circles. This enables users to find balance between their professional and personal life on a social networks. Currently on Facebook, everything you post goes public. On Google+, you control your own information.

Google+ also combines Twitter’s strengths with Facebook’s usability and interface. Like Twitter, there is plenty of public discussion. Facebook tends to be more of a conversation between friends, which is still possible on Google+ by simply posting to the appropriate circle.

There is a lot of excitement about Google+. Almost everyone loves it, and Circles is undeniably brilliant. If Facebook fails to adapt and find an easy way to segment incoming and outgoing information, it is our opinion that Google+ has a definite chance.

Not so Fast Though…

The problem with Google+ is that there is a tremendous amount of effort required to get people to switch from one social network to another. Common resistance to Google+ (or any other new social network) can be summarized by the following: “Everyone I want to share with is already on Facebook. I don’t want to use Google+ if the people I know aren’t there with me.”

In today’s social market, everyone is quick to jump to conclusions about whether the network is going to make it. In many ways, however, this perception becomes reality. No one wants to switch to a social network that isn’t going to thrive.

Our feeling is that Google needs to act loudly and quickly in every marketing channel to get as many people on board as possible. Google is rolling the service out slowly, ensure that it works, and make it feel exclusive. We feel this is problematic. Google needs to capitalize on the hype, show how Google+ is better, and get people invested and involved ASAP. Regrettably, we don’t see this happening.

Finally, when Google+ first launched, due to “insane demand,” the service was temporarily shut down to new invites. This is a problem. Worse yet is the fact that invites are required at all (you just join Facebook!). Also, for Google to succeed as a social network, it needs to allow a person’s entire social web to move with them – not just “part of it”. This is a huge problem for Google+.

On the Viability of Google+: CF Search Marketing’s Opinion

The strengths and weaknesses in the Google+ vs. Facebook war have been examined by our social media team and we have concluded that Google+’s chance of making it in a big way comes down to its ability to leverage the power of Circles vs. heavy resistance to changing social networks.

Facebook is a company smart enough to recognize Google+ as a real threat, and we suspect that something is already in the works to give Facebook circle-like functionality. If that happens in a reasonable amount of time, it should not be expected that many people will switch.

However, don’t expect Google+ to disappear any time soon. Google has a huge advantage over most companies in its ability to integrate a social network with Gmail to create a more social version of search – whether you join or not. Ultimately, full adoption of Google Plus will depend on two things: 1) How quickly Google moves to fill up its network by promoting its (currently unique) benefits, and 2) how quickly Facebook comes up with a good answer to Circles.

Google has stopped posting reviews snippets from third party-sites on its Places page. Google made the move recently after months of a growing number of complaints from sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, etc., which claimed their content was being republished without compensation. Fig. 1 below shows the search result changes for a Honda dealership in LA.

Avni Shah, director of product management at Google said:

“Based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we’ve heard over the past few months, review snippets from other Web sources have now been removed from Place pages. Rating and review counts reflect only those that have been written by fellow Google users, and as part of our continued commitment to helping you find what you want on the Web, we’re continuing to provide links to other review sites so you can get a comprehensive view of locations across the globe.”

Fig. 1. Last month, Google would have counted all reviews in 3rd party sites in their listing – 119. Now, they only count Google user reviewers, which are 26 for this dealership in LA.

Important implications of this change it that it keeps people on the Places page. It allows them to not only read reviews, but makes it easier to post reviews and pictures while they are experiencing what the business has to offer. By keeping surfers on Google, a few things are accomplished. The obvious notion is that the more time people spend on Google and start using the various services (such as reviews), the more money Google can make. On the not-so-obvious side, there are factors that have also gone into this decision. Quality is one of them. Google can better-combat the increases in review-faking when the reviews are home-grown. They have no way to know if this review site or that review site is watching IP, looking for suspicious behavior, allowing users to post multiple reviews about the same business, etc.

Q&A: Implications & Impact on your Dealership

There are important implications of Google’s recent change. The following address common questions concerning these matters.

Q) Will Google Reviews will become more important as compared to reviews from 3rd party sites like DealerRater.com, Yelp, Judy’s Book, etc?

Yes. The reason is that Google has been unable to determine the veracity or authority of reviews posted on 3rd party sites. Now they will have more information via IP addresses, Google user history, etc., to more accurately determine the veracity and integrity of reviews posted in places. It is Google’s intention that their reviews should carry more “weight” since they feel the ones posted in Places will be more highly vetted than those on 3rd party sites (Google gets to make the rules!).

Q) Does this mean I don’t have to worry about getting reviews from 3rd party sites like Yelp, Judy’s Book, DealerRater.com, etc.?

No, absolutely not. An important ranking factor for Google Places pages are the number of “web references”. Reviews can be considered as a web reference (there are many types of ‘web references’ – reviews are just one of many) so we need to think of them as the new “backlinks” for local search. The more reviews the better and the more diverse the better. Of course, they won’t factor as highly as Google reviews, but they will count nonetheless. Furthermore, having a strong presence on Internet Yellow Page (IYP) sites (e.g., yp.com, whitepages.com, etc.) is a good idea anyway since it is estimated that between 20-30% of all local searches are done on those sites.

Q) How do you suggest getting more Google Reviews?

There are some easy ways to get more Google reviews.

1) Encourage shoppers to post reviews about their experiences with the dealership on the website. We do this for all our clients.

2) Send out an email blast to encourage customers to write reviews about your dealership. A good idea to incentivize them to write a Google review. For example, a “FREE OIL CHANGE” will be given to some randomly selected Google reviewer.

3) Leverage your social media channels like Facebook. That is, incentivize Facebook users to write a Google review by offering coupons and randomly select a reviewer to win the prize.

Check out CF Search Marketing’s employment opportunities . If you are a motivated, team player with the experience we are looking for then we want to talk to you.

The 10th Annual Digital Dealer Conference was a great success. Pierre M. Fiorini, Ph.D. lecture on Local Search was standing room only with over 140 people in attendance. If you would like information on Local Search. Contact us at 1-800-217-0762.

More than 80% of people in the market for a new or used vehicle start by searching online, and if they can’t find your website but, can find your competitors… well, I think we know what that means. You can rely on CF Search Marketing to put your dealership’s website on top of the search engines. With CF’s proprietary SEO analysis software and techniques, we make sure you dominate your market!