Category Archives: Newsletter

Google announced a few days ago via Matt Cutts Twitter that they are rolling another Panda update.

This is significant because we tend to react to big events but not to small roll outs and Google (Panda updates started in 2011). In this article from last year you can see some time perspective and also a good video from Matt Cutts explaining what to do if you were affected by the changes.

How does Panda affect my dealership?

We believe that Panda will affect long tail searches right away and different dealers need to look at slightly different strategies depending on their situation.

Some easy to see gains are searches like this one 2014 toyota corolla everett.

For dealers like Tom Matson in Auburn where they have heavy PPC competition plus Google bringing “other” Auburn’s across the US into the SERP local content was very important (notice usually Auburn Dodge Indiana in the SERP).

May 20^th, Google released yet another update to their search algorithm.  This update primarily targeted duplicate content, thin content, and low quality content.  This update is estimated to effect approximately 7.5% of search results.  Everyday Google is working on ways to improve their search results, trying to serve up the best possible search results.

What is duplicate content, thin content, and low quality content?

Duplicate content is when one website steals or borrows content from another website.  For example an article from one blog is copy and pasted into another blog.  Google gives very little value to content it recognizes as duplicate than original / unique content.

Thin content is when a webpage or website has very little content on the page or site.  Google doesn’t give a number of words it likes to see on every page, but if a webpage has less then 50 or 100 words on it, there is a chance Google won’t value it very highly.

Low quality content is a mixture of duplicated content, spammy content, bad spelling, and grammatical errors.  If a webpage’s content is copy and pasted from another site and then only reworded slightly, that could be seen as low quality content.

What does this mean for dealerships?

With every update Google releases the importance of high quality and unique content increases.  Content Motive offers a variety of SEO and content marketing products that focus on producing high quality unique content.  Not only does the content Content Motive produces index well in Google search results, the content is also invaluable to car shoppers looking for information on the cars and services they are interested in.  Let our professional writers help boost your dealership’s content marketing strategy.

We started building a new type of set pages for content, specially focused on new cars.

The pages don’t look different than many other companies new car model pages, what is different are the links to content.

In this example for Larson Nissan, you can see that besides accessing the inventory, brochures, incentives, etc (information that most dealer websites have) we also added pages with model information and trim information. The model and trim pages are build with unique content as required by the latest Google SEO updates.

These pages are not built all at once but several each month, for example you can see that Larson Cadillac has model pages but not trims yet. Whilehttp://www.toyotaoftacoma.com/op-2013-toyota-camry-hybrid-for-sale-near-fife/ it would be easier for us to build it all at once a constant flow of content signals Google that there is new material to index and therefore increases the chances of getting our website crawled and therefore indexed.

Enhancing content with video:

We also build pages for those dealers that have been working with us for a while for the 2013 model line. Notice that in this case we also added pages for the Hybrid models and that we used Toyota Corporate Youtube account videos with custom geo-located content to create video / model pages.

Magic Toyota created high quality videos with What’s Next Media so we open those as a layover instead of cresting a new page (we created pages with them in a different section of the site for indexing purposes). These videos have a specific branding purpose for the dealer so we wanted to keep the customer’s full attention on them.

Simple pages purely for content:

BMW is known for their remarkable number of different sub-models, however we kept it simple for this dealer. Same as for this Audi dealer where links to their incentives pages were more important than other things.

For more information about creating content please check our latest article: Top 5 must knows for dealer content marketing or go to Content Motive for more dealer content marketing and SEO services.

In the dashboard you will now notice that leads can be classified as a paid PPC lead.

These leads will have a dollar sign $ indicating that those are not organic to the website.

Our goal is to further integrate assets like Google PPC that are external but related to your web presence.

With one quick look you will be able to see how many leads and what type of leads you get every day in the website. The different icons show where the leads originate and in some cases they can have several sources of information. In the attached screenshot you can see that the PPC click resulted in a chat lead. There are 2 other instances in this example where you can see how the system differentiates from submissions from the dealer’s mobile site.

The CraigsList reporting tool is now available in the website’s back end.

Log in your DealerLab.com account, click on the marketing tab then click on CragsList report.

The report also provides (not shown on screenshot) the phone call records and email transcript.

We also provide a link to the live ads or in case you work in multiple areas, links to the ads on these.

The Craigslist reporting is part of an effort to get as many systems integrated during 2014 and make dealer’s log ins easier then ever.

Interested in Craigslist for car dealers. Auto Classified Solutions has a posting platform that is integrated with our Dealer Lab back-end.

We finally finished our rebates tool for new cars.

The tool allows you to manage blocks of rebates, apply them to groups of cars selected, and the system will calculate the new price deduction from the MSRP. The system will also send all the rebate information to the website so it is displayed in the VDP.

The tool is FREE for customers using both PGI Data system and DealerLab.com websites. For more information please contact Steven.

We launched the Virtual Credit Consultant last year in an effort to create a better online financing application for the dealers.

The VCC is now FREE for all DealerLab.com customers.

The VCC can be installed in:

• The SRP–See top banner
• The VDP–See “Get Pre-Approved” to the right.
• The Home Page
• It is mobile responsive (See attached image)

The VCC doesn’t just work for special financing, the tool is just a credit application, the information around it in the page makes it look one way or another. That means that it is also useful for dealers not looking for special finance customers but just for customers to apply for credit via their website.

The VCC is also mobile adaptive, if your mobile traffic is right now 30% of your total traffic this represents a 30% increase on chances to get a credit application done for the dealership. We can add the VCC to both the mobile SRP and the mobile VDP as well as the banner on the mobile home page. It also works great in tablets.

You can access your current credit applications via the Dealerlab.com back end by going to Leads::Finance::Virtual Consultant. The system will display regular credit apps from the VCC, that way you can use them for different purposes, landing pages, etc and keep track of how they produce individually.

All the credit applications are also stored in the credit section of the website’s back end for quick and easy access.

If you are not getting enough credit applications this product will work for you and it is free for all DealerLab.com customers.

For more information or to install this product contact your DealerLab representative at 425.379.0483

The CraigsList posting report system, now integrated with your dealer website backend:

(AutoClassifiedSolutions.com) has been integrated with the back end of the DealerLab.com websites.

In short: Now you can access all your CL posting budget, expense, call reports, email reports, etc from the website’s back end.

“I know that what we did here looks easy but these systems are completely different. A lot of work went into this and I want to that Dustin Moore–lead programer in the Seattle office and Dan Whiten–lead programer in the Chicago office for putting their teams together and get this done for our dealers”

– Yago Paramo, CEO of PGI Digital.

Our goal with this integration is to have more and better systems integration so dealers can access information faster and from one point of log in.

We have not linked the new reporting system to the back end yet! so there is no direct access until we test it for a few days. If you want to take an “early pick” you can log in your DealerLab.com account and you will see something like: http://dashboard.dealereprocess.com/site-[ unique number]/craigslist

For any questions about CL integrations and reporting please call Jim Gillen at 425.379.0483

Dealer Lab and Dealer e-Process’ rolled out its newest feature “mobile menu” across all of its mobile sites. The mobile menu provides easy navigation and access for the customer on-the-go.

Mobile Menu Grid

The grid displays on every mobile page so customers can access different areas of the site faster as opposed to pressing the “back arrow” multiple times.

Menu Tabs

When you select the menu grid, the menu expands to show all department/category tabs.

Expandable Menu Tabs

The menu tab expands to display all menu links so customers can quickly get where they need to go.

Dealer Lab and Dealer e-Process’ rolled out its newest feature “mobile menu” across all of its mobile sites. The mobile menu provides easy navigation and access for the customer on-the-go.

Mobile Menu Grid

The grid displays on every mobile page so customers can access different areas of the site faster as opposed to pressing the “back arrow” multiple times.

Menu Tabs

When you select the menu grid, the menu expands to show all department/category tabs.

Expandable Menu Tabs

The menu tab expands to display all menu links so customers can quickly get where they need to go.

Download Flyer: 6th PGI Training Seminar

SCHEDULED EVENTS

Breakfast at 8:30am, Presentations Begin at 9am

How To Build Your Dealership Around Social
– Gary May – Founder, IM@CS Doing The Basics Brilliantly

Dynamic PPC Integration & Analytics
– Nick Gorton – General Manager, Integrated PPC

Content and Organic SEO
– Yago Paramo – Founder, PGI Auto

Social Media Strategies
– JD Rucker – Founder, Dealer Authority

February 20th
Hilton Hotel
300 Lake Washington Blvd SE
Bellevue, WA

RSVP TODAY!
LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE
ONLY 75 SPOTS AVAILABLE!

TO RSVP, Call Courtni at
(425) 379-0483 ext. 109

Congratulations to 2014 Automotive Pinnacle Website Awards Winner Dealer e-Process and Dealerlab.com

Dealer e-Process and Dealerlab.com has been recognized independently as a 2014 Automotive Website Awards recipient for the Pinnacle Platforms award in the Websites category. The well-known automotive website platform was well-deserving of the award, and PCG Consulting is thrilled to honor its hard work through 2013.

The Pinnacle Platform Automotive Website Award in the Websites category sets apart platforms that make it easy to create and manage high-ranking dealership websites. Pinnacle Platform Award winners are recognized for providing websites that have numerous integrated tools, are easy to optimize, are easy to customize and that are adaptable to the latest digital marketing musts.

Dealer e-Process has always been on the cutting-edge of website platform technologies and has been recognized by the AWAs since their launch. This year, Dealer e-Process was recognized for its dedicated customer service, its customized website solutions, its integrated digital marketing tools and its commitment to create original software.

Automotive Website Awards Announced January 24th

PCG Consulting celebrated the 2014 Automotive Website Awards Friday night at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. During the awards, the best of the best in automotive marketing were honored, with awards across categories such as Websites, CRM Platforms, Mobile Apps, Social Media, Call Training & Tracking, and others. For an in-depth look at all of the 2014 Automotive Website Awards and their recipients, please check out the 2014 AWA Buyer’s Guide where a comprehensive list of all winners has been published. You can order your 2014 AWA Buyers Guide online now.