AJLeBlanc
marketing solution
does seo get
Customers?
I wanted to shake things up a bit this month and get a perspective other than mine to include in this month’s article. I met Keith Shetterly a few years ago and was impressed at his analytical skills and nonpartisan approach to digital marketing strategies. Keith is an independent automotive consultant with a unique background — he has two decades of experience working for tech firms such as Microsoft, and he was part of the OEM marketing team for Internet Explorer 4.0. His SEO background goes back to the days of pre-Google on sites including Alta Vista and Netscape. Keith also has many years of experience as an eCommerce and BDC director for Saturn, GMC/Buick, DCJR, VW, Volvo, Chevy, Hyundai, Suzuki and Toyota/Scion, as well as spending years as a prominent automotive voice in the vendor and consultant space. Keith’s dealership and automotive consulting career has included both corporate and NCM-driven consulting for everything from SEO to SEM/ PPC to digital advertising audits to BDCs.
Keith is also an automotive writer, published in Ward’s Automotive, as well as a prominent blogger on ADM, DealerElite and DrivingSales. I sat down with Keith recently to get his perspective on SEO and how it can bring traffic to an automotive dealer’s Website. AJ LeBlanc: Why is SEO important? Keith Shetterly: When customers are shopping for a vehicle, as a
dealership we want to be chosen. We need to be chosen. Selected. And, in our business, “selected” means that the customer called, e-mailed and, ultimately, visited. So, in this new Internet world, which has changed so Keith Shetterly many things, how do we get selected? Well, first we have to be found, and the Internet is where our customers all shop now — 90 percent shop the Internet before coming to the dealership.
AL: Explain what SEO is. KS: SEO, or search engine optimization, is the first and strongest component of Internet advertising.
For example, we know that 88 percent of the earliest vehicle shopping falls into an SEO category rather than pay-per-click, which itself is further down the shopping funnel. And SEO has advertising results that can be tracked, but to do it well requires some finesse — finesse we may not be able to do ourselves, but which we certainly need to understand in order to stay on top of our SEO vendors. In the car business, we like things simple, but it is the nature of the Internet to provide the “biggest bang for our buck” with some complexity, so we often need some help understanding SEO.
AL: Can you simplify SEO for dealers? KS: In operation, SEO compares more to a cake made from a recipe than a store-bought cake. We don’t need to bake it, but we do need to know what is in the “SEO cake.” So, to keep on top of your SEO vendors, here’s what you need to know: SEO starts with mapping good shopping search terms for text, page titles, etc. on your own Website and from text on related sites that link to yours, such as blogs. And you’ll need to understand some of the function of the Google tools, such as Adwords and Analytics, which help make sure …the new premium level of our popular your SEO is tuned to what folks are actually shopping for and why they Certified Dealer program! land on your site. Don’t just get reports from your vendors; have them Gain a complete online reputation and social monitoring go through these tools monthly to show you how they are running your platform featuring a powerful 360 dashboard. SEO. Look for things that make sense, such as finding out what words people who landed on your Website actually searched for, and then seeing them in your SEO search terms from your vendor.
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AL: Is SEO just about search terms? KS: No. SEO is also about making your own site more SEO relevant, and thus more prominent on the supremely-valuable Search Engine Results Page One (SERP1) — in fact, less than six percent of shoppers actually visit Page Two. Inbound links from other sites, such as your blog, are gold to Google and the other search engines to help make sure of Page One dominance for your dealership. And video, which also gives a shopper a visual impression of an automobile that no words can, has the highest average SEO impact of any link to your own Website.
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AL: So, SEO is critical to dealers, correct? KS: Yes. And now you can see that, in order for a dealer to be selected
Measure social media efforts
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by customers, first strong SEO — particularly adding strong Video SEO — must get dealers found by customers. And being found on the Internet nowadays is how you get customers. For more information about Keith Shetterly, contact him at 866.386.4445, or by e-mail at kshetterly@autosuccessonline.com. AJ LeBlanc is the co-founder of Car-Mercial.com. He can be contacted at 866.795.9094, or by e-mail at aleblanc@autosuccessonline.com.
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