Up until the advent of the web, and specifically the advent of blogs and RSS, content was mostly produced in print for magazines and newspapers. It was also produced on the radio, television, and on the big screen (film), on vinyl, CD, etc. The best content was syndicated or distributed across the globe for others to consume. This of course necessitated a large audience, funding, and network and distribution channels.

Today is different. You can launch a blog in a matter of minutes, publish a post, and voila, your content can technically be viewed by just about anyone with access to the Web. Or you can record a video on your phone and upload it to YouTube, yada yada. However, because of this ease and access to publishing content, the stakes and the name of the game have changed. The world is now more full of more information which makes it that much harder to get your message across and appealing to others.

For decades, auto dealers did not have to think much about content because they could purchase advertising in any of the mediums they chose. Dealers were not expected to produce TV shows, radio shows, movies, or albums.

But today dealers are being pressured to produce quality original content. Why is this? Could it be that because when it comes to the Internet, display advertising has proven much less effective than content marketing? If so, could that be a sign that display advertising in traditional mass media has always been ineffective, or it could be a sign that the Internet user responds differently to advertising? I vote for the latter.

That said, what type of content should a dealership be producing today in lieu of or in addition to display advertising? Even more importantly, where should this content be published, and how often should you post to your blog?

In our White Paper Blogging 101 for Car Dealers, we introduce 5 different types of content that an auto dealership can be producing. They are spelled out below:

1. Product and Service Information
2. Employee information, e.g. bios, honors, awards, etc.
3. Customer Information, e.g. testimonials,
4. Dealership Events and Promotions
5. Community Events and Activities

These might seem obvious, but the challenge dealerships face today is how to form a process that produces all this type of information in a way that is profitable for the dealership by being efficient and effective at selling cars and driving new business from current and non-existent customers.

Download our free White Paper today for to learn why your dealership wants to be blogging and how you can create an effective content marketing strategy for your dealership. You will be introduced to some key concepts related to blogging, micro-blogging, and social media as it pertains to car dealers and you will also receive a free getting started guide to AutoConverse.com which is the automotive local marketing site we recently launched that offers dealers a free tool for syndicating content into the AC network in a way that promotes your dealership and your personal brand.

Blogging for car dealers is something I personally have been doing now for dealerships over the past four years. I have plenty to share on the subject and am happy to work with any dealer that has a genuine interest in utilizing our free tools to get a leg up on the competition. You can contact me directly via phone at 1-877-873-0583 or by contacting me through one of your preferred social media sites. I am Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and dealerElite. I look forward to hearing from you.

Google Caffeine is the name for the new method that Google uses to index web pages. In contrast to Google’s old method, Caffeine can index new web pages faster:

“Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.”

Google changed they way in which they index the web because they want to show new pages more quickly in the search results.

What is the difference between the old system and Google Caffeine?

Google’s previous system updated the search index in batches.

“Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks.

To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.”

With Google Caffeine, Google’s search index is updated continually:

“With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index.”

That means that new pages will be displayed in Google’s search results sooner if they are relevant to the search query.

Caffeine is not a ranking algorithm update. It does not change the way Google ranks web pages so you don’t need to do anything different from the way you do things now. Caffeine just means that new pages will be shown much quicker on Google’s result pages.

To get your own website on Google’s first result page, analyze the web pages that currently have top 10 rankings on Google. The pages that now have a top 10 ranking on Google have done everything right to please Google’s latest ranking algorithm.

Analyze the top ranked pages and check how and where they use their keywords. Also check which web pages link to the top ranked pages and how they link to the top ranked pages.

Doing this is a lot of work if you do it manually. For that reason, we suggest the Top 10 Optimizer by Axandra. The Top 10 Optimizer automatically analyzes the web pages that currently have high rankings for your keywords and it compares them to your own website.

You will also get detailed instructions on how to change the content of your web pages and the links to your site so that your site will be listed in Google’s top 10 results.

For questions or assistance with Google page rankings or with Axandra’s Top 10 Optimizer call us at 877-873-0583.

By recently launching the Automotive Advertising Network, these executives believe member dealers can secure unlimited leads and online promotion of their inventory on national, regional and local Web sites. They contend the placement would be strategically positioned to appear on top of the most popular search engines, social networks and blogs through the use of automotive internet marketing.

Brian Benstock, general manager of Paragon Honda/Acura, recapped the online dilemma many dealers face and how the Automotive Advertising Network could provide relief.

“Many third-party lead providers sell the same leads to multiple dealers, and this hurts the closing ratio and average gross profit because many dealers are chasing the same lead,” Benstock explained.

“The network gives us exclusive leads that are not sold to other dealers so the closing ratio is a lot higher,” he added.

“The network has the national and regional search authority so our vehicles appear on top of the results in our market,” Benstock went on to highlight.

“All of our vehicles that are listed on the network link back to our dealership Web site so our Web site gets more traffic and relevance on search engines because we inherit the search authority of the network,” he continued.

Brian Pasch, Sean Wolfington and David Boice outlined their goals for the Automotive Advertising Network. Basically, it can be a path to help dealers generate more leads for less cost.

“It is very difficult for dealers to come up on top of the search engines for these phrases because there are many lead providers competing for the same 10 results on the first-page,” Wolfington pointed out.

“The network’s advertising technology gives dealers broader exposure for their new and used inventory online by helping them appear where customers start their shopping process: search engines and social-media Web sites like Facebook,” said Pasch.

The network executives further highlighted their initiative at the Digital Dealer Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Monday. They emphasized six attributes dealers can gain for a $995 membership fee:

—Unlimited leads from consumers who are actively searching for a vehicle in their market.

—Promotion of a dealership and its inventory on CarDealerSale.com, as well as regional and local Web sites in the primary markets.

—Promotion of dealership and inventory on the most popular social media sites with live inventory posted on the store’s Facebook page.

—Unlimited vehicle inventory publishing on popular blog platforms and WordPress plug-in for optimized inventory listings.

—Banner advertising on the network’s local Web sites, as well as members do not see competitor ads on their inventory listing pages. Executives contend this is the first search optimized, dealer centric advertising platform.

—Access to the networks automotive press release publishing system and unlimited press release publishing on national and regional Web sites.

Timothy Martell, Internet director of the Albrecht Group in Massachusetts, gave a brief evaluation of what the network has done for his store.

“The network helps us dominate search results for every day search phrases that are the bread and butter for organic traffic and first party leads,” Martell noted.

Management of a Toyota dealership also shared how the network helped the store overcome turmoil surrounding recalls of the certain brand vehicles.

“We have a smart strategy to optimize our own Web site to appear on top for local search, but the network helps us reach people who type in the more popular national and regional search phrases like ‘Toyota recall,’” stated Alex Snyder, an executive with Checkered Flag Toyota in Virginia Beach, Va.

“All our cars are available for consumers to see on CarDealerSale.com and the hundreds of regional and local sites that have top position on the search engines,” Snyder added.

Another dealer from the Northwest summarized what Automotive Advertising Network executives believe their system can do for dealers nationwide.

“The ad network is our best new source of leads because they have a high closing ratio and are inexpensive because we pay a flat fee no matter how many leads we receive,” explained Jon Sherrell, Internet director at the Rairdon Group of Washington.

In a new e-book, Social Media Best Practices for Automotive Dealers, GOSO president Adam Boalt explains why social media has shown such quickly mushrooming growth and what the implications are for auto dealers in this environment.

He delves into how social media can be beneficial, brand reputation, word-of-mouth or referral marketing, as well as best practices and the best channels to auto branding and reaching shoppers.

The book also includes a special section devoted to social tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogging.

Additionally, Boalt touches on questions that dealers commonly have when it comes to social media. For example, he addresses how dealers can measure progress, keep customers and build a plan for the content they include on social-media channels.

Continuing on, Boalt is offering his insight as a panelist at the Direct Marketing Association of Detroit’s 14th Annual Automotive Integrated Marketing Symposium on April 20. He will be joined by Michelle Morris, automotive industry director at Google; Larry Bruce, vice president of managed marketing solutions for Reynolds and Reynolds; and Lonnie Miller, vice president of marketing and industry analysis at R.L. Polk & Co.

During the Symposium, Boalt is also offering the “Integrating Social Media with Marketing” session.

Boalt is also presenting at the 8th Digital Dealer Conference and Exposition in Orlando on April 21. His presentation is titled “Evolution of a Social Media Dealer.” This will feature a performance of YouTube celebrity Judson Laipply, who will share his viral video “Evolution of Dance” that has generated more than 140 million views.

View the original article here.