The Three Musketeers of Automotive SEO

I'm back in my room as I wrap up my first day of the Driving Sales Executive Summit. Today I shared a panel with JD Rucker and Paul Rushing as we discussed some basics about the role of SEO and Social Media in car dealer Internet Marketing plans.

I wish we had two hours to dive into the topic which is very broad and needs that investment in time to allow attendees to leave with more hands on ideas to implement back at home. The good news is that all three of us will be around for the next two days so dealers can have a one on one.

To the chagrin of some attendees, the panel did not beat up on each other. In fact, the three of us had many points of agreement which may have surprised some people. With such a short time to present, it was well utilized to share what universally will be successful for dealers to implement at home.

Internet Marketing Strategies

The take-away for attendees hopefully was that they need to map out their off-site SEO and social media plan as part of their overall Internet Marketing and branding strategy. This is not optional.

Paul reminded dealers that their most valuable asset was their dealership name. Paul challenged all dealers to make sure that they own all 10 organic listings for Google searches on their dealership name and to not allow third party lead collectors to poach consumer leads. Paul also discussed that SEO is not a one time event and the dealers need to be adding content and links every month to stay competitive.

JD demonstrated that through the use of social media, he was able to fill a Google search results page for the term "Driving Sales Executive Summit" in just minutes after he posted to social media websites. Together, JD and my SEO posts dominate 70-80% of the organic search results for that phrase. JD clearly demonstrated that his social media skills can be a game changer in online automotive marketing.

I stressed the importance of good content and content SEO strategies and demonstrated a new website that can help leverage OEM content for outstanding SEO results. Again, we just started to scratch the surface when the 45 minute buzzer went off. We had a list of tips and techniques to share so it looks like the Three Amigos will have to reassemble at some time in the future.

The good news is that these discussions increase the awareness of SEO and social media as a mandatory part of a dealership's overall marketing strategy. I hope that all dealers, regardless of if they attended this event, have a clear road map on how to leverage SEO and social media. If they don't, well they now know who they can call.