AutoRevo Blog

Get Your Google Places Page To 100% Completion

Greg Gifford — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:56:11 +0000

We’ve gotten a lot of questions lately about Google Places, and one we’ve been asked a lot is “how do you make your Google Places listing 100% complete?” Many dealers think that since Google displays the completion grade in your Places account that it plays into the ranking algorithm and will help their listing rank higher. Reaching 100% has no impact on your rank – but it does provide more useful information for your potential customers. It’s all about presentation – the more you show, the better your chances that a user will click through to your website or pick up the phone and call. Mike Blumenthal, a local search expert in New York City, has plotted out the factors [...]

How Google Places Reviews Work

Greg Gifford — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:51:12 +0000

Google Places has become one of the most essential tools for increasing the popularity of a car dealership in search engine results. Google Places works just like organic search ranking – it takes time to build reviews and rank higher. If you’re trying to improve the ranking for your Google Places page, you should think of the timeline in months, not weeks. We got a lot of questions about our last post that listed ranking factors for Google Places listings, and a lot of those questions were about customer reviews. Reviews DO have an effect on where your Places page ranks. Google treats local searches just like it treats organic searches – it’s going to display the most relevant dealerships [...]

Ranking In The Top 10 For Google Places

Greg Gifford — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:47:46 +0000

Local search is vital for car dealers – experts in the industry have been preaching it for a while now, but thanks to the explosion of mobile devices and recent changes to Google, auto dealers are finally catching on. If you want to stay competitive, you’ve got to get your dealership’s Google Places page to rank high. After Google’s update that blends Place-related results with standard organic results, Google Places has become a powerful tool for auto dealers to grab traffic. In many cases, smaller independent dealers are able to rank on page 1 of Google with a well-optimized Place page and compete against the larger franchise stores. Amazingly enough, there are still a huge number of dealers who have [...]

Honda Revives Ferris Bueller To Huge Backlash

Greg Gifford — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:14:52 +0000

Ferris Bueller is back … and a LOT of fans are upset about it. Instead of returning in a sequel to the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Matthew Broderick is reviving his role in a Super Bowl commercial for Honda. A teaser was posted on YouTube last week, sparking a huge wave of excitement. Fans across the country assumed it was a teaser for the sequel to one of the most iconic movies from the 80′s. Check out the teaser: The 10-second clip shows an older Broderick dressed in a bathrobe and saying, “How can I handle work on a day like today?” – a tweak of a line from the original movie. The clip ends with the date [...]

Why Social Media Is Vital For Auto Dealers (Infographic)

Greg Gifford — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:53:34 +0000

Word-of-mouth and customer reviews are changing the way auto dealers do business. Research continues to show that the American public is turned off by traditional marketing tactics, or they flat out ignore them. Auto dealers have to adapt to the new way of thinking in order to stay competitive. Social media and reviews are vital to a dealership’s success in 2012, but we still see a huge number of dealers who don’t use Facebook and don’t have a Google Places page. There’s simply no excuse – you HAVE to participate in the social conversation to stay competitive. We put together this quick infographic to show you some compelling numbers that will open your eyes to the power of social media [...]

The Most Important Step In Reputation Management

Greg Gifford — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:10:34 +0000

Reputation management has become a buzzword in the automotive industry over the last year. It seems like every vendor is offering a solution, and every dealer either has an opinion about it or thinks it’s worthless. Reputation management is broader than what many dealers think – it’s not just about online reviews on Google and Yelp. You’ve got to monitor the social conversation as well. There are still a lot of dealers who aren’t on Facebook or Twitter because they don’t personally use the sites. That’s not an excuse – you HAVE to participate on social media sites. You may not use Facebook personally, but I can guarantee that your customers and potential customers are using it. With 86% of [...]

8 Ways Your Dealership Can Destroy Your Competitors

Greg Gifford — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:26:00 +0000

Most car dealers are entrenched in their online marketing plan, doing what they’ve always done because “that’s what works.” They have their blinders on, only thinking about beating the competitor up the street and not really changing their online battle plan. There’s no reason you shouldn’t dream bigger. Take the blinders off and expand your Internet marketing strategy – there’s no reason you can’t compete against the bigger dealers or dealer groups. They might have more money and more resources, but if you consistently follow these 8 tips, you’ll see big wins in the search engines that you never thought possible. Create content consistently and back it up with solid SEO We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again [...]

12 Questions To Ask A Potential SEO Provider

Greg Gifford — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:44:27 +0000

Most auto dealers shy away from automotive SEO because they don’t understand it or they don’t think it’s necessary. There are a lot of opinions floating around the industry, and even though it’s clearly proven that SEO is effective, there are still some naysayers who spread misinformation and fear. SEO isn’t magic… it’s not smoke and mirrors… it’s not voodoo… it’s a process that requires ongoing work and research. Some companies offer “SEO services” for incredibly cheap prices, or claim that SEO is “built-in” to their platform. While it’s true that some of the nuts and bolts can be an automated process, there is no software or system that can equal an expert, sitting at a computer, manually researching and [...]

Car Dealership Offers Free Cars If Green Bay Gets Shut Out On Christmas Day

Greg Gifford — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:32:10 +0000

Yes, you read that right – there’s a car dealership in Chicago that’s offering FREE cars if the Packers get shut out by the Bears this Sunday. For any vehicle sold from December 16th through this Friday, Sawicki Motors will rebate 100% of the purchase price if the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers on Christmas Day. They’re limiting the payout to the first $1 million worth of vehicles sold during that period, but it’s still a potentially costly bet. Sawicki Motors averages about 35-40 sales a month, with an average price of $22,000. the most expensive car on their lot is an Escalade listed at $76,000. If you really look at the numbers, though, it’s clear that [...]

Download our Craigslist Whitepaper

Greg Gifford — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:22:19 +0000

Craigslist is one of the most important weapons in an auto dealer’s arsenal. The most successful dealers know that there’s simply no better free source for leads in the industry. Unfortunately, because it’s free, the level of competition is almost unbelievable. To make things even more difficult, you’re not just fighting to stand out from other dealers, you have to play be the rules to avoid being ghosted by Craigslist. This whitepaper was originally created for our Elite Dealers, but now we’re making it available to everyone – the information and tips are just too useful to keep to ourselves. Boost your results and bring in more leads Our whitepaper shares inside information about Craigslist – why it started, how [...]