3 posts tagged “tk carsites”
As the industry leader in Automotive search engine optimization, TK Carsites has long needed to freshen-up their own online presence. For years, they have been at the top of search engine results pages for nearly all of the major search terms associated with automotive website design and automotive SEO. Still, the site itself was not as user-friendly
as it should have been.
Now, the new website is geared towards true Automotive Internet Marketing for car dealers.
We have also integrated an official blog into the site. We have always used external blogs such as this one and Driving Sales to communicate with the blogosphere, but TK Carsites now officially has its own blog. With it being integrated with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, the blog should be well positioned to offer current and future customers everything they'll need as far as information regarding or from TK Carsites.
The automotive landscape is changing. Dealers need more than what the OEMs can provide to truly get the advantage over their competition. Using the tools offered by TK Carsites and the expertise in SEO, Social Media, and Blogging, TK clients are well positioned to excel in 2010 and beyond.
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Read more about TK Carsites on this Automotive SEO blog.
One of the worst things that can hamper a car dealer's ability to market online is bad publicity. Negative reviews, bad comments through social media, and other things that appear on search results for a dealer's name can often cause a potential customer to never make contact with you.
In essence, you lose them before you even knew they were considering you.
There are things that a dealer can do to fight negative reviews. TK Carsites offers a solution that does it for you, but if you're a do-it-yourself kind of dealer, here's how to do it:
Respond When Appropriate
Many of the review websites offer ways for dealers to fight negative reviews or contact the customers who left them. It's a challenge and often takes time, but it can be effective on some sites. Others don't care what you have to say - they are consumer generated and there's not a lot you can do about it.
Social media sites are another venue for negative buzz, but luckily it's easier to combat the buzz there. Negative tweets, Facebook updates, etc., can be combated simply by having strong social media accounts and responding when appropriate. Sometimes, having a strong enough account that focuses on positive buzz is enough to make this happen. Other times, direct replies are in order, but normally a response that is properly worded with both sincerity and search engine optimization in mind can take care of it.
Multiple Websites
One of the primary reasons we give our dealers 5 complete websites rather than 1 is because of the ability that they have to control the search engine reputation of our dealerships. Search Google for "Marlboro Nissan". As you can see, the first two pages are filled with properties controlled by the dealership except for 1. There is a DealerRater.com listing on the front page. It was left there intentionally and promoted because the rating is currently a 4.9 out of 5.0. People love seeing that others are happy with a dealership, so optimizing that listing is important.
Most of the listings are portions of the dealer's "Power of 5" website package through TK, but there are also microsites, blogs, and social media profiles filling the first 2 pages and pushing negative reviews off to page 3 where they belong.
Speaking of Social Media
The other easy way to control your online reputation is through social media itself. You'll notice on the search for Marlboro Nissan that page one and two include YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blogs. These are properties controlled by the dealership through a proper strategy. Simply creating these types of accounts won't do the trick. They must be created, developed, and nurtured.
It sounds time-consuming, but it can be done in 30 minutes a day or less. We provide our dealers with a "playbook" and ongoing social media training and support that allows them to succeed without having to spend a ton of time on social media.
For those who want to spend the time, hire someone to do it, or outsource their social media efforts, our service can be fashioned to work with any degree of participation.
Don't Lose Them Before They Contact You
There's nothing wrong with losing a deal. It happens regularly. Whether through email, phone, or in person, it's impossible to make everyone happy.
The real shame is when you lose them before you have a chance to ever talk to them. If they search for your name and see something that turns them off, they may never make contact. Then there's the 3rd party vendors who rank for your name, generate a lead, and then sell that lead to you or a competitor. Or both.
Search engine reputation management is not hard, nor is it expensive. It is, however, crucial. In today's market, nobody can afford to lose a lot of opportunities.
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Read more about Automotive Social Media on this blog.
For the past couple of years, TK Carsites has been emerging as one of the top Automotive SEO firms in the United States. Their standard SEO for car dealers has helped hundreds to sell more cars.
In August, 2007, TK is launching their new Advanced Internet Marketing service for clients and non-clients alike. Through a new, enhanced Marketing Department, recent hires of top SEO professionals, and integrated technologies and techniques, TK Carsites has a stand-alone service that will complement their current efforts and bring in auto dealers hungry for the increased rankings.
Search engine optimization for car dealers is possibly the most competitive and unique niche in the optimization field. There are challenges facing automotive websites that combine for an extremely difficult task. Most optimization companies, automotive or not, are not equipped to handle the upcoming changes in the search engine algorithms.
By combining optimization, pay-per-click marketing, and blog marketing, TK Carsites Marketing Specialist Jim Rucker has plans to lift dealers to the top and solidify their positions.
"We have put two solid months of research into this," Rucker said. "Reading Google patents, testing resources, building networks -- it has yielded a strategy that goes so far beyond what anyone else is offering."
Costs will range from a la carte services around $200 per month to complete campaigns over $2,000 per month.
"Car dealers who have been looking into it will hear different numbers," he continued. "Some companies have nearly worthless programs that they sell in the hundreds that will not stand up to the changes coming. Solo SEO firms may quote thousands per month, not knowing the complexities that face automotive marketing now and more importantly in the near future."
The complete campaigns will include onsite SEO, traditional link-building, social media optimization, pay per click marketing, article marketing, online press releases, microsites, automotive networks, social bookmarking, and blog channels.
"We are working with professional automotive blog companies to offer our clients channel marketing, as well as blog shielding."
A new website, separate from their auto website design homepage, is being built and will be up by mid-September. For more information now, contact Jim Rucker at jrucker@tkcarsites.com or call 714-937-1239.
Search Engine Optimization Automotive
