DealerInternet101.com

I wrote this article that I posted on my blog, DealerInternet101.com:

This is my first algorithmic journey (I studied marketing and not math for good reason) and wanted to learn how Google’s PageRank worked in 30 Minutes or Less. I work with car dealerships everyday to educate them about how the Internet works so they can maximize their Internet marketing budgets. I’ve been explaining how search works in the same way for about 2 months and needed some new shiny tools for my search toolbox.

To start, I Googled ‘google’s algorithm’ because it seemed I a good place to start to discover how Google works (good idea, huh?) and found some interesting info. First, this is how Google refers to their Search Engine:

Google’s Technology: Google searches more sites more quickly, delivering the most relevant results.

At the heart of their technology is PageRank. Pagerank is a system for ranking web pages developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and is what fuels Google’s search engine. Larry Page and Sergey Brin built this engine while attending Stanford. The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine is a college paper that has turned Google into a $171B company. I should have focused harder on my homework and hung out with smarter kids at school…

This is Google’s official explanation on PageRank:

PageRank Explained

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance.

Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines dozens of aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.

PageRank shouldn’t be confused with Google’s PigeonRank, which involves multiple pigeons pecking at keyboards, day-and-night to power the Internet. Now THAT’S a great idea!!!

After finding this info, I checked out Wikipedia and got their usually reliable PageRank definition and checked out a few blog postings. I don’t know who Ian Rogers is, but I liked his explanation of how Google’s Algorithm works.

TIME’S UP!!!

PageRank isn’t as complicated as I thought it was going to be. It’s basically the connections that exist between any and all websites that Google is indexing. I use Google’s ’site:’ to show the number of pages Google has indexed for any URL when I’m explaining ‘How Google Works’ to the dealerships I interact with everyday.

Another tool that I’m going to start showing when demonstrating SEO is ‘link:’. This shows what websites Google has linking back to a URL, which plays a significant role in increasing PageRank for any website. It’s necessary that the link’s pointing back to your website are useful to your website’s visitors or Google will consider it SPAM. If Google thinks your URL is doing anything to game their mighty PageRank, they can blacklist your domain name. Can you say buh-bye visitors?

If you want to make sure the company you’re talking to is offering a quality SEO product, don’t take someone’s word for it, check out what Google suggests here.

Facebook recently announced their advertising platform and with it came the ability for businesses and individuals to create ‘fan’ pages. These pages are a great way generate buzz around your dealership and further extend your brand online.

Here are a few reasons it is a good idea to build a Facebook ‘Fan’ page for your dealership:

1. Fan pages are public pages. This means that they will be indexable by the search engines. Normally, Facebook pages are accessed through a login that is password protected. By having a Facebook ‘Fan’ page, hopefully customers will stumble upon your page while searching for automotive related terms in your area.

2. A ‘Fan’ page is a great way to provide updates to everyone in your network. Whether it be a community involvement project, or a weekend event, your updates will appear in each on of your fans newsfeeds.

3. When somebody becomes your ‘Fan’, everyone in their network will be notified via their newsfeed. This is a great way to get your dealership’s name in front of a large amount of potential customers through an online viral marketing effort.

4. You have 100% control of your page. Make sure you capture at least your dealership’s name before someone else or one of your competitors does.

5. Facebook ‘Fan’ pages are 100% FREE, easy, and only take a few minutes to create!! All you need is some basic information about your dealership, a logo, and your dealership website URL and you are done!

To create your page, click this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

This was bound to happen…

Today, Cleveland based CarFolks.com was announced. The company has billed themselves as being a “revolutionary new social networking site for ‘everything automotive’”.

The website currently is nothing more than a flash intro claiming that they will change the way we all shop for cars. You can view it here.

It will be interesting to see how this company gets off the ground. From the looks of it, it looks like it will be a new and improved version of AutoBytel’s MyRide.com product. I know that their is a HUGE segment of the population that would be interested in a one-stop shop for everything automotive, but don’t we already have that with the Autotraders, Cars.coms, and search engines of the world. This could be a big opportunity to dealerships to get involved if they are offering a mini-blog type service where their customer base can comment and review everything related to their dealership. They will also have a dealer rating feature to show potential customers the good, bad, and ugly of what car buying options are available in their market.

I’ll post updates as this project gets off the ground.

The Google Auto Newsletter team release their Winter 2007 Edition today. Most of the information is related to their AdWords program, but they do have an interesting piece regarding using Google TV Ads for media buys and tracking.

To be added to their email distribution list for future email, send a request to: auto-newsletter@google.com

To view their recent newsletter, follow this link http://www.google.com/adwords/newsletters/q407/auto/index.html

Where is your dealership listed on Google’s Local Business Center Listings?  Are you listed?

Google’s Local Business Listings are part of Google’s ‘Universal Search’ that is attempting to blend local information with news, images, and videos for search terms.

Getting listed in the paid search is simple.  Launch a pay-per-click marketing campaign and see your dealership listed as soon as Google processes your payment.   This is why Google’s stock price is in the $600+/share range.

If you want your website to be optimized in the organic listings, it is crucial that your website is being indexed properly by the search engines.  If your website has crazy graphics, flames, or purple gorillas holding balloons singing ‘Coom-by-ya‘, chances are your website isn’t going to be ranked very high by the search engines.  Search engines don’t have optical nerves like you and I  to see images and animation and frankly don’t have enough time to listen to your dealership’s website.  Before you do anything on your website, make sure it is inline with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

If a website yells on the Internet and the search engines (and more importantly, your customers) don’t hear it, does it make a sound?

BUT…with vertical search, getting listed is as easy as getting Google the information they require for your website.  Through Google’s Local Business Center, you are able to take control of your dealership’s information and make sure that each department is listed correctly.  If you Google your dealership’s city, state, and franchise and don’t see yourself listed, make sure you click here and take control of your dealership’s vertical search results ASAP.  In addition to Google, I also recommend going to Yahoo!’s Local listings and doing the same thing.

Another thing to be aware of are the reviews that are being posted by your customers about their experiences at your dealership.  It only takes a few negative reviews to turn a potential customer off on your business so make sure that your customer reviews are as positive as possible.  Don’t be afraid to reach out to customers that have left negative feedback in order to right any wrongdoing they feel that they have experienced at your store.

A few minutes spent on this simple task could result in more traffic, leads, and visibility in the future.