Google Places Spam Continues Unabated in Online Automotive

I’ve written before about this fairly significant problem for car dealers several times and not a peep from the automotive seo blogs. I seem to be the only one who notices. Just do a search for “google maps spam automotive“. That’s me in #1, followed by…absolutely not one other automotive SEO.

With the level of diarrhea of the automotive seo blogging that goes on, you would think there would be someone beating me to this story. You all seem to beat me to the punch on all the softball PC stuff and the pedestrian SEO crap, like duplicate title tags. (If I see another screenshot of site: or another blog about “social marketing for car dealers” I’m gonna puke.)

Am I really the only one who notices Usedcars.com Places locations (ADP/Cobalt) next to every dealership in America? Or likewise with Dealerconnexion (Auto Lead Exchange word has it, run by New Vista Marketing)?

Now is that because all the Automotive SEOs out there are asleep at the wheel?

(Automotive SEOs) Your silence says something! Either way; asleep at the wheel or an online automotive industry sycophant, equates to NO RESPECT from the real SEO world. Because if you were actually performing any SEO, Internet Marketing or whatever you call what you do, you might just notice this Google Places-Maps Spam that is stealing* clicks from your dealer-client every day. Its not a trivial amount of money either. If say there are 200 searches for a “Toyota Dealer” a day and 30% of those use Google Maps, and say that 30% of those click on the spam listing, and then 5% of those convert, that’s 27 leads per month. If those leads are worth $20 each, that’s $540; money that I as a dealer consider stolen from me, the real Toyota Dealer in the area. Another way to look at the heist; the 3rd party lead spammer is getting about 540 clicks for free that they would otherwise have to pay about $2.00 PPC for, or $1080. See how crime pays*, while doing it legit won’t?

Google doesn’t really care

Google really isn’t that concerned about Places spammers. Their primary interest is attracting ad dollars, and their products are built accordingly. They have no enforcement mechanisms; their verification mechanisms are opaque, crude, and easily circumvented; there is no regulation of their own product by either consumers or the government, and since it’s given away for ‘free’, there’s no sense of responsibility to the business owners or customers that the listing be accurate or even legal—the prevailing assumption is buyer beware.

So its up to those of us that it does effect to do something about it. So do all you Automotive SEOs out there care about your clients? Here is what you can do, as told by Dan Austin;

Report a problem on the Google Places page for problematic listings that Map Maker can’t take care of. I contact Google with the occasional issue if something doesn’t get done to my satisfaction, or if they need to explore a certain avenue that spammers are treading on and that Google isn’t. Sometimes I shame them—both Google and the spammers—publicly on the Places and Map Maker forums, in an effort to draw attention to the spam problem. It’s really a combination of approaches, coupled with my relentlessness. You just have to be relentless.

Don’t spam in response to the spammers. This is the biggest problem I can see. It just escalates the problem out of control, because spammers respond with more spam, not less. I would report it, and if the Report a problem doesn’t work, raise a stink in the forums. Call your representative, regulatory authorities, the media, and anyone you know at Google.

*Yes! Its stealing by impersonating another business for financial gain. Dealerconnexion is not a Toyota Dealer. And its clearly identified as prohibited by Google TOS.

http://www.google.com/ads/auto/index.html

Google Comparison Ads for Auto is an exciting new leads and inventory program that connects you directly with consumers who are ready to buy your cars. By removing the intermediaries and providing a clear line of communication between consumers and dealers, we can increase the level of trust and understanding that is so problematic today. As a result, the new car purchase process is transformed into a positive experience where both parties win.

• Higher-quality leads: Our leads come directly from motivated, purchase-ready consumers who have specifically chosen to contact your dealership. Leads are unique, never resold, and delivered immediately to you.
• Free inventory listings: You can have your inventory shown to consumers on Google for free, even if you decide not to receive leads.
• More than just inventory: Consumers can choose to connect with you even when you don’t have a specific car in inventory. We know that you can order the car, dealer trade, or find other solutions to help consumers get the cars they want.
• Greater control over leads: You choose how much you’re willing to pay for a lead and target consumers based on distance and specific type of car, so you get the leads that are most valuable to you.

http://www.google.com/ads/auto/faq.html

Caveat Emptor automotive dealers buying SEO services

If you know me, its because I’m the guy who has been critical of a particular trend in automotive SEO methods for off-site SEO, namely link-building practices which skirt the edge of most search engine’s (SEs) terms of service (TOS). Here is a link to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and you can find the TOS there as well.

This article is meant to point out that that day when these vendors networks are hit with significant loss of search rank (or taken down all together) seems to be on the event horizon with Google’s latest improvements in Webmaster communications and the take-down of BuildMyRank.com.

In fact my research is showing that may have already happened to some (but I’m not saying

It is not my position that link-building is bad. Its very necessary for producing superior search rank. But in combination 1) building your own link-networks of “original content” for the purpose of improving search rank for your dealer clients websites, while 2) offering little-to-no on-site SEO (a crappy dealer website that uses 20 year old technology and everything else that goes with it) is what I take issue with. And the SEs have been pretty clear about that too. What is really at issue is the balance and priority of services that are sold to automotive dealers as Search Engine Optimization by some Automotive SEO vendors without full disclosure. Dealers should be told by the vendor, how the vendor plans to improve their search rank and whether there is any risk involved. Risky SEO is called Blackhat SEO, and I’ve also noticed that some of those SEO vendors who do provide the type of combination of services I’ve just described tend to be those claiming to employ only Whitehat SEO techniques. Caveat Emptor!

So what does an automotive dealer shopping an SEO vendor look for? Just ask about the off-site SEO service, and particular, what link-building are you getting?

I’ve been chided for asking! Which is the best signal you can get. The usual response is; “Its proprietary”! Well that is plain SEO bullshit. That may work to shut up a dealer-client, but not on an SEO. It takes all of 5 minutes to find where all those backlinks come from, and then it takes only a little bit more poking around to determine whether the backlinks are from well-known authority sites or a network of automotive blogs setup and maintained for the sole purpose of providing backlinks designed specifically to improve an automotive dealers website search rank.

Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. – directly from Google Webmaster Guidelines

Here is both a lesson for those of you seeking an SEO Professional, clients and potential clients, and a good laugh for those SEOs landing on this page.

One day I stumbled upon SEOCertification.org thinking, “hmmm, maybe I should get one of these slick Certified images that will convince visitors to my site that I know what Im doing?”. I had seen this SEO certification image before. I see lots of them actually, and I have none. Maybe that is a problem?

Read more about SEO for Small Business Certification

Google’s recent algorithm changes targeting search engine spam has got to have a few automotive SEO vendors worried. Not only has Google changed the algorithm to penalize poor content quality sites, they are providing a Google Chrome browser extension that allows anyone to flag sites they feel are not relevant or obviously promoted via black hat seo techniques.  This is a game changer as it allows individuals to police the content in ways that search engines cannot.  It also invites a host of other potential problems, doesn’t it?

Read more…

In the pursuit of the best Automotive SEO company, those who are masters of the art of SEO would be expected to know the search terms by which their potential customers will find them online.  And then they would need to use these keywords to promote their website, using the search marketing skill and talent they purport to have.  Lets see who is on their game and who is not on the radar at all.

So the first step; find the most popular search terms:

In general these keywords apply but are too competitive to produce results that contain automotive SEO providers. (the number of searches per month)**

search engine optimization (9,140,000)
SEO (7,480,000)
online marketing (1,000,000)
search optimization (1,000,000)
search engine marketing (368,000)

The following search terms are what we are looking for:

automotive search engine optimization (4,400)
automotive seo (1,900)
dealer seo (1,300)
automotive digital marketing (720) (*this term seems seasonal, event driven)
automotive search marketing (590)
automotive search engine marketing (590)
car dealer seo (480)
automotive dealer seo (320)
auto dealer seo (260)
dealer website seo (110)
auto dealer search engine marketing (91)
black hat automotive seo (73)
automotive seo company (46)
automotive seo services (46)
automotive seo specialists (46)
automotive seo specialist (28)
automotive seo for dealers (22)
best of automotive seo (22)
automotive seo articles (12)

There is not much ambiguity in the choice of keywords one would use to attract the maximum number of visitors to your automotive seo website.  Automotive search engine optimization is the clear winner.

“automotive digital marketing” seems to be an event driven search term, it is useful to piggy-back on the event if desired.

You can use the Dealercomp list of Automotive SEO Vendors to see all the known SEO providers, including those that claim to provide SEO services.  Please let me know if you wish to be included on this list.

**This list of automotive search engine optimization search terms was conducted on November 13, 2011, on Google, your results may vary.

SEO Analysis

Google has been making lots of changes lately. Are you paying attention to your code?

Anytime I visit a website, it’s a reflex, I put on my SEO hat. I don’t even read the content anymore or look at the visuals, I hit {ctrl-u}.  (View Source Code on Firefox.  IE has no shortcut, its > View > Source on the pulldown menu)

This is my version of a first impression.  I simply scan for a few key SEO conventions.  re. Is the Title Tag at the top of the Header?, etc.

And I always look to see how vendors handle tracking on their dealer websites.  Why would I look for web analytics software installed in car dealer website when there are other more important items on the SEO checklist?  Because it shows a dedication to building SEO-ready websites. Only 7% of websites are truly search optimized!  Also, installing analytic is so darn easy vs the benefits, why wouldn’t you? (if a vendor claims to do any automotive SEO that is)

Installing internet traffic tracking software is a fundamental step in setting up a website.  It should be the first step actually.  A dealer would have to be completely indifferent to not care about those statistics. (OK, there are a few of them out there and they are not going to be reading this article about car dealer website SEO)

As a website vendor, what are you providing for your customer if you are not building-in those basic SEO features every dealer needs? You don’t provide an inventory module? OK, you truly only design websites.  (and you too, won’t be reading this article about car dealer website SEO)

Google Analytics is free, so why wouldn’t you at least install it?  I won’t even mention the implications of not using Googel Analytics while using Google Adwords (Vendors who offer PPC and don’t install Google Analytics…That’s a double penalty!). And I also wont go into why you don’t use Google Webmaster site verification.

Part II : Google has been making lots of changes lately. Is the tracking code up-to-date?  One of my pet peeves is that a dealer pays a hefty monthly fee. So I would expect those websites to be kept up-to-date rather than have to wait for a contract renewal to get the latest BASIC infrastructure.

Google stopped supporting Urchin in 2007 simply warning that it may not report accurately. Decommissioning Urchin means it will stop working altogether, but no deadline exists and Google had said it will be sure to warn when it does. With Google introducing a third generation of tracking methods, Asynchronous Tracking, it seems to me that using Urchin is not the way to impress your SEO peers.

If a vendor is still using the old Urchin tracking code, I think that reflects poorly on their SEO reputation.  Two years is plenty of time to change a snippet of code. 

http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/04/08/40-still-use-old-google-analytics-script/

I setup Google Alerts so anytime someone writes something about automotive SEO or automotive internet marketing, I read it.  The more often I read the same broadcast, the closer I look. Today I got this in the alerts for the 10th time:

http://www.paschconsulting.com/automotive/automotive-digital-marketing.html

(Brain, you do an amazing job of blogging everyday and propagating them across dozens of other sites.  That makes you an SEO Blogging God.  But it also why you’re up.)

So I ran a quick SEO check of the car dealer websites listed there.  Of the 11 representative sites, only 1 is setup with current Google Analytics code.  Four (4) of the sites use the old Urchin code.  Three (3) of the sites have no tracking installed.  And bmwgeorgia 404′d! Ouch!  bmwcarsnc is parked, ouch!  losangeleshonda.org is an almost blank wordpress installation, ouch!

Every vendor knows its the biggest job to maintain their many car dealer websites, let alone upgrading to the latest technologies.  Its a big job for an SEO just to maintain a dozen or so websites for just one dealer.  But as mentioned, 2 years should be enough time to upgrade.

Installing the cornucopia of Webmaster and Analytics Codes on a car dealer website should be considered a best practice. These things preemptively inoculate a website (and an SEO) from a host of problems that one can encounter.  Upgrading Google Urchin to Google Analytics might be reaching the critical stage before Google Urchin is decommissioned.

***Google stopped supporting Urchin in 2007 simply warning that it may not report accurately. Decommissioning Urchin means it will stop working altogether, but no deadline exists and Google had said it will be sure to warn when it does. With Google introducing a third generation of tracking methods, Asynchronous Tracking.

Cobalt has resolved the issue concerning multiple Body Tags in their car dealer websites.  I published an article earlier about The Cobalt Group car dealer websites having a critical problem in their CMS (content management system) inserting Body Tags throughout the user editable text areas.  This was probably causing search engines to fail to index content properly on their website pages.    The obvious gravity of the problem got a lot of attention.  Cobalt has taken swift action to correct the problem.  I appreciate how much work is required to manage so many dealer websites, and the complexity of propagating those changes across multiple versions.

Cobalt has also changed the robot.txt file to include the reference to the sitemap.xml  file.  I still found the sitemap.xml files are still missing the XML.  And there are no Priority or Frequency Tags.

But the cleaned-up HTML should be a big help to search bots, and hopefully helping Cobalt dealers to move up a notch or two in their SERPs.

Dealers take care where your websites are linked and with whom you are linking to.  Most dealers have no idea how to determine where their websites are linked and whether there is a risk.  But given the direction of Automotive SEO, you cannot afford not to know.

In the interest of providing more robust lead generation for their dealers, some automotive SEO vendors are moving into the very dangerous business of building linkfarms (large networks of linked websites).  This is a seduction all webmasters flirt with sooner or later.  To go over the line that search engines have drawn very clearly in the sand has grave consequences. Any SEO knows this. The question is, do the clients?

A linkfarm is a group of websites whose only purpose is to promote each other via interlinking.  The quantity of links is meant to trick search engines into believing these websites are more authoritative than others in the same “theme” (Theme is a term used in the search business referring to the business category of your website as understood by the search engine.  i.e. Ford dealer websites).

If your website is identified by a search engine as belonging to a linkfarm, and Google is the most sensitive, you will certainly loose significant page rank (position in the search results) and in some cases, your website may be blacklisted (deleted from the search results altogether).  You’ll need to discard your domain name and start over – very expensive.

That is why quality matters.  Thats why your Page Rank matters.  Linking to websites with no or lower page rank will cause search engines to lower your page rank.  An alert SEO will avoid linking your site to bad neighbors.

Linkfarming is a seductive path in SEO. Its like a stack of bills left on an unattended table. There is the chance no one will see you grab the cash.  Do you want to go there?  You’ll get away with it for a while, but linkfarm long enough and your chances of getting caught approach 100% – as seems to have already happened in this video.

Google’s webmaster Matt Cutts has mentioned that there is a threshold of about 10 interlinking sites. More than that and you could become noticed by Google as a linkfarm.  A dealer with a dozen dealerships all interlinked has nothing to worry about.  There are other little clues the search engines pick up on; too little content, keyword stuffing, the age of the websites as a group and the C-block of the host IP addresses.

Legitimate large dealers and even large dealer groups run no risk of having their interlinked sites perceived as linkfarms.  But joining a network designed for this purpose is a risk a prudent business person will not take.  Take care, and check your backlinks.