SEO Analysis Methods
The purpose of this work is to identify, compare and share search engine optimization (SEO) characteristics of websites available to car dealers. The website is the core asset of most online businesses. Car dealers are not much different from any other local online business with a few exceptions, such as dynamic inventory features.
DealerComp employs cutting-edge, yet sound SEO in reviewing car dealer websites. Unfortunately there is no way to declare a simple winner. Sometimes very desirable features cause less that optimal SEO. There is always a trade-off and only the buyer can make a judgement as to where the feature benefit outweighs the search rank of the website.
Things change very quickly in the world of Search Marketing and SEO. Article written more than 12 months ago should be understood to be potentially outdated. (however some vendors never change)
The methods used here are esoteric, so you may find it is not exactly entertaining reading. That is why at the bottom of each review there is a summary that should be easy to understand, even if you don’t speak automotive SEO.
There are two parts to Automotive Digital Marketing, on-site SEO and off-site SEO. DealerComp is limited to reviewing On-site SEO – SEO of the website. Which means I only analyze those things that are resident in the website. (Off-site SEO obviously then means search engine optimization and marketing that is not directly on the website).
About the Research – The scientific method encourages discourse in order to arrive at the (approximate) truth.
Getting a negative review is obviously not beneficial to the Reviewed. Therefore, I will always attempt to contact those I plan to review, prior to posting, in order to provide them with a voice. I encourage others to provide alternate perspectives, whether in the comments or for consideration in future posts.
I have found that the Reviewed often suspect that I have taken the side of a particular vendor and they are the target of a smear campaign. With limited resources, my priority is synonymous with what I believe is the dealer’s priority, to have tangible research on Automotive SEO rather than marketing spin.
To the extent that I have found some vendors doing very reputable work resulting in superb search engine optimized website infrastructure, I hesitate to write about those with this very concern – favoritism. Until I can review all vendors, dealers may wish to contact me directly for those opinions. Therefore the research you find here will tend to call out poor SEO techniques and products.
I chose the dealer websites that are included in my analysis by first asking the vendor to recommend a few of their best dealer websites. Many of you may have forgotten that we met at one of the past trade shows in which I asked for a demonstration of your best example website. That is how many of these websites have made their way into my reviews.
But vendor recommended websites are often a biased sample. Many vendors provided examples carefully chosen by location, so that their prime example is “a big fish in a small pond”. Some examples have been live prototypes – not live products. Others are very new versions that are not widely used by dealers yet. Like any review publication, these issues can make choosing an example to review a challenge. So if you (vendors) feel I have not chosen wisely, please contact me.
I compare websites as a local group. This allows for testing of the websites competitive indexing ability. If every dealer is using the keyword “Mytown Ford Dealer”, it is much easier to see in the results which websites are better search engine optimized.
Methods for choosing a dealer website to evaluate are; a) 3 or more different vendor websites in a 25 mile radius (or metropolitan area), b) a metropolitan area, c) a franchise dealer – in that order. (why a franchise dealer website?)
When the above criteria are not met for a particular vendor recommended website, I will use a website from another group comparison that does meet the above criteria. Vendors and dealers, if you would like me to evaluate a different website or re-evaluate one, please submit your candidate in a comment or contact me directly.
