There is so much focus being put on the April Google Penguin update that many SEOs are missing the bigger change. The conspiracy theory going around the industry is that the very public penguin update was a smokescreen, a red herring of sorts that was designed to draw attention away from the bigger change in Google’s search algorithm: social signals.

It isn’t that penguin was fake. There are definitely changes that have been made to the way that Google handles inbound links that sent shockwaves through the industry. However, there are other forces at work that are having a larger impact to those who were not doing link-building the wrong way. Basically, if you were on the right side of the penguin update, you still had a chance to dramatically improve your rankings by heeding the shift to empower social signals.

This webinar goes into detail about what car dealers can do today to help their own search rankings. Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites are starting to really impact what you’re doing and how you’re succeeding. Are you taking advantage of it?

Now that the IPO is official and already under investigation in many parts of the government, it’s time to take a brief look back at what brought us here in the first place. What caused the decision? What steps were taken to make it a successful IPO? Did they really mess things up in the preparation process or was it destined to be rocky from the start?

These and other questions aren’t really answered by this graphic, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting.

From: Birmingham Honda Via: Automotive SEO

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Many people ask about the description on searches, what they mean and what they’re good for. While many still put a lot of emphasis on the meta description tag on web pages, they really shouldn’t. It’s there and visible on searches which makes it important, but definitely not worthy of the time spent by many tweaking and perfecting.

People. Don’t. Read it.

On the website itself, it isn’t visible, which is why Google and the other search engines have abandoned it as a measure of ranking. From a strictly-SEO perspective, the meta description and meta keywords have zero influence. The only thing left, then, is how the page is displayed on search results. Meta descriptions do appear here, but they are the last thing that people see (and most don’t read them at all).

When people do a search, they first look at the links. Once they find a link that matches what they’re searching for, they’ll skip passed the description and look at the URL. If it’s a Places or Map listing, they’ll then look at the information placed there, whether it’s reviews, contact information, or a quote from a review.

Then, finally, maybe, they’ll look at the description.

Make sure that your descriptions are unique and compelling, but do not spend hours making them absolutely perfect. There are better uses of your time than focusing on something that very, very few people will actually read.

G0ogle is one of the best at saying one thing that makes sense while having something attached in the background that makes even more sense. Such is the case with Google’s change earlier today that allows users to block sites from their search results.

The basic change is easy – if you see a site that you don’t like in your search results, you can block it from showing up in future searches. Very straight forward.

What they aren’t talking about is the data that comes from this. They won’t admit it (until later, as they normally do) but they will be taking this data to help them carve out general search results. In other words, if enough people start blocking a site, the site will fall in rankings.

For dealers, this makes it very important to stop (or don’t start) using aggregated content to bulk up their sites. Too often dealers are pushing automated, RSS-fed content on their sites to try to “keep it fresh” as many like to say. This was bad advice before and it has now gotten worse.

There is a difference between content syndication and aggregation. Not all automation is bad, but most of it is not helpful. Between the recent “Farmer Algorithm” change and this, dealers must start focusing on high-quality, unique content on their sites. Otherwise, they’re missing the boat.

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Read more of this blog or learn about how we can help with your Automotive SEO.

Sometimes, a service can have a quirky name and still deliver amazing results. Such is the case with the TK Carsites Power SEO “Bucket System.”

Designed in 2009 to allow for an ever-growing list of keywords that needed to be optimized, the Bucket System is both extremely simple to understand while simultaneously being an extremely robust and effective method to organize and optimize. The only thing that wasn’t given much thought was the name – it fit what were doing, so it stuck.

In essence, the bucket system classifies keywords in a way that allows the TK Carsites SEO department to always be focusing on the most important keywords at any given time. It keeps the team on point at all times and expands the reach of our clients continuously.

For the first time, we are publishing the way the Bucket System works publicly.

Finding the Right Keywords. All of Them.

The first and often most important aspect of automotive SEO is selecting and organizing the keywords. First, we research the area, the brands, and the subtle nuances for every rooftop we are optimizing. Then, we meet with the dealer to help put the keywords into perspective. Understanding the techniques and trends is our job. Knowing the market area and the competitors is something the dealer helps us with.

Once we have the list, we stack-rank the keywords from most important to least. Importance is determined by search volume, relevancy to the brand and dealership, and input from the dealer.

Once we have the list, we form the three buckets.

The On-Deck Bucket

All of the keywords start here. This is the repository, the ever-growing list of keywords that are going to be optimized some time in the future.

When the keywords are first organized, those that are already ranked in the top position on the search engines are moved over to the Victory Bucket (more on that later). The top of the stack-ranked list is moved to the Active Bucket. What remains is the On Deck Bucket, the area where keywords wait patiently until we are ready to optimize the dealership websites for them.

Some On Deck Buckets can be hundreds or even thousands of keywords deep. Our goal is to keep adding to the list, but more importantly we want to keep removing from there. When we pull keywords from the On Deck Bucket, that means we’ve had another victory.

The Active Bucket

This is where the action is. The Active Bucket will always have the most important keywords for which the dealer is not ranked number 1 on the search engines. We attack the biggest keywords first. It’s that simple.

There could be 5 keywords in the Active Bucket. There could be 30 at a time. It all depends on the focus and challenge facing each individual keyword. For example, if our dealer wasn’t ranked #1 for “Denver Ford,” we would keep our Active Bucket smaller so that we could focus more attention on this high-volume, highly relevant keyword. Later down the line, once these tough keywords are dominated, we would likely expand the number of keywords within the Active Bucket to go after lower-volume keywords that are less challenging.

The goal is to achieve the best rankings in as many searches as possible starting with the ones that are most important to the dealership.

The Victory Bucket

When we win, you win. Once a keyword achieves its desired ranking (which is almost always #1) we move that keyword from Active to the Victory Bucket. At this point, we stop optimizing for that keyword.

Once you’re at the top, you can’t move any higher.

This bucket is closely monitored. We will know if there is ever an instance where we are no longer ranked at the top, in which case the keyword is immediately moved back to the Active Bucket until we regain the position. This rarely happens, but it’s important for us to stay diligent at all times.

A keyword moved to the Victory Bucket triggers keywords from the On Deck Bucket to be moved to Active. This is how we are constantly able to optimize more keywords as the service progresses.

There are a few exceptions to the “#1 or bust” rule. Top-level keywords where #1 is unachievable will have lower ranking triggers to be moved to the Victory Bucket. For example, a we have dealers that rank on the first page for the term “Toyota Dealers.” While this is nice, it’s not a very relevant keyword, nor would it be possible to get ranked higher than the Toyota website itself.

The Bucket System and You

Learn how you can take advantage of the TK Carsites Bucket System. You don’t need to have a TK website to use our service, Power SEO. We are able to help websites on any platform rank higher and increase traffic. It only takes a willingness to take the next step. Learn more about Automotive SEO and how we can help make yours better.