I was looking around at a couple christian related financial and career ministry sites when I ran across this personality test at Crown.org.
I’d be very interested to see your results also. After they show you the results, they will give you a link to copy and paste on a website.
Take this test and post your results in this thread. If you have problems posting the results contact me here.
This is an interesting article from Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine in the February, 2008 issue. Worth a read:
Search engine optimization is not an exact science. One website may rank well for certain keywords, while another similar website may rank well for a completely different set of keywords. Car dealers must be able to identify the “Money Terms” if they want their website to be as successful as it can be.
What are “Money Terms”? In short, they are the keywords that have the proper mix of relevance and search volume. By relevance, I mean the terms that fall within a dealer’s geographic reach as well as fit in with their product offerings. Search volume is the number of times that a particular keyword is typed into the search engines. The question now becomes, How do dealers identify their Money Terms?
For this exercise, we will look at Hoffman Ford Dealers in Harrisburg, PA. In June, 2007, they had a nice, new website, but they weren’t seeing much traffic to it. After a quick review, it was apparent why. Nobody could find them. They were virtually invisible on the search engines.
Paul Smith, Business Development Manager, talked to his Automotive SEO company. They defined goals and identified targets to go after, ranking them by priority. This list has become a blueprint for proper search engine optimization, and has helped them rank nationally for eSales through Ford Motor Company.
1st Priority: Own Your Name
Regardless of how well a dealership ranks in major search terms, their best set of terms will be related to their own name. Those actively seeking you better be able to find you. They are your very best traffic sources – definitely not to be missed.
Examples: “Hoffman Ford”, “Hoffman Harrisburg PA”
2nd Priority: Own Your Backyard
While owning your name is an absolute must, the best way to increase business is to be found by the people looking in your immediate area. There are 9 Ford dealers within 15 miles of Harrisburg serving an area with a total population under one million. When these people are in the market to buy a new Ford, most will type in “Ford Harrisburg” or “Ford Harrisburg PA”. Why? Because people are becoming aware of what will get them the best results on the search engines. They know that if they type in what they want and where they want to find it, they’ll get the most relevant results.
Examples: “Ford Harrisburg”, “Harrisburg Ford”, “Harrisburg Ford Dealers”, “Ford Dealerships in Harrisburg PA”
3rd Priority: Presence in Competitor Cities
Once a dealer owns their backyard, they can start spiraling out. Their primary targets should be cities and towns where they have competitors. While Hoffman is on the east part of Harrisburg, they have a couple of competitors in Mechanicsburg, a suburb just to the west of town. Being number one would be nice, but as long as a dealer can get on the front page of their competitors’ cities, they will generate leads.
Examples: “Mechanicsburg Ford”, “Ford Dealers Mechanicsburg”
4th Priority: Specialties
Most dealers have something they can boast about. Some have the newest and best staffed body shop. Others sell more accessories than anyone in the area. For Hoffman, their claim to fame was being the only Roush Dealer in the area. Still, they didn’t rank for “Harrisburg Roush Dealers”. Today, they rank number 1 on Google for “Harrisburg Roush Dealers” and “Pennsylvania Roush Dealers”. They also rank #3 in the world for the term “Roush Dealers”, which has yielded distant sales that they wouldn’t have had before.
If you also check the national term “Ford Dealers” they rank there on the front page as well.
Other Priorities: The Long Tail
The biggest “smoke and mirrors” technique used by many SEO and web design companies is the long tail. Search terms that are very specific fall into the category of high relevance but low search volume. If someone types in “2004 Chevrolet Cobalt Baltimore”, they are probably great candidates to buy your vehicles that match. The problem is, if only 2 people a year type that in, it isn’t worth much focus.
Dealers should consider the long tail keywords, but it should definitely be an afterthought. Focus on the Money Words first. The long tail keywords will naturally follow.
The most important advice in this column is that if a company approaches you touting their abilities to get their sites ranked for terms like these, they probably aren’t very good at what they do. They would convert, but they are too low volume to focus on and too easy to rank well for to be considered part of their “resume”.
Published in AutoDealerMonthly February 2008 Issue. Written by Jim Rucker, VP of Search Marketing for TK Carsites.
Hi guys. I added a forum so vendors can go in and write to us how they got started and what their plans are to help us improve marketing and sales success.
It is also a place where ANYTHING GOES as long as it goes ethically. So come in and say whatever you want, no matter who you are.
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