Search Engine Battle For Market Share Still Continues

Dec. 15th - comScore announced that Google and Bing gained search market share in November while Yahoo search continues to slip. Google's market share rose to 65.6 percent for the month, up from the 65.4 percent in October 2009 while Bing easily crossed double digits to 10.3 percent in November, compared to 9.9 percent for October. Yahoo search market share fell from 18% in October to 17.5 percent in November. Market share for Yahoo has dropped the last 10 months.

Yahoo recently had a few partner deals end with computer manufactures Acer and HP which incorporated Yahoo's search tool bar on new computers.

Luxury Sport Sedan - New Site

Are you a sports car enthusiast but need room for the family? Today's luxury sports sedans provide both room and high performance - more manufactuers are building cars that fit into this market.

Luxury Sport Sedan (www.luxurysportsedan.com) provides news, reviews and info for the niche sports sedan marketplace.

Lexus LFA - Luxury Sports Car

Lexus unveiled its Luxury Sports Car or Super Car at the Tokyo Auto Show. The Lexus LFA is said to reach speeds of 200 mph and has a price tag of $375,000.

Lexus is expected to produce 500 Lexus LFA to sell From 2010 through 2012.

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marketing objective
pull marketing
Cash for Clunkers Ending - Next Move for Auto Dealers
Make strategic objectives and tactics part of your...
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push marketing
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Massachusetts Ranks #34 on Forbes Best States for Business
Massachusetts Ranks #34 on Forbes Best States for ...
marketing strategy
Make strategic objectives and tactics part of your regular marketing mix
Online Automotive Marketing
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SEO and Link Building is About to Get Harder
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SEO and Link Building is About to Get Harder

The FTC voted to regulate bloggers from posts that contain reviews for freebies or payment. The 4-0 FTC vote will allow for fines up to $11,000 per violation as well as bloggers or advertisers face injunctions and reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inapropriate product reviews. Blog posts for reviews starting Dec 1, must contain a "clear and conspicuous" disclosure.

This move by the FTC will greatly impact search engine optimization ( SEO ) agencies, since many use blog review services to accelerate link building. Services like Pay per Post (payperpost.com) or blogvertise, allow a website owner pay for blog post services which may include company or product reviews.

For many SEO agencies these services represent an easy way to increase link popularity as well as also include keyword seeded anchor text. At this time it is unclear as to how encompassing the new ruling will impact SEO and link building efforts.

For understanding the basics of SEO and link building visit the link.

Online Automotive Marketing

A slow in car sales after the government stimulus program, presents a new challenge for automotive dealers..... how to continue the stream of car shoppers and customers --by marketing your business. Online automotive marketing is an essential part to advertising your dealership.

Using PPC, SEO and changing aspects of your website will help improve your visitors experience as well as stimulate ups to your car lot. If you are not entrenched in a search engine marketing program, it is time to think about making your dealership easily found on the web. As many have learned the internet visitor is the new drive by shopper.

Massachusetts Ranks #34 on Forbes Best States for Business

Forbes recently published their annual Best States for Business. Most of the data was acquired from Moody's. The publication focuses on the following factors; costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

After crunching all the business data and comparing States against one and other Massachusetts ranks #34. No surprise the Business cost rank is #48. Welcome to Taxachusetts.

The only bright spot is quality of life..... but how is life so good with less than stellar implications for businesses.

Marketing online can seem like a daunting task. It is best to look at your online objectives and goals and focus in on one specifically. Once you pick a goal to achieve, begin to think about the online marketing tactics that can be used to help accomplish and reach your marketing objective.

Implement the marketing tactic one at a time if you are starting out. It will allow you to focus and provide the proper attention to the marketing tactic being used. Once the initial tactic is underway and moving your marketing efforts in the right direction, pick a complimentary marking tactic and begin to place some focus on that one.

Make strategic objectives and tactics part of your regular marketing mix.

Why Google leads all Search Engines.

Google has long since owned Yahoo and MSN but why.....? Simplicity and Relevancy. Google didn't attempt to do anything cute or create a portal with distractions, they realized people wanted to look for something by typing in a search string in a familiar search box.

Google also knows a thing or two about providing relevant results. While others allowed advertisers to buy their way into the rankings Google made websites earn it. Their search algorithm may not be any more sophisticated than the others, but in the court of public opinion Google provides the most relevant results.

Even their Pay per click ads need to be relevant or Google charges more for each click hitting less than targeted advertisers where it hurts -in the wallet.

Google did a great job to win the search engine perception battle. The reputation they built around having the most relevant search results is one that will be hard to shake anytime soon.

Push vs. Pull Marketing Which is better?

Marketing can take many shapes and forms and can even carry a variety of objectives. Two known marketing strategies Push marketing or pull marketing can be used to help you reach your objective.

Push marketing helps increase reach and awareness. These types of marketing activities may include Press releases or Rich Media advertising (banner ads).

Pull Marketing is targeted marketing and is generally persuasive. Pull Marketing activities would be SEO, PPC, twitter and Blogs. (Though twitter could be considered reach awareness as well and also has a permission based component to it).

Well marketers take your pick... which one will help lead you to your marketing objective? How about using both...............

Cash for Clunkers Ending - Next Move for Auto Dealers

With the cash for clunkers program ending Monday 8/24, the enthusiasm to purchase a new car will once again return to normal - unimpressive levels. The recent surge of car deals being made may have kept dealers from going belly up, but this is only delaying the inevitable, consumers are still are not finding themselves in a position to purchase.

Dealers should understand that consumers want a significant discount and are not easily parting with their money.

Cash For Clunkers - What does this mean for Automotive Marketing?

With the Government's " Cash for Clunkers Program " now underway. Auto dealers will be ramping up their advertising spend to sway potential car buyers to their dealerships over their competitors.

Recent surveys suggest that most US citizens don't understand the program and are still trying to see if their vehicles qualify as clunker so they can claim the cash voucher.

In this day and age when spend is essential, the local dealer that can explain the program can place themselves in an advantageous position for the cash for clunkers customer.

One quick way to move with the market place is to utilize Pay Per Click PPC advertising and create an ad for local searchers looking to learn more about the program. Ensure that the ad leads to a well constructed page with a great explanation of the cash for clunkers program. And even offer a form or email address for those with questions to submit an inquiry.

Session Based Search in Google Adwords (session-based search)

Google Adwords launched a new more "Advanced Broad" match type for PPC advertisers called session based search. Google will now show ads for searches related to the search query being performed.

My initial thought: this benefits Google by increasing click revenue but not the advertiser. If an advertiser wanted to show for the related search term then I would hope they would have included it within their campaign.

The other implication for PPC advertisers now that session-based search has launched is since Google will be showing ads for more searches it requires the PPC manager to have to be extremely vigilante in adding negative keywords to stop Google showing ads for what it "thinks" your ads should show on.

Why Google......WHY????

Google Analytics a recently created desktop image and what does it say ????

Google recently updated their product logos to reflect the company logo. In doing so a Google employee created a desktop wallpaper with the tag line "measure organic growth" (as seen above).

The tag line "measure organic growth" caused me to think about a recent Google Analytic's tracking question. After a client changed their homepage, the direct traffic numbers had plummted while their organic traffic had steadily increased. This makes sense as after the bookmark no longer worked (since there was a new page) a visitor then had to find the site using a search engine. This increased the organic traffic since the visitors who typically came via bookmark now had to use a search engine. The other reason, Google drops a cookie on the visitor and when the visitor comes via Organic the "direct" cookie is over written. The organic cookie will always remain and not be over written even if the next visit is direct.

Is Google setting up the analytic data to be stilted more towards organic to show the value of search engines?

Getting Around the Adwords Double Dipping Rule

Google AdWords is notoriously strict about having multiple ads for the same keyword. With a single account it is impossible to game the system as Google will then pick which ad to show for you. Though a local auto dealer who has multiple locations and wants to increase their PPC visibility can create 2 accounts each advertising it's own dealership. This dealer group now has two ads and has found an Adwords Advertising loop hole. (For the time being anyway).

The lesson - use your locations to your advantage in your campaigns. Know the PPC system and how it works.

PageRank Scuplting and the NoFollow Tag

Matt Cutts recently talked about PageRank Sculpting and the NoFollow Tag is no longer a valid way to help sculpt PageRank through your website and cut down on PageRank leak.

Historically, sculpting was done to pass as much PageRank as possible to important pages through a website. Since the nofollow tag can no longer be utilized in this manner, other possible ways to cut down on links within a page are being talked about. One method of using iFrames and then blocking the page with a robots text file seems to be a step backward but a viable solution for the time being.

A better suggestion is to not place too much emphasis and let PageRank flow freely throughout your website.

Using Offline Advertising to Drive Prospects to Your Website

Many automotive and motorsports companies have long relied on using print as a means to turn prospects into customers, but instead of just adding your website domain name to the advertisement, use this as an opportunity to send the potential visitor to a controlled and specific section of your website.

A specific section, known as a micro-site (or microsite) is an easily typed URL or domain that is targeted for prospects. The advantage of creating a micro-site is that all the marketing messaging and offers is specific. Specificity, and giving the information to the visitor when the question around a product arises increases the chances of turning that visitor into a customer.

Micro-sites are also well known for their high SEO value. By having a narrowly focused section of a site or whole site, there is a likelihood that if set up properly will provide much added benefit within the organic search rankings

A few thoughts on the 2009 Le Mans Race

On the weekend of June 14, 2009 the 24 hour of Lemans race took place for the 77th time. Le Mans is a venue with a rich history and can easily be the worlds most challenging endurance race.

The 77th running of Le Mans continued to add to its history, the American Corvette GT1 team and winner will compete in the GT2 class in the future.

Patrick Dempsey raced in the #81 F430 GT Ferrari and raised over $200,000 for a Seattle Hospital. Besides Dempsey's ear to ear smile when talking about the race, he and his team proved that auto racing can help charitable organizations raise money and awareness.

Peugeot won the P1 class ousting the Audi R10 entries, a team that has repetitively won the last few years and dominated the class.

Le Mans with it atmosphere and history proved once again that racing is alive and well.

Mitt Romney Auto Industry Inisght - We should Have Listened

Last November Mitt Romney talked about letting the auto industry fail and not provide car manufacturers with a check. This would allow them to fall into bankruptcy and come out restructured, leaner and in a position to compete.



With GM entering bankruptcy and having burnt through tax payer money, was it wasteful endeavor to prop the likes of GM up?

The Auto Industry in Turmoil - Marketing oppotunities ???

As the auto industry in the US continues on a downward spiral and dealer inventories remain on the car lot, foreign car makers are taking advantage and have continued to advertise on a regular basis. Even with the turn of their inventories slowed, they are hoping to increase market share during this down time.

TV spots continue, online advertising like PPC ( pay per click ) and radio is still being used to drive the US consumer to foreign auto lots.

Ford just finished its seasonal sponsorship and promotion on American Idol, with advertising dollars freed will Ford jump in and separate itself from the likes of GM and Chrysler and advertise and market it's car lineup?

Chrysler to close 12 Dealerships

Chrysler sent 12 Massachusetts dealerships pink slips yesterday. These 12 Chrysler dealerships will be closing its doors. What will that mean for their websites, customer base, and contact list? These are valuable assets that may not otherwise been thought of……

The website could be redirected to another local dealer and benefit from any inbound pointing links. The contact list is also another opportunity for a competing car dealer to build and expand upon its own in-house list. Making the reach of their email campaigns and service promotions that much broader.

The 12 Massachusetts Chrysler Dealers to be closed are:

Seacoast Motors of Salisbury
Melrose and Wellesley Dodge
Westminster Dodge
South Shore Chrysler
Sullivan Bros Chrysler Dodge
Motor Mart Auto Sales
Pride Chrysler Jeep
Tri-State Automotive
Westboro Motors
Midway Motors
Stagg Chevrolet
Tarbox Chrysler Jeep

Automotive Marketing and Social Media

A previous posting spoke towards my dislike of social media as a channel for business to market within. Everyone is jumping on the social media band wagon and that irks me that something so myspacey and so 2006 is capturing the attention of CEO's and CMO's of major companies. I will recant my complete hate of social media marketing, as there is a purpose - kinda.

I think social media marketing when used as it was intended is a great way for an individual that appeals to a segment to provide tid-bits of useful info and updates of interest. An individual can post thought provoking discussion points, links of interest, and even pose a question.

When using social media to market yourself and intimate knowledge you add value to the community and segment of followers that want to hear your expert opinion.

A perfect example of using social media marketing from an automotive perspective is to provide information to buyers that help them win. (At this point in time any sale is also a win for a dealership). Have an experienced auto salesman provide the tips and tricks to getting the best possible deal for customers. Expose and uncover the misleading and misconceptions within the auto industry.

Use it as a channel to share your car sales knowledge with those that are new to the business. Solidify yourself as expert.

The two above examples are more persuasive and interesting to follow than just ABC automotive touting they have deals on cars.... cause in this automotive climate doesn't everybody?

3 things to do Today to Optimize your Automotive Website

So your website needs a boost in the rankings... here are 3 things you can do today to help improve your automotive search engine rankings.

1. Create a Google Webmaster Tools account and verify your site. Let Google tell you how it sees your website and begin making the recommended changes within the content analysis tab.

2. Identify the top 5 most important pages of your website, and ensure that those pages have high value keywords seeded into the content.

3. Research your current rankings. Knowing where you show up to today will give you direction as to where your site needs improvement.

The local market and local market keywords are still obtainable to own in your cities and towns for more on Online automotive marketing tips.

Why Car Dealers Struggle with Internet Marketing

Car dealers have their own language and business process and since many have done business the same way for the last 2 or 3 decades - there is an old school mentality when it comes to the internet. Dealers want the web to be successful but the internet isn't a faucet that leads just flow from.

A lead from the internet maybe considered a time waster... a tire kicker so to speak, but that is because the channel through which car buying research is done has changed. It is all too easy for a perspective customer to research comparable cars and send the same request to 10 different dealerships.

It is how responsive the dealer that can tilt the odds in favor.

A few basics though can be addressed as many dealers not only market vehicles within their own website, but on destination research sites like cars.com or autotrader.com.

Take great pictures... it may take some time but if the car is worth keeping on the lot, it is worth taking some great pictures of and making sure these are posted along with the car anywhere it is marketed.

Cut out the cream puff descriptions.... talk about the car from a mater of fact perspective. I don't mean just the list of features, but the cheesy-salesy copy needs to go. Instead talk about the value you bring to a perspective car buyer.

Make contact easy....and be responsive. It is 2009 and technology has gotten people accustomed to immediate online gratification. Respond with a well thought out reply that addresses individual concerns.

Just like you take the time to make your lot look presentable - treat your online inventory the same.

2009 Lexus IS350

I have been a fan of Lexus but after reading the Lexus IS350 review found Lexus-Talk it was a bit disappointing. With the addition of the IS-F to the Lexus line up and talk of Lexus Producing a super car it would be great for the IS series to compete directly with the BMW 3 series. Lexus has interior quality and finish to add to its resume, but comfort and drive-ability is the next refinements that Lexus should make.

I think the overall look and refinement of the cars are outstanding let's hope within a few years the once Lexus badeged civic will be a real contender for the likes of BMW.

Chevy Malibu - A race against time

The Chevy Malibu is not a bad car, it has updated styling, reasonable price tag but has a perceived lack of quality...

"A perception of inferior quality is the most serious problem facing GM," aside from its financial predicament, says David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The goal behind the latest Malibu was to create a car with a base price just over $20,000 dollars, but had the look and feel of a luxury sedan. In 2008 the Malibu was an award winner at the North American International Auto Show being named the car of the year, beating out the Cadillac CTS and the Honda Accord.

With the hope of a rebounding economy and strong marketing ploy to tout its awards, it maybe just enough to give GM's Chevy Malibu the boost it needs to continue to gain market share in the mid sized sedan category.

Social Media - Is not social or media ...... Discuss

I have contemplated back and forth whether to make this post a reality..... Working in online marketing when dealing with the High-Tech industry... I just can't seem to wrap my head around a truly practical use for social media. I know there are proponents and I do think it has a value. Self promotion, and thought leadership are great examples of practical usage..., but let's face it there is nothing social about social media. I would think one would be better off rising about all the static and actually having a traditional conversation. Not a 160 character micro blog tweet letting the world know that you are making a bagel with cream cheese while writing your latest blog post.....blah.

The media aspect... do I even need to comment. I think the 80 / 20 rule applies... 20 percent of people online are spewing 80% of the crap. Many times (much like the post) it lacks substance.

Ferrari 599xx at the Geneva Auto Show

I think I just found my calling.... a Ferrari test driver. After seeing the Ferrari 599xx in one of several picture galleries from the event, I couldn't help but think back to how I felt looking at the wall poster of a Countach 5000 as a boy. In Awe......

This car has business written all over it. Ferrari's 599XX

Taps playing for Saab - Is this the end?

Saab, which has been consistently generating losses year after year, is in a desperate bid for survival. Saab has recently applied for credit protection, so it can reorganize, and become independent from its owner GM. Saab will look for new funding from both private and public sources.

Sabb vehicle sales for 2008 was down 25% from its 2007 sales numbers of 125,000 vehicles sold. Saab will be presenting a reorganization plan to its creditors in the next few weeks. Born from jets...... but sinking like a ship.....

2010 Ford Taurus SHO

For 2010 Ford is re-launching its Taurus SHO model and they are including alot of goodies. The Engine is a twin turbo charged 3.5 liter V-6 capable of 365 horsepower. An upgraded track tuned performance suspension will smooth out the ride and help put those massive Eco-Boost ponies to the ground. Each corner will come wrapped in 19 inch Goodyear Eagles with an optional 20 inch wheel contained in the SHO Performance package.

With the rebirth of the Taurus SHO, long awaited Ford SHO enthusiasts should once again have a grin ear to ear.

Optimizing Marketing Programs and Making Marketing Improvements

Generating leads today in a slow economy is not an easy task. Business budgets are on hold or have been cut back and marketing departments all over contain an air of uncertainty. Now is the time for marketing to make vast improvements in their programs. Through testing, optimization and beginning new programs, an increase of raw leads or conversions should begin to follow. This also provides a foundation for when things begin to turn around that the current marketing programs become more effective and are able to produce at rate not seen before.

Before embarking on campaign and program improvements, consider mapping out a plan to implement the much needed marketing program changes.

Here are a few questions that will help get started.....

Does my marketing program need to be overhauled?
Yes, optimizing and making improvements should always be occurring. Start by putting all your marketing programs in front of you and focus on the worst one.

Where should I being with making changes to my marketing campaign?

What are the poor performing aspects of the program? Being there. Is it conversion rates? Click through rate?

How do I know if I made improvements?

Benchmark your existing performance and as improvements are made record and compare vital key performance indicators ( KPI ).

Best Luxury Sport Sedan Site

A new website is being introduced to that provides a peek into the world of luxury sport sedans from an enthusiast point of view. While some cars are for going fast other cars are for bringing the kids to and from school.... while a luxury sport sedan is able to do both. To read more about top ranked luxury sport sedans and the people who love them head on over to www.luxurysportsedan.com