All Blog Posts (112)

By Brian Pasch

I just attended an Automotive Lenders Conference in New York City hosted by Dealertrack Technologies. The speakers and discussions surrounding Digital…

The pace of change in the automotive retail industry has not slowed and neither has the need for hands on skills training for dealership personnel.  First Class Educators is proud to host the 4th Annual Automotive Boot Camp in Philadelphia, May 14-16th.  The 2013 Boot Camp curriculum is design to provide skills training on the most in demand…

It should be noted that Kloutis fiction. In most cases, it's not a true indicator of influence. It can be gamed and manipulated. It rewards activity, often giving preference to higher levels of activity than most people are willing to post.

Still, it's the…

Listen, sorry about the headline, that’s not actually what this is about (though it is a true story)…but it proves a point: people can’t help but click on weird news headlines!

We all know blogging is a crucial aspect of any business’s…

Facebook has had their analytics tool called, Facebook Insights, for a while now, and since its conception it has grown more and more complex. Insights are now able to show Facebook Page Admins all kinds of useful information which can be a huge help when trying to hone your…

SEO is a like a clock, always shifting, and kept true by machinery fathomless to the general population. Even people who make a living learning these intricate machinations are, at best, constantly battling to stay relevant. The hidden algorithms utilized by search engines like Google keep us on our toes,…

You have been reading (hopefully) that on or around April 24th, Google rolled out another update to its search algorithm code named "Penguin". This update was to enforce it's existing terms of service guidelines regarding link quality. This update is important to car dealers who have been working hard to increase their search…

This week it looks like a number of dealers were impacted by updates to Google Places data that were "unintended" consequences of a master directory update by Google.  There are a number of discussions and threads on automotive communities like ADM, DrivingSales, and DealerRefresh, so let me create a synopsis.

First, let me say that a number of GM dealers called me on Monday to express their frustration with an update that impacted their Google Places pages.  Many thought…

The most overlooked website diagnostic software is provided free in Google Webmaster Tools (GWT).   Most dealers are unaware of the wealth of information that GWT can provide regarding the health of your website. 

Dealers…

Join me for these three educational webinars on a very important topic that you can leverage in 2012!  

Signup For Webinar Series

Visit http://www.automotiveseostudy.comand join the community.  Once you are accepted, join the Multi Channel Sales Funnel Group so you will be sent the links to the three webinars.

Webinar Dates…

There is a distinct taste of irony to this post. I made my feelings known about cross-posting on all of the social networks earlier this month. Now I must break my own personal rule.

This time, I have good reason.

We're trying to compile a…

This blog post was inspired by Tony Rhoades today, when he commented on a blog post about ZMOT saying "By the way what is SEO again?".

If you…

I always try to keep this community up to date with the latest search trends and changes in Google.  We have been noticing some interesting "summary" pricing results on certain search queries that include automotive classified websites.

If you look at the search results shown below, Google is pulling out VDP data, and summarizing this data is the SERP.  We have a good idea why this is happening but the answers would…

You can order a copy of the 162 Page AWA book which outlines all the winners from this years Automotive Website Awards.

The awards ceremony is Friday October 7th in Las Vegas but I know that all DrivingSales members can not attend to ceremony.  

So, if you can't be there you should get a copy to help guide your buying decsions in…

Have you thought about how much color has been added to Google’s search result pages? It’s as if Google took a cue from a Broadway musical and created their own version of a Joseph’s Technicolor Dream Coat.

The colorization of Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) come from customer reviews, Google +1 buttons, and color thumbnail photos of people in your network.

Dealers must prioritize implementing processes to collect in-store customer reviews;…

I'm looking forward to sharing with progressive dealers my latest research and strategies for automotive search engine optimization.  Google has been making so many changes to how search engine result pages (SERP) are displayed that it is hard to know what is important and what is just fluff.…

I would like to invite members of this community who are going to Las Vegas for the fall conferences to add the AWA Ceremony to your agenda.  The Automotive Website Awards recognize the best technology, products, and services offered to car dealers.

The ceremony and…

Google continues to amaze me with a tsunami of changes to search and new products this summer.  The team at Google is not taking any vacation time this year.



Google announced today Google Related, a free toolbar that is available for Google Chrome and…