Have you noticed that when you use Google or other search engines the results page is showing different types of media, like video, images, local info, and web search, all on one page? This is being referred to as blended search, and it is showing up more and more on search engine result pages. Blended search gives your auto dealer website the opportunity to use search engine optimization across multiple channels to have more entries rank well.
When things like images, video, and news items show on page one of Google’s search results page, your car dealership has an opportunity to rank in all of those categories. SEO for images means using keyword-rich alt image tags and surrounding the image with descriptive, relative text, among other things.
The SEO efforts for video are similar to those for images.
Since search engines have a difficult time “reading” what an image or video shows, adding descriptive text near the video and even caption for the video can help.
For news, make sure your auto dealership is creating search engine optimized press releases regularly. This way, when your dealership or relevant keywords are searched for, your car dealer press release (linking back to your website of course) will have a chance to show in the results.
Search engines like Google seem to be going full-steam towards blended search, and auto dealer websites that ignore this will be left behind. For more information, contact DealerOn’s auto dealer search engine optimization department. I also found this webinar to be helpful when trying to understand the importance and relevance of blended search: Search Results, SEO and the New World Order: Blended Search 2010
