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In Best Practices

Google Offers–Just Another Groupon?

Last week I wrote a post about Google Local Portal in Portland.  If you’ve already read it, you might have seen mention of Google’s new service for businesses: Google Offers.  Google Offers appears to be similar to Groupon and other discount offering services — it allows you, as a small business owner, to get your business “in front of thousands of customers in your area looking for amazing deals on the best places to eat, shop and play.”

Google hasn’t given too much detail, but they have setup a group of “Google Offers specialists” to call or email.  They will “ask all the right questions about your business to help create an attractive offer that is best for you”.  Then, as with similar services, an offer will be emailed to subscribers in your area.

It’s unclear whether or not these Offers will be integrated into regular Google Local search or their integrated search results pages.  I can’t imagine that these Offer icons won’t begin to show on maps and next to Places search results in the near future, but I can’t find an example of that anywhere.  Feel free to add a link in comments if you are able to.

Here are the cities that have Offers, and those that are coming soon:

Also, Google has produced videos aimed both at businesses and consumers.  Links below.

Google Offers for Businesses
Google Offers for Consumers

Want to sign up?  Click this link to have Google contact you to participate in Google Offers BETA.

There has been some discussion on whether or not using these deal sites can be a successful endeavor for auto dealerships.  To me, unless they integrate fully with Google search results, Google Offers is just another Groupon.  Do you think Google Offers will be any different from Groupon and others?

In

List of Google+ Tips and Tricks for Auto Dealers

Since Google+ is so new, I asked everyone on our team at DealerOn to put together a list of resources for car dealers trying to wrap their minds around this new way of social networking (myself included).  Here’s a list of links/sites that we’ve put together.

The Google+ Project: A demo from Google that is pretty informative, but doesn’t explore too deeply.

Google+ Unveiled: 9 Things You Need to Know: Very basic explanation of the basic features behind Google+.  Good starting point after the Google demo above.

Your Google+ Guide: 15 Tips for Newbies: Guide to getting the most out of the new social network.

Google+ Cheat Sheet: A short cheat sheet with some keyboard shortcuts and other useful information.

What Will Google Plus Google Places Equal?: Hypothetical look at how business may be able to use Google+ once it is opened to businesses.  Interesting Read.

Google+ in 15 Minutes a Day: Interesting post on how to fit another social networking site into your already busy day.

Google+ takes on Facebook. Is Basecamp next?: Discusses ways that businesses could use Google+ as a business tool.  Seems like it could be used as a project management tool.

Feel free to share any helpful articles or blog posts that you’ve found, as well as any tips or tricks that help you get the most out of the new tool.

What is the overall consensus on Google+–positive or negative?

In

Facebook Recommendations

Looks like Facebook is getting in on the reviews game. While checking in on the DealerOn Facebook page today, I noticed a new tool that I think auto dealers may want to keep an eye on.  Expanding on the simple “like” button that seems to be everywhere, Facebook now lets users leave recommendations for business pages.

Located in the sidebar, Facebook has introduced a “Recommend This Place” option on Place pages (if you’ve merged your Place page with your Business page, it will appear there).  Users are asked to write a recommendation, and after clicking in the text box, you’re presented with the option of who to share your recommendation with (Everyone, Just Friends, or Customize).

Recommendations will show on the wall of the user and in the news feed of those that the user chooses to share it with.  If a recommendation is shared with “Everyone”, the admin of that page will be able to see it.

If you are an admin, you will have control over which public (those shared with Everyone) recommendations appear on your page and can remove them by simply clicking an “x”.

The only concern I have with this new tool is that these recommendations are not always visible to the admin of a page.  The default is to share with Everyone, so hopefully most users won’t change that.  Also, I would imagine that Facebook will start to use these recommendations as another ranking factor in their search tool, so the more reviews your dealership has, the more likely you’ll show up in the search results (just a hunch—Facebook hasn’t disclosed their search algorithm).

What do you think?  Have you used this new feature on your dealership’s Facebook Place page?  Do you think this is a positive or negative for your dealership and your online marketing efforts?

In Web Analytics

Installing Google Analytics on Your Dealership Website

No matter how sophisticated or rudimentary your website provider‘s reporting platform is, having Google Analytics on your website is a “no-brainer”.  You want to “trust, but verify” your website provider’s analytics by making sure they are similar to those in Google Analytics.  At DealerOn, we have made it a standard part of our process to create a Google Analytics account for each of our customers’ websites.

Luckily, if your auto dealership website provider doesn’t already provide Google Analytics tracking code (which I believe they should), it is fairly simple to add to your own website.  Here are the 5 steps to implement Google Analytics on your dealership websites:

1. After logging into your Google account, visit https://www.google.com/analytics/provision/.  Click “Sign Up”.

2. Enter the information about your dealership website, and click “Continue”.

3. Enter your contact information.

4. Read and approve the User Agreements.  Make sure you set your Data Sharing Settings before clicking “Create New Account”.

5. You will have to choose whether  you are tracking a single domain, one domain with multiple subdomains, or multiple top-level domains.  For most dealerships, you will be tracking a single domain.  Choose which best fits your needs, and Google will provide you with a code snippet to put on each page you’d like to track.  Send this code to your dealership website provider, and they should be able to take care of this for you.

That’s it.  5 simple steps to creating your own Google Analytics tracking code and reporting system.

While it is not reasonable to expect the data you see from your website provider and Google Analytics to match exactly, (your provider should have filters and visit/session rules that may not be precisely the same as those in Google Analytics), they should be fairly close and they should trend in the same directions.

Having Google Analytics reporting on your site is also important in case you switch providers at some point.  You will have a complete history of YOUR website’s performance from an unbiased 3rd party.  Also, Google Analytics is a flexible platform that allows you to create reports and track key metrics that your website provider may not provide.

If you have any questions, or would like more information about getting Google Analytics on your website, just drop us an email at clientresults@dealeron.com.

In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The Future of Google Local?

Have you seen the new offering from Google for local search? Unless you live in Austin, Portland, Madison or San Diego, chances are that you haven’t. Google’s new “Beta” Local Directory Portals are a bit of a mix between their place pages and Yelp. They let users look at all of the businesses in a city in one place (similar to Yelp’s model).

Here is a screenshot of Google Portland.

You can sort by category, and then drill down even further using the filters. While there is no automotive category yet (the tool seems to lean a bit more towards tourists/visitors), it’s another example of how important Google Places is now and will be in the future.

These local portals are pulling their results directly from Google Places listings, including the reviews. In fact, one way to sort is by rating. If your dealership doesn’t have a lot of good, quality reviews, you may not appear above the fold.

If you haven’t already, I can’t stress enough how important it is to claim your listing and make sure it is as complete as possible. This means photos, videos, categories, reviews, and information is completely filled out and accurate.

Google’s Local Portals are just another example of how Google is relying more and more on the information in their Places, and why your auto dealership needs to have an accurate representation in the Places realm. How do you think this new offering will impact the local auto dealer industry?

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