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Have you ever gone to add your auto dealer website to Google Places only to find someone else has already claimed and verified it?  We run into this from time to time while setting up listings, and recently found this information on what to do.

First, make sure no one in your dealership has already taken the initiative to set up and claim your businesses listing.  Once you’ve done this, here are the steps to take:

Create your listing, making sure that:

• Your dealership name, address, URL, and email address are exact
• Add a local phone number, not an 800 number
• Create a 200-character or less description of your dealership
• Make the listing as interactive as possible with up to ten images smaller than 1MB and 1024×1025 pixels, as well as links to up to five videos.
• Describe what makes your dealership different from your competitors in the additional details section.
• Verify your listing through Google.

After you have your completely accurate listing created and verified, you have to tell Google Places that there are duplicate listings.  Go to the listing you didn’t create (that you want removed) and click on “Edit this Place”.

Select the “Place has another listing” button and enter the URL of your accurate listing and state that you want the previous entry removed.  Make sure you check back to ensure the listing was removed within a few weeks–you may have to go through the removal process multiple times.

Ever wondered how Google’s search engine works?  This cool info-graphic is definitely worth taking a look at.  While it doesn’t give away the things Google uses to rank sites, it does lend some insight into how the search engine delivers the websites you search for.

How Google Works

Infographic by the Pay Per Click Blog

As I’m sure most people have heard, Google came out with a new feature yesterday that they’re calling Instant Search.  Since the announcement has been all over the Internet, I thought I’d try to explain what Instant Search does and how it can help your car dealer website.

Google’s Instant Search resembles their auto-suggest feature, where potential search terms are auto populated into a drop down below the search box.  Instant Search differs from auto-suggest in that instead of potential search terms showing, the search is actually performed as Google fills in their auto-suggest.  Here’s an example of how Instant Search works:

So how will this affect your car dealership and your search engine optimization?  It’s hard to know exactly how this new technology will change SEO results and practices, but I think this will help car dealers, especially those optimized for long-tail search.

Before, web searchers using Google had to commit to a search term, just one at a time.  Even though Google would auto suggest additional keywords, searchers had to hit the enter button or click to make the search happen.

With Instant Search, search users can see what their search results will look like without having to commit.  For example, if they start to search for “Boston Nissan” and only see 3rd party, national sites, they are more likely to make their search term more specific.  If “Boston Nissan” doesn’t show them what they want to see, perhaps “Boston Nissan dealership” will or “Boston Nissan used cars”.  Car buyers won’t have to hit search to see what their results will be, leaving the door open for more detailed long tail searches.

Is your dealership ready?  Make sure you’re in contact with your search engine optimization vendor or dealership website provider to ensure your site is prepared and optimized to deal with the recent changes to Google’s search technology.