YOUR BUSINESS IDENTITY ON GOOGLE: BE FOUND, STAND OUT AND ENGAGE January 2015 WHAT IS GOOGLE MY BUSINESS? Google My Business made its much-anticipated debut in June Google My Business combines multiple platforms – Google 2014, replacing Google Places for Business and Google+ pages as Search, Google Maps and YouTube – into a single, user-friendly a turnkey, digital solution for local businesses like car dealerships. interface. Existing content from the dealer’s Google+ page is consistent across all Google products. Building an optimized Google My Business page is a crucial step toward strengthening a dealership’s online brand and boosting its visibility in search. BUSINESS DASHBOARD: STEER YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Just as a car’s dashboard shows vital information – speedometer, tachometer, fuel, oil and temperature gauges – the Google My Business digital dashboard provides dealers with real-time analytics and performance data. A dealer can access all of their Google services from this central dashboard, edit their business information, add photos, share updates and manage their online reviews. A dealership’s Google My Business page is considered complete and verified if it contains all the required and relevant business information. 1 THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH IS KEY TO MAXIMIZING ONLINE PRESENCE The Knowledge Graph is the focal point of the Google My Business interface. Located on the right-hand side of a Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP), this highly visible section prominently displays the dealership’s most relevant information: • Business Name • Physical Address • Phone Number • Hours of Operation • Photos • Google Ratings • Snapshot of Google Reviews In the example below, a branded search – using a dealership’s brand name as part of the search string – for “BMW of Riverside” yielded the following results: • A Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad containing location extension (i.e., dealership address) is served up at the top of the page, which is considered optimal placement. • Immediately beneath the PPC ad in position #1 is BMW of Riverside’s homepage. You see the page’s meta description, and below that, a rich snippet containing the map listing/address, phone number, Google rating and number of Google reviews received. 2 THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH IS KEY TO MAXIMIZING ONLINE PRESENCE (CONT.) By contrast, the example below illustrates how a non-branded search – a generic query without a dealership’s brand name – such as “BMW dealer near Riverside, CA,” delivers the top five relevant results. While the dealership appears at the top of the SERP, there isn’t a Knowledge Graph associated with it; instead, Google serves up a Maps listing of the dealership’s location on the right-hand side. As you can see, much of the content in the Knowledge Graph is consistent with what’s on the dealership’s Google+ page, illustrating just how important it is to have a page description that’s polished and optimized. Best-in-class dealerships with robust business identities and optimized Google My Business pages typically have Knowledge Graphs that help them stand out in search results. GOOGLE+ PAGE INSIGHTS This powerful tool allows dealers to access integrated information from their Google Analytics accounts and run reports to better understand how their Google My Business page is performing. These reports include the number of views, followers, likes and shares the Google My Business page received over a given time span. Additionally, dealers can see how many clicks are going to their website, and the number of times people request driving directions to their dealership REVIEWS: WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT? Reviews play a major role in a dealership’s ability to rank favorably in Google’s local search results, which are a product of a proprietary algorithm that evaluates reviews and many other ranking factors. Reviews also contribute to a dealer’s star rating, and provide key reputation and trust indicators to search users and potential customers – all of which can help dealerships stand out from their competitors. 3 5 BEST PRACTICES TO TURN YOUR DEALERSHIP’S GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE INTO A POWERFUL MARKETING TOOL 1. ADD PHOTOS TO YOUR PAGE FOR USERS TO ENGAGE WITH a. Showcase the dealership logo and the building’s façade. b. Include relevant keywords in your image names, tags and descriptions. c. Highlight cars for sale or specific models. d. Load images of your dealership onto Panoramio, which is a geolocation-oriented photo sharing website owned by Google. Photos uploaded there can be accessed as a layer in Google Earth and Google Maps, giving you additional exposure to those products’ users. 2. DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT STRATEGY AND STICK WITH A CONSISTENT POSTING SCHEDULE a. Google likes websites that are informative, relevant and regularly updated with fresh and high-quality content. It also likes to see brands regularly engaging on Google+, and posts on Google+ pages are crawled and indexed almost immediately. b. Optimize your website monthly, publish to your blog weekly, and update website content frequently, giving you more material to share via Google+. This level of interaction demonstrates to Google that a dealer is actively managing their Google My Business page. c. Promote events that the dealership is sponsoring or hosting. d. Use relevant hashtags within posts (i.e., #Chrysler or #JeepCherokee) to extend posts’ visibility. 3. EXPAND YOUR GOOGLE+ OUTREACH a. Encourage dealership staff to add customers to the dealership’s Google+ Circles. b. Connect your dealership’s Google My Business page to your Google Analytics account to track referral traffic in both platforms. c. Use the Rel=”Publisher” tag on your website, which connects the content you publish on that site to your official Google My Business page. 4. DEVELOP AN OFFSITE LINKING STRATEGY a. Link blog posts and other content to the dealership website, additional social media accounts and top social bookmarking sites. b. Monitor engagement levels and adjust social strategy appropriately: track your most successful social media posts and develop similar content to drive additional engagement. 5. DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT STRATEGY AND STICK WITH A CONSISTENT POSTING SCHEDULE • Perform thorough keyword research to find the search terms that will lead the right customers to your Google My Business page and your site. 4 HOW WILL YOUR DEALERSHIP GAUGE SUCCESS WITH GOOGLE MY BUSINESS? Some common metrics that dealerships rely on to determine their Google My Business page’s performance are website traffic (trending upward) and improved Click-Through Rates (CTRs). Dealers who invest time and resources into frequent updates to their Google My Business pages consistently see positive results. Below are two examples of dealerships that experienced increased organic traffic to their websites between August and November of 2014 as a direct result of activities that optimized their Google My Business page: •Posted link to satisfied customers page & positive dealership reviews page •Posted link to the used inventory page • Page began appearing 1st in & to 2015 Mazda blog search results vs. group site previously listed on Google My •Posted link to website page on the best Business page time to buy a new Mazda • Added correct • Posted link to the new inventory business info & photos page & to special features on Mazda models page. • Verified page • Posted link to the Customer Testimonials page & to the Corolla • Page began appearing 1st in Inventory page search results vs. group site previously listed on Google My • Posted link to website page about the Business page 2015 Toyota Corolla • Added correct • Posted link to the new inventory business info & photos page, Order Toyota Parts page & to blog post. • Verified page 5 BUILD AND LAUNCH YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE IN 3 EASY STEPS 1. CREATE YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE • Go to www.google.com/business, where you can login with your Google account to claim your dealership’s business listing and create a Google My Business page • Complete your business profile information in Google Places for the Google+ page • Select the most relevant category for your business, and enter all hours and location information so it’s consistent with your website. • Connect your Google Analytics account and YouTube Channel (if relevant) 2. VERIFY YOUR DEALERSHIP’S GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE • To verify your Google My Business page, Google sends a notification containing a 5-digit number to your dealership. 3. OPTIMIZE YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE • Add keywords to your description so that dealership shows up correctly in searches • Encourage customers to review your dealership • Engage weekly and consistently post updates to your dealership’s Google+ listing While we have provided you with a blueprint for setting up a basic Google My Business page, your dealership may not have the internal resources to dedicate to ongoing maintenance. Digital marketing firms specializing in the automotive industry, like L2TMedia, offer added value by leveraging proven strategies and best practices that have delivered results for more than 700 dealer- ships across the United States. Learn how L2TMedia can develop and implement an effective digital marketing strategy that increases your dealership’s web presence and drives sales. Click here (go.l2tmedia.com/NADA2015) for more information or contact [email protected]. 6 GLOSSARY OF COMMON TERMS SERP Search Engine Results Page. IMPRESSION A single instance of an online ad being displayed on a SERP. CLICKTHROUGH RATE (CTR) CTR is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown expressed as a percentage (clicks ÷ impressions = CTR). COST PER CLICK (CPC) The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click; Average CPC is the average amount you are spending each time someone clicks on your ad. UNIQUE VISITORS Individuals who have visited a website (or network) at least once in a fixed timeframe, typically a 30-day period.