YOURBUSINESSIDENTITYON GOOGLE:BE FOUND,STAND OUTAND ENGAGEJanuary 2015

Google My Business made its much-anticipated debut in June

2014, replacing Google Places for Business and Google+ pages as

a turnkey, digital solution for local businesses like car dealerships.

Google My Business combines multiple platforms – Google

Search, Google Maps and YouTube – into a single, user-friendly

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.

WHAT IS GOOG LE MY BUSINESS ?

BUSINESS DA SHBOARD: STEER YOUR GOOG LE MY BUSINESS PAG E IN THE R IG HT D IRECTION

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.

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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:

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Business Name

Physical Address

Phone Number

Hours of Operation

Photos

Google Ratings

Snapshot of Google Reviews

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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.

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:

THE KNOWLE DGE GR APH IS KE Y TO MA XIMIZINGONLINE PRESENCE

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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 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.

THE KNOWLE DGE GR APH IS KE Y TO MA XIMIZINGONLINE 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.

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GOOG LE+ PAG E INS IG HTS

RE VIE WS: WHY ARE THE Y IMPORTANT ?

1 . ADD PHOTOS TO YOUR PAGE FOR USERS TO ENGAGE WITH

3. EXPAND YOUR GOOGLE+ OUTREACH

4. DEVELOP AN OFFSITE LINKING STRATEGY

2. DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE CONTENT STRATEGY AND STICK WITH A CONSISTENT POSTING SCHEDULE

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Showcase the dealership logo and the building’s façade.

Include relevant keywords in your image names, tags and descriptions.

Highlight cars for sale or specific models.

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.

Encourage dealership staff to add customers to the dealership’s Google+ Circles.

Connect your dealership’s Google My Business page to your Google Analytics account to track referral traffic

in both platforms.

Use the Rel=”Publisher” tag on your website, which connects the content you publish on that site to your

official Google My Business page.

Link blog posts and other content to the dealership website, additional social media accounts and top social

bookmarking sites.

Monitor engagement levels and adjust social strategy appropriately: track your most successful social media

posts and develop similar content to drive additional engagement.

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.

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.

Promote events that the dealership is sponsoring or hosting.

Use relevant hashtags within posts (i.e., #Chrysler or #JeepCherokee) to extend posts’ visibility.

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.

5 BEST PR ACTICESTO TURN YOUR DE ALERSH IP ’S GOOG LE MY BUS IN ESS PAG E INTO A POWERFUL MARKETING TOOL

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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:

HOW WILL YOUR DE ALERSHIP GAUG E SUCCESS WITH GOOG LE MY BUSINESS ?

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• Added correct business info & photos

• Verified page

• Page began appearing 1st in search results vs. group site previously listed on Google My Business page

• Posted link to the new inventory page & to special features on Mazda models page.

•Posted link to satisfied customers page & positive dealership reviews page

•Posted link to the used inventory page & to 2015 Mazda blog

•Posted link to website page on the best time to buy a new Mazda

• Added correct business info & photos

• Verified page

• Page began appearing 1st in search results vs. group site previously listed on Google My Business page

• Posted link to the new inventory page, Order Toyota Parts page & to blog post.

• Posted link to the Customer Testimonials page & to the Corolla Inventory page

• Posted link to website page about the 2015 Toyota Corolla

1 . CREATE YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE

3. OPTIMIZE YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE

2. VERIFY YOUR DEALERSHIP’S GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PAGE

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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)

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

To verify your Google My Business page, Google sends a notification containing a

5-digit number to your dealership.

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 info@l2tmedia.com.

BUILD AND L AUNCHYOUR GOOG LE MY BUS IN ESS PAG E IN 3 E ASY STEPS

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G LOSSARY OF COMMON TERMS

SERP

IMPRESSION

CLICKTHROUGH RATE (CTR)

COST PER CLICK (CPC)

UNIQUE VISITORS

ORGANIC TRAFFIC

BOUNCE RATE

TITLE TAG

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

KEY WORD RESEARCH

META DATA

Search Engine Results Page.

A single instance of an online ad being displayed on a SERP.

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).

The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click; Average CPC is the average amount you are spending each time

someone clicks on your ad.

Individuals who have visited a website (or network) at least once in a fixed timeframe, typically a 30-day period.

Visitors to a website who arrive via unpaid/organic or natural search engine results.

Percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page.

HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of

search listings.

Service to analyze the performance of a website, such as user activity and site usability, by providing statistics on the

users of the website.

The search for keywords related to a website, and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment

(ROI).

Tags to describe various aspects about a web page. (“Data” is the culmination of a site’s meta tags).

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