| 1.) Sites Made Entirely Out Of Flash | | | | increasingly hungry in their search for information. They |
| As any SEO will tell you, or nearly any web designer | | | | are finicky and impatient and are most concerned with |
| with the slightest knowledge about the behavior of | | | | finding the information they are looking for in a an |
| search engine spiders, designing a site entirely in flash | | | | efficient manner. The days of flashing lights, rotating |
| is a recipe for disaster. As search engines become | | | | banners, animated gifs and marquees is far behind us, |
| more sophisticated, the game of search engine | | | | and the days of flash intros and bandwidth hungry |
| optimization has become more complex....indeed, the | | | | animations seems to fading away as well. To replace |
| process of becoming a highly ranked site has become | | | | the old web is a return to simplicity, a return to what |
| quite a complex task. But at the most basic level, sites | | | | matters most on the internet; information. In some |
| designed in flash are essentially invisible to search | | | | ways, many dealer website have taken this sentiment |
| engines. A large component of determining the | | | | to heart in that they have begun to include a large |
| relevancy of a site by a search engine spider lies in | | | | wealth of information about individual cars on their |
| the spiderability (ability of the spider to crawl) of high | | | | sites. In fact, this was a major selling point for my client |
| quality, keyword rich content. In the car industry, there | | | | in his initial decision to outsource his website |
| are literally thousands of keywords that can be built | | | | development to one of the major dealer site |
| into a website to dramatically increase traffic. In west | | | | developers. Where Dealer websites have largely |
| palm beach alone, the location of a used car dealership | | | | missed the boat, however, is in creating sites that are |
| I am currently in the process of optimizing for, there | | | | very flashy and seem good in their attempt to attract |
| are literally hundreds of car related keywords which | | | | customers, but are off the mark in anticipating what |
| can be used to pull new traffic. This means that any | | | | their customer is truly looking for when they visit a |
| new content that can be built into the site, any content | | | | website. Each hit a dealer site receives is an |
| which contains keywords that customers may be | | | | opportunity for that site to convince the customer of |
| searching for, is content that can and should be seen | | | | the trustworthiness, helpfulness, and value that can be |
| by the search engines. It is content that should make it | | | | offered by that dealership. In print and television |
| onto the web. If this content is presented in flash, | | | | advertising flashy advertising has worked well, but on |
| however, it will never be indexed, and will therefore | | | | the internet their has been a major shift. People have |
| provide absolutely no value to ranking goals of the site. | | | | learned to tune out anything that tries to hard to grab |
| The bottom line is: | | | | their attention. Nobody clicks on those popups claiming |
| 2.) Duplicate Content | | | | you've won $10,000, and peoples eyes are no longer |
| For those sites not built entirely in flash, an even more | | | | drawn or remain fixed to text that scrolls. Web users, |
| ominous problem is usually lurking. Duplicate content is | | | | as the philosophy of Web 2.0 emphasizes, are more |
| abhorred by search engines. As many may know, a | | | | drawn to well organized, simple to understand |
| great deal of keyword rich spam sites are generated | | | | information. We skim the pages we read, switch |
| dynamically through scripts that scrape the internet for | | | | windows quickly, and ignore content and information |
| content that is likely to be searched for by the general | | | | that is not readily at hand. I would even go as far to |
| public. With a strategy designed to create revenue | | | | say that any extraneous material is not only |
| through volume, huge spam networks have been | | | | unnecessary, but is an obstacle in helping customers to |
| created (thousands of sites have been generated) by | | | | find the information that they are essentially searching |
| scraping or stealing content from legitimate websites. | | | | for. |
| As a result, search engines approach duplicate content | | | | Additionally, many Dealers make the mistake of trying |
| through a process known as canonicalization. What | | | | to mirror their real life presence on the internet, |
| this means is the the search engines look at sites | | | | meaning their website become the equivalent of the |
| containing duplicate content and make a judgment | | | | typical ways dealerships have hooked customers in |
| about which site best represents the content | | | | the past. A Dealer Website should not be giant |
| contained on all of the sites. Whichever website is | | | | stickers and balloons in cyberspace. While a loud |
| chosen as the most relevant for the content it contains | | | | looking sign and gimmicks may work well to draw in |
| then becomes the only site that is given any weight by | | | | drive by customers, it doesn't work well on the internet |
| the search engines and all other sites are completely | | | | anymore. The bottom line is: |
| devalued...or de-listed. To illustrate how extensive this | | | | Dealers waste their customer's time and insult their |
| problem is, visit any site. Then examine any non-flash | | | | intelligence by trying to hook them on the internet the |
| content, choose a text string (perhaps a piece of text | | | | same way you hook them on their lots |
| from the about us section), and enter that text into | | | | The majority of web users are less impressed by |
| google or yahoo with quotes around it. The results are | | | | flashy design and are more satisfied when presented |
| astounding. Google has crawled literally thousands of | | | | with the information they are looking for in an easy to |
| pages created by that contain the exact same | | | | understand fashion. |
| content. In fact, almost every page created by that is | | | | 7.) Little to no use of analytics |
| in the slightest bit search engine friendly (meaning it | | | | For any web marketer, the use of analytics (measures |
| was at the very least not built in flash), is keyword | | | | of website usage) is essential in creating highly |
| content that belongs to hundreds of pages already on | | | | effective sites that provide the best return on |
| the net. The bottom line is: | | | | investment. In the past, analytics programs were |
| Many Dealer Websites do great harm to themselves | | | | beyond the scope of small businesses or beyond the |
| by having their only spiderable content be content that | | | | ability of certain providers to offer their clients. Today, |
| exists in duplicate on the pages of dozens, hundreds, | | | | however, highly sophisticated analytics programs can |
| or even thousands of similar sites. | | | | be obtained at little to no cost, and many dealer site |
| Any site containing non-original content will very likely | | | | developers offer limited or even more extensive |
| be heavily penalized in the SERPS (search engine | | | | analytics as a value added service. For those |
| result pages), or will be de-listed altogether. | | | | providers who do offer high quality analytics, kudos, but |
| 3.)Hidden Sitemaps and Links | | | | for many out there (such as dealer.com)....analytics that |
| One of the primary ways to garauntee that a site will | | | | are useful in making changes to the site that will |
| be completely indexed (all pages will be crawled and | | | | actually increase traffic, productivity or ROI are |
| included in the SERPS) is to include a sitemap on index | | | | severely lacking. There is more to site statistics than |
| pages or main pages that are sure to be crawled. A | | | | simply number of clicks. Analysis of page views, exit |
| sitemap is essentially a list of links to all of the pages | | | | points, conversion ratios, and much more is essential to |
| on the site, organized in an organized fashion. The | | | | tweaking a site so that the most leads can be |
| inclusion of sitemaps is seen by many seo's as | | | | generated. Looking at a real life example of this lack of |
| essential, and is a step many dealer website have | | | | analytics comes from my experience with my current |
| taken in the right direction with regard to designing sites | | | | client and their use web analytics. After my own |
| that have a chance to rank well. What they do wrong | | | | analysis of their site and the implementation of google |
| in this regard is the inclusion of sitemaps whose links | | | | analytics (which far surpassed their previous |
| are either a.) Hidden Behind Flash Movies or b.) Hidden | | | | measures), we were able to see that their landing |
| using CSS. Hiding text behind a flash movie is fairly | | | | page was losing almost half of all new visitors. This |
| easy considering Flash typically floats above any site | | | | was astounding, not only because it meant that they |
| content when properly positioned, and is desirably for | | | | were losing half of all of their traffic after the first page |
| many designers wishing to create a seamless and | | | | load, but also with the realization that traffic could be |
| immersive flash experience for their visitors. This has | | | | greatly increased simply by redirecting to the main |
| largely been the goal of many dealer designers such | | | | inventory page. (which makes sense considering our |
| as BZ results. While often beautifully designed, the | | | | model of the new internet consumer, who is more |
| templates set up by such companies are often | | | | interested in information than anything else.) The |
| designed in such a way that links, sitemaps, and often | | | | bottom line is: |
| keyword rich text is hidden from human eyes in an | | | | Dealers are losing large portions of customers to |
| attempt to lure search engine spiders into indexing | | | | design mistakes that cannot be tracked due to poor |
| deeper pages. This type of design trick may have | | | | analytics. Furthermore, Dealers do no usually have the |
| been a work around solution in the past, but it has | | | | ability to configure their websites to the degree |
| become a major no-no in the SEO world. A basic rule | | | | necessary to help their site improve. |
| of thumb is that search engine spiders have a great | | | | Web site design is not a one step process....it requires |
| aversion to any attempts at trickery. This means that if | | | | a degree of testing as well as trial and error. |
| you have hidden content on your site, whether it be | | | | 8.) Illegal redirections |
| links to other pages or just text, you will be penalized in | | | | Illegal redirections are the backbone of the spam |
| the SERPS, or de-listed. Search engines see hidden | | | | industry (if it can be called that). Their use through |
| content as an attempt to trick search engines into | | | | javascript, meta refresh, and many sophisticated |
| thinking a page is about something other than is being | | | | methods of cloaking (exchanging one website for |
| showed to that site's visitors. As you can imagine, in | | | | another behind the scenes) is an art that has been |
| the eyes of a search engine, this makes such a site | | | | perfected....and the search engines are perfecting new |
| irrelevant to all search terms. The bottom line is: | | | | methods of detecting this sneaky redirects. Now, it can |
| 4.)Heavy Reliance on Meta Tags | | | | be argued that redirection and cloaking has its benefits, |
| In the early days of the internet, much less | | | | and it does. For instance, one could use javascript to |
| sophisticated techniques were needed to deliver very | | | | detect browser versions and then redirect to the page |
| high quality search results to users. As the net became | | | | most easily viewed by the detected browser. Or |
| a place where revenue was considered by many to | | | | perhaps a redirect might be put in place in order to do |
| be directly related to traffic volume, sites hungry for | | | | testing on different ads or lead generation techniques. |
| profit began to use the system in place to deliver | | | | If you look at many dealer websites, you can see this |
| more and more traffic. In the past, search engines | | | | type of redirection taking place. In fact, you'll sometimes |
| used what are known as meta tags to determine | | | | see the script run quickly before the page loads....being |
| what a site was about, and therefore what types of | | | | confronted with a "determining properties" title page |
| searches it should be shown for. Meta tags are | | | | before you're brought to the main site. This tactic is |
| basically tags written in the head of HTML documents | | | | highly illegal in the SEO world, the world of google, and |
| that contain a list of keywords relevant to the site (as | | | | is a recipe for disaster if employed on your website. It |
| determined by the webmaster), as well as a | | | | is almost unfathomable that this type of redirection is |
| description of the site. This information was once the | | | | still going on, especially with the common knowledge |
| primary method for determining relevancy in the | | | | that such tricks are a sure fire way to be de-listed |
| SERPS. Due to misuse, however, the use of meta | | | | completely. |
| tags has become nearly obsolete. Unfortunately, many | | | | Another problem plaguing dealer websites is a lack of |
| dealer websites have not kept up with the times, and | | | | proper redirection on sites that carry more than one |
| still rely on meta tags as one of the only ways they | | | | domain name or exist with multiple sub domains. As |
| inform search engines of their content. This is usually | | | | was mentioned earlier, duplicate content hurts the listing |
| done with a very large list of words in the "keyword" | | | | of your website. The way search engines see it, |
| metatag. This type of optimization can be seen by | | | | duplicate content exists if two domain names point to |
| examining the source code of any dealer.com, bz | | | | the same site. So, if a site like my clients: points to the |
| results, reynolds & reynolds, or cobalt site. What is | | | | same IP address as his other domain: google will see |
| even more disturbing is that the keywords in these | | | | duplicate content because it sees both domains as |
| meta tags are often the most general and therefore | | | | seperate entities. This is also true in terms of the use |
| some of the most competitive keywords in the | | | | of subdomains...especially the WWW. For many |
| industry. As a poignant example, my current client's old | | | | dealers, their site can be accessed at [ or Google |
| site did not contain the words "west palm beach" or | | | | treats these as different entities, and more often then |
| "used cars" in its keyword list. These keywords were | | | | not, punishes both versions of the site for duplicate |
| the most important keywords for driving traffic to this | | | | content. This needs to be fixed with a properly |
| site. Instead, chose to include in its keywords a list of | | | | configured 301 redirect, which is a permanent redirect. |
| every car manufacturer in the world....even though my | | | | 9.) Backlinks |
| client rarely sells a number of these brands. Additionally, | | | | For Google, one of the most important measures of a |
| for the local keywords that were included, there were | | | | site's relevance is the number of links pointing to that |
| major spelling errors that in this case held absolutely no | | | | site. This is true for the other search engines as well, |
| value for my client. | | | | and seems to increasingly be a main measure in the |
| The bottom line is: | | | | ranking of sites in the SERPS. Quality backlinks from |
| Many Dealer Websites still see meta tags as a viable | | | | sites that the search engines deem "authorities" are |
| means of communicating a site's content, and remain | | | | the most valuable links that can be obtained. |
| for many sites the only method exposure. | | | | Additionally, backlinks should have anchor text (the text |
| The use of meta tags in SEO is, at best, a slightly | | | | that is hyperlinked) that are relevant to the keywords |
| useful way of optimizing a page, if the proper | | | | on the site. Google's infamous Page Rank, is based |
| keywords have been chosen, and at worst, | | | | upon this model of backlinking, and as a result has |
| completely worthless as a tool in increasing search | | | | facilitated the rise of google as the internets most used |
| engine position or relevance. | | | | search engine. Backlinks are arguably the most |
| 5.)Poor Keyword Research/Choices/Optimization | | | | important aspect of SEO. Building backlinks is also |
| As was mentioned in my treatment of the use of | | | | arguably the MOST IGNORED seo tactic by nearly all |
| meta tags, the majority of dealer websites fail to take | | | | of the major players in dealer site game. Searches for |
| into account the large variety of relevant keywords | | | | cars in most major cities reveal results targeted to |
| available and optimize only for the most highly | | | | dealership sites only in the pay-per-click side. Dealer |
| competitive and least targeted terms. For sites like the | | | | sites nearly never show up in the organic side, and |
| one being optimized for my client, a concentration on | | | | those that do have no doubt concentrated their efforts |
| the "long tail" is the most effective method in gaining | | | | on backlink building. This is a real problem in the |
| quality traffic. What this means in terms of keyword | | | | industry. Dealers are shelling out thousands of dollars a |
| choice and seo is that the keywords which are of | | | | month to websites that are paying for traffic they |
| most importance are not those that get the most | | | | could be getting for free....with proper backlinking and |
| searches and are the most competitive. What this | | | | minimal optimization techniques. The bottom line is; |
| means is that the most highly qualified keywords, and | | | | Dealers are losing customers by not doing proper |
| those most likely to bring in buying customers are | | | | backlinking, thus cutting off one of the most important |
| those keywords that are on the long tail, bring in less | | | | methods for increasing ranking in the organic SERPS. |
| searches, but are more relevant to our consumers. | | | | Backlinking is not an automated process, but requires a |
| This means that choosing the key phrase "used cars | | | | plan of actions and follow through. |
| in west palm beach Florida" would be much more | | | | 10.) Poorly Formed URLs |
| effective in bringing customers than the term "used | | | | Creating URL's that can be easily spidered is simple if |
| cars," which is arguably a very competitive phrase. | | | | a few key rules are followed. First and foremost, |
| Additionally, keyword optimization for a word such as | | | | URLs must be properly formed and must obviously link |
| jaguar would not be nearly as effective in our | | | | to their proper destination. Whether in a flash movie or |
| treatment as, say, "jaguar s type Florida." Many dealer | | | | as a simple hyperlink, I am often surprised to see how |
| websites ignore altogether the need to optimize both | | | | often broken links exist. (these serve only to take |
| for specific key phrases, as well as specifically | | | | away from the credibility of the dealership and causes |
| targeting and tailoring keywords locally. The more | | | | users to leave your site). More importantly for SEO |
| specific and tailored the keyword, the better. Although | | | | purposes, though, is the use of URLS which are |
| such terms will undoubtedly generate less traffic, they | | | | created dynamically....meaning they look something like [ |
| will be more highly targeted. With effort, a large list can | | | | This URL is not search engine friendly because search |
| be compiled and can be used to generate traffic that | | | | engines do not usually properly crawl dynamically |
| is cheaper (when used in pay-per-click campaigns) and | | | | generated URL's, and if you are lucky enough to have |
| also much more effective. The bottom line is: | | | | a dynamic URL indexed, more often then not, the |
| Many Dealer Websites are unwisely optimizing for | | | | dynamic content is cut off, leaving you with something |
| keyword that are too competitive and not targeted | | | | like: [ This URL will not lead to the intended page, and |
| (both in terms of attracting customers who are ready | | | | will result in duplicate content being indexed if such links |
| to buy and in terms of attracting local clientel.) | | | | are crawled at all. Any server running apache with |
| Keywords that are not well targeted are useless. | | | | mod rewrite access can fix this simply, and should fix |
| They result in high exit rates, wasted resources and | | | | it. Properly formed URLS that have been further |
| WASTED MONEY. | | | | optimized to contain keywords can go a long way in |
| 6.)Major Design Flaws (not anticipating the customers | | | | helping the ranking of a site, and as we have |
| needs) | | | | discussed, getting more pages indexed properly |
| As anyone involved in the new Web 2.0 Culture will tell | | | | means more content and more hits. |
| you, the internet is shifting. Internet users are | | | | |