SEO by the Numbers = DSEO

One of top topics of the last few years that will continue to dominate our business development plans for 2010 is website optimization.  Before I outline a simple, no-cost way to increase your phone calls by 25% within 90 days using a new type of optimization,  it is important to have an understanding in layman’s’ terms what optimization is and why it is so important.

Optimization is also called search engine optimization (SEO), natural search or organic search and you may hear these phrases used interchangeably within the marketplace.  At its core, optimization is a method to maximize the opportunity for the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Nexplore, etc.), go bots, or web crawlers to analyze your website in order to determine where to place your url, or website address, on the search results page.  All websites are examined on a periodic basis to update the results that appear when a search is initiated by a customer.  Remember that there are many factors that each of these search engines use for evaluation of your site, and they may use different factors to distinguish themselves from one another.  In addition, they may change their weighting or attributes used at any time.  In order to provide you with a roadmap to increase your visibility and placement, I will highlight the few variables that you should consider when evaluating the effectiveness of your websites - page titles, descriptions, key words and content.

Page Titles:  Also called meta titles, these are currently considered the most important factor from a search engine perspective.  These are a string of words that best describe the contents of your page and website.  The length may vary but it is recommended to be between 60 to 130 characters.  70 characters is the average accepted length by search engines and these are the characters that appear in the top bar of your web browser.

Descriptions:  Also called meta descriptions, these are the phrases or words used to describe your business, product, service, or operation that are seen when your search results are posted.  Most recommend 175 to 250 characters, but some search engines may not value your description when determining your position on the search results page.  However, your description is remains critically important as it is the first item viewers see when their search results appear.

Key words:   Also called meta key words, these may or may not be significant for the search engines that are indexing or valuing your website to determine your website listing position.  When utilized they should reflect relevance to your page content and include 15 to 25 words or phrases separated by commas.

Content:  This is the main component that attracts your customer, calls them to action and retains their attention.  It is one of the key ways to bring your prospective customer to your website and turn their leads into sales.   Your content should be clear, concise and compelling information presented in a manner consistent with your targeted audience and used to assist you in determining your meta tags. Adding relevant video, called VSEO (video search engine optimization) with your tracking phone number and/or providing links to your social media also play an effective role in gaining top position with search engines.

Now that we understand the basics of optimization, the real questions that emerge are:  “Why do we want our site to be on top of the search results page, and how do we maximize our presence online?”  Simply being on the top of the search results page and making our website visible is only one part of the equation.  We need to create an action by the viewer that is most likely to result in bringing revenue to your organization.  Certainly, sending them to the website is a simple way to increase profits, but we also want to increase the likelihood of the viewer to contact your dealership for further information.  One simple way to do this is to add the ability of the viewer to make immediate contact from the search page by adding the phone number to the page title, description and key words. Some SEO experts will tell you this may not enhance your visibility, but it certainly cannot hurt your placement.  But more importantly, by combining our phone number into the few variables we know are important to the search engines, we can maximize the probability that the customer will attempt to contact your organization. 

Remember, the most important resource each of us have today is time, so make it as easy as possible for a potential client to get in touch with your staff.  Many times, prospects will land on your website and begin their research.  When they are ready to take the next step in their decision to purchase, history illustrates that they would prefer the phone, rather than an impersonal email response.  In comparison with email traffic only, data has shown that the closing ratio dramatically increases once a phone call has been initiated by prospect.  All the recent studies completed by JD Powers and others demonstrate that web viewers continue to decrease emails and increase phone calls.  Again, time is a factor, and consumers want answers quickly.  History tells us that dealerships have a difficult time responding to emails and providing customers the information they request in a timely fashion.  Placing your phone number in your page title does a couple of things: 1), the customer can easily locate your phone number right at the top of the browser and contact you rapidly; and 2) it generates an emotional response in the client to trust your organization.  Eight out of 10 surveyed internet viewers indicated they trusted the page title and information provided by the search engines more than the website itself.

When your meta tags include phone numbers, video content, or social media that act to increase website optimization and provide your customers with a reason and easy way to communicate with you, this is called DSEO or dynamic search engine optimization. If you use DSEO in your business marketing plan, research indicates you can expect an average of a 25% increase in phone traffic within 90 days.  Remember, your cost to adding content to your sites such as the phone number is zero dollars, and the time it takes is minimal.  Given the systemic change in our societal buying habits, becoming more customer centric is a wise decision and will pay big dividends.