Search Engine Optimization Frequently Asked Questions

At BZ Results, we strive to keep our dealer's websites updated with the latest in Search Engine Optimization techniques. We also want to keep our dealer partners up to date by providing them with answers to frequently asked questions and glossary of common search marketing related terms.

Q: Why don't I rank for a certain keyword?

A: Internet users have become increasingly sophisticated in the way they search for products online. In 2006, BZ Results recognized this change and shifted its keyword optimization strategy from being specific keyword centric to focusing on long tail keywords. This strategy change has paid off handsomely for our dealers. While those of us in the automotive industry would conclude that keywords X, Y and Z are the most important keywords to rank for, the reality is that consumers not familiar with the industry think differently. Our statistics have shown dealer websites receiving internet traffic from well over 6,000 keyword combinations in a 12 month period! If our strategy still focused on ranking for a handful of keywords, there is a good chance these dealers would have missed out on thousands of potential customers. Additionally, long tail keywords tend to more readily match the users search term, and statistically have a higher click through rate and lower bounce rate.

Q: How long will it take to see our website in the search engines?

A: The typical crawl or index cycle for most websites is 4 - 6 weeks. What this means is that approximately every 4-6 weeks the search engines will rank or adjust the rankings for a website based on existing or updated content.

Q: Why do my rankings change?

A: The indexing cycle happens at various intervals for different websites. For instance, of the top 10 websites shown for a given search term, 2 of the websites may be re-indexed at the beginning of the month, 4 may be indexed during the middle of the month, and 4 may be indexed toward the end of the month. Because of this, a website may appear to raise or fall slightly in rank until all contending websites have been re-indexed and positioned.

Q: Do Flash Based Websites get ranked?

A: Yes. While in the past, ranking flash based websites presented certain challenges, BZ Results was successful at getting our dealer websites to rank well for a large variety of keywords. In 2008, Google announced that they had worked with Adobe to improve Google's ability to index and rank flash based websites. We have leveraged this collaboration between Google and Adobe to provide even strong optimization for our flash based dealer websites.

Q: How do you choose what keywords to use?

A: When a dealer signs on with BZ, they fill out a dealer information form. The dealer supplied information helps us determine their desired market reach. We analyze potential markets within the dealer's desired reach based on various key data sets and choose the best potential cities and towns to drive traffic to a dealer's website. This information is carefully combined with other information supplied by the dealer as well as tested and proven keywords relevant to the automotive vertical. This creates the bases for dealer website keywords.

Q: Why don't I see more keywords in the Keyword Meta tag?

A: The keyword meta tag is no longer relevant to the major search engines. Similar to link building, the keyword meta tag was abused by unethical marketers and the search engines had to redefine their search algorithms, no longer giving the keyword tag the weight it once held as part of the ranking decision.

Q: Do I need a lot of links pointing to my website?

A: Yes and no. As with the keyword meta tag, creating inbound links to a website became an abused practice, producing top rankings website that were not the most relevant for a given search term. Google tightened up their "rules" for how links affect search ranking. Generally speaking, a good link comes from a website relevant to your website (a website from the automotive industry) and that referring website has a higher page rank than your website. Links from non-automotive websites or automotive websites with lesser page rank can be beneficial as they offer a channel for driving traffic, but this traffic typically will have a low lead conversion ratio, and the links can have a negative impact on your overall website. Additionally, Google not only looks at how many links you have and where they come from, but how fast you acquired them. Acquiring too many links too fast can also be damaging to your overall web ranking. Because of this, we feel that websites should acquire inbound links naturally, with little to no intervention.

Q: How often do you update the SEO on my website?

A: BZ runs a constant measure and improve program at the global, OEM, and rooftop levels. As we observe new trends in the way search engines index and rank websites, we test new SEO techniques with dealers who have agreed to be test partners. If the results of these tests are favorable, we update our optimization tools and immediately begin to implement the new SEO our dealers.

Q: Is having a lot of content important to my website?

A: Yes, although this wasn't always the case. But recent algorithm changes by the search engines have placed more focus on content and depth. Recognizing this need, we have made the necessary changes to our websites to allow for more content. Updates to our various optimization tools is underway and as are plans for a global rollout. Dealers can expect to see significant content changes to their websites in the near future.

Q: Why does my Title Meta tag read the way it does?

A: The Title tag has always been an important factor in search rankings. The keywords placed in the title tag, as well as the order that they appear, is very deliberate and based on years of measure and improve testing. While we implement these keywords in a way that makes them stand out to a web searcher, it is important that the focus of the title tag be for the web crawlers, and that the description tag deliver the marketing method. This is underscored by the fact that both Google and Yahoo will often overwrite the description information with relevant copy from within the website to help with click thru.

Q: Do you submit our website to the search engines.

A: Yes - For new URLS we submit the URL to Google, Yahoo, MSN and ASK. Second tier search engines such as AOL and Lycos use search technology from one of the first tier engines, and receive your information by default.

Q: I'm changing my website from my old provider to BZ Results, how will the search engines find us?

A: Once the DNS change has been made, the search engines will be able to follow your URL to the new website and host. What is important for a seamless transition is that your old web set up 301 redirects from your old web pages to your new site.

Q: There is a website that ranks well for our name, but lists negative information about our dealership. How do we change that?

A: While we can't make negative websites "go away", there are strategies that can be implemented to push negative websites down in the rankings or off the first page. BZ Results offers customized reputation management solutions for dealers faced with this situation. Please contact your field representative for more information.

Q: Does my website have a sitemap?

A: Yes. All BZ websites have a sitemap to expedite the indexing of all web pages on that site.

Q: Should I be concerned that a free online website analysis tool said my website's SEO is poor?

A: No. Online tools that "analyze" your website are very generic, one size fits all tools. They have no way of understanding the business purpose of your website or the search marketing efforts employed to help achieve those business goals. Often times the results don't tell the whole story because these tools are designed to get you to make a purchase or take some other desirable action.

Search Engine Marketing Glossary of Terms

301 Redirect - Method of redirecting references from an old webpage or host to a new location. The web equivalent of having the post office forward your mail when you move.

Alt Tag - A naming convention used to provide a text description of an image when images cannot be displayed by a web browser.

Anchor Text - Text, usually within web copy, that when clicked directs the user to another page on the website or to a different website.

Backlink - Hyperlinks that point from one website to another.

Bot - AKA Web Bot, Web Spider, Web Crawlers, or Spiders. These are programs that the search engines use to read and record website content for indexing purpose.

Directory - A directory is a web site that contains a categorized listing of links from around the web, similar to a white or yellow pages phone book except that many directories are vertical specific.

Inbound Links - Any links -coming in- from other websites that point to a your website.

Keywords - Words that are used by search engines to help categorize the content of a web page.

Keyword Density - How often a keyword or keyword phrase is used on a given web page.

Keyword Research - The process of analyzing a keyword(s) or keyword phrase(s) for frequency of use, competitive strength, and conversion potential.

Landing Page- A web page geared around a particular topic, product or conversion goal to where web traffic is focused (or users land). For many websites, the home or index page servers as the landing page.

Link Popularity - The number of inbound links to your website, as recognized by the search engines. Each search engine tracks link popularity differently and gives a different ranking weight to inbound links.

Meta Data / Meta Tags - A method for labeling the content of a website for the search engines. This information is not readily visible to the user.

Methodology - As it applies to search marketing, it is a series of marketing rules utilized when optimizing a website. These rules support the current core belief (or method) for achieving high traffic volume to a website.

Microsite - A type of landing page, often designed to be a standalone page, that focuses mainly on achieving conversion goals.

Mod Rewrite - Server side -rules- that can be used to determine how certain URLS are displayed. This is often desirable for websites that use dynamically generated content.

Organic Search - Search results in a search engine that are not paid advertisements. These search results appear naturally or organically based solely on the content and ranking of the website.

OutBound Links - Links from your website that point to other sites.

Ranking - The position within search engine results that a web site reaches for a particular search phrase.

Page Rank - Invented by Google co-founder Larry Page, Page Rank is an algorithmic summery of how important Google views a website for its interpreted subject matter.

Reciprocal Link - Placing an outbound link on your website as a direct result of receiving an inbound link from another website.

SEM - Search Engine Marketing, is the act of marketing a website on the internet, whether through organic, paid, digital, video, social media (etc) marketing. SEM is often confused with Pay Per Click(PPC) advertising.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization, a marketing method that -fine tunes- the content of a webpage to help strengthen its rankings in the search engine for a given subject matter.

SERP - Search Engine Results Page, the listing of web pages in response to a keyword or keyword phrase search query.

Site Map - A page on a web site that contains a hierarchy of the link structure of that site.

Static Website - A website or web page whose content is fixed (does not change or has to be manually changed).

Title Tag - A form of meta tag that displays the -title- of a webpage. The title tag is the hyperlink that also shows up in the search results.

Vertical - A marketing term that refers to a particular group or industry. i.e. Automotive vertical, Real Estate vertical, Insurance vertical.