Just the Tip(s)

SEO Professional's face in a magnifying glass surrounded by smartphones

Breaking Down the Search Engine Results Page

ShareThe world of auto dealership marketing often surrounds the search engine results page (SERP). This is inevitable as most people looking to purchase a car will perform some kind of Google search. However, the SERP is an intricate thing with many pieces to consider. In our recent video, What You Don’t Know About Search, Zach Billings, VP of Performance and […]

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Caution tape and warning signs wrapped around an automotive SEO professional and a phone display a SERP

Car Dealers, Be Aware of This SERP Change

ShareIf you’ve noticed a big change in your rankings for model-related keywords over the last few months, this one goes out to you. As we all know, Google is constantly changing. While these changes often make the search experience better for users, they can be a pain for those of us chasing that number one spot on the search engine […]

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SEO professional shown in a magnifying glass next to a Google search bar

A Decrease in Organic Traffic Isn’t Always Detrimental – Here’s Why

ShareWe’ve all felt it: That heavy blow to the chest when you look at your Google Analytics and see data signifying a decrease in your website’s organic traffic. This is especially disappointing when you’ve put extra effort into your SEO strategy. Maybe you’ve been doing in-depth keyword research and crafting a content strategy around your findings. Maybe you’ve been mapping […]

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SEO professional in a bubble next to a search bar

How the Keywords You Target Can Impact Your Data

ShareIt is very possible that you are looking at an inflated version of your website’s traffic without even realizing it. And I’m not talking about Google Analytics 4 nuances or data filters. I’m talking about how the keywords you or your vendor are targeting may be giving you a false sense of growth. This is because not all traffic is […]

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SEO professional in a magnifying glass on an orange background

Conversions vs False Conversions in GA4

ShareAs you develop a marketing strategy, it is imperative that you periodically look at your data, determine your success stories, and find places where your efforts could use improvement. It has been six months since the implementation of GA4, and you and your team may have noticed some differences in your conversions, from the type recorded to the frequency. This […]

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GA4 • Six Months Later

ShareThis past July, the digital marketing world experienced a shockwave that was felt throughout the automotive industry and in many other industries as well. Universal Analytics (GA3) was sunsetted across the horizon, and a new version, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), was introduced. The creation and overall validity of this new version of Google Analytics stemmed from increasingly more intense privacy […]

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SEO professional smiling over a Google search bar and video clips

GBP DIY Video Series – December Recap

ShareThe month of December brought an end to the GBP DIY video series. But the good news is that the month also brought a ton of interesting and important topics to the table. Josh went over some of the best practices for reputation and reviews management, how to manage your Q&A section, and the ways you can set your dealership […]

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Headshot of the author framed in a magnifying glass, with 2023 headlines in the background

Surveying the AI Landscape: A 2023 Update for Automotive Dealers

ShareAs we prepare to say goodbye to 2023, there’s one thing that we know is coming with us into 2024: artificial intelligence (AI). With its growing force of chatbots, image generators, and tools, the world of AI continues to present both opportunities and challenges for automotive dealers in the digital landscape. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the advancements […]

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GBP | Questions & Answers

ShareHere we go, another quick one. Your customers have questions. You have answers. Pretty simple right? Here’s the thing, though…other people have answers to, and Google gives them the means of answering those questions if you don’t get to them first. This, of course, opens to the door to our old friend, Misinformation…so, pay attention. Here we are on the […]

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GBP | The Importance of Reviews

ShareDo you want the good news or the bad news, first? The good news is that this is a relatively short episode. The bad news is, when it comes to how you rank in local search, it really does matter what people are saying about your dealership. So, let’s talk ‘Reviews’. By now, regular viewers are pretty familiar with this: […]

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Move Forward (Or Fall Behind): The Evolution of Automotive Marketing

ShareIn the ever-changing landscape of automotive sales, car dealerships are increasingly turning to specialized marketing agencies to fuel their success. As the industry embraces the digital era, forward-looking marketing professionals navigate constant updates while steering dealerships toward unprecedented growth. Join us as we look at some outdated practices falling by the wayside and explore how car dealership marketing agencies are […]

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SEO professional smiling above a Google search bar and two video clips

GBP DIY Video Series – November Recap

ShareLast month, Josh covered a number of Google Business Profile (GBP) basics, from how to log into your account to how to get verified. This month, he dove even further into the deep end to teach you how to really get the most out of this tool. If you missed any of the episodes, don’t fret. I’ve got you covered […]

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GBP Listings | How to Properly Nest Departments

Share“Department nesting”… what is it? It’s the act of making sure that Google is aware that the various department listings you’ve created are associated with your dealership’s primary sales listing. For this week’s episode we’re going to revisit the actual dealer listings we used as an example last week, remembering to obscure and protect their data – just in case […]

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Woman in front of a blue background with the Google Business Profile logo.

The Importance of Managing Your Google Business Profile Reputation

ShareYour Google Business Profile is one of the most impactful online tools your business will have at its disposal. It’s a one-stop shop for potential customers to get high-level information about your business and a way to contact a representative without navigating through an unfamiliar website and searching for a phone number or contact form. Data from your Google Business […]

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GBP Listings | Entering Business Information

ShareGet comfortable, and make yourself a snack, friends…because this topic is a big one, in terms of both importance and scope. At this point, we’re going to assume you’ve already created or claimed all of your listings, verified them, and identified all of your departments. Today, we’re going to talk about your business information and – for our onscreen examples […]

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Woman smiling above a Google search bar with video clips belowit

GBP DIY Video Series – October Recap

ShareIt has been an exciting few weeks for us here at Wikimotive. We launched an all-new video series featuring Support & Special Projects Manager Josh Billings. In the series, Josh takes us through the various pieces that go into successfully managing your Google Business Profile (GBP). This month, he covered what GBP is, why it’s important, how to manage a […]

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GBP Listings | Verification

ShareLast week, we covered the identification and creation stages of managing your GBP listings. In doing so, we covered the difference between claiming & creating a listing, then left off at the verification stage. So, guess where we’re picking things up this week! That’s right! So, what do we mean by “verification”? Simply put, it’s Google’s process for confirming that […]

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Technical SEO Specialist superimposed over a smart phone displaying information about keyword strategies from Wikimotive

The Relationship Between Keywords and Topics: How to Generate Engaging Content

ShareOver the past few weeks, we’ve discussed how to generate keywords, the tools that can help you do so, and some ways to take your keyword research to the next level. Today, we’ll explore the relationship between keywords and topics, and how they work together to create content that addresses your customers’ needs and signals your authority to Google by […]

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GBP Listings | Identification & Creation

ShareThis week, we’re covering 2 topics: identification and creation. Now, in this series, we’re basing everything on the specific standards set by Google for dealerships like yours. Why? By adhering to these standards, you’re ensuring that your online presence is compliant, so you won’t be penalized in Search. Makes sense, right? So, according to those standards: All car dealerships can […]

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Female Technical SEO Specialist in front of a smart phone with Google displaying information about keyword strategies

How to Level Up Online: Keyword Strategies

ShareWe all know keywords are important. To meaningfully appear in Google’s search results, you need to focus your site’s content on the topics and search queries that are valuable to your business and potential customers. But finding the right keywords goes well beyond looking at the search volume and ranking difficulty statistics associated with the topics for which you want […]

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Resolving Issues with GBP Support

ShareIt’s inevitable that at some point, you’re going to encounter a problem with your Google Business Profile. Something that has you stumped. Well, don’t feel bad. Not only is it highly likely that other users will have encountered the same problem, it’s equally likely that advice and/or solutions can be found in user forums that you have access to. Here […]

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GBP | Logging In & Profile Administration

ShareTo log into your Google Business Profile, visit business.google.com and click ‘Sign In”. You can log-in using any Google account, but you’re going to WANT to log-in using a general business account. This should be standard operating procedure for any business. Why? Because you’ll inevitably have to share, or hand-off those credentials at some point, and you wouldn’t want to […]

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Woman smiling in a bubble above the words "SEO Climb," a search bar, and video clips

SEO Climb Video Series – September Recap

ShareDave has officially wrapped up a successful second series of SEO Climb. This month, like the rest, he covered some hot topics like whether or not you should hire an outside SEO (search engine optimization) provider, how ChatGPT and other AI tools impact SEO, the best ways to perform keyword research, and whether you should continue optimizing for keywords for […]

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Welcome to your Google Business Profile

ShareDid you know that your Google Business Profile (or ‘GBP’) listing is one of the most important tools in your marketing toolbox? It empowers you to manage how your dealership shows up in Search, and across Google products like Google Maps. Plus, it helps customers to find you within your designated geographic area, because Google-verified listings are more likely to […]

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Jennifer Connors in front of an image of a smartphone with a message about which tools to use for keyword research

Navigating the Keyword Research Tools

ShareYou might think that determining what terms you want to rank for is all you need to do for keyword research, but it’s just the beginning: the next step is to utilize keyword research tools to find the low-hanging fruit and figure out which queries make the most sense to focus on. Last week, Dave walked you through how to […]

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Should I optimize for things I already rank for?

ShareIf you’re already ranking well for a particular search query, should you stop optimizing for it? Let’s say you’re doing a great job on writing content. You’ve done some quality keyword research. You’re tracking your progress. You’re seeing that the page in question is ranking really well for a number of keywords that you find important to my business. Do […]

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How should I perform keyword research?

ShareSo, you want to perform keyword research to create higher quality content for consumers in your area? I’m just so damn proud of you right now. Fire up your laptop. Now, there are a lot of paid tools out there that will help you in your keyword research, and we use any number of them depending on our goals, but […]

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Dave Estey in front of an image of a smartphone searching for "keyword research"

Keyword Research: Where Do I Start?

ShareKeywords. We all know we want to rank for them, but determining which ones matter most is a mix of art and elbow grease. Stick with me as we wade into the shallow end of the keyword research pool, and pretty soon, you’ll be ready to swim with the sharks. Before discussing research tools and competitive landscapes, let’s start by […]

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Will ChatGPT have an effect on SEO?

ShareIf all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So how should AI tools like ChatGPT influence your SEO? Great question. Now, will ChatGPT change SEO, and are there ways that you can leverage this to improve the efficacy of your practices.Yes, and yes. So, let’s get down to it. To start, we’re in the early days […]

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Should I hire an outside SEO provider?

ShareSEO, handle it in house, hire an outside provider? What are the pros and cons? Well, meet my two friends: time and money. Start by asking yourself, “how much time do I have?” If the answer is anything like, “None. I’m jam packed”, well…you don’t have time for search engine optimization. Now, ask yourself, “can I afford to hire one, […]

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Girl smiling above the words "SEO Climb," a search bar, and various video clips

SEO Climb Video Series – August Recap

ShareGoogle’s algorithm updates, big SEO (search engine optimization) uh-ohs, performance analysis, and the timelessness–or lack thereof–of SEO. These are all topics Dave covered in the August episodes of SEO Climb, and you won’t want to miss out on any of this information. If you did happen to miss an episode or two, though, you’re in luck because I put together […]

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Will my site’s content stand the test of time?

ShareThe Great Wall of China. Baker’s Pure Rye Whiskey. Wu-tang Clan. These things stand the test of time. But what about the content on your site? Will it stand the test of time and should it? The answer is, “it depends”. Some of your content is likely to perform well for a very, very long time – while other content […]

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Emily Taub, Wikimotive Technical SEO Specialist, discusses the 'Top Mistakes Made in Automotive Marketing'

Top 5 Mistakes When Working on SEO

ShareSo you’ve been working on your search engine optimization (SEO) for a while now…or maybe you’re just getting started. Either way, you’re probably reading a lot about different automotive marketing solutions, best practices for the industry, and all kinds of tips and tricks for getting ahead. But what about the stuff you shouldn’t be doing? One poor decision can completely […]

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How can I tell if a page is performing well?

ShareSo, you want to know how to determine whether or not a specific page on your side is performing? Grab your laptop and open your Google Analytics 4 account, and we’ll lay it out for you step-by-step. Go into ‘Reports’                   Select the URL that you want to check-out. Going down to […]

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A woman's face in a green circle between two vehicles on a dealership's showroom floor, surrounded by icons of marketing tools used to monitor SEO efforts.

Use These Tools to Monitor the Success of Your Automotive Marketing

ShareA lot goes into picking out the best automotive marketing solutions for your business, between determining your strategy, figuring out your budget, and putting everything into effect. Whether you focus the majority of your efforts online or are spreading your efforts across digital and traditional platforms, you’ll need to be able to monitor trends in your data and see how […]

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What’s the biggest mistake made in SEO?

SharePeople ask me all the time, “Dave, what’s the number one mistake people make when working on SEO?” And I’m like, “You want me to pick just one?” Oh, you do? Alright. Well, there’s a lot to pick from but, if I’m pressed, I would say that the leading mistake isn’t found within their actual SEO, it’s caused by their […]

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How do Google algorithm updates affect me?

ShareSo if you’re paying any attention to the internet whatsoever, you’ve probably read some headlines about Google updates, and might be wondering, “How does it affect my website? And do I need to worry about this?” And the answer is, “hopefully not”. If your website and SEO practices haven’t been adhering to Google’s guidelines and best practices (which means that […]

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Woman smiling in a bubble above the words 'SEO Climb,' a search bar, and three video clips

SEO Climb Video Series – July Recap

ShareDue to popular demand, SEO Climb with Dave Estey is back. In series one, Dave talked about everything from what SEO (search engine optimization) is to how you can identify your online competitors. Now, back for a second series, he is getting more in-depth and going over more important SEO topics. In July, he touched on how much time you […]

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What if I’m not seeing results from my SEO?

ShareLast week, we talked about how you should wait roughly six months before you judge the efficacy of your SEO strategy. Now, this naturally leads into the follow-up question, “Hey, it’s been six months since I did this SEO work. I’m not seeing any real increase in my performance. Should I change something up or should I just stop?” Well, […]

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Woman standing in the middle of a half black-and-white, half color photo between June and July, with magnifying glasses on either side

Differences Between GA4 & Universal Analytics

ShareIn case you or your marketing team have missed the countless notifications, emails, and articles about it, Universal Analytics officially became a thing of the past on July 1, 2023, giving way to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the latest data measurement tool offered by Google. Whether you just made the switch at the end of the month or you created […]

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How often should I update my SEO strategy?

ShareIs it time to update your SEO strategy yet? What about now? No? How about now? Still no? Well, what about now? How often should I update my SEO strategy? This is fairly straight forward. You see, Search Engine Optimization is a slow roll and takes time to reach its full effect. For this reason, you’ll hear myself and all their professionals say, “you should wait six months to judge whether something is effective or not”. […]

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Woman standing with suitcases on an open road that has a Google Analytics 4 sign on it

The Time Has Come: Moving on to GA4

ShareWell, folks, the time has officially come. After over ten years of Universal Analytics (UA), it is time to move over to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Technically, you or your digital marketing vendor should have set you up on GA4 a long while ago, allowing you to capture historical data, but if not––it’s important to get on it now. As […]

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How much time should I be spending on SEO?

ShareHow much time should you be spending on SEO? And how should that time be broken out? This is actually a pretty complex question. So we’re gonna get into the weeds a little bit here but (luckily) we brought the weed whacker with us. First, how much time you should spend on SEO is really dependent on doing a full […]

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"Raising ChatGPT" written by Wikimotive Marketing Manager, Jason Cook as featured in the June issue of 'AutoSuccess Magazine'

Raising ChatGPT | What to Expect When You’re Expecting AI to Fix Everything

Share“So, basically…ChatGPT is the equivalent of a 10-year-old with access to the internet.” The summation was a simple one, made during a workshop focused on the promise, prompts, and perils of the AI platform as it relates to automotive marketing. But once uttered, the silently-attentive room of dealer marketers, sales managers, GMs, and dealer principles stirred in unison, sharing in […]

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Woman over the words "High Performance" with video clips shown below

High Performance Video Series – June Recap

ShareThe June episodes of High Performance wrapped up series two. Zach talked about Performance Max ads, along with other paid advertising opportunities, how to increase fixed ops leads, and even some common reasons you may see an increase in direct traffic to your website. This information allows you to not only learn how to best manage your dealership’s online marketing […]

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Update Your GBP Holiday Hours

ShareHey dealers, Josh from Wikimotive here…with a reminder that Independence Day is right around the corner. So, before you fire up that grill and set off those fireworks, let’s make sure your dealership’s Google Business Profile is updated to reflect your holiday hours. Okay, so there’s two things you’re going to want to do (i) set your holiday hours, and […]

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Girl looking up from her phone and smirking in front of a CLS scale

3 Things Causing CLS Issues On Your Website

ShareCumulative layout shift (CLS) is one of the most frustrating––and common––issues found on websites. Have you ever been online, gone to click a button, and it suddenly shifts, causing you to click on something else? That is CLS, an issue that occurs while the page is loading. And based on the number of dealership websites I have analyzed and found […]

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What is direct traffic? Why is it climbing?

ShareSo your direct traffic has been climbing, climbing, climbing, and you’re not sure why? First of all, let’s define ‘Direct Traffic’. At its core, direct traffic most frequently indicates that somebody navigated directly to your website URL without (i) performing a search, or (ii) clicking a paid ad, or referral link. It’s a bucket of traffic in your analytics that […]

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A pull quote about user experience from the blog is next to a picture of a smiling woman on a green and black background

Understanding & Defining Core Web Vitals

ShareWhen our team at Wikimotive starts working on a new website, one of the first things we look at is its overall user experience and functionality. To assess this, we reference a Core Web Vitals report, which is a set of metrics defined by Google. Introduced in May 2020, these metrics quantify how users actually experience a website and are […]

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How do I optimize for Service in search?

ShareSo you need to increase your fixed ops business, but how do you optimize for service in search? Well, there are two ways, there’s organic search and there’s paid search but the Google search landscape is filled with misnomers and confusion. Time and time again, we see vendors focusing very heavily on fixed ops specific keywords. Of course this makes […]

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What’s the difference between a VLA & Paid Search?

ShareWhat’s the difference between a vehicle listing ad (or ‘VLA’) and paid search? It used to be that you bid on a keyword (something like ‘Ford dealer’, ‘Toyota dealer’, ‘dealerships near me’, ‘used cars for sale’). In contrast, VLA’s bear more similarities to dynamic used paid search in that (rather than being keyword based) they’re based on the inventory you […]

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The Big Takeaway | DMSC 2023

ShareDid you miss DMSC 2023 last week? If so, don’t worry! We asked attendees, workshop leaders, and sponsors what THEY felt the big takeaways were…and here’s what they had to say!

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As featured on the May cover of AutoSuccess Magazine, Wikimotive co-founder & CP of Client Performance, Zach Billings helps dealers to steer clear of the vendor bullsh*t.

Buzz, Bull and Automobiles | Steer clear of the vendor bullsh*t

ShareAs featured on the May 2023 cover of AutoSuccess Magazine Sales are down. Leads are down. Foot traffic is down. We have the wrong cars, and rates aren’t helping, but boy, does it feel like something just isn’t working right. Is it the website? Are the chat and digital retailing tools set up right? Do we need to switch third-party […]

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What are Performance Max ads?

SharePerformance Max (or ‘P-Max’) ads are an ad type within paid search that has become very popular in 2022 and 2023. Think of them as a bucket that Google holds out and says, “Pour some money in and we’ll get you performance!” and then try to maximize that performance per dollar in terms of traffic. Hopefully, that traffic generated is […]

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Image of a girl smiling with the words "High Performance" and five video clips sitting below her

High Performance Video Series – May Recap

ShareA few months ago, VP of Performance and Sales here at Wikimotive, Zach Billings, went in-depth on a number of automotive SEO topics in his High Performance video series. Now, he’s back again to talk about even more. Kicking off the second series, Zach discussed something everyone’s wondering about: how dealerships in other parts of the country outrank you on […]

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Wikimotive Co-Founder and VP of Sales & Performance, Zach Billings answers the question "How Should ChatGPT affect my SEO strategy?"

How should ChatGPT affect my SEO strategy?

ShareDisclaimer: Due to the rapid evolution of ChatGPT this blog (an intended transcript of the video) has been enriched with additional information to ensure its timely accuracy as of the 5/23/23 airdate. So, you’ve spent the last few months hearing a lot about Chat GPT, and you might be asking yourself, can I use this to scale my SEO content? […]

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The author weighing the different strengths and weaknesses between two AI language models, ChatGPT and Bard.

Comparing AI Tools: ChatGPT vs Bard

ShareArtificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage right now, with the advent of several different AI tools and language models that have shown the ability to create art, pass certification exams, and even create music. AI has been in the news recently due to the implications it may have in the world of SEO, where two language models have been […]

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Wikimotive Co-founder and VP of Sales & Performance Zach Billings answers the question "What is GA4 and how will it affect my dealership?"

What is GA4 and how will it affect my dealership?

ShareGA4, What’s all the fuss about? Well, the fuss exists for good reason, and it’s probably going to continue through 2023 and into 2024. For those not aware, Google Analytics 4 (or “GA4”) is the new version of Google Analytics. It’s existed since 2020 in some form or another, has matured a lot through late 2022 into 2023, and will […]

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3 SEO Tasks AI Can’t Address & Why

ShareThere is no denying the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) can be useful in crafting and executing elements of a powerful SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. We have proven that fact time and time again within our AI blog series. However, there are also plenty of SEO tasks that AI can’t address. From developing a content strategy to alt tags […]

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Wikimotive Co-Founder, and VP of Sales & Performance, Zach Billings answers the question "why did my site get more out-of-state traffic in 2022?"

Why did my site get more out-of-state traffic in 2022?

ShareDid you start getting a lot of out-of-state traffic in 2022? If so, were you wondering why? Well, you could have attracted out-of-market traffic via blog articles that are informational (as opposed to transactional). As we’ve discussed in recent weeks, this means blog articles that attract people who want to learn more about things like towing capacity, or trim levels, […]

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A quote from the blog displayed next to an image of the author, a smiling woman with her arms crossed

What is User Experience (UX) and Why Does It Matter?

ShareMuch of the work of technical SEO is performed behind the scenes: auditing sitemaps, tracking conversions, and doing other things for the benefit of search engines and the humans who use them. But as much as we want sites that will rank well on the SERP (search engine results page), we cannot lose sight of who these sites are designed […]

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Is more web traffic always better?

ShareIf selling cars is a numbers game, then more traffic is always better, right? Well, yes and no. Let’s Talk Traffic To increase sales you need more showroom visits, which means you need more opportunities to convert to leads, which establishes the need for more traffic. Right? But…more traffic doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to have more opportunity. A […]

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Woman looking over a Google search bar with clips from the ThinkBetter with Angus Fox video series below it

ThinkBetter Video Series – April Recap

ShareLast month, I told you that you weren’t going to want to miss out on the April episodes of ThinkBetter with Angus Fox; I wasn’t kidding. This past month, Angus provided even more questions to ask your vendors to ensure you are getting the best possible product. He also went in-depth, showing you how you can tell what your third-party […]

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Why is my dealership getting outranked in Search?

ShareSo, you’re here [let’s call it “Location A”] and you’re being outranked by another dealership way over here [“Location B”]? There are a number of factors that cause a dealership across the country to rank higher than you do, beginning with the keyword. Getting Outranked | Transactional Searches vs. Informational Searches Is this a transactional keyword that would indicate that […]

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A digital image of a 3D maze with a bold white arrow pointing straight through it.

Create a Clear Path to Conversion

ShareAs featured in the April 2023 issue of AutoSuccess Magazine   Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication A digital shopping experience absent of friction can lead your customers to what they are looking for. Often, it is that high-quality user experience that creates early trust and a solid leg for future positive interactions to stand on. These first impressions are paramount […]

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What providers can you recommend we partner with?

ShareSo, one of the questions I’m asked all the time is “Angus – if your specialty is vendor accountability, what vendors would you recommend”. Well, there are only 3 that I can recommend 100% of the time. But who are they? Disclaimer: It’s important to note that I have no association with 2 of these vendors, but was a previous […]

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Female SEO professional proudly admiring a finished rubix cube while a robot struggles to complete one

Can AI Replace My SEO Provider?

ShareSome of you may be considering replacing your SEO provider with artificial intelligence (AI), thinking, “This could save me so much money!” While that may be true for your marketing budget, trading in an experienced SEO provider for AI is not without serious risks––some of which may outweigh any savings. It goes without saying that AI does and will continue […]

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How can I assess 3rd party traffic on my website?

ShareSo, you’re spending all kinds of money. You’ve got all kinds of marketing dollars going in all different directions, and you have all this referral traffic coming back to you website. How can you tell what it’s actually doing? I’ve got you covered. There’s a lot of different ways we can measure that 3rd party traffic and the way that […]

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What questions should I ask my pay-per-click provider?

ShareAccountability in pay-per-click is very important because the money that you’re spending only lasts for that moment in time. With a poorly configured account with poor targeting, incorrect ads, and a low-quality score, that money can vanish and you can get nothing for it. It’s very easy to have lots of fraud, waste, and abuse in pay-per-click and it’s often […]

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An SEO Specialist touches a holographic display to control two AI robots in the foreground

Three Ways to Make Your Data More Actionable With AI

ShareAs we’ve discussed over the last few months, artificial intelligence (AI) and search engine optimization (SEO) are in the early stages of a new relationship together. While AI has long been in the background of digital marketing, its recent advances have brought it to the forefront in a new way. We still have a lot to learn about what its […]

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Woman looking over a Google Search bar with clips from the ThinkBetter video series below it

ThinkBetter Video Series – March Recap

ShareAs promised, we at Wikimotive have been delivering yet another knowledge-packed video series over the last few weeks. This time, we are hosting a special guest: Vendor Accountability Advocate from ThinkBetter, Angus Fox. Angus has taken the stand to tell you how to ensure you are getting the most out of your third-party vendors, from your automotive SEO provider to […]

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What questions should I ask website tool provider?

ShareLast week we talked about questions you can ask a 3rd party inventory provider to (hopefully) get more traffic to your website. But what about your website tools, like a trade provider, chat provider, or service scheduler? Here’s some questions we can ask those tool providers to see how well they’ll fit in with our website and our marketing stack. […]

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What questions should I ask my 3rd party inventory providers?

ShareWe touched on alignment. It’s one of the most important things we can make sure of: that our partner is providing exactly what we think. We want to ask them point blank: What are the main goals you’re helping dealers using your product meet? Is it leads? Is it impressions? Is it branding? What am I getting for my money? […]

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Woman standing behind a large chess set analyzing her next move

How Can I Use AI to Help My SEO Strategy?

ShareOver the last couple of weeks, Emily and I have talked about what artificial intelligence (AI) language models are, how they work, and some pros and cons of this dynamic technology. Why are we spending this time learning and teaching you about this, though? What ties does AI really have to search engine optimization (SEO)? More than you may think. […]

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How can I compare my 3rd party inventory providers?

ShareWhat are some of the ways you should compare 3rd party inventory providers? As we’ve discussed previously, the way we hold our vendors accountable is going to differ depending on what service they’re providing. In this example, let’s talk about some ways we can compare a 3rd party inventory listing provider. On-Page vs. Off-Page When we’re looking at a 3rd […]

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An SEO specialist looks past a holographic console to ponder an AI robot in the foreground

What Are the Pros and Cons of an AI Language Model?

ShareAs discussed in the first part of our AI series, an AI language model is a form of artificial intelligence that interacts with language in a highly sophisticated way. This has only recently become possible, thanks to the use of advanced algorithms and complex pattern recognition. Because of its proficiency in generating natural-sounding responses, it can be easy to forget […]

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What tools should I be using to hold my vendors accountable?

ShareNow that we’ve discussed what vendor accountability is, let’s discuss some of the tools we’ll use to hold our vendors accountable. Now, before I get into that you’re going to notice that I’m going to use the word ‘our’ a lot. That’s because I don’t identify as a vendor. I identify with the dealer. Our job is to hold the […]

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Girl on her smartphone catching a robot analyzing her

What is an AI Language Model & How Does it Work?

ShareThe internet has been hit by a storm these last few months. We have heard so much about artificial intelligence (AI), ChatGPT, and how “robots are taking over.” But, in all seriousness, you may be wondering what all of this actually means. For that reason, I will answer two of the biggest questions in this article: What is an artificial […]

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What is Vendor Accountability?

ShareAre you really okay writing checks to countless vendors, settling for meaningless reports and questionable results? If you’re paying them month-after-month you need to hold them accountable. In the coming weeks, I’ll give you the complete playbook, as well as a number of FREE tools, dashboards, and reports. But first, I’ll define Vendor Accountability, identify which vendors you should be […]

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"The number one benefit of optimizing your site is increased visibility", a quote by Emily Taub, Technical SEO Operations Manager of Wikimotive taken from her blog article titled "Maximizing Your Online Presence: A Guide to SEO for Car Dealers"

Maximizing Your Online Presence: A Guide to SEO for Car Dealers

ShareLike all businesses, modern car dealerships rely heavily on the internet to reach prospective customers and increase sales; given the competitive nature of the automotive industry, it’s crucial to stand out from the crowd. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways for you to accomplish this goal. Through a variety of techniques, SEO works to optimize your […]

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An image of Wikimotive's Technical SEO Operations Manager, Emily Taub accompanied by a quote from her article stating, "If you're not curating your online presence with intention, you are missing out on all of those connections."

Car Dealership Marketing Agencies and What They Can Do for You

ShareRegardless of who you are or what you do for a living, you probably have a pretty good idea of what traditional marketing looks like: newspaper and TV ads, billboards, radio spots, and other costly investments. While they may feel like tried-and-true avenues to pursue, these advertising mediums have become increasingly less fruitful over time. Unlike modern digital marketing, they […]

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Dave Estey laying across the words "SEO CLIMB"

SEO Climb with Dave Estey Series 1 Recap

ShareA few months back, the team here at Wikimotive began a new video series called SEO Climb with Dave Estey. Series 1 is officially coming to an end, so we figured we would give you a full recap of everything discussed over the past few weeks. Let’s get started: Defining SEO: The What, Why & How In the beginning episodes […]

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SEO Climb Video Series – January Recap

ShareSEO Climb with Dave Estey is officially coming to a close. Well, for now, anyway. January wrapped up the first series, which had us all learning the ins and outs of automotive SEO (search engine optimization) for the last few months. To wrap things up, Dave answered some big questions in January, like how long it takes for SEO to […]

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Brick and mortar vs. online competitors

ShareCompetition… Are your online competitors the same as your brick-and-mortar competitors? What’s the difference? And how do you figure out who, and where, you should be targeting? Well, you know from your monthly OEM reporting what your market share is, and who your competitors are, right? But that doesn’t really encompass everything, does it? In fact, over the last five […]

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How can I tell if my SEO strategy is correct?

ShareAccountability… Whether we’re talking about the SEO vendor you’ve hired, or your in-house team, what are the ways you can tell if they’re not hitting the nail on the head with your SEO? Well, let’s be honest; when it comes to SEO, there are often a lot of people saying words AT you, instead of communicating WITH you to help […]

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How long does SEO take?

ShareSo, you have an SEO strategy in place, but how long will it take for you to see any results? And are there any tools you can use to monitor those changes? So, you’ve written that first check to your new SEO provider. Now you find yourself checking your watch and thinking to yourself, “Okay, where are my results?” Well, […]

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Three Wikimotive employees podcasting about the most important SEO topics of 2022

Search Engine Optimization: 2022 Year in Review

Share2022 has officially come to a close, and what a year it was for automotive SEO. With changes coming from left and right, it might have been hard to keep track of it all. For that reason, SEO Climb host Dave Estey held a podcast-style panel to discuss the most important SEO topics of 2022. The panel included me, Meaghan […]

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SEO Climb Video Series – December Recap

ShareDecember was a special month for SEO Climb with Dave Estey. Not only did two of the regularly scheduled episodes air, but a special edition of the video series was released. The first two weeks followed the regular format as Dave covered content marketing, touching base on over-optimization and the necessity of blogs. The third week, a Holiday Special, was […]

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SEO Climb 2022 Year in Review

What were the most important SEO topics of 2022?

ShareIn this very special episode of SEO Climb, we’re serving up Wikimotive’s 2022 SEO Year in Review featuring Meaghan Farrell, Emily Taub, and your host Dave Estey.

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How do I set my dealership up for the holidays?

ShareThe holidays are upon us and – whether you like it or not – that means you’re going to have to put in some legwork to make sure your dealership is prepared to keep your customers saying, “Ho Ho Ho” instead of “Oh no, no”. So, we’re going to remind you why it’s crucial to update your service scheduler, show […]

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Are blogs necessary? What makes one effective?

ShareIf you’re looking for reasons why your dealership should have a blog, remember that I’ve prattled on and on and on about putting new content on your website. So why do we suggest a blog? It’s because blogs are the easiest way to create and curate up-to-date content, and present it in an organized fashion. If you’re just stacking a […]

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Is it possible to over-optimize content?

ShareWe’ve talked a lot about content and optimization and you may be thinking to yourself, “Is there possibly too much of a good thing?” And the answer is an emphatic “yes”. Back in 2003-4… SEO practitioners could get away with a lot more than they could now, which led to a lot of questionable practices like stuffing keywords into your […]

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SEO Climb Video Series – November Recap

ShareWe are now two months into our SEO Climb video series, where Dave Estey, Wikimotive’s search engine optimization expert, teaches you the ins and outs of all things SEO. Last month, he went over what SEO is, why it is valuable, and how you can rank well on Google. This month, the videos narrowed in on more in-depth topics, including […]

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How do I know which topics to write about?

ShareTopics to Write About You’ve heard me go on and on about the important of creating content that answers questions; and probably asking yourself, “How do I know what to write about?” “How do I do the keyword research?” “How do I know what questions are being asked?” The Answer is Actually Right on Your Showroom Floor Go out and […]

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Do I Need an Automotive Marketing Company for My Dealership?

ShareIf you run a car dealership, it can be tempting to think that having a big marketing budget and paying for lots of television and radio advertisements means you’re covering all your bases. But if there’s one thing that automotive marketing companies know, it’s that any modern marketing approach would be woefully incomplete without accounting for the influence of search […]

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What is Automotive SEO and Why Does it Matter?

ShareAs a professional in the automotive space, you want your website to perform the best it can. While paid ads on Google and various social media platforms can help to grab the attention of some online users, the fact is: focusing on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) strategy is not making the most of your online presence. A large portion of online […]

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What about buying backlinks?

ShareShould You Purchase Backlinks? If your inbox looks anything like mine does, there’s far too many emails from people you don’t recognize offering to sell you backlinks from “high domain authority websites”. It’s a trap. Why? Because it’s specifically against Google guidelines to purchase backlinks stating, “Google works hard to ensure that it fully discounts links intended to manipulate search […]

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Wikimotive Discusses MRC 2022

ShareFilmed on Day 3 of the Modern Retail Conference, Zach Billings (Wikimotive Co-Founder & Vice President of Client Success) & Angus Fox (Lead Analyst, ThinkBetter Marketing) have a candid discussion about: Their thoughts on MRC 2022 The state of automotive and its’ changing tide… Adjustments dealers need to make for continued success, and… How you can get access to their […]

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What are backlinks and how do they help me?

ShareWhat is a Backlink? Backlinks are an important part of any SEO strategy, and there are a number of ways to get them. But what are they to begin with? A backlink is essentially a vote endorsing your site for offering the correct answer or reference to whatever keyword is being linked. How to Earn a Backlink There are a […]

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3 Essential Practices for Effective Automotive SEO

ShareSearch engine optimization (SEO) is essential when it comes to generating online traffic to your dealership’s website. While it is quite a complex undertaking, there are a couple of general actions that you can take, or make sure your provider is taking, to best optimize for search. There are hundreds of factors that go into ranking, but with these couple […]

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How do I optimize my Google Business Profile?

ShareOptimizing Your GBP If you want to do well on search engines you need to answer questions, and your GBP is just another place for you to do that. Now, how far you want to go into answering questions on your GBP is up to you and how much you want to invest in terms of time and resources. Some […]

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How do I get a Featured Snippet?

ShareWhat is a Featured Snippet? To cite Google’s preferred definition, “Featured snippets are highlighted excerpts of text that appear at the top of a Google search results page in what is known as ‘Position 0’. They provide users with a quick answer to their search query. Featured snippets are more likely to appear when users enter informational search queries.” Why […]

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SEO Climb Video Series – October Recap

ShareWhen it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), there are a ton of whats, whys, and hows. What is it? Why is it important? How is it done? All of those questions are common, but the answers may not be as simple as some may hope. That is why we at Wikimotive started the SEO Climb video series, where our […]

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How can I rank on Google?

ShareWhat Makes a Site Rank Well on Google? That’s a million dollar question. Wait. Actually it’s billions of dollars and, with the onset of things like AI and machine learning, there’s a lot going on here. In fact, sometimes, Google might be hard-pressed to tell you the answers themselves. However, SEO professionals who have been doing this for a long […]

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Why is SEO valuable?

ShareWhy is SEO Valuable? I’ll tell you why…because it makes any number of things on your website – that you’re already spending money on – work better. So, here’s the thing. You’ve paid good money to have a website provided to you. You’ve paid good money to have that website filled with content. You’ve paid good money to have inventory […]

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What is SEO?

ShareWhat is SEO? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all the actions you take to optimize your marketing for search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo. And yes, even your YouTube content, or Instagram & Facebook posts can be optimized. So what does that take? Well, there’s a number of different facets to SEO, some of which you are probably familiar with, […]

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Why should I post blogs to Facebook?

ShareBlogposts in your store’s website should be a cornerstone of your SEO strategy. But what are you doing to leverage those blogs on Facebook? What does posting a blog to Facebook do for me? We refer to this as “social syndication”, and it’s a very important way of being able to accelerate the rate of climb for an SEO initiative […]

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Written Content vs Video Content

ShareSeems like everything is video now. Why written content versus video? When it comes to your dealership’s SEO, are videos more important than written blogs? Words on your site are easier for Google to understand. Certainly the “artificial intelligence” that Google is bringing to bear is increasing in intelligence – and understanding of content is getting better and better. But […]

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Do preorder pages help my dealership?

ShareDo we recommend pre-order pages? Absolutely, but don’t think that you can do much in the way of search engine optimization for it. We have a lot of clients who have approached us about this, and we’ve helped most of our dealers with the creation of robust pre-order pages with good FAQ, clear calls to action, and resources throughout the […]

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Should I turn my Paid Search off?

ShareOrganic search versus paid search? You’re looking at it all wrong and here’s why. With strong SEO, should I turn all my paid search off? No, that’s an easy oversimplification. We do have a lot of dealers who have completely moved away from paid search, especially in this current market situation where you can afford to pull back your paid […]

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SEO for dealers struggling with inventory

ShareSome dealers struggling with inventory have hit the brakes on their SEO and content spend. Here’s why that’s a big mistake. I Don’t Have Any Inventory Why would I want to put out content for something I can’t sell right now? Well, if you actually had no inventory, you would probably be out of business. Certainly service pays the bills, […]

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Where should I focus on my SEO?

ShareAre you a multi-store group and don’t know where to start when it comes to SEO? If you have a group site, and individual store sites, should you focus on your group site SEO? Or should you prioritize the store sites? Pay attention… SEO and group sites can be complicated There is definitely merit in doing SEO on your group […]

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How Do I Get My Name to Display on Google Maps?

ShareYour dealership’s name isn’t showing up on Google Maps? That’s a problem. Here’s the solution… Getting your name to display on Google Maps can be complicated. It mostly has to do whether or not your GBP (Google Business Profile) is able to rank for the keyword that was entered. For example, if someone searches for your dealership by name, you […]

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How do I rank in the Map Pack on Google?

ShareSo, you’re worried about your Map Pack ranking on Google, but you don’t know how to improve it? Listen up. How do I rank in the Map Pack on Google? Ranking in the Map Pack on Google has a lot to do with your physical location, which you can’t change. It also has lot to do with categories on your […]

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3 Tips for Writing Effective SEO Content

ShareFor your dealership to have highly-performant SEO, you need a strong content strategy. But what does that mean? Whether you’re trying to write content in-house, or simply want a better understanding of how you can hold your vendor accountable, I’m going to tell you the 3 fundamentals you should be focusing on. To be effective for SEO, content needs to […]

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iOS 15 Logo pointing gun at Analytics Location Data

The Assassination of User Location Data | By the Cowardly Apple iOS

ShareGoogle Analytics Now Misreporting Location for iOS Users 2023 Update at the end. Brace yourself. This is the biggest change to the usefulness of Google Analytics acquisition data, in almost a decade. The last time we lost this much visibility in Google Analytics was when Google themselves started obfuscating keyword data for organic users. Over a few-year period, we went […]

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Understanding Page Experience

ShareContent is king…we say it all the time. But even if your site offers the very best in insightful blog posts, comprehensive model pages, and thorough vehicle comparisons, Google will devalue those pages if your site offers a less-than-than satisfying user experience. When discussing user experience (or UX) it’s fairly common to see the terms “core web vitals” and “page […]

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Understanding Your Dealership’s Core Web Vitals

ShareAll right, dealers… Since November, we’ve covered ‘How to set up and optimize your Google Business Profile’, the ‘Top things you can do to help your dealership’s SEO’, and ‘How to tell if your content sucks, and how to fix it’. I’m Josh, and today we’re going to talk about “Core Web Vitals” and update your understanding of them for […]

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Does Your Content Suck? How to Tell & How to Fix It

ShareAll right, dealers… Last month, Dave gave you some actionable steps to check the functionality of your site, create certain types of valuable content, and better understand metas. So let’s take one of those tips, and build it out a little bit further. When it comes to creating SEO-friendly content, there’s no shortage of misconceptions out there. Many of them […]

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AAAS2021 Recap with Tim Martell

ShareFrom November 14th to the 16th, the 2021 Automotive Analytics and Attribution Summit (or AAAS) staked its claim to the coastal shores of Palm Beach, FL while occupying the lush, breathtaking grounds of the iconic Eau Resort & Spa. For three days, the former Ritz-Carlton site played host to some of the most influential thought-leaders, forward-thinking dealers, and innovative vendors […]

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Chip Perry of A2Z Sync Discusses ‘SEARCH WARS’

ShareFrom November 14th to the 16th, the 2021 Automotive Analytics and Attribution Summit (or AAAS) took over the beautiful Eau Resort & Spa, welcoming the entire industry to the balmy seaside climate of Palm Beach, FL. A perennial attraction for some of the most innovative professionals in the automotive space, the AAAS provides an opportunity to address the shortcomings, inefficiencies […]

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Top Things Auto Dealers Can Do TODAY To Help With SEO

ShareAll right, dealers… Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing the various signals generated by your online presence with the goal of increasing the quality of traffic to your site. More high-quality leads means more sales. So, let’s talk about ACTIONABLE steps. In other words, what are the top things YOU can do TODAY to help with your SEO. […]

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How to Setup & Optimize Your Google Business Profile

How to Set Up & Optimize Your Dealership’s Google Business Profile

ShareDisclaimer: In November 2021, Google changed the name of Google My Business (GMB) to Google Business Profile (GBP). Since its initial publishing, this content has been updated to reflect that change. Why are Google Business Profiles Important to My Dealership? According to a recent report more than 2/3 of prospective customers will seek out your dealership’s Google Business Profile (or […]

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3 Changes Made By YouTube That You Should Know About

3 Changes Made By YouTube That You Should Know About

ShareThe average American’s video consumption has increased 52% since 2019, with most people consuming 16 hours of online video content per week. Now, sure…some of that’s content is attributed to streaming – but when we look at video through the eyes of the consumer, we see just how valuable it becomes to any business or brand. Consider this: video content […]

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Google My Business Nested Listings (Part Two)

ShareLast week, we talked about nested department listings, why they’re important, and the steps you need to take to get them set up. Now, let’s talk about steps you can take to further optimize them. Now…this is a topic that we’ve covered in the past but, today, we’re going to look at it from a slightly different perspective. So, let’s […]

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Wikimotive's Josh Billings Hosts Part One of "Google My Business: Nested Listings"

Google My Business: Nested Listings (Part 1)

ShareYou don’t need me to tell you that your dealership has a lot of moving parts – some of which may be separate departments, possibly with different physical locations. And while that may be simple for you, it’s imperative that your customers know any differences in Location, Hours, Phone Number and Services – or at least that they can find […]

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How to Write Your Dealership's 'About Us' Page

How to Write Your Dealership’s ‘About Us’ Page

ShareLet’s talk today about one of the most basic purposes of your website: showing a potential customer who YOU are. More specifically, we’re going to talk about creating the best “About Us” page possible. Your “About Us” page should explain to a potential car buyer who you are, where you are, what you sell, and explore exactly what sets you […]

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Sam from Wikimotive discusses "Auditing Your Third-Party Tools"

Auditing Third-Party Tools

ShareEvery day, prospective car buyers are visiting your website. But today, we’re not gonna talk about how they GOT there, we’re going to talk about what happens when they ARE there. More importantly, how it could hurt YOUR chances of making that sale. Whether we’re talking about your website’s ability to (i) calculate the value of trade-in (ii) to schedule […]

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Wikimotive's Jason Cook discusses "Why You Should Be Branding Your Salespeople Using Video"

Why You Should Be Branding Your Salespeople Using Video

ShareAnnnnd we’re back – in the studio – after a great week in Napa Valley at DMSC 2021. In fact, it was such an impactful experience that we’re going to hold off on our regular topics for one more week — because we’re feeling particularly inspired to #weaponizetheconnectivity. Of all the amazing keynotes, panels and breakout sessions that took place […]

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What are Beneficial Purpose, YMYL & E-A-T?

ShareIn recent months, we’ve talked about Core Web Vitals and the various other metrics used by Google to determinate the quality of a site’s user experience. However, Google’s methods of assessment aren’t solely reliant upon technology and algorithms. Google also employs “Human Search Evaluators”- individuals who review content to help inform Google’s standards for high-quality web pages. They also review […]

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How to Create Tailor-Made Content for Your Dealership (Part Three)

How to Create Tailor-Made Content for Your Dealership (Part Three)

ShareAlright everyone, it’s time to find out the final step to refining your content… Two weeks ago, we went over how to find your target audience… …and last week we discussed the importance of using a unique tone for every piece of content. This week, I’m going to tell you about the final piece of the content puzzle: VOICE. One […]

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Just the Tip Image Selection & Alt Text Video Thumbnail

Image Selection & Alt Text

ShareWhen someone loads your dealership’s page, the first thing to catch their eye is your imagery. Whether photo or video, the visual elements you incorporate are essential to having quality digital content. But that’s not all. You also need to write alt text for these images, if you want to rank in local search. But let’s not get ahead of […]

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Just the Tip - What is structured data video thumbnail

What is Structured Data?

ShareLast week Sam & Meaghan talked about Meta Descriptions and how they’re a great way to help prospective car-buyers and service customers find the content they’re looking for on your site. Meta descriptions are an essential place to start, but if you really want to get exposure, you’re going to need Schema Data, or as it’s more commonly referred to […]

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Just the Tip - What are meta descriptions video thumbnail

What are Meta Descriptions?

ShareWhen working in SEO, you need to optimize for users AND for search engines And there are different ways to do each of those things. But what if we told you there is ONE thing you can do to improve optimization for both? Because guess what? There is! We’re talking about meta descriptions! Meta descriptions are HTML tags that describe […]

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Just the Tip - Content Authority vs Engagement video thumbnail

Content: Authority vs. Engagement

ShareFair warning, today’s topic might get us in trouble with some of our friends who specialize in social media… but here it goes. Just because your content isn’t “engaging” on social media, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable for your business. Hopefully, we don’t get canceled for sharing this… If you are like us, the majority of the content you will […]

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Just the Tip - NAP Syndication and Why it's important

NAP Syndication & Why It’s Important

ShareWhen it comes to your dealership’s business, one of the most important things you can do is…well…attract more of it. So…it’s imperative that all of your pertinent information is easy for prospective car buyers to find. That said, you also need to make sure that (i) it’s accurate (ii) that it’s synchronized across all available platforms (iii) that you know […]

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Just the Tip - Why your dealership needs reputation management video thumbnail

Why Your Dealership Needs Reputation Management

ShareReputation Management… It’s FAR more accurate to call it “PERCEPTION Management” since your prioritization of it (or LACK thereof) will drive public opinion of your dealership’s credibility and its revenue. Whether we’re talking about perception of your operation as a whole – or that of individual departments, or personnel – letting things slide will only HURT your dealership in the […]

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Just the Tip - How to perform a tag audit video thumbnail

How to Perform a Tag Audit

ShareTags…whether you realize it or not, you probably hear this expression all the time. Marketing tags, web tags, website tags…these generally all refer to a small piece of code, or a pixel placed on a website to allow the collection of information about the user, hardware and on-site behavior. Tags are powerful and widespread in their installation, but unfortunately, most […]

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Just the Tip - Own your data video thumbnail

Own Your Data

ShareSometimes it feels like “change” is the only constant in marketing. It’s why it’s so important for dealerships to have continuity when assessing their overall marketing performance, and the effects of any changes they enact. And to ensure that continuity, a dealership needs take ownership of all of their various data sources. What do we mean by “data sources”? We’re […]

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Just the Tip - 5 steps to optimize your dealership's inventory feed video thumbnail

5 Steps to Optimize Your Dealership’s Inventory Feed

ShareIf you have been following JTT you know how crucial a strong social media influence is to a successful marketing campaign. Where is this social media influence going to take flight. FACEBOOK. As many of you may be doing (and if you are not you should be) you can use Facebook’s advertising platform to target potential customers showing them a […]

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Wikimotive - Just the Tip: How to Audit Your Core Web Vitals

How to Audit Your Core Web Vitals

ShareLast week we revisited Core Web Vitals, three relatively new factors that Google takes into consideration when assessing the experience offered to their users, by your dealership’s website. Specifically, we talked about LCP, FID and CLS. Now remember, Google’s primary goal is to ensure a positive user experience, and directs any search query to the site that (i) best answers […]

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What are the Most Important Ranking Factors in Local Search

What are the Most Important Ranking Factors in Local Search?

ShareThere’s no such this as a “one-size fits all”, or “set-it-and-forget-it” SEO solution. When we talk about “Organic SEO” it’s important to recognize the reason why we use the term “organic”. It’s because SEO and the algorithms involved are constantly evolving, and your dealership’s strategy needs to evolve with them. Factor in the unique challenges of the automotive space, and […]

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Is iOS 14 Affecting Your Ad Spend

Is iOS 14 Affecting Your Ad Spend?

ShareHey digital marketers…more than 100 million consumers NOW have the option of limiting your ability to hit them up with targeted ads. So…whatcha gonna do about it? iOS 14 and Consumers When iOs 14 was first rolled out almost six months ago, there was a lot to like: better app organization, customizable widgets, less obtrusive notifications, improved map and translation […]

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SEO Tips to Help Your Dealership to Succeed in 2021 Part 3

Machine Learning (SEO Tips to Help Your Dealership Succeed in 2021)

ShareMachine learning, what is it? How does it affect me? And does this mean the T1000 is already here? The answer is maybe. On the face of it, machine learning is a complex and often times “scary” subject. But the truth is that machine learning has already been a part of our daily lives for years and you likely didn’t […]

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SEO Tips to Help Your Dealership to Succeed in 2021 Part 2

SEO Tips to Help Your Dealership to Succeed in 2021 (Part 2)

ShareLast week, we began focusing on SEO Tips to help your dealership succeed in (what we hope will be a post-COVID) 2021. More specifically, to succeed in a world where, every day, online retailers are taking increasingly more aggressive strides to attract prospective car buyers that might otherwise do business with you. And one of the topic we covered was […]

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SEO Tips to Help Your Dealership to Succeed in 2021

SEO Tips to Help your Dealership Succeed in 2021 (Part One)

ShareTwelve months ago, we were living in a very different world. And at that point, an evaluation of over 8,000 American car buyers revealed that the average car buyer: – Spends up to six months researching vehicles before making a purchase. – Performs 59% of that research online, with 46% of car buyers using multiple devices to do so – […]

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Visual Indicators amp The Page Experience Update

Visual Indicators & The Page Experience Update

ShareA few weeks back, we talked about Google’s Broad Core Update which Google rolled out the first week of December. And just before that we had served up an introduction to Core Web Vitals, which were the focal point of Google’s previous update back in May. That said, new year, new game. Not only will those updates have laid the […]

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Holiday GMB Tips For Your Dealership

ShareThe countdown is on: first Christmas, then New Years, and then we’ll say hello to 2021…all within the next two weeks. Between the craziness of the holidays, and a new year to come, you can bet that prospective car buyers and service customers will be looking you up. But is your GMB listing set up to tell them what they […]

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What Does Google’s December Broad Core Update Mean to Your Dealership?

ShareThe events of 2020 have slowed down a lot of things, and here in the SEO world, one of the most notable delays comes in terms of Google’s broad core updates (of which there are usually several every year). In 2020 however, we’re only NOW – in December – getting the 3rd core update since January, with the last one […]

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Is Vimeo a Better Platform for Your Dealership’s Videos?

ShareJust a couple weeks ago, I was one of 70+ automotive marketing professionals invited to speak at the Automotive Analytics and Attribution Summit, and we had an awesome session on the growing importance of video content to dealerships like yours. But, after discussing the pros and cons of Facebook vs. YouTube as video posting platforms, a question arose. What about […]

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What is a Featured Snippet?

ShareWhen it comes to any of the topics that we cover here on “Just the Tip”, we can all gain important vantage points and valuable insights when we discard our professional roles and approach each topic from the perspective of the consumer. So put on your consumer hat, and imagine that you’re a car buyer, performing a search for the […]

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What You Need to Know About Core Web Vitals Before 2021

ShareLast week we just happened to revisit Aaron’s recent three-part series on the importance of User Experience. And then, this week, Google Webmasters announced that, as of May 2021, Core Web Vitals will become ranking signals as part of an update that will combine them with a number of existing UX-related signals.   What are Core Web Vitals? Earlier this […]

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Meaghan Farrell

Meaghan Farrell Makes Her Move to SEO

SharePlease join the entire Wikimotive family in congratulating Meaghan Farrell on her recent transition to our SEO team. Since coming onboard as a valued member of our Editorial Team, Meaghan found herself immediately interested in technical SEO, the analytics related to it, and the outside-the-box thinking it requires. “I am looking forward to learning and evolving with the constant changes […]

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Dave Estey - Senior Technical SEO Specialist at Wikimotive

Dave Estey Named Wikimotive ‘Director of SEO’

ShareWikimotive is proud to announce that Dave Estey will be stepping into a new role – that of ‘Director of SEO’. In this capacity, Dave looks forward to building systems that allow Wikimotive to provide even greater results for our clients, while introducing machine learning and automation to increase both our agility, and our responsiveness. “While one of the newest […]

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Kelsea Filleul Named Wikimotive ‘Managing Editor’

ShareOn behalf of our entire team, please join us in congratulating Wikimotive’s very own Kelsea Filleul who has accepted a new role within our organization – that of ‘Managing Editor’. In her new position, Kelsea will manage our team of content writers, as well as our Editorial team, to ensure that our clients receive the highest-quality content, delivering optimal results. […]

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Want to Use Stories to Sell More? Start Here.

ShareIn a recent study performed by Cox Automotive, it was determined that the average car buyer spends 13 hours and 55 minutes researching a vehicle purchase. And that 61% of that average time (equivalent to about 8.5 hours) is spent online. Today, that time is split between time spent on dealer sites like yours, OEM sites and 3rd party consumer […]

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5 Things That Could Redefine Your Dealership’s Social Media

ShareThere’s a lot of territory to cover when it comes to your dealership’s social media activity. The problems are a-plenty, and we see them every day. The wrong kind of content. Inconsistency and infrequency of posting. Misreading your audience on one platform versus another, delivering the wrong message in turn, and not taking the correct steps to grow those audiences. […]

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Just for Your Dealership: JTT Episodes You Might Have Missed

ShareIt’s officially been one year since we started this weekly series of SEO and Digital Marketing tips. And what a year it’s been. No seriously…is it 2021 yet? Not yet? Well, if you haven’t been watching all along, let’s circle back on what we’ve covered here on JTT since…well, since 2020 first starting going to sh*t. Jay: The Quarantine Months […]

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3 Current Problems That Could Be Affecting Your Dealership (Part 2)

ShareLast week, we started talking about common Google Analytics problems affecting dealerships everywhere. And since I’m young, healthy and have a fast recovery time, guess what? Yup…we’re gonna do it again.   Problem #1: Self Referrals in Your Reports What are “self referrals”? They’re what happens when your own website’s domain shows up on your site as referral traffic. This […]

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3 Current Problems That Could Be Affecting Your Dealership (Part 1)

ShareToday, let’s talk about 3 simple, but critical implementation problems plaguing the Google Analytics profiles of dealerships all around the country, right now, and could be affecting you.   Problem #1: Data Loss Generally speaking, your analytics sessions are your vitals. If you see that line hit 0 and stay there, we’re calling time of death. That’s why we need […]

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Why Google Isn’t Crawling Your Dealership’s Website

ShareSo, you have a webpage that’s not indexed by Google…that’s a problem. So let’s troubleshoot that. Well, unless you have something more important to do. (Newsflash…you don’t) If Your Page Isn’t Currently Indexed One issue could be that you accidentally told Google not to index your site. How? Well, there are two ways this can happen. One is you have […]

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Crawlability & What it Means to Your Website

ShareLast week, we discussed the importance of Response Codes, and how they play a role in determining whether or not potential car buyers are getting what they need out of your dealership’s website. But what about Google’s ability to get what they need in order to deliver your site to those customers? Well, stay tuned, because we have “Just the […]

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Response Codes and Why They’re So Important to Your Dealership

ShareYou’ve recently heard Kelsea and Jay talk about the important role content plays in achieving your SEO goals. Then, Aaron did the same thing in regard to user experience. And, yes, both are very important but none if it makes a difference if neither clients or Google can find it. So, let’s talk about content deliverability. If you’re doing it […]

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5 Steps You Can Take to Speed Up Your Website

ShareWhen we talk about page speed, one of the key factors to having faster load times is the size of the page. Now, I’m not talking about width and height dimensions, I’m talking about data. The kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes of information being displayed. A great start to improving your site’s performance is to figure out what’s taking up the […]

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3 Tools to Assess Your Dealership’s Page Performance

Share Last time, we told you how page speed is super important to user experience, and in getting your dealership to rank higher in search results. Now, let’s explore three valuable tools that can help you assess your page speed and identify any red flags. Page Speed Insights Last week we introduced Google’s Page Speed Insights, one of the popular […]

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4 Ways to Optimize Your Dealership’s Content

ShareSo, you’ve decided to Improve your local search rankings by writing your own content. That’s awesome. How’s it working for you? How close are you to the top of Page 1 for local search results? Wait. Are you even on Page 1? Page 2? Worse? Well, we have ‘Just the Tip’ for you. Like our CEO always says, “When it […]

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9 Steps to Improve Your Dealership’s Content

ShareDoes your content suck?  Over the last few weeks we have gone over different types of content, tips for coming up with content ideas, and local content for your dealership’s website. Today, we’re going to discuss how you can improve your content, and optimize it to help you rank higher.  Structure is Important Let’s start with one basic writing rule […]

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This week on 'Just the Tip', Kelsea from Wikimotive presents 4 Tips for Your Dealership's Local Content

4 Tips For Your Dealership’s Local Content

ShareLast week, we discussed three types of content that your website needs: Navigational Pages, Landing Pages, and Blog Posts.  This week, we are going to dive deeper into blog territory, covering one style of blog that’s crucial for any SEO strategy…Local Content.  Local Content allows you to: 1. Present your dealership to your community, or to a specific geography. 2. […]

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3 Types of Content Your Dealership’s Website Needs

ShareLET’S TALK CONTENT… If you have questions when it comes to content for your dealership’s website, you’re not alone. We hear them all the time… “How do I write content?”  “How do I improve my content?”  But what’s often surprising is how often we hear the question, “What do you mean by content?” In the simplest terms, anything you’ve made available […]

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5 Steps Your Dealership Needs to Take to Optimize Your GMB

ShareConsider This… More than 95% of your dealership’s potential sales are delivered to you as a result of online research.  Local search accounts for 46% of Google searches, and 4 out of 5 consumers consider it to be their primary means of getting information about, or contacting a business. It’s also estimated a business’s GMB is the preferred resource for […]

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Page Speed and Why It’s Crucial to Your Site

ShareWhat Is Page Speed? Page Speed is the time it takes for a web page to load in the browser. While this sounds self explanatory, it’s a bit more complex. Any time you land on a web page, quite a bit is going on in the background. Your device is sending a request to an online server and that server […]

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8 Things About User-Generated Content Your Dealership Needs to Know

ShareWay before 2020 became the year of pandemics, murder hornets and protests it was predicted by leading marketers to be “the year of user-generated content”. And if you really think about it, the predictions were surprisingly accurate. Content creation has been a cornerstone of our collective coping when it comes to everything that 2020 had in store for us, thus […]

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Not a Writer? Here’s the ONE Tool You Should Be Using

Share“But I’m Not a Writer”… The (bleep) you aren’t. Everyone’s a writer, and today we’re going to talk about a FREE tool you already have access to, a tool that can make it easier for all of you “non-writers” out there to create kickass original content. Words matter. Not only can the right words help you to better resonate with […]

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Wikimotive's Jason Cook presents '7 Easy Ways to Optimize Your YouTube Videos' on this episode of 'Just the Tip'

7 Easy Ways to Optimize Your YouTube Content

ShareLog onto Google and do a search for anything, and you’ll be provided with what Google interprets to be related video content. Most likely, the results will feature videos that are posted to YouTube (over other video platforms) since it’s a Google-owned platform. In other words, YouTube content has SEO Value. And since this series is all about optimizing your […]

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Jason Cook from Wikimotive presents "YouTube Analytics & Your Dealership's Video Content"

YouTube Analytics &Your Dealership’s Video Content

ShareVideo analytics are crucial. They help you to assess the quality of your content, to identify what is and isn’t resonating with your dealership’s audience, and they help you to evolve your strategy so that your next piece of content can perform better than your last one. Plus, when it comes to YouTube (as opposed to Facebook) remember…you don’t have […]

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Where Should You Post Your Videos (and Why)

ShareFacebook. YouTube. Which platform should you be posting your dealership’s videos on, and why? On one hand, Facebook is STILL the most prominent social media platform out there with roughly 2.5 billion users, worldwide – but it also features additional post types in addition to video. YouTube, on the other hand, only boasts about 2 billion users but is the […]

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Are You Paying Attention to Your Video Metrics? You Should Be.

ShareIt’s one thing to create videos – but what’s the point if those videos aren’t driving social media engagement and expanding your overall reach? By now, our regular viewers should familiar with Facebook Insights – and how to find them. If you’re a first time viewer, or would simply like to revisit our recent content, remember that you can find […]

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The Value of Facebook Audience Insights

ShareLast week, we provided an overview of Facebook Page Insights, a great front-end tool that helps you to monitor the effectiveness of your posting strategy. Now, there are more in-depth tools and visibility provided by both Facebook Business Manager and other third-party tools, but the simplified accessibility of Page Insights makes it universally valuable. This week, we’ll be exploring Facebook […]

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The Value of Facebook Page Insights

ShareOver the last couple of weeks, your dealership’s use of Social Media has been more important than ever…especially on Facebook. But whether you’ve been creating original video content, or updating your customers through regular posting, you should be gauging the success of your efforts. Which is why we want to help you to better understand Facebook Analytics – and the […]

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Understanding Facebook Video Guidelines

ShareDuring this quarantine, we’ve talked about the importance of original video content to your dealership. We’ve covered the different types of video content you should be creating. We’ve even given you a breakdown of affordable and easy-to-use equipment that can improve the quality of your content. But, for best results, you also need to understand the video specifications set by […]

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Affordable & Easy-to-Use Equipment for Your Dealership’s Multimedia Content

ShareHey everyone, it’s Jay from Wikimotive  and – as promised – we’re back to talk about some affordable and easy-to-use equipment that can help make it more convenient for you to create high-quality video content, all on your own. Now, before we start, I want to make one thing clear. There are two types of valuable multimedia content. The first […]

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3 Important Things Your Dealership Should Be Doing Right Now

ShareAll right car dealers…I see you out there. We have been watching, and a lot of you are doing exactly what you should be doing right now. ***COVID-High5 right here*** But for the rest of you…those of you who need some help getting the right message out there, in the right way, well, we have “Just the Tip” for you. […]

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Unleashing the Power of Your Social Media

ShareIn today’s world of social distancing, social media has become more important than ever. From the safety of our homes, it’s allowed each of us to interact with our family, friends and co-workers in a socially responsible way. It’s enabled teachers and students to continue their education plans. It’s changed the way that we support the brands, businesses and organizations […]

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5 Actionable Tips for Car Dealers

ShareOn this week’s episode of ‘Just the Tip’ I had introduced some of the aspects of Technical SEO that we’ll be exploring in future episodes. But with so much going on in the world right now, we wanted to follow up with something a little more specific, and a little more helpful for our friends in the automotive space. So […]

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Understanding the Reality of Technical SEO

ShareEveryone wants to rank higher in Google search results. It’s why we created this series…to help you understand the various aspects of Search Engine Optimization. And when it comes to SEO – fair warning – Andrew, Aaron, Josh and I will be covering a lot of territory. Just think of each topic as a box you’ll need to “tick” in […]

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Harnessing the Power of Data & Analytics

ShareNo matter what business vertical you’re in, data plays an important role. It’s generated by every facet of your operation, and can help to inform real-time decision-making, give shape to more effective strategies in both the short and long-term and streamline your operation as a whole. It’s also the most efficient means of assessing the success of your digital marketing […]

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COVID-19 and Your Business

ShareJust last week, we launched our revamped format for ‘Just the Tip’. And while our weekly series of SEO and Digital Marketing tips will continue in light of current world events, we felt it was important to take a step back, and offer some topical content useful to businesses across all verticals. In an effort to provide assurance to your […]

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Your Business Needs More Video Content

ShareVideo content has been credited as having become the #1 catalyst for the online discovery of new products, services, and brands, as well as becoming a preferred resource for all sorts of do-it-yourselfers. And it’s really no surprise that video has proven so effective. A study of American consumers revealed that viewers retain up to 95% of a message when […]

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Wikimotive's Kyle & Kelsea discuss the importance of Link Building in the 18th installment of 'Just the Tip'

The Importance of Link Building

ShareFrom your website’s landing pages to your blog posts, your content plays an important role in establishing your authority. High-quality content empowers an authoritative source to share their expertise with anyone who may be in need of it. The best content is relevant, informative and serves a clear purpose; and (like any good advice) authoritative content stands a greater likelihood […]

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The Increased Importance of Search Entities

ShareWe recently discussed keywords, one of the fundamental components of SEO. But SEO is ever-evolving, meaning that such components (and their respective roles) are bound to change as well. As such, intent-based algorithmic changes within Google have led to the prioritization of understanding entities over traditional keywords. But what are search entities, and why was this change necessary? What are […]

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What is User Intent (& Why Is It So Important)?

What is User Intent (& Why Is It So Important)?

ShareIn discussing the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) , you often see that it’s crucial to understand the importance of ’User Intent’ (also referred to as ‘Search Intent’). But what is User Intent and why is it so important? In recent years, Google has made it a priority to better understand (and anticipate) the meaning and intent behind search […]

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Josh and Lisa of Wikimotive discuss the importance of understanding keywords.

Just the Tip – Understanding Keywords

ShareIn the same way we all have different needs online, not every online search is performed the same way. Some are phrased in the form of an informational query (using ‘who’,’where’, ‘when’ etc) to find out more about a subject. Some might be taking a navigational approach (seeking a specific URL) or performing a local search (using ‘near me’) to […]

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Brandon and Kyle of Wikimotive are discussing the relationship between social media and SEO.

Just the Tip – The Relationship Between Social Media and SEO

ShareThe relationship between Social Media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is complicated and often misunderstood, and in a perpetual stage of change. In reality, they are complimentary areas of focus that can drive their own results, and can help to amplify the results achievable by the other. Understanding the Roles The role of Social Media grows increasingly more important. It […]

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Aaron and Brandon of Wikimotive are discussing the importance of review strategy.

Just the Tip – The Importance of Review Strategy

ShareNo-one likes receiving a negative review; but it’s been estimated that a negative experience is 21% more likely to inspire an online review than a positive experience. It’s a trend that has experienced some welcome reversal as of late but, as a business, you need to be conscious of the impact reviews can have. Today we’re going to explore the […]

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Kelsea and Aaron of Wikimotive discuss local content.

Just the Tip – Local Content: Keeping Things Close to Home

Share“How Do We Stand Out?” Answering this question is one of the inherent challenges faced by any business or marketer. It inspires the quality of the products and/or services that we offer. It rests at the heart of our marketing efforts. And unlike major brands and larger corporate entities who enjoy a greater wealth of resources to help attract the […]

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Josh and Kelsea of Wikimotive discuss why every business needs a blog.

Just the Tip – Every Business Needs a Blog

ShareEvery business or organization has a story to tell, as well as a unique set of services to offer, insights to contribute, and a desire to attract those in need of their goods, products and services. This is why blogs are so popular; they provide a means of telling our stories, conveying our authority, and making ourselves accessible to a […]

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Jay and Josh of Wikimotive discussing conversational content.

Just the Tip – Conversational Content

ShareConversational content. Depending on the extent of your involvement with content creation and familiarity with certain principles of SEO, it’s a term you may have heard before. But it’s also a term that is commonly misunderstood. What is Conversational Content? At its heart, ’conversational content’ is about creating a personalized experience for the reader. Think of the difference between being […]

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Lisa and Jay of Wikimotive discussing social sharing

Just the Tip – Social Sharing

ShareIn this series we’ll talk about the importance of content (in whatever form it may take). No matter whether we’re talking about blog posts, podcasts, videos (or something else entirely) your content is unlikely to find its audience unless you deliver it directly to them. And since most consumers are unlikely to visit your website (unless they have a specific […]

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Kyle and Lisa of Wikimotive got over GMB Q&A

Just the Tip – GMB Questions & Answers

ShareGoogle My Business is one of the most valuable marketing tools out there. When properly optimized, your GMB profile can help to attract, inform and convert prospective customers. Plus, from an investment standpoint, it certainly doesn’t hurt that GMB is free. But an investment of time and effort is necessary if you’re going to put your GMB to work for […]

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Aaron and Kyle of Wikimotive for a just the tip episode on Alt text

Just the Tip – The Importance of ALT Text

ShareWhen we refer to ‘optimization’ we’re usually talking about the steps anyone can take to refine their web presence, increase the visibility of their website in the eyes of Google, and improve both traffic and the potential of converting new customers. The manner in which you format the images used on your website plays an important role in this, while […]

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Jay and Aaron discuss optimizing your GMB on Just the Tip at Wikimotive

Just the Tip – Optimize Your GMB Photos, Videos & GIFs

SharePreviously, we’ve discussed the important role that your Google My Business profile plays; how it’s basically your new homepage, is where you share your business information with the world and is where people searching for your business will form their first impressions of it. But with that in mind, how does one go about making the best first impression? Well, […]

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Kelsea and Jay of Wikimotive discuss local SEO for Just the Tip

Just the Tip – Local SEO

ShareTo grow your business, you need to attract new customers. And since most potential customers will search for your products or services on Google, you need to distinguish yourself by ranking higher than your competitors in Search Results. That said, it’s important to understand any obstacles that may be working against you. For example… – 75% of Google users won’t […]

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Brandon and Kelsea on the Three Pillars of SEO Just the Tip episode.

Just the Tip – Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness – The Three Pillars of SEO

ShareIt’s estimated that 63,000 Google searches are performed every second. That’s 3.8 million searches every minute, 228 million searches every hour, and about 5.6 billions searches performed within a single day. And somewhere in the middle of that search maelstrom, is a prospective customer in need of your products or services. Google uses complex algorithms to determine the pages best […]

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Lisa and Brandon for this weeks Just the Tip episode on GMB

Just The Tip – Google My Business

Share(commonly known as ‘GMB’) is one of the most valuable digital marketing assets available to businesses. Every day, millions of consumers use Google to research businesses, products and services. Most recent studies have shown that more than half of the searches conducted on mobile devices have local intent – that means people are looking for local businesses. Your GMB profile […]

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Wikimotive's Josh and Lisa explain SEO signals

Just the Tip – What Are “Signals”?

ShareWe’ve defined SEO as “the process of optimizing signals both on and off a website, influencing how successfully that site can be found when someone searches particular keywords on Google”. So, what do we mean by ‘signals’? We’re referring to ranking signals – characteristics or elements present on a website that a search engine recognizes – and then utilizes to […]

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The Most Important Question to Ask

ShareWelcome back to another Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki! In this week’s video, we’re sharing one simple tip – but it’s a tip that can literally improve your entire website. It will have a positive effect on everything that you do for SEO and help you stand out from competitors. I speak at a lot of conferences, so I’m lucky enough […]

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Wikimotive rock stars Josh and Kyle explaining SEO

Just The Tip – What is SEO?

ShareFor those of you unfamiliar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) it’s the process of optimizing signals both on and off a website, influencing how successfully that site can be found when someone searches particular keywords on Google. Regardless of the vertical you’re in, your ranking in Google Search Results should be one of your primary considerations. Failing to prioritize your […]

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Brighton SEO Presentation

ShareWhat do SEO and Horror Movies have in common? Find out for yourself as we return to the UK, for Greg’s insightful look at Entities and the Future of SEO filmed LIVE at Brighton SEO.

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Internet Battle Plan Presentation

ShareHave you met Angus? Straight outta Internet Battle Plan XXVI, Wikimotive’s Chief Digital Officer is here to share his insights on holding your Digital Marketing and SEO Vendors accountable in terms of the return on YOUR investment.

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Own Your Own Backyard

ShareWelcome back to another episode of Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. I’m hanging out in the back yard for today’s tip, cause this week, we’re talking about ‘owning your own backyard’. I speak about Local SEO at conferences all over the world, and one of the most common questions I hear goes something like this: “we’re about 30 minutes outside of […]

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Read Your Site Content Out Loud

ShareWelcome back to another episode of Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. This week we’ve got what might be the most important SEO tip we can possibly share… and it’s all about helping your website content absolutely rock… You might notice I look a little different today – I’m recording this video while I’m on the way back from a conference. Isn’t […]

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Dan Barker Named Wikimotive ‘Director of Operations’

ShareThe entire Wikimotive team is proud to share the news that our own Dan Barker has accepted a new role within our organization – that of ‘Director of Operations’. Having served diligently in his previous capacity as Content Manager, Dan’s commitment to consistency and continual betterment – combined with his penchant for ‘big picture thinking’ – has made him an […]

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Recover Hidden Yelp Reviews

ShareWelcome back to Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. This week, we’re talking about everyone’s favorite site – Yelp. In today’s video, I’m gonna tell you how to recover all of those awesome reviews you got that Yelp decided to filter out and hide. I’ll just come out and say it – Yelp sucks. We all hate it, but unfortunately, since it […]

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‘Learn Inbound’ Presentation

ShareWelcome back to Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. This week’s video is a long one again, because I’m sharing my presentation from the Learn Inbound conference… It’s about 38 minutes long, so make sure you’ve got time to watch and absorb all the awesomeness. If you don’t have time now, no worries – it’ll be here waiting for you whenever you’re […]

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How Long Does SEO Take?

ShareWelcome back to Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. This week, we’re talking about timelines for SEO – we’re gonna answer the most common question about SEO “how long does SEO take?” More than any other question, SEO agencies are always asked “why does SEO take so much time?” and “how long will it take to see results?” I get it – […]

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SEO ‘Simple Math’

ShareWelcome back to another Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki! In this week’s video, we’re taking you back to school and doing some math to help prove why your business absolutely needs to be doing Local SEO. I speak at a lot of conferences, and I always hear that it’s hard for attendees to go back to work and get buy-in from […]

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‘The Firm’ Case for Local SEO

ShareWelcome back to Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. This week, we’re here to talk about pizza. For the noobs out there, pizza is a savory dish of Italian origin, consisting of a usually round, flattened base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and various other ingredients (anchovies, olives, meat, etc.) baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired […]

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GMB is Your NEW Home Page

ShareWelcome back to Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. This week we’re not talking about a specific tip or tactic, we’re trying to change your point of view. For years, business owners in every vertical have been told “your website is the first impression you make with customers” But I’m here today to tell you – that’s no longer true. Your Google […]

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GMB ‘Questions & Answers’ Feature

ShareWelcome back to Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. This week we’re talking about a recent update to the Google My Business Questions and Answers feature. For the ‘noobs’, if you don’t know what the Questions and Answers feature is, it’s a new element that was added to the Google My Business profiles about a year ago. It’s a community discussion feature, […]

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Tactical Tuesdays - How Do You Know if You Need Local SEO

How Do You Know if You Need Local SEO?

ShareWelcome back to ‘Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki’. One of our most common topics in this weekly video series will be Local SEO, and today we wanted to take a little time to explain what it is and how you know if you need it. (For the Noobs) Search Engine Optimization, commonly referred to as “SEO”, is the process of optimizing […]

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Greg Gifford of Wikimotive presents some of the recent changes Google has made, in terms of how Brand Search results appear on mobile devices in the 2nd episode of 'Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki".

Episode 2: New Blended SERP on Local Brand Searches

ShareWelcome back to Tactical Tuesdays with Wiki. We’ve got an interesting update to share with you this week – Google has updated how Branded Search results are displayed on mobile. First seen in the wild last week, the new branded layout is a blend between the info that used to appear in the Google My Business knowledge panel and the […]

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A man in a suit with the text "Branding your business"

There Are No Apologies in Branding

ShareAs an automotive advertising company, we fall subject to a wide range of expectations regarding the wealth of services that we offer. Truth be told, we doubt you’d be surprised by the vast majority of them, seeing as you’re probably aware of the traditional role played by digital marketers. And yet, there are those expectations that are less-publicized…such as the […]

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A hand selecting a pyramid of people

Be Fearless. Go Viral.

ShareWhen we talk about Automotive Social Media Marketing, we’re surprised by just how many people fail to grasp the breadth of the topic. In fact, looking across any number of industries only serves to reinforce the shocking realization that many businesses are attempting to market themselves in a state of ignorant bliss. Of course, we mean ‘ignorant’ in the most […]

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A man with a bow and arrow targeting lightbulbs

Shooting Holes in Your Strategy (To See What’s in Front of You)

ShareThis month, we’re spending a lot of time talking about the need to step outside of your intrinsic strategy. As a marketer, it’s all too easy for you to wear the blinders of branding, slaved to a singular way of thinking by the echo chamber which you operate within. By falling into this trap, you minimize your own effectiveness, limiting […]

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A man with his echo chamber stressing him out

Stepping Outside the Echo Chamber

ShareNow that we’re firmly implanted in 2019, susceptible to both the pitfalls and perils most-evident and well-hidden, we’d be spotlighting a lack of foresight if we failed to acknowledge one of the greatest threats to your automotive marketing strategy. More accurately, it’s one of the greatest threats to any marketing strategy, regardless of industry or intent (and arguably, to a […]

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Dial up your marketing with a automotive advertising company

Reasons to Partner with an Automotive Advertising Agency

ShareAs a dealership, you might have struggled with the question of whether or not you should partner with an automotive advertising company or digital marketing partner. Unfortunately, the increasing importance of services that a digital marketer can provide emphasizes the crucial nature of making that change now (if you have yet to do so). Marketing has always been an ever-evolving […]

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The building blocks to Automotive Social Media Marketing

Are You in Control of Your Online Image?

SharePerception is reality. Arguably, the best piece of ‘big picture’ advice that I’ve ever been given. One would be hard-pressed to debate the fact that we form decisive conclusions based on our individual perception. From the worthiness of interpersonal relationships and evaluation of professional competence to the businesses we support and political candidates that we elect, our lives are driven […]

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Answers to all your automotive SEO questions

SEO Resolutions (for Better Results) in the New Year

ShareIs there any better opportunity to assess one’s goals than the beginning of a new year?  Even when you step outside the norm of personal New Years Resolutions, it’s a perfect opportunity for the less-diligent to gain both perspective in hindsight while creating forward-thinking strategies. Then again, some might argue that you should have been on top of your new […]

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Find the solution to your automotive marketing needs with the right information

Which Side of the Line are YOU on?

ShareNow that we find ourselves firmly implanted inside of another new year, it becomes easier to separate ourselves from the imaginary line that we’ve just crossed over. Whether you think of it as a new beginning, the turn of a calendar page, or another journey around the sun, the significance of a ‘new year’ is largely sentimental. But it’s the […]

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A closeup of hands on a computer

To Get Personal, You Need a Personal Touch

ShareImagine that you had an Ace-in-the-Hole, a hidden advantage over your competitors that positioned your dealership, products and services more favorably in the eyes of prospective customers. Imagine that you could gain insights into the needs and expectations of today’s car-buyers unique to your offerings in order to identify your strengths and weaknesses. What if it would make you the […]

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Hands holding a target audience logo

Meeting the Expectations of Personalized Content

ShareIf your automotive social media marketing is on-point, you’ve spent the last year tailoring your company’s social media presence in a manner that reflected individuality while creating a truly personalized experience for the consumer. And if you haven’t, well, the increasing warmth that you’re currently feeling in your posterior region is the (metaphorical) fire that we’ve just lit under your […]

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Man circles target audience for automotive marketing

Creating Your Personalized SEO Strategy for 2019

ShareHappy New Year! We all know how it goes, “New Year, New You” but the simple truth is that all-too-many dealerships are making the same mistakes year-in and year-out by not evolving their automotive SEO to mirror changes within the industry. As digital marketers, we see it all the time; even if a dealership’s marketing team are reallocating sufficient budget […]

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The words Search Engine Marketing over an engine

Giving Your 2019 a Personal Touch

ShareSince the earliest days of radio spots and television sponsorships, celebrity endorsements were considered the gold standard of commercial validation. The idea that a compensated actor or pop culture personality lends any credibility to a product or service might be ridiculous, and yet, the hapless consumer inside of each of us continues to fall for the tactic time-and-time-again. Few industries […]

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A man in a suit holding an outline of a car

Thinking Small: an Automotive Marketing Mindset for 2019

ShareThere are certain expectations found all-too-commonly among those seeking the expertise of an automotive advertising company or 3rd party marketing professional. In many cases, such expectations come influenced by some sort of marketing myopia or an inability to see the proverbial forest for the trees. Granted, one might argue that such a lack of awareness explains why a dealership or […]

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Embracing the Social Side of Your Dealership

ShareBefore you get hung up the ins and outs of automotive social media marketing, it’s important to take a step back. Why? Because it’s entirely possible that you’re ‘too close’ to have any real perspective on the importance of social media to the continued success of your dealership. Granted, saying such a thing might come across as somewhat condescending, but […]

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A legal pad with "Goals" written on it

Perspective and Prioritization of Your SEO Strategy

ShareWhen it comes to executing an automotive SEO strategy, where do you start? It’s a loaded question for sure, so…well…let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. SEO is crucial for any dealership, for the same reason that it’s crucial to the continued success of any business. It speaks to the marketing of your business using the tools that technology […]

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computer Mouse making digital marketing connections

Is Digital Marketing Blurring the Lines Between Tiered Automotive Marketing?

Share According to a report by eMarketer, the estimated automotive marketing spend in 2017 fell in somewhere around $206 billion. Coming off a seven-year run of continual sales growth, it’s no surprise that the industry has shown such openness toward investment. The near-unparalleled level of innovation alone ensured that most messages were well-worth “getting out there” and, judging by the […]

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Infographic concept. Inspiration, Loan and Wineglass icons simple set. Innovation, Coffee vending and Electric guitar signs. Ab testing, Blocked card and Home symbols

The Why’s and How’s of Gaining Influence in 2019

Share When we think of auto advertising, it’s easy for us to default to the iconography that has proved successful since the infancy of televised automotive marketing back at the midpoint of the 20th century. Beauty shots of shiny new vehicles, handling impeccably around tight corners. All engine, road and wind noise removed in the editing process and replaced with […]

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Getting People Talking in 2019

2019: Time to Get People Talking

Share 2019 presents a unique challenge for marketers, regardless of the industry that they represent. For the sake of these articles, we’ll convey the ideas in the context of car dealerships, automotive advertising agencies and the automotive industry as a whole. But rest assured, the ideas are universal, relating to the evolving face of brand recognition, reinforcement and consumer valuation. […]

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Marketing Analysis Accounting Team Teamwork Business Meeting Concept

Marketing Fearlessly in 2019

ShareWhether facilitated in-house by your own marketing team, or through a third party vendor, automotive advertising is not for the weak of heart. We live in transitional times, shifting with both the frequency and inherent dangers of cartoon quicksand. No longer can a dealership thrive (let alone survive) solely on the reapings yielded by traditional marketing efforts. Truth be told, […]

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SEO Marketing for Legal Workers

Legal Marketing 2019: Where You Need to Be

ShareAt its core, Law Firm Marketing is about differentiation: the ability to convey a firm or practice’s value proposition in more ways than reiterating “we are aggressive, and get results!” One might argue that the need for differentiation is universal among marketers, but legal marketing presents unique challenges since the ‘results’ are usually life-altering in nature. Failure of an attorney […]

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Health Care marketing concept graph

Embracing the Healthcare Marketing of Tomorrow, Today.

Share If asked, how would you describe your healthcare marketing? In the blink of an eye, we find ourselves standing on the cusp of this: the third decade of what we (seemingly yesterday) referred to as the ‘new millennium.’ How time flies. The scary part? For every one of us, the passage of time will continue to pick up speed […]

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Back to (Virtual) Life. Back to (Augmented) Reality

ShareWhen you think of your real estate marketing strategy, what comes to mind? Word-of-Mouth referral? Print ads? Lawn signage with your visage (or that of an associate) emblazoned across it? Scaled up versions of the same in billboard form? Perhaps you’re focused on local television and radio spots? Or if you’re truly ahead of the curve, you probably steer your […]

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Automotive Marketing Trends to Get Aboard

ShareGoing digital is no longer a thing of the present. At the risk of sounding elitist, or dismissive, if your automotive marketing hasn’t already gone digital (at least partially) you have placed your dealership at a significant disadvantage. To be clear, we’re not simply referring to whether or not you have a responsive website, with inventory configured to create an […]

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Female doctor in a white jacket at a desk with a laptop, stethoscope, and tablet

Putting Your Private Practice in the Public Eye

ShareNo matter what industry they exist in, today’s businesses need to implement digital marketing strategies in order to maintain, if not increase, their client relationships. Medical practices are no exception, and today’s private practice marketing strategies employ a number of components. Such steps allow a practice to gain a competitive edge over their local competitors, increasing visibility of their services […]

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Utilizing SEO to Set a New Precedent of Success

ShareAs practitioners operating within the legal system, you’re no stranger to binding changes in legal principle. As practitioners operating within the field of digital marketing, we’re no stranger to binding changes in SEO strategies. And while you might be unable to appreciate the breadth of commonality between those two fields, a quickly scribbled Venn Diagram would place your legal marketing […]

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Empowering Your Small Business (With Big Reach!)

ShareIf there’s one thing that we’ve learned over the last few years it’s that, thanks to technology, the potential of a small business marketing initiative is anything but…well, small. In the past, modestly-sized independently-owned businesses were bound to fall under the shadow of larger competitors. The combination of massive buying power and proportionally-sized marketing budgets proved difficult for any small […]

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Prioritizing SEO in Your Automotive Marketing for 2019

Share While most people are still trying to wrap their heads around the fact that autumn is already upon us, automotive marketing professionals (and their counterparts in almost every industry) are already focused on forming their digital strategies for 2019. And, if recent years have taught us anything, each year that passes increases the importance of SEO to these strategies and […]

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Male hand on a mouse with WiFi, shopping, and technology symbols surrounding him

Meeting the Expectations of an Informed Generation

Share 2017 was the year it all changed. It was the year when millennial consumers fulfilled their long-anticipated destiny of overtaking Baby Boomers as the single largest consumer demographic. With an estimated $200 billion in annual buying power, consumer trends would now be dictated by the younger members of our society, with little likelihood of it reversing anytime soon. And […]

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Blue grid with heart monitoring line, and apple, heart, and person silhouettes

Rep Matters (10 Tips for Addressing Negativity Towards Healthcare)

ShareIn the United States, there’s still a significant portion of our population debating the pros and cons of the affordable healthcare act. The political spectrum remains perpetually at odds over the idealistic entitlement for universal healthcare and the fiscal realities that stand in the way of such demands. But partisan politics aside, there’s little value in arguing the fact that […]

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Brown wooden gavel laying across open silver laptop

What is the Precedent Set by Your Online Presence?

ShareIt’s widely believed that there are seven essential characteristics that people look for when seeking legal representation. Do you know what they are? Chances are that you’re already ticking all seven boxes if you can (honestly) look at yourself and feel that you’re achieving all of your goals. But let’s be honest. Regardless of the size of your firm or […]

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The number four written in lights

4 Things to Keep in Mind With Your Social Media Marketing (and 4 Ways to Set Yourself Apart)

Share You don’t have to be a digital marketer to recognize the fact that social media, in all forms, presents an opportunity. Every social media user, regardless of platform used, opens themselves to the possibility of being marketed to. Then again, every social media user also gains the opportunity to become a marketer themselves. In terms of both images and […]

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Stack of brown blocks with red medical symbols on them

The Symbiosis of Healthcare and Marketing

ShareIt’s hardly a well-kept secret that the healthcare industry exists within a perpetual state of precariousness. As a society, we look to the wide array of healthcare professionals for unbiased solutions to issues related to our personal well-being. However, as with members of any industry, those professionals offer a series of products and services that exist to be marketed for […]

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Close up of driver's side door on a white car driving through the city at night time

Is Your Online Presence Driving Customers TO You (or FROM You?)

ShareThe core of any successful business, regardless of its size or the industry it’s found within, comes in the patronage of its clientele. Some businesses thrive upon a large volume of one-time purchases, while others are reliant upon incremental repeat business. Years ago, the difference depended simply upon (i) the quality of product and/or service offered (ii) the demand for […]

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Medical professional at a desk with a glass of water, stethoscope, thermometer, laptop, and tablet

Take Two Minutes of Video & Call Me in the Morning

ShareIn today’s world, so many aspects of the Medical community draw the continual ire of the masses. From outrage over the profiteering practices of the Pharmaceutical industry to constant criticism of the costs associated with Health insurance providers, a large share of the general public has voiced a growing sense of detachment from the healthcare community, as a whole. Regardless […]

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Jumbled pile of brown wooden letters

Making Your Automotive Marketing Worth a Million Words

ShareIf seeking a real-world example of ‘necessary evil’, one could argue that ‘Marketing’ is a near-perfect choice. A crucial component of any business’s continued success, a well-realized and multi-tiered marketing initiative should be designed to communicate any (and all) messages, to any (and all) demographics, using the most effective platform for each. Just last month, we were discussing some perspectives […]

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Stack of six books on a brown table with full book shelves in the background

Marketing “Higher Education”: What You Need to Know

ShareAs an institution of higher learning, you are focused on the use of education to empower your students to find greater success in all fields of business. That said, you mustn’t lose sight of the need to empower your business to find greater success in all fields of education. Simply put, this requires an ability to attract a greater number […]

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Pile of eggs in a wicker basket with a white background

Without a Multi-Platform Strategy Your Dealership Will Fail. Here’s Why

ShareIn the ever-changing automotive world, we are faced with the constant evolution of both expectations and demands in all forms of commerce. And while we can adapt accordingly, the expectation of any business to straddle the various generational gaps makes it necessary to adjust our business model and marketing initiatives to operate on a number of levels. And by diversifying […]

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Black and silver stethoscope sitting on keyboard of a silver laptop

Health Care Industry Marketing Has Changed

Share Of all service providers, the Healthcare industry is faced with some of the greatest expectations in terms of accessibility, credibility, and reliability. While such expectations are perfectly understandable, it emphasizes medical professionals’ need for a comprehensive online presence. And in this 24/7 world of transparency and constant connectivity, prospective patients demand far more than just a polished website. Wikimotive […]

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Silver laptop, black smartphone, black pens, notepad, plant, and a cup of coffee on a brown desk

Automotive Marketing In Today’s Industry

ShareWithin today’s automotive industry, a dealership’s success is no longer solely dependent on a well-realized business model, or in the creation and maintenance of a customer-centric culture. While both remain crucial components, a dealership needs to embrace the important role that online marketing plays in ensuring its continued longevity.   Website Design Successful online marketing is more than just a […]

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Is Dealer.com Corrupting Your Data?

ShareSep 22, 8:24AM, UPDATE: James Grace has contacted Wikimotive and shared findings with us: “We’ve tracked down the source of this issue to a 3rd Party Integration with Edmunds.com that was active on approximately 16% of our sites.  Edmunds pushed tracking code to these sites that was causing the Google session-ID to be overwritten with every “event” on the website, […]

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Welcoming Josh Billing, Front-End Developer & QA Specialist

ShareWikimotive is pleased to introduce the newest member of our development team, Front-End Developer & QA Specialist, Josh Billings. Working closely with Wikimotive’s CTO and co-founder, Andrew Martin, Josh takes on the critical role of content publishing and front-end page development. After all, our writers can produce the best content on Earth, but someone with a sharp eye for detail […]

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Employees Are Your Business’ Greatest Reputation Management Asset

ShareEmployees are hired based on their ability to perform and complete specific job functions. What is often overlooked is the significant role employees play in the business’ reputation. In the past, managing a business’ reputation was purely a matter of effectively handling public relations. This, alone, is no longer enough. In today’s world, technology has greatly altered the way businesses’ […]

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You Have More in Common with Your Customer Than You Think

ShareWhen a potential buyer walks through the door, calls you up on the phone, or chats with you online, your immediate reaction is to find ways to connect with them to provide quality customer service. You engage in small talk by chatting about the weather or current sport scores, hoping to uncover similar interests to aid you in providing great […]

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Navigating SEO: 4 Problems Still Plaguing Dealer Websites

ShareYour website is the most important part of your digital marketing strategy. Even with a large budget, you could fail to achieve results if you’re lacking the foundation necessary to convert visitors into leads and sales. In this week’s Navigating SEO column, I’ll detail a few of the problems that still plague dealer websites years after being pointed out and […]

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Navigating SEO: 3 Ways to Improve Your Dealership’s Keyword Research

ShareDo you feel like you’re getting nowhere with SEO? It’s tough to pinpoint the exact reason you’re not seeing results, but there are ways you can improve your process to push through and start seeing green numbers. Keyword research is one of the smallest things you can improve upon; however, it can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful car […]

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Navigating SEO: 3 SEO Content Tips to Boost Traffic and Conversions

ShareIn 2016, every business wants to use content to get more traffic to their website. From there, they want to better convert those users to boost client sign-ups or sales. But none of that comes without understanding some fundamental facts about SEO and how to create better content. To give you a leg up on your competition, I’m going to […]

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Navigating SEO: Best SEO Advice to Kick Off 2016

Share  New Years is more than just a time for personal resolutions; for your business it’s a perfect time to commit and stick to resolutions to make 2016 your best year ever. If you’ve been procrastinating on your digital marketing, I won’t shame you. Instead, I’ll present you with some of the best advice that you can use to kick […]

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Navigating SEO: How to Make the Most of Link Building in 2016

ShareLink building isn’t dead, and it’s not likely to die in 2016. If you want to build authority for your website to increase organic traffic, link building is still a crucial component of SEO. The problem is, you may not be aligning your link building efforts with the standards that will lead to success in 2016. In this post, I’ll […]

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Sell Boss SEO

Navigating SEO: How to Sell Your Boss on SEO

Share “I couldn’t sell my boss a pen if he was trying to cash a million-dollar check!” Selling your boss has very little to do with the fact that they’re tough or often balk at the idea of adding new expenses. Those are things you tell yourself to help soften the blow when you don’t get your way. To help […]

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Navigating SEO: How to Be Realistic with SEO Expectations

ShareSEO and realistic expectations don’t go well together. On both sides of the aisle, there are issues that harm the digital marketing campaigns of businesses across the country and cause doubts about SEO as a viable and ROI-driven service. The problem starts with SEO vendors. For years now, the focus has been on achieving “#1 rankings” and “dominating” specific markets. […]

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Wikimotive Gives Back to Selfless Colleague

ShareAs the season of giving and the 2015 Internet Sales 20 Group 8 sets to kick off next week in New Orleans, the team at Wikimotive is honored to lend their support to Jeff Cormier and his family.

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Wikimotive Celebrated for Curiosity at Dealer Inspire Awards Ceremony

ShareWhat fun is innovation without celebration? We wouldn’t know…

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Navigating SEO: How to Focus Your Business Content Efforts

ShareContent Marketing is one of the fastest growing forms of digital marketing employed by businesses in 2015. Where traditional advertising (even online) has its limits, content marketing’s only limit is your business’s creativity. But with all sorts of options out there for creating content, where do begin? In this post, I’ll give you a quick guide to help you focus […]

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Navigating SEO: Beginner’s Guide to Search Intent

ShareAs Google releases more and more updates, the search engine becomes capable of understanding intent behind different search queries at an advanced level. This leads to an increased need for online marketers to review their SEO strategy to ensure it aligns with Google’s constant updates. The most important thing you can do right here and right now, however, is to […]

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Navigating SEO: How to Create Content That Attracts Links

ShareWhat do you want from SEO? If I had to guess, I’d say “more traffic” or “more leads” are at the top of your goals list. The problem is, those things don’t just happen on their own. One way to accomplish these goals is to pursue link building by creating amazing content. Links are one of the most important signals […]

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Navigating SEO – Creating Value: It’s What SEO is All About

ShareIf you follow the SEO industry, you’ll know that there’s a constant debate about whether or not the practice is really “SEO” (search engine optimization) anymore. Because for the most part, it’s not. Sure we still do on-page optimization that helps create search-friendly pages, but that’s only one small part of what most SEO companies provide moving into 2016. Instead, most […]

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Navigating SEO: What Fantasy Football Can Teach You About SEO

ShareNavigating SEO is a syndicated blog series by Timothy Martell, CEO of Wikimotive. In this series, Tim breaks down ways car dealers and other local businesses can improve their SEO, offering insight into how it will benefit business. This week’s column was written by Wikimotive’s Mark Frost.  Whether or not you like fantasy football, there’s no denying its hold on American […]

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How to Audit Your Competitors’ SEO in 30 Minutes or Less

ShareSEO is all about self-improvement. If you’ve ever delved into the world of self-improvement, then you know that the only person that can help or hurt you is yourself. That same principal applies to SEO, as you (site/business owner) are ultimately in charge of your own success and failure. You can choose to take action and better your site’s SEO, […]

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Google RankBrain: 5 Facts SEOs Need to Know

ShareAs an SEO, I’ve grown accustomed to frequent news about updates and other changes made to Google’s algorithm. But today’s news from the world’s leading search engine took me for a loop. Here at Wikimotive, the idea of machine learning and AI as a part of future search results has been something we thought of as semi-futuristic. We knew Google was […]

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The 5 Rules of Great Content for 2016

ShareThe web revolves around content. A lot of content. According to Internet Live Stats, there are currently around 200 million active websites. That’s not individual pages, but actual unique websites that can contain millions of pages of their own. Standing out from the crowd is a lot more difficult than it used to be, but not impossible. Using the information […]

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4 Reasons Reddit Hates Your Content

ShareReddit is one of the largest and most expansive online communities ever created. It has the power to make videos go viral, create and cultivate memes, crash websites with massive amounts of traffic, and best of all: bring likeminded people together. Given its power, social media marketers want a piece of the pie. The only problem is, Reddit knows when it’s […]

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Google Map Pack Update: 5 Thoughts on the New Design

ShareLocal SEO has become one of the most important focuses in the digital marketing community. This means it’s only natural for everyone to take notice and rethink strategy when Google makes an update to its local Map Pack results. In its latest update, which occurred around August 6, 2015, Google redesigned the Map Pack to fit with its mobile design […]

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Viral Content: 5 Truths You Need to Know

ShareViral content has been the subject of constant attention. Business, marketers, and the media are fascinated by videos and other types of content that spread like wildfire and generate attention (and business) for the creators. And while viral content sounds great when thinking only about the success, you also need to understand the pitfalls. It’s easy to get caught up […]

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Blogging for Business: How to Get Started

ShareBlogging for business is by no means a new phenomenon. It’s been talked about for years now, and I’m sure most of you reading this have tried blogging, whether in your free time or for a business. But while the craze around blogging has died down as it becomes more acceptable, there are still plenty of people out there skeptical […]

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4 Ways to Liven Up Your Business’s Digital Marketing

ShareDigital marketing is a fickle beast. It can leave you feeling accomplished one second and demoralized the next. It’s exciting, but at the same time unnerving. There’s always a challenge to tackle. For businesses, though, the ups and downs of digital marketing are more nerve-wracking than exciting. So if you own a business, you don’t want to constantly be worrying. […]

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Explaining ‘Quality Content’ Once and For All

ShareThe phrase “quality content” has become somewhat of a joke within the SEO and digital marketing community. It’s used so often when giving SEO advice–typically without further detail or actionable instructions–that there’s no way for a non-SEO to truly grasp the meaning behind it. But that all changes today! I want to give you my explanation of quality content to […]

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The Link Building Secret Experts Won’t Tell You

ShareLink building is one of the toughest aspects of SEO, and how to get ahead alludes a lot of new and advanced SEOs. However, there is a secret many of the world’s top SEOs and digital marketers keep to themselves. They’ll tip-toe around the issue all day long, but it is not something that they’ll just come out and say:

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How to Create Engaging Content by Repurposing Boring Content

ShareBoring content is typically the type of content created to strictly inform consumers about your product, explain a position, or simply sell. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with boring content. Its purpose is pretty simple: convert visitors into leads and provide quick/simple information. A couple of good examples would be landing pages and about pages. You can make these fun and […]

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How to Create Better Content in Less Time

ShareOne of the problems most individuals and businesses face with content production is the amount of time it takes to create great content. Whether you’re a nutritionist trying to build an incredible blog, or a car dealer that wants to improve your automotive SEO, content takes a lot of time and it can oftentimes feel like there’s never enough of […]

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How Job Seekers Should Be Utilizing Social Media

ShareThere’s a lot of hype around the ways job seekers can take advantage of social media marketing in order to stand out from the crowd, and for good reason. Sites like Twitter and LinkedIn can be utilized to help job seekers not only find jobs, but connections that can help grow a network, create new opportunities, and even help build […]

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50+ Active SEO Influencers to Follow on Twitter

ShareOne of the struggles of starting out in SEO and digital marketing is immersing yourself in the industry. Most don’t know where to start, while others get information overload from trying to absorb too much at once. A great way to get active, inspired, and up to speed on the latest in the SEO world is to simply follow industry […]

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Periodic Table of SEO: In-Depth Content Guide

ShareWhile SEO is a simple practice once you learn the basics (and begin implementing strategies and techniques), it’s often intimidating to beginners and those who don’t specialize in digital marketing. In order to help more and more people learn about SEO in a simple and organized fashion, Search Engine Land created the “Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors.” At a […]

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5-Step Guide to Generating Great Content Ideas

ShareFor many SEOs, content marketers, and writers, generating ideas for content is one of the most difficult tasks to perform, especially as a beginner. But whether you’re just getting started or simply struggling with a business SEO strategy, this five-step guide will help you shape how you generate ideas and help you focus on your goal of creating the absolute […]

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5 Blogger Outreach Tips That Will Change the Way You Pitch (with Infographic)

ShareWhether you’re in PR, linkbuilding, or other forms of digital marketing, one part of your job might be reaching out to bloggers with requests for coverage or links. As a veteran blogger, I’ve been sent thousands of pitches and replied to only a small percentage of them. Recently, I’ve begun reaching out to bloggers with requests of my own and […]

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4 Powerful SEO Statistics That Prove the Value of Search Traffic

ShareWhile SEO isn’t new to those of us in the digital marketing industry, there are plenty of small and local businesses that are only now being introduced to the power of organic search traffic. Whether you’re a salesperson for a marketing company who needs ammo to make the sale, or a local business owner looking for more reasons to invest […]

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What Happened to ‘People Talking About This’ on Facebook?

SharePage administrators and automotive social media managers may be startled when they look for Facebook’s PTAT (People Talking About This) metric, as it is no longer located under “Page Likes” on individual Facebook pages. ‘ Is Facebook’s PTAT gone for good? No. Before we dig deeper, let’s discuss what “People Talking About This” truly means for Facebook Pages.

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Facebook Marketing - Bad Advice from Mashable

Businesses: Do NOT Follow Mashable’s Advice on Posting to Facebook

ShareDearest Mashable Reader, Recently, you read a Mashable article titled “8 Ways to Beat Facebook’s Algorithm and Keep Your Consumers Engaged” that has caused me to reevaluate their article intentions and quality… and you should too. As a trusted social media news source, I cannot help but wonder what they were thinking posting an article that includes tips that will […]

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Future-Proof Your SEO

4 Simple Ways to Future-Proof Your SEO

ShareSEO as a service is built on the foundation that the effort put in now can still have an effect years down the road. So by default, the goal of SEO should be to grow for the long haul. Unlike online advertising, in which traffic stops as soon as you stop a campaign, SEO is capable of producing ROI unlike […]

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Boost Twitter Engagement

How to Boost Twitter Engagement and Build a Real Audience

ShareWhile Twitter never grew to truly rival Facebook, it has affected our communication and our culture in the same way. People use Twitter for marketing, to connect with like-minded individuals, network professionally, broadcast news, and discuss anything and everything going on in the world. The most powerful part of this is that everything is public. Meaning anyone has the potential […]

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Facebook Ads Relevance Score Key Factors

ShareFacebook is introducing a new way you can see how your potential Facebook Ad will perform with its new Facebook Ads Relevance Score. The Facebook Ad Relevance Score was announced by Facebook on Feb 11 and should slowly start rolling out in the coming days to weeks (so don’t freak out if you have yet to see it).

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5 Simple Link Building Strategies for Small Businesses

ShareWhen someone new to digital marketing reads about link building strategies, it’s likely a confusing and stressful experience. The reason is, most people try to complicate the process to sell services by convincing you there’s something proprietary about their methods. Now, most businesses should consider SEO or link building services if they want to get results, but the cost is […]

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Turn Brand Mentions into Links with Outreach

How to Turn Brand Mentions into Links in Less Than 15 Minutes

ShareFor SEO companies, unlinked mentions can be extremely annoying, hindering SEO efforts in the process. But the fact is, whether completely intentional or editorial preference, many sites simply don’t link out a lot. It’s not that they have anything against you, they just don’t have your SEO in mind when mentioning your brand on a page, blog post, or news […]

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How to Create Compelling Content

How to Create Compelling Content for ANY Topic

ShareWhen it comes to content marketing, there are topics that are thought of as easy to promote and others that are harder to promote. Smartphones are an example of a topic that might be thought of as easy to promote while pest control is on the harder end of the spectrum. So if you’re forced to work on a topic […]

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7 Online Tools Automotive Marketers Need to Use

Share Whether you work at a digital marketing company or in-house at a local dealership, the right tools make an automotive marketer‘s job much, much easier. From automating small, tedious content and social media tasks to organizing complicated SEO campaigns, these are the tools every digital marketer should have in their tool belt to save time and get better results.

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Infographic: 10 Reasons You Need SEO to Gain More Business

ShareEvery business owner knows how important marketing is to success, but the focus has always been on reaching large audiences in hopes of finding people who are in need of what a business has to offer. With the internet and search engines, however, it became a lot easier for people to seek businesses out than ever before. But the internet […]

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Instantly Create Better Content

5 Foolproof Ways to Instantly Create Better Content

ShareWhether you work as a copywriter, a blogger, an SEO, or a content marketer, we all want our content to be better. No one in this business should ever be satisfied with their work, and if you think you’ll be the first then you’re dead wrong. So with a healthy dose of respect for the fact that perfection is unobtainable, […]

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Digital Marketing Flaws

5 Digital Marketing Flaws You Can Easily Fix in 2015

ShareTo be completely honest, not much changes for digital marketing in the New Year. Businesses that are on top of their game make valuable changes throughout the year, and those that don’t tend to always be left behind. This year is no different. If you happen to be one of the businesses left behind by an everchanging digital marketing landscape, […]

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Your Content Will Suck at First, and That's OK

Your Content Will Suck at First, and That’s OK

ShareCreating amazing content sounds so simple if you listen to all of the experts. “Quality over quantity,” they say. “Create value,” they say. And the don’t forget the always-popular “Content is king!” Here at Wikimotive, we’ve been guilty of giving this broad advice on occasion. It’s easy for us to say that as an automotive SEO company, but what about […]

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Stand Out on Facebook

5 Ways Car Dealers Can Stand Out on Facebook

ShareOne of the most difficult things businesses seem to struggle with in the their online marketing efforts is social media. While it’s not new by the web’s standards, businesses have only just begun to tap into its true potential over the last couple of years. In the automotive industry, car dealers who previously questioned the value of automotive social media […]

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Interactive Social Media Debate

Interactive Debate: Which Facebook Page Call-to-Action Button is Best?

ShareFacebook recently announced there will be new call-to-action buttons coming to U.S. pages by the end of the year and worldwide in 2015. These call-to-action buttons will display on the cover photo of a Facebook page conveniently located next to the “Like” button. The purpose of call-to-action buttons on Facebook Pages is to bring the business objective to the forefront […]

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Long Tail Keywords

Why Your Business Should Focus More on Long Tail Keywords

ShareWhen business owners think of SEO, they most likely think of ranking #1 for the most obvious search terms in their area. And while those are arguably the most high-value single targets for your SEO efforts, these terms, such as “[SERVICE] in [CITY],” are also the most competitive. Because of this, businesses should explore options for long tail keywords when […]

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Destroy Bad SEO Practices

4 Bad SEO Practices Your Business Needs to Destroy by 2015

ShareOne of the most amazing things about SEO is that it’s always changing. Not only does that keep digital marketing companies like Wikimotive on our toes, it ensures those who are doing the best work achieve bigger and better results as time goes on. Now, your average small business does not have the time or resources to dedicate to SEO […]

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Negative Online Reviews

Why You Should Never Delete or Ignore Negative Online Reviews

ShareAs a business owner it is hard to fathom that anyone would say anything negative about your business. Yet negative online reviews still occur, and in most cases they cannot be prevented. These instances can make it difficult to control our natural impulse to feel hurt or angered, as we are all passionate about what we do and in the service […]

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Third-Party Lead Providers

What Third-Party Listing Sites Think of Dealerships

ShareThird-party lead providers have built multi-billion dollar empires by providing valuable services to customers. These companies, including Cars.com, Car Fax, TrueCar, and Edmunds all provide tools that an individual dealership can’t possibly hope to provide consumers, for both technological and competitive reasons. But these services are also built on the backs of dealerships, on which they rely on for content […]

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Google Search Updates

Getting to Know the Major Google Search Updates

ShareOver the past few years, Google has updated its search algorithm with a few major updates to crack down on spam, black hat SEO techniques, and other forms of manipulation. These updates have been widely covered by search engine blogs and now each small update is covered in detail so SEO professionals can stay on top of the latest changes […]

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Why Women are So Important for Social Media Marketing

Why Marketing to Women is So Important on Social Media

ShareFor the longest time, young people, specifically young men ages 12-21, were the coveted demographic for major brands. A lot of this stemmed from television and viewership, but brands also look to online services to target young men. But more recently, women have become the most important demographic for social media marketing and all forms of digital marketing, as new data shows […]

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Automotive Social Media Marketing - Facebook Tips

The 4 Most Important Facebook Marketing Tips for Beginners

ShareSocial media has taken over the web and changed the way many of us think about communication and marketing. But if you’re new to social media marketing, understanding how to implement strategies, gain followers, and help your business is a lot more difficult than simply interacting with friends and family. The following tips will give you a quick perspective on […]

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Digital Marketing Mistakes

5 Mistakes to Avoid When You’re New to Digital Marketing

ShareThere are many mistakes companies and marketers alike make when breaking into digital marketing. Whether we’re talking about automotive SEO, PPC, or social media, you have to understand the fundamentals of each type of marketing strategy before you can truly create successful campaigns. If your business is looking to invest time and money into a new digital marketing strategy, in […]

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Google E-A-T Rating System

What You Need to Know About Google’s E-A-T Evaluation System

ShareIn the latest addition of Google’s human search rater guidebook, the company introduced a new page rating concept used to manually rate the quality of a website and its pages. The practice of using human search raters is a crucial part of the way Google updates its search algorithm. Because as with any experiment, you want to test your theory. […]

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Automotive Social Media Leadership

Why Leadership is Important for Car Dealers

ShareLeadership is a word we hear often, and at times it can be over used and therefore misunderstood. But leadership is not just a word, it is an action. It is a role many struggle to uphold because it is not one that can be mastered. Instead, it is a commitment to life-long learning about oneself and the roles that come […]

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Content is King

5 Types of Content Your Dealership Needs to Create

ShareOne of the most popular sayings  amongst internet marketers is “Content is king.” We all know this is true, but make sure you’re not just talking the talk and writing exclusively for search engines. Because while that used to be a worthwhile strategy, the key to outranking your competition now isn’t through optimization, it’s through content marketing. In 2014, people […]

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Happy Employees

5 Things Your Employees Want More Than Money

ShareToday’s work culture has shifted drastically from what used to be expected. Talented job candidates and skilled employees are viewed as a finite resource by many companies, which are working harder and harder to make the turn the traditional workplace on its head. Game rooms, full gourmet kitchens, nap stations, and designated free time are typical perks at today’s innovating top technology […]

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Things Great Leaders Do

6 Things Great Leaders Do

ShareOftentimes, great leaders are thought of as perfect people with the inability to make the same mistakes that plague common businesspeople. Contrary to that belief, however, is the fact that great leaders understand their mistakes and weaknesses better than anyone, and have worked hard to learn from them. To help you change your mindset to realize that great leaders are […]

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Website Providers are Destroying Dealerships and No One Seems to Care

ShareDealers, there’s something fishy going on with the major automotive website providers. Problems that affect search results are popping up left and right, but no one is willing to accept responsibility and fix the issues. Instead, there’s a brick wall of “Aw shucks, that’s the way things are. Guess you’ll have to deal with it.” And I know what you’re […]

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Car People Social Fist Bump

Why #CarPeeps Rock!

ShareWhen you think about it, the Automotive Industry really isn’t all about cars, but instead, it is all about the people. Yes, the amazing people who happen to love cars are the ones who know how to make working in the Auto Industry rock. A shining example of this happened on Monday April 28th 2014, when I decided to post […]

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Wikimotive’s Erin Ryan Talks Automotive Social Media Campaigns on MarketPunch Podcast

ShareAfter getting word of an incredible social media campaign called #CatMode, run by Jason Stum of LaFontaine Automotive Group, Wikimotive’s Erin Ryan jumped into action and sparked up conversation with Jason around automotive social media. One thing led to another and she ended up being honored with a guest spot on Stum’s automotive marketing podcast, MarketPunch.

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Facebook Pages Now Display Total Post Likes Under Notifications

ShareFacebook is always evolving. As it’s being developed (by hundreds of developers across the world), not every change is publicly announced. Instead, most changes simply abruptly appear on Facebook. One of the most recent changes that may have gone unnoticed is the newly added “total likes” for posts, now displayed under the notifications tab. Facebook Page owners have become accustomed […]

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11 Facts About Pinterest and the Power of Social Sales

SharePinterest has been grabbing the attention of your customers since it first launched in March 2010. Since that time, its growth has continued, reaching 70 million users in July 2013. This visual discovery tool is a force to be reckoned with, and your customers are the ones using this site. This begs the question: Is your business pinning to Pinterest? Pinterest […]

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cat mode website

#CatMode: LaFontaine Automotive Group Turns Cars into Adoptable Cats for April Fools’ Day

ShareWhile the entire Internet is buzzing today with April Fools jokes and gags, there is one dealership that is putting today’s fun to good use. The LaFontaine Automotive Group decided to take part in the day by turning their inventory images into pictures of cats. Not only is this a great idea since the Internet LOVES cats, but they too […]

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Why View Counts Should Mean Nothing to Most Businesses on Social Media

ShareWe got word late last week that Twitter was mulling over the idea of publicly displaying the number of views each tweet on the site receives. There was a lot of skepticism surrounding this news, and there’s good reason for it. Advertisers need that data to gauge the overall effectiveness of ad campaigns. If you’ve ever run an ad on […]

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Say Farewell to Automatically Promoting New Page Posts on Facebook

ShareIn recent days, Facebook has made a drastic change to its Page Post Engagement Ads. This latest update to Facebook Promoted Posts (Page Post Engagement Ads) has axed the featured that allows page admins to promote new posts automatically. This will likely affect many marketers and vendors. Facebook originally simplified promoted post ads by allowing marketers to check off a […]

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An Introduction to Facebook’s New ‘Business Manager’ Tool

ShareMarketers have been waiting for the day when Facebook would create a tool that could ease the ability to access client Facebook Pages. Now, that day is finally coming. Business Manager is a platform intended for brands and agencies to access data and allows marketers to apply information from one location.

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Wikimotive’s Erin Ryan Talks Social Media on Auto Dealer Live

SharePart of being a great digital marketing company is participating in the various communities based around online business and social media. For Wikimotive, our favorite community is automotive marketing, and we’re always excited to talk with other industry professionals about the latest news, and give insight into how we add value to car dealers across the country. Our own Director […]

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Businesses Can Now Schedule Promoted Posts

ShareThere are many different ways a business can use Facebook Ads, from multiple automated ads to boosting individual posts. But the newest form of post page engagement is by scheduling them in advance. If you use Facebook pages, you may have noticed that some of your posts that were scheduled seemed to have not gone out in the past few […]

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Don’t Panic: Facebook’s 2014 Newsfeed Redesign is Subtle

ShareYet again, we are looking at new changes to the Facebook Newsfeed. This time last year, Facebook showed off a concept redesign and overhaul of its look to users. This time around, however, there won’t be too much of a noticeable difference. Yet with every change to social networks, especially Facebook, as a digital marketing company or Facebook user, you […]

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3 Important Tips on Writing for the Web

Share As an editor, I often deal with new writers who have little to no experience writing outside of school essays, email, and social media updates. I get a lot of tightly-worded paragraphs and over-the-top word choices in many of the examples from these writers. It’s great to know they’ll take the job seriously enough to put in essay-quality effort, […]

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guest blogging in 2014

How to Use Guest Blogging in 2014

ShareIn January, we told you that guest blogging is a bad idea, and for the most part that is very true. The practice has evolved into a tactic used by spammers to gain links for specific keywords and becomes less and less associated with relevant blogger-to-blogger relations. This information was recently passed down by Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam […]

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business facebook page

5 Ideas for Your New Business’s Facebook Page

ShareStarting a Facebook page for your business seems like a simple enough task, but if you want to take social media seriously, you’ll need to realize that it’s an investment. You won’t develop an audience overnight, and you’ll have to put a little cash down to expose your business to users; however, a small amount of your time and money […]

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local business online

How to Get Your Local Business Online

ShareIf you’ve recently started a business in your community, you’re probably thinking of traditional marketing strategies to help get the word out and develop a customer base. This could include emailing the local paper for coverage, buying billboard space, sponsoring events, or simply networking with other businesses and local professionals. But the most important factor you’re likely overlooking is your […]

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Wikimotive Panda Penguin

The Best Way to Learn SEO

ShareOne of the most common questions we get asked is “What is the best way to learn SEO?” There are a few obvious places to start, I would in particular recommend the Moz blog (especially the community posts), Matt Cutt’s Google Webmaster Help videos, and (of course) the Wikimotive blog we write here daily. If you really want to get […]

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Google Page Layout Algorithm Refresh

ShareHave your rankings been a little tumultuous lately? We here at Wikimotive pay very close attention to the minute fluctuations rankings can take on even a day to day timeline, and this past week has been especially puzzling. Well, it was puzzling anyway, until an announcement from Matt Cutts today shed some light on the search engine optimization roller coaster.

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Facebook Fraud Video Inaccurate

Why the Facebook Fraud Video is Not Completely Accurate

ShareThe Facebook Fraud video has gone viral. If you haven’t had the chance to see it for yourself, be sure to check it out: I have been asked my opinion on the topic and thought it would be best to share my opinions on the Facebook Fraud video through a blog post. As a person who supports Facebook Advertising and […]

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Grammar in Comments

ShareIt’s time for another riveting installment of Google Webmaster Help Videos featuring the always friendly and rarely illuminating Matt Cutts. In this weeks episode of the popular Google series for webmasters and SEOs, Matt Answers the following question: Should I correct the grammar on comments to my WordPress blog? Should I not approve comments with poor grammar? Will approving comments […]

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Local SEO

Local SEO Checklist

ShareToday I want to talk to you about an interesting local SEO checklist I found this weekend. Sure, there are lots of them out there, but this one struck me for a couple reasons, and hard enough that I felt compelled to write about it. What makes it so special? First, check it out for yourself.

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Small Business Marketing for 2014 (Infographic)

Share2014 is going to be one of the biggest years for small business digital marketing yet. I like to think of it like the music industry. Once upon a time, only people with huge studio backing could record and album, and only the most popular artists in the world could have their music distributed. Over the past ten years, the […]

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Secure Your Google Places Now!

Share  Today’s post is less about educating, and more about being a digital marketing public service announcement. You need to log in to your Google Places account and make sure everything is up do date and submitted to Google. In case you haven’t heard about this yet, here’s the reason why it’s vitally important:

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Google Promises to Reduce Fake YouTube Views

Share  We have spoken of YouTube videos on this blog a few times in the past week, and today will be another link in the chain. Google is really focusing on their video platform these days, and it’s clear they want to drive more advertisers (and more advertiser dollars) there. They’ve expanded the offering, changed the comments to Google+ where […]

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Google Brings Big Video Results

ShareGoogle is always changing, we say that darn near every day on this blog. The thing is, usually those changes are so small, or so buried on the backend of the whole shebang that the world at large doesn’t notice. It’s not often they bust out the big, forward facing guns (the carousel being the last example I can think […]

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SEO 2014

20 Marketing Stats for 2014

ShareWhen I was a younger man I used to dismiss statistics in the marketing world. It’s easy to have an arrogance when you are young, isn’t it? I would find myself resenting the experts and thinking that I knew best, even when I had very little to base that off of. As I grew older and more experienced in the […]

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Keeping Your Old Site Google-Fresh

ShareA lot of people wonder how long it takes to get a new site indexed and ranked, but people do not often consider the flip side. Namely, how do you keep an old site fresh in Google’s eyes. Of course, lots of old sites rank just fine. In fact, some old sites are low quality and still rank well through […]

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3 Valuable Things I Learned About Automotive Social Media in 3 Days

3 Valuable Things I Learned About Automotive Social Media in 3 Days

ShareLast week, I started working for Wikimotive as a social media rep. It’s my job to maintain a dealer’s social media presence by creating great content that gets users interacting, and maintain that interaction in order to build a connection. The automotive industry is new to me; my social media experience up to this point has been general content marketing, […]

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Rand Fishkin Answering Questions on Reddit

ShareRand Fishkin is one of those weird guys, you know what I mean? He’s not a celebrity except in one very specific niche, but within that niche he is immediately recognizable, due mainly to his patented Whiteboard Fridays. Some people love him, other people hate him (though I suspect they must just be jealous)  but pretty much everyone listens to […]

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2014 SEO Industry Survey

ShareDo you love search engine optimization? How about data? Maybe even surveys? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are in luck. This week, Moz has released the results of their 2014 SEO Industry Survey. The survey covers everything from search engine optimization and search engine marketing to social media and even average salaries. This year, […]

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Google Buys DeepMind

ShareSometimes it feels like Google is omnipotent, doesn’t it? With their huge percentage of the search engine share, they ARE omnipotent in a way. They scan the entire web, handing out rewards and brutal punishments alike, but they have always had a weakness: limited man power and an always imperfect algorithm. Sure, the algorithms get better every year, but the […]

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Brilliant Ajax Social Wipes

ShareWhen you think social media genius, what’s the first brand that comes to mind? A lot of people praise Taco Bell for their snarky Twitter comments, others laud the versatility and lifestyle branding of the energy drink company Red Bull. Very few people, if any, think of the cleaning solution company Ajax when they think of social success, but that’s […]

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Yahoo Goes Secure—Why You Should Hate It

ShareYahoo is apparently sick and tired of ruling the search engine world (little sarcasm there), and who can blame them? It must be exhausting slipping in the search engines, clawing for purchase and continuing to slide year after year. To speed things along, they are now taking steps to ensure that people who run websites all over the world will […]

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Beginners Social Media Checklist (Infographic)

ShareHappy Saturday everyone! Today, I want to take a little time for all you beginners out there in the great big social world. There are a lot of places you can turn to for advice when you’re starting your digital marketing careers, and it can get a bit overwhelming at times. We appreciate you coming to our blog here at […]

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Three Big Pinterest Expansions

ShareGuess who is already back in the headlines making waves in the social media marketing world? It’s Pinterest! (You don’t get any credit if you read the title, that’s cheating.) That’s right, the social pinboard site is expanding again, this time bringing three pretty interesting user experience offers to the table. Let’s take a look at what they are and what […]

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Guest Blogging Now Officially a Bad Idea

ShareEarlier this year I made some bold marketing predictions for 2014, and one of those was that Guest Posting would move from so so technique to absolutely terrible idea. Some of you called me crazy, some of you called me a visionary. All of you were right, but those of you who called me a visionary were especially right, which […]

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Facebook Adds Trending

ShareFacebook is on the bleeding edge, the hippest of the hip and the newest of the new, that’s why this week they decided to officially roll out a new feature that has only been on Twitter for oh, about…forever? We are, of course, talking about the new trending function. Some of you may have seen this phase in and out […]

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Not Every Holiday Needs a Special Message

Share  Everyone advocates having special messages for the holidays. Heck, we even suggest it here at Wikimotive. The key though, as with most things in life, is knowing when and where to draw the line. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a celebrated and much loved holiday in the USA, but the spirit of the day doesn’t lend itself to […]

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Google Fights Bad Ads

ShareGoogle is constantly battling back the tide of shoddy ads and outright scams being posted as ads on their network every hour of every day. According to Google itself, they pulled over 350 million bad ads from their service in 2013, a significant amount more than the 224 million they pulled down in 2012. Are more bad ads being uploaded? […]

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ComScores for December 2013

ShareWe’re halfway through the month so you know what means, the ComScore data for the previous month is finally available! What search engines finished out 2013 strong and who continued their inevitable but tragic clown car skip into obscurity? Let’s take a look and find out.

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The Future of Shopping in 2014 (Infographic)

ShareNow that we’re firmly into 2014, it’s time to take a step back and reflect a bit. If you are anything like me, your December 2013 was a whirlwind of shopping, both online and in stores. I try hard to pay attention to how each store I buy from is run, as a digital marketer that’s just my nature. My […]

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Royalty Free Images

Find Images by Usage Rights

Share   Using the right image on the web can be tricky sometimes, and not just when it comes to SEO. We all try and find stuff that is public domain or at least has the Creative Commons license, but it’s not always so simple to sort out. We often find people giving away an image as “royalty free” only […]

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crosshair

The Assassination of the Car Dealer by the Cowardly Website Vendor

ShareI’m writing today because a serious fraud is being perpetrated on virtually all car dealers, the scope of which seems to be far greater than any I’ve encountered before. What seemed at first to be merely a bad SEO practice, now seems to amount to copyright infringement, a willful attempt to harm dealers while profiting from them, and perhaps even […]

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Awesome Interactive Map Shows OS Usage by State

ShareHere’s an interesting little tool for you research junkies. It’s an interactive map that breaks down the usage of operating systems by percentage by state. For you SEO fanatics (all of us here!) it also shows you the percentage of people in each state that rock Google as their primary search engine.

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New App from Twitter Cofounder

ShareTwitter is one of the most popular social networks in the world, and now Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is trying to make lightning strike twice. Mr. Stone left the Twitter corporation a little while back, and he’s been working on a new top secret social project. There wasn’t a lot of news about his work, but now he’s finished and […]

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5 Bold Digital Marketing Predictions for 2014 (Using the Doritos Locos Tacos Boldness Index)

Share2014 is here, and I wanted to join in with the leagues of digital marketing writers offering their predictions for the new year. To give things a little perspective, I’m ranking my bold predictions using the Doritos Locos Tacos Boldness Index (Doritos Locos Tacos being known for their bold flavor). Bold Prediction 1: Google Analytics Data will move to 99% […]

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Pinterest Strengthens Search

SharePinterest has been growing in popularity month over month, but that hasn’t stopped them from expanding their product. Much like Facebook, the pin-board social network keeps making changes large and small as it grows, trying to deliver the best product possible to both its users and advertisers. Today, they have made a large step forward by acquiring the search-focused company […]

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Is Your Social Media Focused on the Right Numbers?

ShareI’ve been talking to a lot of people about social media, and I’ve come to realize that some people have lost sight of the real goal of social media marketing. That is to say, they have completely forgotten about the “marketing” part. Yes, the social part is important, and of course you want to grow your fan base across Facebook, […]

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How Your Eyes Move on Websites (Infographic)

ShareHave you ever thought about the way people might view your website? I’m not talking about how they’ll feel about it, but how they will physically view it, like how their eyes will move from place to place as it loads. It’s an area of real interest for a lot of the digital marketing world, and it should be something […]

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Pew Internet Life Survey Numbers for Social Networks

ShareLast week the Pew Internet and American Life Project released some new data, and today we want to share a little bit of that data with you, specifically the data pertaining to the way Americans are using social networks. It’s no surprise that Facebook is still dominating the social scene overall (despite all the people claiming they’re sick of the […]

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Great Facebook Photo Size Guide

ShareHow is your business page set up on Facebook? If you are like a lot of other businesses out there, you probably set up your page initially and haven’t paid much attention to the imagery you used since then. It’s kind of like the paintings in your own house, right? You see them all the time, day in and day […]

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Rap Genius Fallout

ShareYesterday we wrote about Rap Genius and the penalty they incurred by trying to game Google’s system with questionable SEO. Essentially, they were trying (and succeeding) to bribe people to give them links with very specific, very rich anchor text and Google brought down the penalty hammer on their entire domain. Now, they don’t even rank for their own name, […]

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The Rap Genius Situation Simplified

ShareSo, this past week I have been asked by a lot of people who Rap Genius is and why they’re suddenly showing up all over the traditional digital marketing news sites. They’ve been written about quite a few times now, but I thought I would take the time to give you all the simple explanation as to who Rap Genius […]

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The Noob Guide to Online Marketing (Infographic)

ShareWe share a lot of infographics here at Wikimotive, but the one we have today is one of our favorites ever. It’s not especially pretty, but infographics aren’t just about being flashy. In fact, that’s a big problem with a lot of the infographics I see these days. They use up all of their energy trying to be fancy and […]

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Exact Match Domains Still Work: an Anecdotal Look

ShareIf you’ve been paying attention to the world of search engine optimization this past year, you know that Google brought the hammer down on exact match domains. No longer can someone trying to rank for dog toys simply buy “dogtoys.com” and enjoy front page results…or at least that’s what people are saying. I hear it from people all the time […]

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Yoast for SEO

ShareI’ve written before about the benefits of using a plugin to boost your SEO on WordPress. It’s simply a game changer as far as SEO is concerned. It can take a decent blogger with a modicum of SEO knowledge and bring them to the next level. It is one of the first things we here at Wikimotive install when we’re […]

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Merry Christmas 2013!

ShareAll of us here at Wikimotive would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! It’s been a busy year for us here, but we’ve been graced with the gifts of great clients, supportive families, and jobs we’re proud to do. Our office is closed today and tomorrow, but if you need anything, we’re still […]

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How Social Media Helps Small Business Grow (Infographic)

ShareSocial media isn’t just for established businesses. I want to be very clear about this because it is a misconception that I run into all the time. People start a social media page, and that big fat ZERO in the fans/followers/whatever spot just feels insurmountable. Small business owners need to understand that the zero IS surmountable, but more than that, […]

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Authority Boost by Niche

ShareThere’s an interesting development brewing in the world of SEO. Of course by this point you’ve heard about Authorship (that’s with a capital A thank you very much) and exactly what it means to Google, but it turns out it is going to go deeper than just slapping your name onto posts. Authorship is going to tie in with PageRank […]

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How Good are Infographics for Links?

ShareInfographics are what’s hot on the streets for SEO these days…at least thats what the kids are all saying. In theory, they’re the perfect way to garner a lot of backlinks with very little effort. You take some of the data you already have, organize it in a halfway pleasing way (a lot of companies skip this step), publish it, […]

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Social Media and the Christmas Break

ShareToday I’d like to write a little public service announcement to all of you social media marketers out there in the world. Christmas is nearly here, which of course you know, but a lot of people aren’t considering that the holiday falls in the middle of the week this year. That means that for a lot of people (maybe including […]

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Matt Cutts Wants to Break Spammers’ Spirits

ShareAll of us in the SEO industry have always had the feeling that Matt Cutts took offense to spam on a personal level. Sure, he always comes across as a cool and level headed sort of guy, but you just know that deep down in his heart of hearts, there burns a not-so-secret hatred for all of the SEO spam […]

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The On Page SEO Infographic for all SEO Beginners

ShareYou hear search engine optimization being described as an iceberg sometimes, with the on page elements as the tip and then the rest of the business underneath the surface. Honestly, it’s a good way  to illustrate the trade, because there is so much more to it than you see on the surface, but it’s also easy too get too caught […]

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Duplicate Content Normal…What This Means and Doesn’t Mean

ShareDuplicate content is bad, right? We’ve preached that here at Wikimotive for years now and pretty much every search engine optimization company in existence has been saying the same thing. Well, this week Matt Cutts has released a new video in the Google Webmaster series that addresses duplicate content in a new way, and it’s actually a pretty interesting take. According […]

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Facebook Unleashes Combo Like-Share Button

ShareLast month, Facebook announced a new like share button, a strategy for the social network to help facilitate the spread of content through the web…even more than they already do. The strategy revolved around the new Like-Share combo button, a button that is literally just the Like and Share buttons merged together in one easy to use snippet. It was […]

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Speculation Saturday: Authorship or Die

ShareToday I wanted to introduce a new feature here at Wikimotive. It may not stick, but we’re going to try it out. It’s called Speculation Saturday (yes, you have to capitalize it) and basically, we’re going to be talking about feelings we have about the industry. Some may be mired by cumbersome facts, others will be the result of pure […]

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When to Use NoFollow

ShareWe’ve talked about nofollow links before, and anyone practicing SEO should at least understand the basics of what they’re for. Essentially, they let you tell search engines not to count a certain outbound link as a vote, or endorsement, of the linked content. What this does in practice is limits the amount of effectiveness your link will have in making […]

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Repeat Offenders Get Hard Time

ShareAt this point, everyone understands that Google will penalize sites that are using spammy techniques. If you’re buying links, creating strange and unnatural link profiles, or gaming the system in other ways, you’ll get the mighty Google hammer brought down upon you. In most of these cases, it’s possible to reverse the damage. With a lot of hard work and […]

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What Hurts Your Social Posts? Turns Out, Spelling Matters

ShareWhat determines social media success? There are a lot of factors, and every single one is important. Of course we always talk about what kind of content your audience is expecting and the best ways to deliver that content across all platforms, but sometimes we have to delve a little deeper than that to succeed. That is why today we’re […]

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Goldilocks and SEO

ShareSEO is a game of increments. If you take any one technique to the extreme, you can ruin the effectiveness. Not just the effectiveness of that one technique either, but your entire campaign. You need to play it smart and move slowly, accepting that—while their are certain aspects of SEO you can move fast and loud on—the majority of quality […]

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Google Christmas Present: PageRank Update!

ShareIt seemed that Google had all but given up on keeping PageRank up to date. In the past year, it had only been updated a single time, back in February of 2013. Well, the long PageRank drought it now over, because as an early Christmas present, Google has updated PageRank across the web. Let’s take a look at how the […]

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Facebook Pay to Play?

ShareFor years now, advertisers have been spoiled by Facebook. Maybe that’s not how we thought of it, but it’s the truth. We used to spend time and money trying to figure out who our audience was and how to reach them, then Facebook came along and our customers kindly gave all of their information and sorted themselves into easily searchable […]

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Webmaster Tools Finds Smartphone Crawl Errors

ShareAnyone who has ever tried to make a site work understands how frustrating it can be to get it to function the same way across all releases of all browsers on all operating systems. These days, it’s even worse. Not only do you have to worry about all of the different ways a person can view your site on the […]

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The Dangers of Content Stitching

Share Today we have another interesting bit of content news from the immortal Matt Cutts (may Google bless his name). In the latest installment of the Google Webmaster Video series, Matt talks about content stitching. If you’ve never heard of that, don’t worry, because you’ve definitely seen it. Content stitching is the practice of taking snippets of content from other […]

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The Future of Link Building (Infographic)

ShareHave you ever heard of Nostradamus? He’s a crazy guy who wrote a bunch of super vague poems and know he gets credit for predicting all kinds of major world events. Was he clairvoyant? We have to say no, because if he was, he probably would have written something that’s actually useful, like the sports almanac from Back to the […]

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Microsoft and Bing Moving to Keyword (Not Provided)

Share There’s been a lot of talk recently about the keyword (not provided) ordeal that has been increasingly plaguing users of Google Analytics. Pretty much every single blog that talks about digital marketing (including this one) has had multiple articles about not provided and what it may mean. Of all the suggested workarounds, one of the more popular was to […]

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Top 4 Classic SEO Mistakes

Share Today I want to share with you another list from the SEO GOAT, Matt Cutts. In a classic webmaster help video on Google’s channel, he tackles a very interesting question: “what are the top 5 mistakes that SEOs make?” If you read this blog every day, chances are you aren’t making these mistakes, but if you’re new to the […]

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Maximize the Impact of Facebook Ads by Knowing the Facts [Infographic]

Share  Facebook Ads have become a valuable asset to incorporate into your Facebook marketing strategies. Although, you can still be seen on Facebook without using Ads on your Facebook Page, you are leaving it to chance that people will find you, better yet; that the RIGHT people will find you. A Facebook Pages’ best bet is to utilize Facebook Ads […]

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Want Google to Manage Social Media for You?

ShareAt this point, I’m sure you know that social media best practice entails being active. That doesn’t mean just posting though, it means replying to everyone who interacts with your post. Sometimes you can get away with just a like or a Retweet, but sometimes you need to do a bit more. It can be pretty daunting to try and […]

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Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

ShareThis year, all of us here at Wikimotive would just like to say thanks. Thanks to all the readers of this blog who inspire us to get up daily and write about the industry. Thanks to everyone who calls and emails us just to talk about the digital marketing game in all of its aspects. Thanks to our customers who […]

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Google Changes AdWords Bidding

ShareToday we’re delving back into the dark and stormy world of Google AdWords. We’re predominantly an SEO company, so it pains us a bit to say it, but Google AdWords has it’s place in the digital marketing spectrum, and you should always be looking for that edge. Today, we have such an edge for you, in the form of an […]

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Google Removes 100 Link Per Page Limit — Time to Party!

ShareIt’s here, it’s finally here! After years of waiting, counting each and every link like a search engine optimization teetotaler, the chains of Google have been broken and we can finally spread our wings and link to our hearts content! Right? Right…? Well, not exactly.

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Mobile Commerce Stats (Infographic)

ShareWe recently talked about responsive design and what it means for your business moving forwards. The fact is that people are using traditional computers less and smartphones and tablets more often. Now, this is definitely turning into a gray area. What separates a tablet like the Microsoft Surface from a full fledged computer? Not much, really. This gray area will […]

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History of a Hashtag

History of a Hashtag (Infographic)

ShareHave you ever wondered where the noble hashtag came from? Those of you who weren’t born with a cell phone surgically grafted to your fore-limbs may remember when it was called the pound sign on the old-fashioned Graham Bell talkies. Then, the quiet and unassuming four lines were taken by the Internet and have now become the worldwide sign for […]

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Faster Site Equals More Conversions

ShareWe’ve talked about site speed is an important factor in SEO, and we’re going to reiterate it now. Are you ready? SITE SPEED IS IMPORTANT! Anyone who tells you otherwise is either selling you something you don’t need or just flat out wrong. Google and other search engines measure how fast you load, and if you’re slow, you won’t rank […]

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Value of Pinterest Pins

The Value of a Pin

SharePinterest is a strange egg, there’s no doubt about it. I know a lot of businesses who are tearing their hair out trying to understand how certain brands are killing it making a profit on the social pinning site where all you do is virtually stick virtual images on virtual boards. To these people I say that you don’t have […]

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LinkedIn Pages

LinkedIn Showcase Pages

ShareLinkedIn has been in a strange position for awhile now. They’re trying to be the Facebook of the professional world, but they’ve been constantly stymied by the fact that Facebook is also trying to be the Facebook of the professional world. Luckily for LinkedIn, they managed to firmly entrench themselves in the professional profile niche, and Facebook has had no […]

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Surviving the Not Provided Apocalypse (Infographic)

ShareWe’ve written here a few times recently about the [not provided] epidemic at Google and what it means for SEO, but the hits just keep on coming. We’re still getting emails to this day asking what the not provided (I’m not writing the stupid brackets every time) means for SEO and digital marketing, and our default response has sort of […]

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Stop Over Complicating Social Media and Start Targeting Your Audience

ShareIt seems like targeting your audience has been designated to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) only, by utilizing keywords and tags that target people within their area or those searching for their products.  In many instances businesses have unfortunately left target marketing to that part of Internet Marketing alone. Although SEO is important in its own right, your business can compound […]

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Commenting Without Spamming

ShareCommenting has been a big part of SEO for awhile now. That’s not to say it’s a good part (it’s not) but it’s very popular, far more popular than it should be. Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of running a blog has gotten comments along the lines of, “wow great content, I feel very  enlightened by what you […]

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Google’s Gibberish Patent

ShareGoogle is cracking down on gibberish. Not the fake language you used with your friends in middle school, but the nonsensical writing you find all over the web as people try and fill out their pages with lots and lots of content. Of course, experts will tell you that you need quality content for SEO (and they’re right) but that motto of […]

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Adding Your Blog to Alltop

ShareHave you ever thought about submitting your blog to Alltop? If you’re doing SEO right, you have a blog, and more exposure for said blog can only ever be a good thing. Alltop is an “online magazine rack” that brings together blogs from all different fields. It aggregates all of these different blogs into categories and delivers them on one […]

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10 Great SEO Plugins for WordPress

ShareWordPress is an incredibly versatile platform. These days, it’s for a lot more than just blogs, too. Many businesses run their entire sites on WordPress, and it’s a great idea for a lot of reasons. Namely, it’s customizable, easy to use, free to setup, and it’s pretty well loved by Google. All in all, WordPress is just naturally pretty great […]

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New Manual Action Penalty

ShareEarlier this year we wrote about manual actions rolling out in Google’s Webmaster tools. Basically, these manual actions were notices that a website had been penalized, usually for SEO reasons, and alerted the administrator of the problem, as well as the steps needed to fix it. Since the introduction, it’s been pretty quiet, but this week Google rolled out a […]

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Responsive Design for SEO?

ShareMobile is huge, we’ve talked about that a lot recently, but optimizing your site for mobile can be a correspondingly huge amount of work. You have to tweak all of your existing elements to make sure they display properly, and you have to check it across a variety of devices. The workaround for this has been to get a responsive […]

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What Paid Position Gets the Most Clicks?

ShareWhen it comes to paid search, you expect the results to behave much like organic: the top ranking gets the most clicks. It turns out though, that it doesn’t always work out the way you would expect it to. We have some interesting new data from the marketing agency Accuracast that shows the fruits of a year long study into […]

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Facebook Mobile Referrals are Killing It

Share Facebook doesn’t do that well in the mobile space, have you heard that one before? People are always complaining that the app is bad and that people just aren’t using Facebook when their on the go. Of course that’s ridiculous, Facebook is the most popular social media site in the world, but for some reason people have it in […]

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Old SEO vs. New SEO in 2013 (Infographic)

ShareIs newer always better? It’s a question that has been debated since the first new thing was released over the first old thing, but we’ve never really come to a consensus. Personally, I think that older is often times better (like in the picture above) but if there’s one instance where newer is the way to go, it’s SEO techniques. […]

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National Novel Writing Month — Write a Business Book

Share They say that everyone has a book somewhere inside them, and no, they aren’t talking about crazy nights at the library with your frat. A better way to put it is that everyone has something to share with the world. In some cases, it’s a detective crime thriller or a post-apocalyptic science fiction story. Those are great, but they […]

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Expected Response Times on Twitter

ShareDo you monitor the Twitter account of your company? Most people check it once or twice a day, seems like plenty, right? Well, unfortunately, it may not be enough. It turns out people expect a response when they Tweet at you, and most of them aren’t very patient. Let’s take a look at what the expected social media response times […]

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Matt Cutts Keynote at PubCon 2013

ShareIf you read this blog, than you know the name Matt Cutts. In fact, if you’re involved with SEO in any capacity, you should know the name Matt Cutts. Here at Wikimotive, there used to be this one guy who didn’t know Matt Cutts. He doesn’t work here anymore. The fact is that he’s one of (if not THE) most influential […]

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Stretch Your Events with SEO

ShareIn this age of harsh Google penalties on fluff content, people are looking for increasingly exciting ways to generate real, quality content. For a lot of companies, the solution has been to start hosting more events. The benefit of events is that you get some press (along with those juicy press releases), and a good SEO company can stretch one […]

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Great Free SEO Tools…Did We Mention FREE!

ShareSuccessful SEO is largely based around collecting and collating data. Sure, there’s the content creation aspects of the field, but none of that would work without first having a strong understand of the data to base your content around. The trouble is that a lot of people view SEO as a pay to win field, but that’s just not the truth. […]

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Facebook Trying to Buy Snapchat

ShareRemember when Facebook was on the cutting edge of social media, drawing in all of the kids and generally just being the cool place to be? You should, because it was only a few short years ago, but these days, the social network is entering its dotage. As we wrote about last week, Facebook is on the decline with teens. […]

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Watch Your Language: Novel Advice

ShareOnce upon a time, writers were a rare breed, seldom seen by the world at large. They sat in their basements, scribbling mad words by candlelight and muttering to themselves about deadlines. They’d turn their advances into golden Irish spirits and use that strange fuel to power through the endings of their crazed manifestos. Unfortunately, that kind of behavior is […]

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Hummingbird Infographics

Share   The Google Hummingbird update has remained a mystery to many. It’s different than Penguin or Panda, and the scope of it is a lot bigger, so people aren’t sure exactly how to approach it. We don’t blame them either. It hasn’t been fully explained and people just don’t have the time to dedicate to doing all of the […]

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Teens Leaving Facebook

Share  Facebook has long been considered the dominant marketing platform as far as social media is concerned, but is that still true? Sure, the numbers are still huge, but the problem stems from who makes up those numbers. An increasingly large amount of parents and grandparents are getting in on the Facebook game, and now, they dominate the platform. Just […]

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Google and Facebook Together at Last

ShareWe’ve waited for a long time, but it’s finally here: the meeting of the digital giants. Until now, these two juggernauts have maneuvered around each other, never committing themselves to a union, but finally, we have Facebook and Google working together in digital marketing bliss. Kind of.

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Strong or Bold?

Share Matt Cutts is back again with another one of his block rocking beats. The Webmaster Help videos that Matt Cutts puts out may not be the most glamorous pieces of SEO news around, but we still honestly feel that they are worth covering. Paying attention to the great, sweeping changes in the SEO field is only a piece of […]

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The Ten Commandments of SEO (Infographic)

ShareSEO isn’t a religion, but it’s definitely pretty close. You have to dedicate yourself to it to succeed, you have leaders and idols, and you have a mysterious entity that deals out rewards and punishments due to only their own strange whims (that’s a shot at Google, not God…don’t write me). Much like religion, SEO has written rules and unwritten […]

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Should You Have Comments on Your Blog?

Share Comments on blogs are a strange beast. On the one hand, comments mean your blog is sparking a conversation, which is one of the major goals of most blogs and can help with SEO. On the other hand, if you’ve ever read the comment section of most blogs on the internet, they can be absolutely disgusting places. How do you […]

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The ROI of Facebook Ads

ShareTraditionally, it has been hard to track the ROI of social media, but Facebook has been making things a lot more quantifiable. Advertisers have been doing research, and now we have some hard numbers to share with you, courtesy of the new report released by Nanigans. Let’s take a look at Facebook’s ROI and what it means for your social […]

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Google Official: How to Guest Blog

SharePeople are quite sure how to feel about guest blogging. Some people swear by it, claiming it’s the only new way to build links that have value. Others see it as just another way to scam the system that will eventually be penalized. It’s been hard to get a read on guest blogging, but today, Matt Cutts is coming out […]

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Facebook Goes Public with Teenagers

ShareFacebook has never been all that mature, but you could at least be sure you weren’t going to run into any little kids that you didn’t have at least a passing relationship too. In fact, for the most part, kids under 17 have been kept off the social network through a combination of parenting and Facebook policies. Those days are […]

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Low Five(rr)

ShareSo, today we’re going to talk about Fiverr. Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of articles popping up that list different ways to build links and boost your SEO using the service. In case you don’t know, Fiverr is elance for stupid people a site where people offer services (known as gigs) and they all cost five dollars. Now, these services can […]

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The Major SEO Players

ShareThe SEO industry is a strange one. It’s extremely niche when you get really into it, and like any super focused niche, strange celebrities begin to emerge. It’s kinda like when you start getting really into backgammon and all of a sudden you find yourself wearing Paul David Magriel Jr. jerseys around town, talking about the infamous World Backgammon Championship game […]

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4 Sure-Fire Ways to Promote Your New Blog

ShareSo you’ve just created a new blog. It’s an exciting feeling isn’t it? To me, a new blog looks like opportunity. You have the ability to reach people like humans have never had before. With just a few keystrokes, you can make your thoughts and feelings heard by the world. The hard part is making sure that the world is […]

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When Will PageRank Update?

Share Yesterday we talked a little about Google PageRank, and that got us wondering, when was the last time that it had actually been updated? Historically, it’s been updated every few months, but as Matt Cutts said yesterday, Google is going to be updating it less and less. It turns out, we are already in the middle of an historic […]

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Google to Retire PageRank?

ShareWe wrote just the other day that PageRank was still one of the top factors when it comes to search engine rankings, but now Google is trying to back off from that idea a bit. In the latest Google Webmaster Help video, Matt Cutts discusses PageRank and his take is that it’s just not that important anymore. Currently, it’s only […]

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Penguin 2.1 — Who Got the Hammer?

SharePenguin has made a surprise resurgence with the 2.1 update, and it has SEOs scrambling. Not necessarily because it hit them though; it’s more the fact that it was a surprise and it’s been hard to track exactly what the fallout has been. Who was hit by the mighty penalizing hammer of Google? Who received a nice little ranking boost? […]

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The Bing It On homepage. Bing vs Google

Bing it On! Fact or Fraud

ShareIf you watch television at all, you’ve probably seen the commercial for Microsoft’s Bing it On campaign (if you don’t watch television, you should check it out, there’s some great stuff on there, I personally recommend Breaking Bad.) In case you haven’t seen it, Bing it On is essentially a blind comparison between Bing and Google, a la Pepsi and […]

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Which Content Works on Facebook (Infographic)

ShareAt this point, everyone is in agreement that Facebook is a great marketing tool, but almost no one is in agreement on how to use it best. There are self-proclaimed gurus by the thousands, books and blog posts galore, and all manner of conflicting education on the subject, so how do you know what actually works? It can be tough, […]

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15 Ranking Factors: An Overview

ShareWhat are the most important factors to look at when you’re trying to rank? Well, Google won’t tell us exactly what’s important, but we can look as some correlation and determine what seems to be the most important. Of course, correlation does not equal causation, but if you look at what the top ranking pages all have in common, you […]

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Instagram Marketing

Hold on to Your Filters — Instagram Adding Advertisements

ShareSince Instagram was purchased by Facebook for roughly a kajillion dollars, people have been wondering when we would see a direct means of monetization on the social networking site. It seemed like it would never happen, but the day has finally arrived. Guns are coming to paradise.

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Facebook’s Graph Search Updated Again

ShareFacebook’s Graph Search is still in its infancy, so we’ll likely be seeing a lot of updates over the next few months as it gets fully rolled out. This week, Facebook expanded Graph Search to include more results for search. Let’s take a look at what’s different and how it will affect your social media marketing.

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2013 Search Ranking Factors for October

ShareEvery couple of years, the digital marketing giant Moz conducts an SEO survey. Essentially, they ask over 100 top industry professionals to give their input on which factors they think are most important. We’ve addressed the 2013 list briefly in the past, but today, they have finally released the full version. It’s full of a lot of interesting stuff, and […]

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Top Search Result Means Less Ad Clicks?

ShareIf you had to guess, which search result on Google’s first page would give you the most bang for your buck as far as ad clicks go? The conventional wisdom would be to say the higher the result, the better your ad clicks will be, but a new study is showing us that conventional wisdom isn’t always as accurate as […]

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Matt Cutts

Using nofollow Links Internally

ShareWe have talked before about using rel=”nofollow” before. Essentially, it is an attribute you add to a link to tell Google that you do not want to pass page juice to the linked page. It’s commonly used for external links to low-quality sites and applied en masse to comment links, but more and more people are starting to apply it […]

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10 Ways to Convert Customers (Infographic)

ShareThere are a lot of ways to convert your customers. You can use great landing pages, you can use stellar design, you can use deals or coupon codes, but have you ever thought about using psychology as part of your conversion strategy? The human brain is one of the most interesting machines ever created, and if you know how, it […]

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Don’t Plagiarize (and Double Check!)

ShareIn today’s digital marketing world, content is king, but not everyone has the time to be creating content (or so they claim). As a result, they turn to plagiarizing content from other sources on the web to fulfill their own site’s content needs. Not only is this immoral and just a lousy thing to do, it’s also ultimately bad for […]

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Penguin, Panda, and now…Hummingbird

ShareWe’ve grown accustomed to Google updating parts of their algorithms they use for search. So far in 2013, we’ve seen tweaks to Penguin and Panda that have affected massive parts of the population…but we haven’t seen anything yet. Now, Google is rolling out Hummingbird, which represents a much larger change. The easiest way to think of it is that Penguin […]

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Does Your Company Have Click to Call?

ShareMobile search is different in a lot of ways, but there’s one major factor that is overlooked by a lot of marketers: users searching from their mobile devices are, quite literally, holding a phone in their hand. This means that when your page is delivered as a search result, and you have a click to call function prominently featured, you […]

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STOP THE MADNESS! SEO ISN’T DEAD!

ShareIf you’ve been following the digital marketing blogosphere for the last week, by now you’ve probably concluded that SEO is dead because within 3 months there will be no more keyword data in Google Analytics. Right? Its the end of SEO. No more measuring. No more valuable data. Its Adwords or nothing.  Let’s just stop the madness right now. This […]

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Exit Rate and Bounce Rate…Do You Know the Difference?

ShareEven if you don’t consider yourself a technical person, you need to know how to use Google Analytics. It’s simply one of the best free ways to get an overview of your web presence and how your site is performing overall. If you’re able to look at your Google Analytics and understand exactly what is being said, you’re ahead of […]

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Social Customer Service

ShareEven the best businesses sometimes have unhappy customers. That’s just the reality of doing business. What separates the good businesses from the bad is how they handle their customer service when there is a complaint. It was easier in the past. Customers would ask to speak to a manager or they would call a customer service hotline and you could […]

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Content Seo

Long Content for SEO?

ShareThe general rule of thumb is that more content is better than less content, but for a lot of people, the average blog post is 300-500 words and 500 is given the “more content” designation. It turns out, we may be being a bit generous. Based on a recent study by the excellent Neil Patel, the most successful content isn’t […]

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Simple Evergreen Content

ShareEvergreen content is content that is always useful. In the digital marketing world, it’s not uncommon for even great advice to be outdated after a few months. Heck, with SEO and social media, it’s not unheard of that good advice is outdated in just a couple weeks. If you don’t want all of your content to become obsolete (even though […]

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Bing’s New Design

Share Early on in 2013, Bing gave us a preview of what the future could hold for the search engine. Now, we’re seeing that preview come to fruition. It’s a whole new look and feel for Bing, and even though it feels very strange to say…we think we like it. Let’s take a look at what’s different and how it […]

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Employee Facebook Engagement Programs

Share Facebook engagement is an important part of marketing. The debate about whether or not it has a positive effect on SEO is ongoing, but what we know for sure is that more social engagement only helps across the board. Of course you want your customers and fans to engage, but sometimes the best way to get that started is […]

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SEO: Public Understanding, Attitudes and Behavior (Infographic)

Share As people in the SEO industry, or even as people who read about SEO for personal use daily, it can be hard to imagine what it all looks like to the average joe. To most people, the first thing they think of when they hear SEO is “some kind of software job?” For others, ones that have a peripheral […]

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The BigSEO Subreddit

Share A few months ago we talked about the benefits of Reddit. Reddit isn’t a great place to market (not in any kind of organized way, anyway) but it is a great place to come together and talk to your peers. In our original article, we talked about the benefits of the SEO Subreddit, /r/SEO. Today, we want to share […]

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Can NoFollow Links Hurt Your Traffic?

Share In the latest edition of Google’s Webmaster Help Videos, Matt Cutts tackles the question “can nofollow links hurt my website?” We’ll get to his answer, but first, I want to talk a little bit about what nofollow links actually are and how they fit into an SEO strategy.

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ComScores for August 2013

ShareIt’s the 12th of the month, and you know what that means, don’t you? It’s time for the monthly ComScore data! It’s so exciting, it should pretty much be a holiday, one of the good ones where you don’t have to show up for work. Alas, it’s not, so you’re working and so are we, but we can still have […]

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An SEO News Aggregator

ShareIf you’re one of the thousands that reads the Wikimotive blog each and every day of the week, we want to thank you. It’s great having you here and I’m sure you’re one heck of a guy or girl. You’re probably a stand-up person and an asset to your community. I mean, you’re interested in marketing news, and I like […]

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A Quote for the Beginners

ShareHere at Wikimotive, we have a backlog of content that goes back years. We have multiple ebooks and podcasts and infographics, and we have material published all over the web. We get emails all the time from people, intelligent people, who want to get into the game but don’t know where to start. They see the volume and the quality […]

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Increase Traffic with SEO in 2013 (Infographic)

ShareIncreasing traffic is the high-level goal of pretty much every website. Whether you’re there to entertain, sell, or teach, more eyes on the page is the paramount objective. SEO is a great tool for building up your traffic, but really, SEO is a pretty big term that includes a lot of little things. Writing content can be a part of […]

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Use Excel in Bing Optimization

ShareExcel is an enormous part of the business world. Windows comes on most machines and Excel comes with most copies of Windows, so it’s not surprising that it’s become the spreadsheet tool of choice. In addition to being nearly ubiquitous, Excel is also a powerful tool. People make careers out of being particularly good at it. It’s a great way […]

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Does Google Penalize Scripts that Pull Search Queries?

ShareToday we have another wonderful video from Matt Cutts over at Google. For a change of pace this time around (sarcasm), Matt is talking about something that will get you penalized.  Specifically, it’s a sketchy SEO technique that’s been around forever, but only seems to be getting more popular (despite being obviously sketchy). Let’s take a look at what it […]

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Facebook Hashtags May Hurt Engagement

ShareHashtags have been a goldmine on Twitter, this much we know for a fact. Tweets with hashtags do better than Tweets without, especially if the hashtag is something that is starting to trend at the moment. The success of the hashtag on Twitter (and to a lesser degree, Instagram) made everyone wonder when the tags would be making their Facebook […]

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Fatten Up Your Content

ShareThere seems to be a new epidemic going around peoples’ Google Webmaster Tools: the thin content warning. It’s not an especially surprising trend. Content is the new sheriff in town, so everyone is rushing to get as much of it as they possibly can. The problem is that they aren’t thinking about what “content” really means. It isn’t about populating […]

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Et Tu Guru?

ShareSocial media marketing is a thriving field, but it differs from other fields in that there is no formal education required. Anyone and their mother can build a website and claim to be a social media expert, and they do (and so do their mums.) The trick is learning how to shuck all those fishy clams quickly in order to […]

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Secure Your WordPress Site or Blog

ShareHow secure is your site? It’s not something a lot of people think of very often. I hear it all the time as a developer. “Who would want to break into the back end up a car dealership website?”, “Who cares about my locksmithing business?”, “Is someone really after the information in the backend of my business?” The answer is […]

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Contests

Official: Facebook Marketing Changes Contest Guidelines

ShareFacebook is a great way to grow your brand, and contests are a great way to grow your Facebook following, but we shied away from recommending them because the Facebook contest rules were pretty strict. You had to use a third-party app, and even then, they seemed to not really like when businesses ran them. This week, all that is […]

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Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet

ShareWe don’t get that far into the nitty gritty of web development very often here at Wikimotive. It’s not usually fun to read about the ins and outs of coding (unless you’re a developer, then it’s a blast!) Still, it’s a terrible idea to ignore it completely. No matter how good the rest of your SEO is, no matter how […]

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You and Love and Google (Infographic)

ShareLove is a fickle thing. One day you’re hot then your cold, you’re yes then you’re no, you’re in then you’re out, you know what I’m saying? And that’s just love with another person. When you’re talking about love with Google, the most fickle mistress of all, it can be a real roller coaster. How do you make the big […]

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Google’s [Not Provided] is Crippling Analytics

ShareHave you ever checked your analytics for organic search traffic? If you’re involved in SEO, of course the answer is yes, so you have probably been noticing a disturbing trend. In your organic search query data, the [not provided] number is growing…and growing…and growing. The amount of usable, actionable analytics data is dwindling, being replaced by the [not provided] monster. […]

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Free Professional Stock Photos for Facebook Advertising

ShareFacebook ads have been becoming more and more popular over the past few months. You don’t even have to take my word for it though, you can just login and take a look at your newsfeed. Sponsored posts and stories abound, and it’s only trending upwards. Even on Facebook, content is king, and that’s especially true for visual content. Ads […]

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Is Page Speed More Important on Mobile?

ShareMobile is a strange beast, isn’t it? All of a sudden, developers have to plan on people using these tiny little devices all of the time. It makes sites display differently, it serves up different results in search, and it’s just another complicated layer over the top of the whole thing that you have to consider. The latest theory is […]

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An Authorship FAQ from Google

ShareGoogle Authorship is quickly becoming one of the most talked about aspects of SEO. The rel=”author” tag lets you attach your name and Google+ profile to the content you create on the web, giving you a picture in a rich snippet and a general air of authority in SERPs. We have the guide to setting up Google Authorship right here, […]

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Matt Cutts: Google +1s Have No Affect on Rankings

ShareDoes Google+ influence search rankings to any noticeable degree? It’s one of the most hotly debated issues in all of search engine optimization and digital marketing right now. A lot of people, experts included, are claiming that not only does Google+ have an affect on rankings, it is one of the most important ranking factors going. Other people, also experts […]

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Official Bing Statement: 25 Things They Love and Hate for SEO

Share  This week, we got an update from Duane Forrester. Apparently, mister Forrester is the Bing equivalent of Google’s Matt Cutts. He’s the director of Webmaster Tools instead of Webspam, and his name isn’t as catchy, but they share the spokesman role for their respective search engines. Duane isn’t as active as Matt, but he’s been doing more and more […]

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Affordable SEO

July ComScores for 2013

ShareIt’s that time again, time to review the ComScores for the previous month and see who is winning (probably Google) and who is teetering on the brink of complete and utter extinction (definitely AOL.) There aren’t any big surprises that will rock the SEO world, but there are some shifts that indicate interesting patterns. Let’s take a look at the […]

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SEO Spam

The Hot New SEO Spam for 2013

Share  Is there anything better than a nice breakfast of crispy hot spam? Oh…what’s that you say? Pretty much anything? Well, guess what buttercup…Google feels the same way, but people keep trying to serve up spam all the same. One technique is hammered and gets you penalized, and the army of  spammers (the ones who give SEO a bad name […]

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301 redirect

301 Redirects or rel=”Canonical”

ShareIt can be difficult to know how you should redirect a web page, especially when there is duplicate content involved in the mix. Generally, there are two major ways of handling the issue: the 301 redirect and the rel=”canonical” attribute. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses, and knowing how to use them properly can mean the difference between […]

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Science SEO

Testing Your Landing Pages with the Scientific Method

Share As I’m sure you know by now, landing pages are crucial part of every SEO strategy. When you build links, those links need a place to point, and people need a place to land. It’s not just a clever name, you need to plan on people actually landing on your landing pages, and you need to look at your […]

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Manual Action SEO

Google Adds Manual Actions Viewer for When Your Site is Penalized

ShareAs you all know, educated bunch that you are, when Google wants you to fix some webspam that’s within your control, they send you an email about manual webspam actions to take. Now though, Google is expanding upon that procedure and making it even easier to address manual webspam actions on your sites. As of this week, all you have […]

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Local Search

2013 Local Search Ranking Factors

ShareLocal search is one of the most important aspects of search. A good local search strategy can be the difference between complete success and abysmal failure for a small business operating on the local or regional level. The problem is that Google switches up what matters so often, these small business are often left in a state of constant worry. […]

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Social Media Marketing

Facebook News Feed FYI for Social Media Marketing

ShareWe always give Google guff about how mysterious their updates are, but Google doesn’t stand alone in the convoluted update realm. Facebook has been going toe to toe with the search juggernaut lately, updating their news feed at random and delivering content according to their mysterious EdgeRank. Now, we know roughly how EdgeRank works, just like we know roughly how […]

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Search Engine Optimized Page

Elements of an Search Engine Optimized Page in 2013

ShareWhat makes a perfectly search engine optimized page in 2013? The first thing you should know is that it’s different than what made a good page in 2012. Google’s algorithms are only gaining momentum year after year, and we’re seeing larger changes come faster than ever before. If you want to succeed moving forward, it’s not enough to rest on […]

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War of Art SEO

Digital Marketing Book Club: The War of Art

ShareThere are a lot of business books out there. They tell you how to be more successful. They tell you how to be less unsuccessful. They tell you about the roadblocks that lay between where you are and where you want to be, and at some point they turned into repetitive drivel. Not trying to be unduly mean here, but […]

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SEO Content Marketing Evolution

Content Marketing Syndication Evolution for SEO (Infographic)

SharePeople keep saying that SEO is dead, but these same people must also believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. SEO isn’t dead, it has only evolved. Gone are the days of submitting spun content to a variety of article farms, and gone too are the days of exchanging questionable links with other questionable sites. These techniques have […]

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Local SEO

Google Adds Yet Another New Feature to Local Search

ShareGoogle has been focusing on delivering better local search results lately, and this week they quietly made a change that’s going to affect a lot of local businesses (albeit in a fairly minor way.) In the past, when you clicked on “Google Reviews” under a result, you were brought to the Google+ page for that business. As of July 30th, […]

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SEO Link Building

10 Links that Google Doesn’t Like (Part 2)

ShareIt’s time for part two of our list of link types that Google is officially sick of. You can read the first part here. Many of you may already know about these links, but many more are still using them as a part of an everyday strategy and expecting them to be sustainable. Don’t let this happen to you! Avoid […]

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SEO Link Building

10 Links that Google Doesn’t Like (Part 1)

ShareWe talk a lot about what Google doesn’t like, and you can find that advice spread across our blog. Recently, we’ve been getting some more requests for types of links that are (more or less) officially disliked by Google, so we have assembled this list for quick reference when you’re doing SEO link building. Here’s the first half of the […]

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Business Social Media

Facebook Releases Advertising HUB for your Business’s Social Media

ShareOver the course of this last year, Facebook has proven itself to be a viable advertising platform. They’ve increased the total adspace on users’ feeds and have also gotten better at targeting those ads with graph search. The only problem has been that Facebook’s ad creation center has been pretty weak. It was usable, but it was not intuitive or […]

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Zombies! Zombies Everywhere!

ShareWe know that search engine optimization moves pretty fast, and it definitely moves faster than zombies. To be clear, I’m talking about the traditional Romero Night of the Living Dead zombies here, not those sprinters from newer movies (so unrealistic!) Still, every day, more and more people are letting themselves get turned into SEO zombies, overtaken by old techniques and […]

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Mobile is the Winner in Facebook Marketing

ShareFacebook advertising it’s a difficult field to navigate. People aren’t sure what to trust and what actually has any positive affect at all. Basically though, you can break it down into two categories: running ads for likes and running ads for sales. Running ads for likes is not worth it. People argue about the exact numbers, but the consensus is […]

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Necessary Duplicate Content

ShareFor awhile now, we’ve been preaching that duplicate content is one of the worst things you can have on your site if you want to rank well on Google. If you have duplicate content, not only will that content not rank, it can actually result in a penalty for your entire site. Sometimes though, you NEED to have duplicate content […]

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Google Accounts for 25% of Internet Traffic

ShareWhen it comes to search, everyone knows that Google is king. They just dominate the game in every way, with other companies like Bing and Yahoo scrambling to pick up the scraps. Well, it turns out that Google is dominating more than just search. A newly published study is showing that Google is involved with over twenty-five percent of ALL […]

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Ranking Correlation Factors for 2013 (Infographic)

ShareWe have been taking some time lately to try and figure out exactly what is making pages rank in 2013. We know that content is king, social shares are important, and quality is necessary, but we have been looking for some hard numbers. Thanks to a new infographic from SearchMetrics, we have them. Let’s take a look at what is […]

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A Surprise Panda Update for July 2013

Share“giant-panda-mother-and-cub-molong-nature-reserve-china-pictures” ©2011 by mrs.gsoell is licensed under CC BY 2.0 It was a just a couple short months ago that Google told us we wouldn’t have to worry about Panda updates for awhile. They claimed that Panda was being worked into the rolling algorithm updates and there would be no more specific “Panda” labeled action. Well, Google is already going back on […]

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Where Do We Share? (Infographic)

ShareNo one likes beating a dead horse. There’s no joy in it, no glory in whaling away on some poor equine. You don’t like it, the people around you don’t like it, the horse (being dead) is indifferent, but you can be sure his horse-ghost is horse-frowning in horse-heaven. Still, sometimes it needs to be done, so I’ll say it […]

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Creating Link Networks? Careful How Big They Get!

ShareWhen you are building out your newest website, it’s a common desire to want to link it to the rest of your websites. After all, it’s not spam if they are all truly owned by you and are really in the same network, right? Unfortunately, the spammers out there have, once again, ruined it for the rest of us. Any […]

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Roadmap to Website Traffic (Infographic)

ShareAre you monitoring where your traffic comes from? There are plenty of tools to take care of that for you, and if you’re having any success, it’s safe to say that you or someone in your organization is keeping track of it. What are you doing with that data though? It’s not enough to simply observe and report. To reach […]

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Are You Organic?

ShareGoing green is the trend right now, but being environmentally friendly isn’t the only way that you can go organic. You’re presented with another organic choice every day when you use Google. The top two results represent that corporate choice, the paid listings. The rest of the results are the great wild beyond, also known as the organic listings. For […]

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Easier Way to Share Instagram

ShareInstagram is a great way to take interesting pictures for your business, and we’ve covered it’s usefulness before. That utility has only grown in recent weeks with the introduction of short videos to the app. Now, you can take pictures and videos and apply stylish filters all within the same program. There has always been a problem with the social […]

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Will Website Downtimes Hurt Your Rankings?

ShareDowntime is a dirty word amongst a lot of webmasters. Any time your site is down, that’s time you’re not getting new visitors, not making new sales, and not collecting new leads. Occasionally, though, downtime is a necessary evil. Things need to be updated and tweaked and mistakes happen. While downtime is always bad for your following, is it just […]

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An Interview with Matt Cutts

ShareWe’ve written time and time again about Matt Cutts on this blog, and with good reason. He is the de facto leader of Google’s SEO program, and the company’s face (and mouth) on all SEO related issues. Usually all we get from him are the weekly webmaster help videos, which are pretty good, but not quite enough for those of […]

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Social Media for the Fringe

ShareAs we wrote about just last week, social media is one of the most important ranking factors in all of SEO. You need to create interesting content and then you need to syndicate that content across all of your social networks, creating a web of followers that boosts your overall brand. This is easy if you’re in certain verticals, like […]

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Watch Your Language: Cryptomnesia

ShareCryptomnesia has been on my mind a lot lately. In the course of reading dozens of marketing blog and writing hundreds of marketing words every day, it’s definitely a looming threat to myself, and everyone else in the industry. Cryptomnesia occurs when you remember something you’ve read or seen in the past, but your brain interprets it as something new […]

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Fight Digital Cart Abandonment (Infographic)

ShareWe have covered how important landing pages are time and time again. If you’re involved in any sort of website marketing, you know the power of landing pages, and how simple tweaks can make the different between conversion and abandonment. These same landing page techniques can also be applied to your online store to prevent people from abandoning not just […]

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New Top Ranking Factors for 2013

ShareIf we have said it once, we’ve said it a million times: SEO is constantly changing. It was just last year that you could get to the front page of Google by using tricks like exact match domains and footer links. Now, in 2013, those same techniques will not only fail, they will actually get you penalized. If you want […]

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Freedom and the 4th

ShareThe 4th of July is a time to celebrate our freedom as a country. We have cookouts, we drink beers, we set off fireworks, and we spend time with our loved ones. It’s usually one of my favorite days of the year, but so far, 2013 hasn’t given us a lot of freedom to celebrate. It’s been a strange time […]

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SEO

How Google Wants You to Cite Sources in Your Blog

ShareWhen it comes to citing sources in your web content, there has always been a few different schools of thought. Some people meticulously cite every quote and source in proper MLA format like they are trying to get an A in English Comp 101. Some people throw in a quick link somewhere in the article and call it a day. […]

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SEO Services

Partial Match Domains Get Hit

ShareLate in June, Google announced that we were going to see a slow moving update across all of their networks (domestic and international.) We’ve been monitoring changes, and since the end of the month we’ve seen one major trend emerge among the ever shifting search results. It appears as though partially matched domains are losing much of their luster. Let’s […]

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SEO

International SEO (Infographic)

ShareIf you are doing SEO properly, then you are monitoring where your traffic is coming from. You are always tweaking this or that to ensure your reach is as wide as possible. In your research, have you ever noticed traffic coming in from other countries? A lot of people notice that international traffic, think “huh, that’s neat,” and move on […]

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Cheap SEO sevices

Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret

ShareThe most important step in any strategy is the first one. There is always inertia involved when you begin something. It’s the inertia of “why bother?” and “I’ll just watch TV instead.” If you can get past this first step and just keep moving forward day after day, you WILL have success eventually, that’s just how it works. The real […]

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Off Site Blog Post Example

Share Why I’m a Mazda Mom I’m a new mom. In case you don’t know many new moms, let me tell you that new-mom status comes with a new-found obsession: safety. Prior to having a baby, I can assure you I had never been the type to actually mail in the “just-in-case” recall postcards. Now I have them in the […]

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Placeholder Model Image

On Site Blog Post Example

ShareShould You Choose the 2024 Sierra 2500 HD Denali or AT4? The powerful Sierra 2500 HD has been updated for 2024, taking this model to new heights of luxury and capability. However, if you are shopping for a three-quarter-ton GMC truck for sale, you now have a very important question to ask yourself––should you choose the opulent Denali or the […]

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Business Social Media

5 Brands to Learn from on Instagram

ShareInstagram has been making moves recently, growing their user base to over 130 million monthly users and adding a micro-video function (sorry Vine). Despite all this user adoption, it’s still being ignored by a lot of social media marketers. If you fall into this category and want a little inspiration, we’ve got the top five accounts on Instagram for you […]

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Affordable Search Engine Optimization

Today’s Perfect Landing Page (Infographic)

ShareBuilding the perfect landing page is sort of like Baseball, it’s part art, part science, and a whole lot of sweat. Most companies never get it exactly right, and that’s the way it should be. Your landing pages should be constantly growing and evolving, being tested and tried and reformulated to succeed in the moment. Much like SEO, there are […]

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SEO Company

6 Anchor Text Alternatives

ShareWhat kind of anchor text are you using for your SEO? I was surprised to learn recently that many people are still using only exact match anchor text as part of their strategy. Since the latest round of Panda and Penguin updates, using exact match SEO will get you hammered by Google, so it’s time to move on. I’ve found […]

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Search Engine Optimization

Watch Your Language: The Science of Simple

ShareToday I want to talk about a writing gimmick that I think we’ve all been guilty of at one time or another: using complex words to try and sound a little more intelligent. It’s a tempting thing to do, isn’t it? You sit there, reading over your simple prose, and your thoughts turn to the performance enhancing drug of the […]

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Death of Vine RIP

Is This the End of Vine?

ShareIt was just a few weeks ago that we were writing about Vine and all of the interesting uses it may have. Here we are, less than a month later, and we’re writing again to tell you that the social video site may be heading to an early grave. Instagram has just released a flash video service similar to Vine’s, […]

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SEO Services

Google Local Carousel

ShareGoogle has been testing what they call their “Local Carousel” for the past couple months, and today it is officially going live. It’s the same top of page scroller you’ve been seeing on tablets for the past year, but now it’s on your browser for your local related searches. Lets take a look at what it is and what it […]

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Cheap SEO Service

Duck…Duck…Go

Share Have you ever heard of DuckDuckGo.com? It’s a search engine service that was built around the idea of privacy first. They don’t log your IP, they don’t track cookies, and they definitely don’t pull Google’s over-your-shoulder search suggestion antics. This brand of privacy-first web search has become very popular over the past week, and as more about the NSA […]

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REVIEW red Rubber Stamp over a white background.

The Alphasmart 3000 Hands-On Review

Share I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I’d tell you about it, but you don’t care. You’re here for the Alphasmart 3000 review, so that’s what you’re going to get. Are you happy now? I bought the Alphasmart 3000 for the same reasons you’re interested in it I’d imagine. It’s: Cheap Portable Distraction Free I found […]

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Should You Use Stock Images?

ShareDo you currently use any stock photos or imagery on any of your sites? For most companies, it’s a hard thing to avoid. The reality is that you’re going to need images, and you’re not always going to have the time or the money to hire a professional photographer or designer to create them for you. We get a lot […]

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Search Engine Optimization Strategy

5 Steps to Getting Your Content Shared

ShareJust writing your content is not enough, you need to design it from the ground up to be as shareable as possible. Having your content spread across the web is a pivotal part of any search engine optimization strategy, and here are the 5 key factors to make that happen:

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Business Social Media

Twitter Adds Analytics

ShareTwitter is a great platform for interacting with your customers and customers-to-be, but it has always suffered from a lack of analytics. Unless you’re paying for ads, there hasn’t been a lot of ways for you to monitor things like favorites, retweets, and replies. Sure, you can check each post one by one to see how they performed, but that’s […]

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Low Cost SEO Services

Google Hammers Bad Mobile Sites

ShareHow does your mobile site look? If you haven’t been paying much attention to it in the past, now is the time to get to it. With its newest round of updates, Google is specifically focusing on mobile sites, so you better make sure your low cost SEO services include some sort of functional mobile presence. It doesn’t need to be pretty, […]

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Graphing ComScores for May 2013

ShareIt’s that time of month again, where we gather round and check out what search engines are doing well (Google) and which continue to die a slow, agonizing death punctuated only by the mournful cry of “you’ve got mail” (AOL). There aren’t a lot of surprises this month, but your SEO company will be interested in the continued trends, both upwards and […]

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SEO Techniques

10 SEO Copywriting Tips (Infographic)

ShareWe do a lot of writing here at Wikimotive, and if you’re doing your digital marketing job correctly, so do you. Content generation is THE SEO technique of choice in 2013, and all signs point to quality content being the most important metric moving forward as well. This means writing. Lots of writing. For all that writing to realize its […]

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SEO

Images and AdWords

ShareGoogle, never content to rest on their laurels, is going back to AdWords to give it another boost. This time they’re trying to spruce up the ads themselves with the introduction of images into their paid results. When it comes to advertising, images are always a huge boon, so this is sure to have an affect on SEM and SEO moving forwards.

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Google Authorship

Google Authorship is the Future

ShareGoogle authorship ties your content together with your Google+ account. The result is that Google takes you as an author into account when delivering search results (for a comprehensive view, check out this article on Google authorship). It was important when we wrote about it a couple months ago, and it’s only getting more important by the day. This week, […]

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SEO Firm

Yahoo Gets a Facelift…No One Cares

ShareYahoo has been making moves lately. Last week we wrote about how they are trying to acquire Hulu to give themselves a foothold in the streaming video business, and this week they unleashed a facelift for their search engine results. Is it a stunning new look that’s going to completely change the search engine game? Are you or your SEO firm going […]

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Autumn colors reflected in a pond near Dunbarton, New Hampshire

Wikimotive Welcomes NH Auto Credit!

ShareHere at Wikimotive we’re delighted to announce the newest addition to our family: NH Auto Credit! The name NH Auto Credit tells you a lot about what they do. They have made it their mission to help who’ve previously had credit issues afford a late model vehicle. Not just any vehicle, but one they’ll be able to drive down the street […]

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Blogging Blunders Ebook

10 Business Blogging Blunders – Free Ebook!

ShareBlogging is the engine that drives your digital marketing activities. It is the content generation that bolsters your SEO, the posts you share to your social media accounts, and the voice of your company on the internet. If you don’t pay the proper amount of respect to your blog, you’re going to suffer for it in the long run. A […]

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Mazda1

Wikimotive Welcomes Seacoast Mazda

ShareWe have some great news today. We’re adding another member to the Wikimotive family. Please join us in welcoming Seacoast Mazda! Seacoast Mazda has been delivering their famous brand of customer service for about forty years now, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. They opened their doors in 1974, and have been serving New Hampshire ever since. In 2003, […]

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SEO Agencies

Google’s 200 Ranking Factors (Infographic)

ShareWe all know that Google has a pretty complicated algorithm they use to evaluate websites, so any insight we can gain into their proces is a huge boon. Even some SEO experts don’t know all the little ins and outs of Google’s thought process. For instance, did you know that you can be penalized based on WHOIS content?  Were you […]

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Search Engine Optimization

How to Run Advertorials and Not Get Penalized

ShareSEO is all about driving traffic to your website, but what do you do once you’ve built up that larger audience? You’re going to want to start making that website do work for you. For some people, that means monetizing your site with advertorials. There’s nothing wrong with this, and plenty of people make their livings off of advertorials on […]

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Business Social Media

Facebook Adds Verified Accounts

ShareFacebook is getting into the the account verification business this week. Now, you can currently verify your account on your own by giving a phone number, but this new verification is a little different. It’s essentially a copy of Twitters verification system, where popular public figures who may be impersonated are given a check mark to establish their credibility. Lets […]

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Affordable SEO

Bing Adds Some New Features

ShareBing, Google’s awkward cousin, is starting to grow into its looks a little. This week, they’ve taken some programs out of beta testing and made them live for the world to ignore enjoy. Are they actually useful? Will they affect your affordable search engine optimization? Lets take a look.

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Yahoo Trying to Purchase Hulu

ShareYahoo is like the last of the great dinosaurs. It’s head, once proudly held high over creation, now dragging through the mud and dirt at the end of its ineffectual neck. They’ve been making moves, trying to change their internal structure to grow, but those haven’t seen much result. Their new tactic is buying up properties (like Tumblr for 1.1 […]

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SEO Company

The Death of SEO?

ShareThe Panda update has hit. The Penguin update has hit. The sky is falling for SEO practitioners all over the digital world and we’re starting to see the rise of the doomsayers. “SEO IS LOST!” they holler, sandwich board firmly affixed. “Beware the Google apocalypse,” they cry, forcing you to take a leaflet when you’re just trying to walk to […]

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Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day 2013!

ShareMemorial Day is the unofficial start of the summer, but it’s also the day for remembering the men and women who sacrificed their lives serving in the armed forces. A simple “thank you” will never be enough to express our gratitude, so we celebrate to remember why they were willing to give all: our families, our friends, and our freedoms. […]

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SEO services

Google Penguin 2.0 Early Losers

ShareSo yesterday I wrote about how Google’s Penguin 2.0 update, and told you I’d get back to you when the results were in. We already have a list of early losers, people who were struck hard and fast by Penguin 2.0, and the list is long and eclectic. I want to share it with you so you can check them […]

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Search Engine Optimization SEO

Google Penguin 2.0 Officially Hits

ShareIt’s here, it’s here! It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for, but it’s pretty much the polar opposite of Christmas. It’s the day that Google finally delivers their much-hyped Penguin 2.0 update. Who was hit? What does it mean for your search engine optimization SEO? Lets take a look.

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Marketing Kitten

Social Media Marketing Losing its Way (Infographic)

ShareWhen social media first hit the scene, it was pretty much ignored by marketers. After all, why should they care where teenagers go to complain about their parents? They quickly realized their mistake though, and embraced social media as a great avenue to interact with fans. It was the only venue where you could advertise, receive immediate feedback, and then […]

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Keyboard Cat Social Media for Businesses

YouTube Turns 8

ShareYouTube has been the goto source for videos for pretty much everyone on the planet these past few years. It’s simple, functional, open to the public, and free. What more could you ask for? This week, the social video network is turning eight years old, and they’re introducing an interesting new mechanic that could change how they operate moving forward. […]

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Vine Social Media for Business

Swinging with Vine

ShareHave you started using Vine? Have you even heard of Vine? It was released this year on January 24th, and it caught on with a speed that most fledgling social networks could only dream of. With Vine, you create vines, essentially the video version of Tweets. They’re 6 second videos you edit together within the app, and they’re just what […]

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low cost SEO services

Blogging Longhand

ShareAll too often when we sit at the computer, we aren’t writing, we’re typing. It’s a subtle distinction but it’s an important one. Do you ever stare at your screen and know you need to get something down so you just hammer it out? Worse yet, do you ever stare at the screen, knowing you need to get something down, […]

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Matt Cutts SEO Company

Google Hammers Several Thousand Link Sellers Overnight

ShareAre you still paying for links? It doesn’t matter where or how many, if you’re paying for even a single link it’s time to get rid of it. Remember earlier this week when we wrote about Google’s plan for the next couple months? Part of that plan was to aggressively pursue link buyers and sellers, and it’s only been a […]

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Wikimotive SEO

What Should We Expect from Google?

ShareMatt Cutts has just released another video on his Google Webmaster Help account, and we’re here to break it down for you. This time he is addressing the question, “What should we expect in the next few months in terms of SEO for Google?” Lets look at his answer.

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Social Media for Business

Google Penguin 2.0 Imminent

ShareDo you follow Matt Cutts on Twitter? If you don’t, you really should go follow him. He posts updates about Google’s policy and algorithm updates that could have major reprecussions on your business. Just this week, he wrote that Goole Penguin’s 2.0 version was imminent for release. What does this mean for your digital marketing for business efforts?

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Wikimotive Snapchat

Snapchat Not So Temporary After All

ShareHave you ever heard of Snapchat? It’s an app developed for iOS and Android. Using Snapchat, you can send pictures back and forth with your friends, the twist is that these pictures self-destruct after being opened. The idea behind it is that people will feel more comfortable sending some pictures (cough sexting cough)  if they know the pictures will delete […]

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How We Consume Our Content (Infographic)

ShareThe culture of content has only gained more momentum in 2013. The vast majority of people lead plugged-in lives, constantly absorbing news and entertainment and advertisements in near equal measure. This is great for your brand, but only if you understand HOW people are absorbing content. Brazen, ugly ads that inconvenience may put you top of mind, but they are […]

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SEO on SEO Crime

SEO on SEO Crime

ShareWhen you’re in the search engine optimization game, you encounter a lot of distrust wherever you go. People don’t understand SEO, so they treat every interaction like you’re a mechanic in a skeazy shop, telling them their radiator has snake-tubes or something. To be honest, we can’t fault people for feeling this way, because there are so many scammy SEO companies out […]

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Wikimotive Local SEO

Local SEO Statistics – May 2013

ShareYou know what fuels a lot of SEO? Data. Data is the blood of the industry and good low cost SEO services are like vampires, sucking up all the data they can and using it to power their efforts moving forward. Good news for us, a local SEO industry survey just dropped, and it’s full to the brim with juicy facts and […]

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An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

Be an Artist, Not an Intellectual

ShareThis post is for everyone out there who is blogging for business or as part of a Company SEO strategy. When you give advice, are you being an artist, or an intellectual? What’s the difference? Well, as the beautiful image above states: An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple […]

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Top 10 Toxic SEO Techniques Cover

Toxic SEO Techniques Poster

ShareLast week, we released a new eBook called “10 Toxic SEO Techniques.” It was one of the more ambitious projects we’ve taken on and we’re immensely proud of the results. In fact, we’re so proud that we decided to cut the whole thing up and broadcast it out to the world in a brave new format. It’s not quite an […]

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SEO for Small Business

5 SEO Mistakes to Fix Today

ShareIt’s that time again, another enlightening Matt Cutts video has been released, and here at Wikimotive, we’re ready to break it down with you. This one is all about the top 5 SEO mistakes that webmasters make. Now, it’s not the top 5 as far as severity of penalty, it’s the top 5 ranked by frequency, so there’s a decent […]

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Slideshare Social SEO

Slideshare is for Lovers

ShareContent is the SEO method of choice in 2013. Spam and content spinning are way, way out, and original content that has value to the reader is in. It’s not enough to just create the content though. Even if it’s amazing and insightful, you still need to market your own content, at least a little bit, to get it off […]

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Business SEO

Google Replaces Instant Previews

ShareGoogle is about as consistent as the seas. As soon as you think you have a hold on just where you are and what you’re doing, the tide rolls out and leaves you stranded belly-deep on the beach. Melodramatic? Yes. Do we feel bad about it? Not in the slightest. Anyway, let us here at Wikimotive tell you the latest […]

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Business SEO

This Guy Sucks: A Magic Moment

ShareWhen it comes to wannabe-writers and reading, Stephen King tells us there is a magic moment, and this is true (even for SEO writers). There is a single intoxicating instant that only readers are privy to, and it comes when you lay down the book, shake your head with wonder, and mutter: “This guy SUCKS. I Can write better than […]

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SEO

eCommerce SEO Infographic

ShareWe’ve established time and time again that SEO is constantly shifting, but some industries have it harder than others. One of the more complicated kinds of sites to optimize is the ecommerce site. This is because Google would love to be the only true affiliate marketer on the web. Also, Amazon is so ubiquitous that every other ecommerce site on […]

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Top 10 Toxic SEO Techniques Cover

FREE EBOOK! — 10 Toxic SEO Techniques

ShareSEO is one of the fastest moving fields there is, and you need to be willing and able to adapt just as quickly. Sure, it can be painful to abandon techniques that have worked well for you in the past, but it’s necessary if you want to prosper in the future. Don’t sacrifice your Business’s SEO for the sake of […]

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Too Big to Fail

Facebook Home Unpopular but Popular

ShareIs Facebook too big to fail? Is there any move they could make that would truly push away the user-base at this point? On one hand, every social network before it has failed, but on the other, no other social network has ever been as large or as integrated into our everyday life as Facebook. It’s become a must have […]

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SEO for Business

In Memoriam Image SEO

ShareThe past few months have represented the quiet death of an SEO error. There was no fanfare, no mournful songs were played and no beautiful, young wives stood weeping by the casket. It was a death that had more whimper than bang. At first, we thought it was an aberration, surely it could be revived? Alas, no amount of triage […]

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Small Business SEO

Internal Linking Penalties?

ShareA lot of SEO companies, including yours truly, have been preaching about the dangers of exact match anchor text. In case you have forgotten, exact match anchor text is when you point a multitude of links at a page you’re trying to rank, and all the anchor text in those links is exactly the same. One of the major updates […]

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Small Business SEO Agencies

Do Not Touch

ShareHave you ever heard of the Amsterdam-based prog-rock band Light Light? Well, now you have. If you didn’t hear it from us, you would have heard it soon anyway, because the band has created a marketing campaign for their new single that is going viral. As we’ve said before, there is no magic spell that will make you go viral, […]

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Small Business SEO

Pinterest Hooks Up With Bing

ShareSocial media and search are again colliding, and for once, the news isn’t about Google and Facebook. No, today’s news is about the little brothers of search and social, the ones who aren’t quite as successful but certainly give it there all. Let us here at Wikimotive tell you about it, and how it can affect your small business SEO.

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Small Business SEO

Facebook Ads Gettin’ Creepy

ShareIn case you’ve been worried that Facebook doesn’t know enough about you, you can breathe easy. It turns out, the social network knows more about us all than we’ve previously suspected. The good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any big brother conspiracies going on, they’re just using all that data to market to us. The bad news […]

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March comScore Data

ShareThe reality of being an SEO company is that your life revolves around data. Successful SEO means gathering all the information possible into a great big pool and then pulling a Scrooge McDuck into it. That may seem excessive, but any little number, any single digit, any stray array, can mean the difference between you ranking on page 1 or […]

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What is Great SEO?

Good vs Great SEO Company

ShareLet’s forget for a moment that the overwhelming majority of SEO companies the average small business owner will encounter provide a service of no value whatsoever. Let’s pretend that the majority of SEO providers are not outright scam artists. I’m only going to address the small percentage of us that provide a real service capable of producing ROI in some […]

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Business SEO

Shortcuts for Matt Cutts

ShareMatt Cutts and the SEO community have a kind of love hate relationship. He is one of the few people who is truly in the know about Google’s search algorithms, so we love when he gives us information and answers our questions on the Google Webmasters videos. On the other hand, he feels the need to protect his sacred algorithms, […]

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Small Business SEO

Buying a Bad Domain

ShareHave you ever looked into buying a domain on the private market? It’s a risky proposition, as private sales can be anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars. If you have proof the domain is currently in good standing, or even neutral standing, then buy away if the price is right. If the domain is a […]

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Small Business Search Engine Optimization

Search Behavior Infographic

ShareWe spend a lot of time trying to figure out how people behave when they use search engines. As digital marketers, it’s literally our job.  Are they always clicking the top result? Are they ignoring advertisements entirely? Does ANYBODY ever go check the second page? These are burning questions that require answers, especially if your small business search engine optimization is going […]

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Why Does Page Rank Drop Over Time?

ShareHow many times have you created a landing page and been thrilled when it all of a sudden pops into the rankings? Some pages step onto the stage at page 10, but this page you made LEAPS into the fray all the way at page 2. You’re riding high, but the page doesn’t climb, instead it starts to fall…and fall…and […]

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Pagination Domination

ShareOver the past couple years, the pagination of content has become a popular tactic. For those of you who don’t keep up with asinine marketing terms, pagination in this context just means spreading your content out over multiple pages. This is usually done to increase views and lower bounce rates, both of which are great things for the advertisers on […]

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Wikimotive Xbox

Adam Orth, Microsoft Creative Director, Bombs on Twitter

ShareAdam Orth is one of the creative directors at Microsoft studios. He’s not the top of the chain, but he IS important, and he should be aware that his words have weight. Unfortunately (for Microsoft and his own career) he performed a major faux pas on Twitter last night. Let’s take a look at what he did and investigate how […]

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Business SEO

Writing Reddit

ShareIn a world where content is next to cleanliness (and cleanliness is in fairly close proximity to godliness) it’s fallen on a lot of digital marketers to start writing. For some of us, this hasn’t been much of a chore. We delight in putting our thoughts down on the page and sending them out for (a very, very small portion […]

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People Are Still Exchanging Bad Links?

ShareExchanging links was once a viable link building tactic. A website would give you a link with the exact anchor text you wanted, you’d do the same for them, and everything was hunky-dory with the world. That was well and good as recently as a couple years ago, but to do that today shows a stunning lack of industry knowledge. […]

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Cheap or Expensive SEO?

ShareWhen people start shopping around for different SEO quotes, what’s the first thing they notice? It’s always the discrepancy of the cost. It’s not uncommon for one company to quote in the high thousands while another is in the hundreds. The important thing that every consumer should understand is that, much like anything else, be it a service or a […]

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Wikimotive Human Rights Campaign Map

Measuring the Success of the Human Rights Campaign

ShareRemember the Human Rights Campaign’s pink equal sign that we wrote about last week? Well, it’s died down a little, but it’s still going pretty strong. It seemed nearly everyone on Facebook had at least one friend change their profile picture, but the evidence was anecdotal…until now. Facebook has released some interesting stats talking about the spread of the campaign, […]

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Wikimotive AlgoSleuth

New Tool to Check Which Google Updates Affected Your Traffic!

ShareSo you come in to check on your websites some random monday morning, you have your coffee in hand and a smile on your face. You were steadily climbing last week and you’re secretly hoping you’ve hit page one for that keyword you’ve been working on all month. You open a clean browser and do a search. Nothing on page […]

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Wikimotive Social Loser

Are Your Social Shares Calling You a Loser?

ShareAre you familiar with social sharing cues? Essentially, they’re the little indicators you see attached to content all over the web (including on this post). They allow you to share the content your enjoying to all of the 3,012,432 social networks in existence, and then they’ll often times display a number indicating how many times the content has been shared. […]

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Top of the World Wikimotive

Understanding PageRank Infographic

ShareHave you ever heard of PageRank? If you’re involved in any kind of SEO, you’re definitely familiar with the term. For the uninitiated, PageRank is a 0-10 score that Google assignes to webpages based on different weighted elements that indicate quality and relative importance. Search engine optimization specialists always take PageRank into account when planning strategies for their businesses, and you […]

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Wikimotive Human Rights Campaign

The Human Rights Campaign’s Pink Equal Sign

ShareIf you’re on Facebook, Twitter or really any social network, you probably saw a lot of the red and pink equal sign pictured above. If you’re wondering what it is, it’s a sign promoted by the Human Rights Campaign, advocating for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. The Supreme Court is meeting this week in Washington […]

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Wikimotive Authorship

Be an Internet Celebrity; Claim Your Google Authorship

ShareDo you know who the author of your blog is? Well, it’s mostly likely  you (or a team of handsome ghostwriters cleverly disguised as you), and if you are truly invested in a successful SEO strategy, you’re blogging every single day, and even the occasional wild and crazy night. It’s easy to get caught up in the flashy blogger lifestyle; […]

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Wikimotive Google Mjolnir

Google the Thunder God

ShareThor is a god, specifically, he’s the thunder god, super specifically, he’s the Norse god of thunder, storms, and beating the pulp out of things with his magic hammer, Mjolnir (just imagine I did the umlaut on the o). Thor is an unruly god, short on temper and long on power. When he approached, you never knew for sure if […]

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Wikimotive YouTube 1 Billion Monthly

YouTube Hits 1 Billion Unique Visitors…A Month!

ShareEveryone knows YouTube is popular, but it’s easy to lose sight of just HOW popular it is. It’s become the goto video service on the web, so much so that it’s often times used synonymously with “video host” the same way people call all facial tissue Kleenex or all gelatin Jell0. This week, the service hit the incredible milestone of […]

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Think Insights Banner Wikimotive

Google ‘Think Insights’ Update

ShareLast week, Google updated it’s Think Insights site. The site has been live since 2011, but has never received all that much attention. Instead of letting it go the way of Wave and Reader, Google unleashed a fresh new version that will be appealing to both search engine optimization companies and amateur marketers.

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Facebook Marketing

#Facebook

ShareThe hashtag has long been the domain of Twitter, but Facebook isn’t happy with the dominating social market-share they already possess, and they’re coming to eat Twitter’s lunch. The Social Network is rumored to be adding hashtags of their own to the site in the near future. We can already hear the joy emanating from search engine optimization consultants all over […]

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Wikimotive Wordpress

WordPress SEO Infographic

ShareIn todays marketing world, you’re seeing less and less sites being built from scratch. There are so many  canned-sites (bad) and Content Management Systems (good) that there just isn’t a big demand for it. This isn’t to say web development is dead. There is still a HUGE need for people who can create and customize the back-end of things and […]

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Some Advertising Tweets Now Illegal!

ShareThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released their newest .com disclosure guidelines, the first new release since the year 2000. It takes them a long, long time to update this document, and they never really say anything all that groundbreaking. The general message is that the same guidelines that apply to traditional advertising mediums apply to the net, so your affordable […]

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Wikimotive Google Panda

Nothing but Pandas all the Way Down

ShareThere has been news of a new Panda update floating around for a few days, and now we’re finally getting some hard news. It looks like SEO agencies are in for another monumental shift, courtesy of Google and their elite team of trained Pandas.

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Facebook’s Newest Round of Changes

ShareFacebook is about to unleash it’s newest update, and now is the time for the savy small business SEO company to get into the game. SEO and social are fully intertwined now, and Facebook is so large that a Facebook overhall may as well be an SEO overhall. Check out the example of their new design after the break.

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Wikimotive Pinterest Analytics

Pinterest Offering New Analytics

ShareSuccessful marketing requires the ability to track and analyze and deduce, it’s what makes the industry exciting. Businesses are always clamoring for more analytics tools from the services they use, and now Pinterest is delivering an interesting new tool, sure to be a boon for any SEO company smart enough to invest in social media.

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Wikimotive Viral Shark

The “Go Viral Today!” Myth

ShareAre you looking to go viral today? Do you want the magic formula, the secret spell, that alchemical reaction that will transform your tired old content into a vibrant viral rocket, blasting into the social-sphere of your target audience and sending them over the moon with purchasing-joy? Well…too bad. Buck up buttercup, because contrary to what many of the affordable SEO […]

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Wikimotive More Spam Dude

Google Gives Live Examples of Spam

ShareEveryone knows you shouldn’t have a spammy site, but just what the heck does “spammy” even mean? We know Google doesn’t like it, but it’s not as though the word has a hard and fast definition (at least not one pertaining to SEO). Google realizes this, and they have recently put up a new page that illustrates business SEO websites that they have […]

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Wikimotive Panda Penguin

SEO Then and Now Infographic

ShareWhether you’re a seasoned SEO pro or just starting out, the shifting nature of search engine optimization makes it a constant struggle to stay on top of it. It’s like walking on quicksand, every time you think you have sure footing, you find yourself suddenly up to your neck in it. There are ways to maintain a  cheap SEO service without sacrificing […]

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Wikimotive Wordpress-vs-blogger

WordPress or Blogger?

SharePeople still ask which is the better platform for creating a business blog, WordPress or Blogger. They both have their followings and their merits, but most  people who work for an actual SEO company will tell you that one is the clear winner.

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Wikimotive Free Books

Wikimotive’s Free SEO and Social Media eBook Stash!

ShareWe always loved reading free eBooks when we were learning the trade, and this year we made it a point to start releasing our own. We did the research, pulled from our own experience, grabbed  a designer, and put together some eBooks we’re really proud of. We never released them in a single place before though, so here is the […]

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Wikimotive Keyword Research

Keyword Research Infographic

ShareWhen you’re performing your affordable search engine optimization for the first time, it’s easy to get ahead of yourself. Many people want to jump right into the fun parts like creating content and sharing on social media. When you’re first starting though, there is a crucial step that no company big or small can afford to skip: Keyword research.

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Wikimotive Fry Snippets

Google Snippets are Going Rogue

ShareAre you familiar with Google snippets? Basically, they are the chunk of information you see under the title of search results. They usually include the URL, a date, history, and most important, a description. In the past, you’ve been able to define your own description in the metadata of your site, so you had control over what was displayed under […]

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Wikimotive Instagram 100 Million

Instagram’s 100 Million Milestone

ShareThis week, the social network Instagram hit another major milestone. According to cofounder Kevin Systrom, they are now getting more than 100 million active users on Instragram every single month. This is clearly big news for the social network, but is it big news for your  social media marketing?

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Wikimotive Spun Roulette

Don’t Spin Me Right Round Baby

ShareIn the course of the daily research we do here at Wikimotive, we encounter a lot of the same questions over and over again. The pattern is pretty clear, everyone agrees on a subject and then Google performs another update and suddenly we have to reheat the same old gristle and see if it tastes any better this time around. […]

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Wikimotive 301 Redirects

301 Redirects or Links?

ShareWhen creating new pages, you always have the choice of how to include them in your current website structure. The standard is if it’s a new page you link to it, and if it’s replacing an old page you do a 301 redirect. There are urban legends surrounding these techniques though, and they cause many Webmasters and SEO for small […]

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Search iPhone Wikimotive

Local Needs to be on the Podium

ShareThe goal for most SEO efforts is to land on the first page of Google.  Once you’re there, it’s about the uphill battle to the top of page one. Some companies will tell you there isn’t much of a difference between positions four and five, but the fact is position four gets 50% more clicks. SEO is a game of […]

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Wikimotive Long Tail Cat

Long Tail SEO Infographic

ShareLong tail keywords are becoming a very integral part of small business SEO. Essentially, long tail keywords are longer (duh!) and more specific keywords. These keywords are less common than short keywords individually, but when taken as a whole, they account for the majority of searches and search-driven traffic. There are a few large benefits to long tail keywords, and they […]

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Wikimotive Evergreen

Content that Stands the Test of Time

ShareHow do you ensure the longevity of your Business’s SEO strategy? The only solution that is truly perdurable is producing evergreen content. If you haven’t heard that term before, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Just like evergreen trees never lose all their leaves, evergreen content never loses it’s value.

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Wikimotive Maile Ohye

Google Clarifies Impressions

ShareEven to us SEO devotees, many of the inner machinations of Google remain a mystery, and this is exactly the way that Google likes it. They don’t want people gaming their system, so it’s necessary for them to obfuscate it to some degree. They are always giving us a little more though, because they DO want things to be optimized […]

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Wikimotive.net Tag Cloud

What’s Your Blog Saying? (One Quick Trick to Find Out!)

ShareHow do you tell what your blog is about? Sure, you have ideas in your head and dreams in your heart, but it can be difficult to take a step back and look at what you REALLY are saying every day. With Facebook and Twitter Marketing, it’s easy to scroll back through your old posts and get an idea of your […]

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2013 SEO Infographic

SharePeople are dubbing 2013 the year of SEO for the Business consumer! What do they mean by this? It’s what we’ve been saying all along, it’s about quality content. Some SEO companies look at search engines like google as the enemy, that’s simply a ridiculous position to take. Sure, they make life harder for us digital marketers, but they are simple trying […]

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Wikimotive Pinterest Watch Out

Pinterest New Social Leader?

ShareEveryone acknowledges that Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites, but just how relevant it is still seems to be up in the air. According to recent studies, Pinterest was behind Marketing with Twitter and Facebook as well as Google+, but a new survey is offering a different opinion on the matter.

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The Messages Google Sends

ShareYou know who just won’t stop bothering Webmasters? Google. Those guys are always updating things and sending out alerts. In fact, the sultans of search send out hundreds of thousands of messages to Webmasters every single month. Until recently, we weren’t sure how these messages related to SEO for Business, but Matt Cutts just released a new video dropping some knowledge […]

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Happy Valentine’s Day! (and Other Asinine Cliches)

ShareHappy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there. How many times will you read a line like that today? If you hang out on the internet for long enough (and don’t we all) the chances are you’ll see it so often you’ll puke up some of those little candy hearts (I guess they weren’t “4 EVA” after all). Still, […]

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Colors in Marketing (Infographic)

ShareHave you ever really thought about why we react to certain colors the way we do? It’s a primal response, one we’re all but helpless to resist. Colors simply evoke emotion in us, cutting straight through all of our higher functions and slamming into our lizard brains. The power of colors is only further enhanced by other design elements, and […]

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Google Location Detection

ShareGoogle’s newest patent will prove to be both beneficial and terrifying to users, which is just about par for the course for the search engine juggernaut. It involves tracking you wherever you go and then collating and analyzing that data for personal identification trends. Creepy? For sure. Useful for Business Search Engine Optimization and social media? You betcha.

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Instagram Goes Big!

ShareInstagram has, by design, limited its market share from the very beginning. First it was simply for apple products like the iPhone and iTouch, and then it grew to include the Android market as well (sorry Windows phone users). The main thing that separated Instagram from other social networks was that it was never available on physical computers before, at […]

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Kill Your Darlings and Other Novel Advice

ShareBlogging is the new writing medium for the masses. Some people lament the fact that anyone can go about publishing content for the world to see, but those people are probably the great-great-grandchildren of the guys who threw rocks at Gutenberg. I honestly believe that the more people writing, the better off we are. This is especially true for industries […]

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Wikimotive Pinterest Banner

Infographic on Pinterest User Interactions

ShareMarketing on Pinterest seems to become more viable every day, and that’s no accident. Pinterest has been doing their best to compete with other social networks, looking to edge into a market full of people Marketing with Twitter and Facebook. Is it truly worth your time (and your money) though, or is it just Pinterest generating hype for themselves? Let’s take […]

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Wikimotive News Buried

News Site SEO

ShareNews sites have unique concerns compared with traditional business and commercial sites. Whereas most places can post a blog or article and leave it be, news sites might have to come back to the same story three or four times as they get new information. This has caused a lot of consternation in the community, as they try and reconcile […]

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Wikimotive Beyonce Super Bowl

Super Bowl Lessons

ShareThere are many lessons we can take from this Super Bowl this year. Important, crucial information like Beyonce has still got it, always pay your electricity bill before you have company over, and murderers can go on to do great things in life. Even more important though, are the lessons we can learn about Marketing with Twitter and Facebook. Let  us […]

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Wikimotive PLA Spend Trend

Google Product Listing Ad Numbers Up

ShareWhen Google moved their commerce system to paid inclusion, there was a lot of fuss in the digital marketing company community. It was seen as another “evil” move by some, and felt like more of the dreaded “paid inclusion” as opposed to useful organic results.  In the end though, for all the complaining and worrying, people have been spending a lot of […]

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Wikimotive SEO Rapper

You’re Nobody (’till Somebody Ranks You)

ShareHere at Wikimotive, we love Using SEO for Business. We work at it all day, poring over analytics data and tweaking this or that to stay in Google’s good graces. Honestly, it never gets old. Just between you and me, when we lay our heads down at night, we have beautiful dreams of Matt Cutts. Still though, we’re not going […]

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Wikimotive Free Facebook Signs

Free Facebook Signage for Your Business

ShareThe hardest part about  Marketing Using Facebook is, arguably, building a real and active following on the social network. It’s easy enough to find poor quality likes, or to pay for likes with Facebook ads, but getting quality likes organically can be a challenge.

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Wikimotive Stumbleupon Banner

Stumbleupon and You

ShareStumbleupon is one of the most interesting social media sites around, and by interesting, I mean it is a complete and total time-sink. Essentially, it’s a toolbar that has a “Stumble” button you can press that will bring you to a random page on the web based on your interests. You can also upvote and downvote pages, which is how […]

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Wikimotive Degrading Value

The Degradation of Value

ShareThe great part about digital marketing is that there is no shortage of advice to be found. No matter what corner of the web you land on, people are telling you how they have cracked the Google algorithm or how they can read pagerank in their Starbucks tea leaves. The only problem is that digital marketing advice, by its very […]

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Bing

Bing Ads on Facebook?

ShareCurrently, the biggest problem with using Bing for SEM and SEO for Business is the lack of search volume. Sure, they came in with roughly 20 percent of the total U.S. searches by the end of last year, but Google is still dominating them, essentially getting the rest of the market share (ignoring the pittance of Yahoo, AOL, and ASK.com). Optimizing […]

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facebook wifi logo

Marketing with Facebook Infographic

Share How many of you have tried out the paid Facebook ads? Whether you’re looking to grow your audience, promote your posts, or just spread your brand awareness, Facebook ads can be a great tool. Obviously it’s always better to advertise organically, but that’s not always necessarily possible or effective. For instance, when you’re starting out with a brand new […]

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Wikimotive Content is King

Content is King, so Keep it in the Kingdom

ShareWe’ve been writing a lot about writing lately, and for a good reason. In the brave new world of content-first SEO, the ability to reliably and effectively produce unique, quality copy is becoming a valuable commodity. This can be dangerous for many marketers though, because “quality” is a subjective thing…or at least in was in the past. Today, every smart Digital […]

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Wikimotive XKCD Blogging

Blogging for Humans

ShareWe talk a lot about the importance of a blog. As Google’s updates progress, the old adage “content is king” is becoming ever more true. It’s not enough to simply have content though, that content needs to be unique to your site and valuable to the reader. In the rush to keep up with the content volume being demanded by […]

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Wikimotive Spelling Mistakes

Three Things That Hurt Your Rank (That You Can Fix Today)

ShareWe’ve covered a lot of the bigger issues surrounding social media marketing and Wikimotive’s SEO for your Business, but it’s not always the bigger things that hurt you the most. Sometimes, it’s the simple stuff that comes back to bite you. Here are three things you can fix in an afternoon that may save you from slipping in the rankings.

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Wikimotive Google-Facebook

Facebook’s New Search…Google Killer?

ShareWhen it comes to Marketing with Twitter and Facebook, nothing is more important than the knowledge of how users interact with those services. Twitter hasn’t been making many major changes, but Facebook is constantly implementing new things and letting (forcing) users to deal with them. Their newest feature is an updated search called “Graph Search.”

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Wikimotive Statistics Cartoon

Search Engine Market Shares

ShareIt’s time again for another month’s worth of search statistics! Which search engines came out on top at the end of 2012? We’re pretty sure you already know the winner, but the other numbers may surprise you. In fact, they may represent a shift for your Digital Marketing Company movie forward. The winner for December 2012 was, of course, Google. They came […]

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Wikimotive Pinterest

Pinterest Rudiments

ShareWe haven’t talked about Pinterest on the blog for awhile, so we wanted to revisit the budding social network. Recently they’ve made some pretty major moves by cutting out fake users and allowing business accounts to authenticate themselves, and they just keep progressing into “necessary for Successful Business SEO” territory. No one outside of Google is sure exactly how much weight […]

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Wikimotive Photos on Facebook

Impact of Photos on Facebook

ShareMarketing Using Facebook is a tricky proposition, and it can be especially frustrating when you’re trying your best and simply not getting the engagement you want. Are you sending out post after post, only to net a couple likes and the occasional comment? You aren’t alone, many companies wallow in this kind of social obscurity, but there is an easy solution […]

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Wikimotive New Myspace

Reviews of the New Myspace

ShareThe new MySpace is in the testing phases as we speak. People are exploring in the wilderness of Beta-version social media, but are they liking what they find? It it something you and your Digital Marketing Company should be paying much attention to? So far, the outlook is fairly bleak. Our limited time playing with the new network showed a lot […]

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Wikimotive Landing

Landing Pages More Important Than Ever

ShareTo say that content is king is becoming trite. People have been spitting it as dogma for so long that it’s turning into white noise. This is a dangerous thing, because quality content is becoming more valuable every day, especially on important places like landing pages. In fact, let us go over some landing page content tips so that your Business […]

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Wikimotive Logo

Social Media in 2013!

Share Social media took some major strides in marketing importance in 2012, and that trend looks like it’s going to continue into 2013. With duplicate content and backlinks getting penalized and devalued, something has to fill the void. It appears as though the new SEO will revolve around quality content and social cues, so Marketing with Twitter and Facebook and maintaining a […]

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Wikimotive Instagram Marketing

Quick Tips for Instagram

ShareIs your business on Instagram yet? We aren’t going to say it’s a must, but it’s a pretty simple thing that can add some value to your businesses efforts when Marketing Using Facebook or Twitter. The artsy little photos are still really popular, especially among the younger crowds, so get the app and start snapping! The first things you should photograph are […]

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Wikimotive Logo

A Look Back at 2012

Share Now that we’re getting into the near year, we here at Wikimotive wanted to take a look back at some of our favorite stories from 2012. Sure, we wrote plenty about Marketing With Twitter and Facebook and SEO in general, but there were also some more human stories that we’re pretty proud of! Here are five of our favorites from the […]

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Wikimotive Watermarking

Watermarketing

ShareThey say a picture is worth a thousand words. I don’t know how they came up with that number, but the sentiment behind it hits home for me. As a professional photographer and designer in the Business Search Engine Optimization and automotive marketing industry, I get to take a lot of interesting pictures of cars. I’ve taken some pictures that I really […]

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Wikimotive Internet Quotes

Quoting Without Getting Flagged For Duplicate Content

ShareRecent Google updates have made duplicate content a bigger problem than ever before. Sites that were doing well were suddenly struck down as their content was basically the same page recycled over and over. With all the fear around duplicate content, where do quotes fit in? I mean, a quote is inherently duplicate content, but quoting has value. Any Digital Marketing […]

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Wikimotive Facebook GhostTown

Will Facebook Reach Critical Mass

ShareCurrently Facebook is riding high, but many people are predicting a fall. Is this because people like to see the mighty toppling to the ground, or do they actually see patterns emerging in the tea leaves? No matter what, Marketing Using Facebook is going to undergo some fundamental shifts. Let us here at Wikimotive share our theories with you.

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Wikimotive Logo

Happy New Year

Share Here we are in 2013…every January 1st you expect to be able to feel the changing of the year in your bones, and every year it’s just another day. There’s nothing magical about the calendar, there is no ancient alchemy in the progression of time, it just moves and we move with it. If you want the day to […]

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Wikimotive 2013 Business

Resolution Tactics For Business

ShareIt’s Near Years resolution time. Last week we talked about creating a resolution for your business, this week I’d like to talk about how you’re going to keep that resolution. Even though these tactics aren’t specifically aimed at businesses, they’re still valuable methods to help you stay on point and keep your business plan chugging along. When it comes to Automotive […]

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Wikimotive Case Study: Red Bull

ShareMarketing with Twitter and Facebook should be less about selling a product, and more about selling your brand. Some companies don’t understand this and that’s why they believe social media isn’t valuable, because when you only use it to showcase sales, it isn’t. Other brands have a firm grasp on why people use social media and they enjoy stellar success as […]

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Social Media Job

Customer Service In Social Media

Share A facet of social media that is often overlooked is the role it plays in customer service. Marketing Using Facebook is one thing, but dedicating time to answering every question and comment is another layer of time and dedication that some businesses feel they can’t handle. The reality is, like it or not, customer service is moving to social media, […]

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SEO Company

Looking to 2013

ShareAnnnnd we’re back! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, a happy Chanukah, and/or a pleasant other seasonal holiday. Now that we’re all back to work, I figured we could ease into things by thinking about the future, namely 2013. It’s only a week away, and this is the perfect time to take a look at your strategies for […]

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Digital Marketing World Ending

The World Didn’t End…So What Now?

ShareLike Y2K and Twilight: Breaking Dawn before it, the Mayan Apocalypse has thus far failed to bring about the end of the world. The solar flares didn’t fry us, the meteor didn’t send us the way of the dinosaurs, and Cthulhu remains slumbering his ancient slumber in the abyss. This surprising survival on the part of the human race has […]

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Facebook Against Foursquare

Foursquare Squares Off Against Facebook

ShareIn light of recent developments, it seems that local Marketing Using Facebook is only going to keep gaining significance, so how can other services keep themselves relevant? You may remember earlier this week, we wrote about Facebook announcing

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Instagram Marketing

How Much Does a Hipster Weigh?

ShareThe answer, of course, is an Instagram. Listen, I’m not going to tell you that’s a great joke, simply a relevant one, because the social picture sharing and food-photo-filtering site has been making waves this week with their announcement that all your photos will soon be theirs. Everywhere, millions of voices are crying out against the image of Instagram CEOs […]

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Facebook Nearby

Facebook Nearby Suddenly Important For Local Search

ShareFacebook just keeps expanding their influence. This week, they have added a powerful new feature to their mobile version for both iOS and droid, changing the “Nearby” feature and making marketing using Facebook even more important for local businesses.

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Social Media Overload

3 Tips To Avoid Social Media Overload

ShareThere’s a problem I have been seeing a lot lately among businesses who are late to adopting social media. They are excited, just raring to go (which is admirable) but they have no perspective on what they’re getting themselves into. They look up every possible social network and just start registering. Now, I’m a big proponent of social media as […]

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Twitter

The Art of Getting Retweets

Share Tweeting is important for automotive marketing, but doing so in a way that gets you Retweeted is just as important. Retweeting boosts your original message, amplifying its reach by orders of magnitude, ensuring it’s seen by more people. Now, having good content will get your message out there, but good content alone can only take you so far. You need […]

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Optimizing for Conversion eBook!

ShareMost businesses understand the benefits of search engine optimization, but they waste all that hard SEO work by not having decent landing pages. Getting clicked is only the first step, once a potential customer is on your page, you need to be able to convert them into either a lead or a sale.

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Google Sacks Raven Tools

ShareWe all know that Google is a powerhouse, but in the past they have been a fairly reasonable one. For all the brawn they possess, they let people get away with a lot of activities that are probably technically infractions. This is what makes it so shocking when they truly bring their guns to bear. It’s their right though, and […]

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Pinterest Fakes

Pinterest Cutting Fakes

SharePinterest is doing a lot right. They know they aren’t the first social network on the block and they aren’t trying to pretend they are. Instead, they’re deliberately studying Facebook and Twitter and implementing similar successful policies. This is great news for Pinterest users, and if you can keep up, it will be great news for your Pinterest marketing efforts.

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Social Media Minutes

Social Media Numbers Still Growing

ShareSocial media is here to stay, and according to the latest study released by the Nielsen group, it hasn’t even finished growing yet. What does this mean for the future of social media marketing and what role will it play in your automotive dealership SEO? Lets take a quick look at the numbers.

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New Google adwords

Google Updates AdSense

ShareGoogle is the best there is at what they do, and it’s because they never become complacent. Even when a program is working, they are always seeking out ways that it could be improved. That’s why Google should always be the first thing you consider when you are planning your Search Engine Optimization efforts.

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Pinterest Business Account

Pinterest Allowing Business Accounts

SharePinterest is experiencing rapid growth, both among casual users and marketers. In the past month, Pinterest has started to embrace businesses that want to utilize their service, and they have made explicit business pages available. In the grand tradition of Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest hopes to use businesses’ need to market to increase their own revenue. When it comes to social […]

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Google Acquires Incentive

Google Acquires Incentive Targeting

ShareGoogle is full of surprises. This week, they went out and acquired the company Incentive Targeting. What will this mean for your search engine optimization efforts moving forward? Lets break it down a little and see if we can piece together part of their master plan.

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Dealership Success

Facebook’s Dealership Success Guide

ShareFacebook is pushing hard to extend their influence, and now they are beginning to drill down to a more granular level with their business support. They recently released a guide specifically for automotive dealerships. The only problem is that it isn’t exactly advertised everywhere, so many people may have missed it. It’s nothing revolutionary, but if you are Marketing using Facebook, […]

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Wikimotive Logo

Wikimotive Welcomes McCluskey Chevrolet

Share It’s our pleasure to announce the newest addition to the Wikimotive family: McCluskey Chevrolet! McCluskey Chevrolet is the premier dealer of new and used Chevy cars, trucks and SUVs in Cincinnati, and indeed in all of Ohio! They have been in business in the Cincinnati are for over 50 years (yes, 50 YEARS!) and they have no plans on […]

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Facebook Username

Setting Your Facebook Username

ShareA Facebook username is essentially your domain name on Facebook. For instance, ours is Facebook.com/Wikimotive. Much like your actual website domain name, your Facebook username is best when it is just your brand name. Snagging this username (and the accompanying vanity URL) is an important part of your social media marketing effort, so lets make sure you know how to do it.

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Social Media Employees

Small Business Employees and Social Media

ShareSmall businesses, especially ones that operate locally or regionally, need to be on social media. I don’t think anyone disputes this anymore; it is so true that it has become axiomatic. The problem comes from businesses not knowing what to do once they’re on social media. We’ve published guides here and you can find hundreds (heck, probably thousands) of others […]

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Pay Per Click Brand

Should You PPC For Your Own Brand Name?

ShareMost companies are paying to rank for some keywords, but many ignore their own brand name when setting up their pay per click (PPC) system. On the surface, this makes perfect sense. Why would you pay to rank for the one term you’re pretty much guaranteed results for? If your company name is fairly unique, you are going to be […]

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Privacy Notice

The Truth About The Viral Facebook Copyright Notice

ShareThere is a privacy notice that seems to surface from time to time on Facebook, usually when a new security update is rolled-out.  I’ve been seeing it all over the place the last few days, and while it seems that most people are posting it just to be safe, others seem to believe that this will truly protect their content. […]

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SEO

Google Rankings and Co-Occurrence

ShareIf you listen to the SEO experts, then you know that the industry is ALWAYS about to experience a significant shift. Usually this is just an algorithm update from Google, but sometimes it’s bigger than that. Sometimes, people predict changes that will truly alter the fundamental techniques that we have traditionally used to do business.

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Facebook ROI

Facebook’s New ROI Measuring Tool

ShareOne of trickiest parts of  social media marketing has traditionally been measuring return on investment.  It has made many business owners, especially those who didn’t grow us using internet, wary of spending too much time or money on these nontraditional methods. Facebook recognizes this problem, and they’re going out of their way to fix it. They want your money, and […]

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Happy Thanksgiving From Wikimotive

ShareWell it’s that time of year again ladies and gentleman, another beautiful day of eating far too much and watching football is upon us! That’s right it’s Thanksgiving day and there is much to be thankful for. Whether you plan to spend your day with family or friends or just by yourself laying out your battle plan for Black Friday […]

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Bing

Bing Webmaster Guidelines

ShareBing remains slightly inscrutable to many people. Due to Google’s overwhelming domination in the search engine market, Bing is often forgotten about entirely. Don’t let Microsoft’s brainchild remain a mystery to you though, because there is help! This week, Microsoft has (finally) released a list of Bing Webmaster Guidelines, “intended to help your content be found and indexed within Bing.” […]

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omg news paper

Scheduling Posts–What to Watch out For

ShareRecently I wrote about scheduling your posts across blogs and social media. I maintain that you SHOULD still schedule if you are able, but in light of recent incidents, I think it’s important to add an addendum to this social media marketing rule:

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SEO for Images

Image SEO Overview

ShareIt’s common to spend so much time trying to get pages to rank that we overlook the images we use on said pages. Sometimes, it’s just as important for a search engine optimization strategy to focus on a single image as it is to rank an entire page. So let’s go back to some SEO fundamentals and review what it takes to […]

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Paying to go Viral

Share The value of having one of your videos go viral is hard to measure accurately but there’s no doubt it’s a huge boon for your brand. To get that kind of spread is hard to achieve though, you could make hundreds of videos all designed to go viral and get nowhere. On the other hand, you can make one […]

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Groupon SEO

Groupon For SEO?

ShareSometimes great SEO techniques aren’t invented, they are discovered accidentally. In that vein, today I want to take a look at a new linkbuilding technique for local internet marketing that a few different experts have been kicking around lately. It may be a surprise, but the idea is focused entirely around Groupon.

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New Set Of Updates For Foursquare

ShareFoursquare has quietly been making moves that will have a major impact on local businesses and local internet marketing. The service is already used to check in at a variety of places, and now their reach will be expanding. The first new feature is the explore option for non-registered users, and the attached ratings update. Explore lets users search for

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Facebook Want Button

Facebook Developing A Want Button

ShareLast week we wrote an article about Facebook’s new Wi-Fi program. This week, we want to talk about one of the other new interesting features that the social network is testing. This one aims to shorten the sales funnel between Facebook and the businesses that advertise on it, hopefully making marketing using Facebook more effective.

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facebook wifi logo

Facebook’s New Wi-Fi Program

ShareFacebook is aggressively pursuing its goal of being completely ubiquitous. Every time it seems that they have started to plateau, they find a new spire to climb. The social network’s newest stunt is their most interesting yet, with wide-ranging implications for the future of public internet access, and for businesses social media marketing.

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Ghost Writing

Should You Hire A Ghostwriter?

ShareItʼs pretty much a universally known fact in the industry that blogging is a vital part of any search engine optimization strategy. Everyone understands you need a blog, the trouble comes from figuring out just who exactly is going to write it. Should you handle it in-house or should you have it ghostwritten? There are ups and downs to both […]

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Politics and Negative Matching

ShareWell, it looks like Mitt Romney wasn’t able to knock out the incumbent Barack Obama. Whether this news makes you celebrate or despair, there are lessons to be learned from how both sides managed their internet marketing during the campaign. I’ve covered a few of them during the race, and now I’d like to cover the most recent digital gaffe.

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Social Media Marketing Agency

Social Media and The Workplace

ShareHow does your company handle the social media accounts of employees? In the past, it wasn’t really an issue, but every day it becomes more of a problem. Employers want to know about their employees, and employees want their personal lives to stay private. How do you navigate these muddy waters? It’s truly a challenge, one that is only going […]

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Social Media Schedule

Should you schedule posts?

SharePeople often times ask if they should schedule their social content posting when marketing with Twitter and Facebook. The short answer is yes, you should certainly schedule. Depending on your industry, there are times of day that see more activity than others, and scheduling ensures you hit those times of day. There are a myriad of services that offer post […]

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Search Engine Optimization

Meta Description Tag Overview

ShareWe’ve been covering some pretty broad social topics here lately, so for today we wanted to go back to one of the basic elements of search engine optimization that people seem to overlook all too often: the meta description tag. It’s only an armful of words, but those words can make or break the success of your site.

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McCluskey Chevrolet Logo

Wikimotive Welcomes McCluskey Automotive

Share It’s our pleasure to announce the newest addition to the Wikimotive family: McCluskey Automotive! McCluskey Automotive is the premier dealer of new and used cars in Cincinnati, and they specialize in making their entire inventory

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Disavow Links Tool

Google’s Disavow Tool Not A Cure-All

ShareNo matter how hard you try you can’t control who is going to link to your website. Every site out there is going to have a few unsavory links that they want to get rid of, it’s a reality of building a website. Since Google came out with their Penguin update people have been scrambling to try to clean up […]

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American Apparel and Sandy

ShareThere’s something to be said for getting in on a trend when it’s hot, social media marketing at it’s core is all about trends. When that great, roaring and rushing storm of interest starts to brew, it pays to be right in the eye of that sucker…unless the storm in question is a LITERAL one, of course.

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Twitter May Be Changing The Favorite Button

ShareTwitter is planning to get rid of their favorite button in favor of something a little more Facebook-y. They want to actually add a tool similar to Facebook’s ‘Like’ tool, which may be use the terms ‘like’ or ‘star’. The company is saying they want to change the wording just to make it seem “lighter weight” but it could still […]

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Reddit SEO

Checking Out Subreddits

ShareYou’ve probably heard of Reddit.com. It’s a social news website where users can submit links. These links are voted on, either up or down, so that quality posts move towards the first page and other posts fade into obscurity. Usually, Reddit is talked about as a great place to find interesting content, but the site offers more than that. It […]

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Thomas Cook Plane

Thomas Cook’s Vacation

ShareSocial media marketing presents us with opportunities every day, we just need to be cognizant of them. Something simple can become a major boon, and sometimes it pays to go over the top a little bit, because if you don’t, a competitor might.

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Diagnosing Your SEO Problem Properly

ShareI’m often getting request from clients to take a look at specific area of their website, where for some reason they may not be getting as much traffic as they would like. There are many great search engine optimization strategies you can use for single pages or sections of your site but thinking this way neglects the more important fundamentals […]

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Wikimotive Ebook: Social Link Building

ShareMost businesses understand the benefits of search engine optimization, but many miss out on easy opportunities. Building backlinks is common, but social link building is often overlooked. Social link building enables you to build links that will spread organically, making your site more popular and bettering your position on search engines.

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SEMPO

SEMPO Takes Aim At Google

ShareGoogle has been taking a lot of heat lately for some alleged shady business practices. We told you last week about the FTC’s plan to file an anti-trust case against them, now it seems the non-profit organization SEMPO is trying to get their licks in as well. SEMPO is a professional association working to increase awareness and promote the value […]

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Money for Lunch

Tim Martell On Money For Lunch

ShareI know the readers of these blogs have a burning question: what does Tim Martell, automotive marketing guru, sound like? Do I speak with the singsong tenor of a friendly bird on a crisp fall morning? Do I have a sultry caramel baritone that will coat your ears like sweet, bright candy apples? Well, wonder no more. The answer is […]

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Romney’s ‘Binders Full Of Women’ Goes Viral

ShareDid you catch the presidential debate this week? It was of the more intense events from any recent election. The candidates appeared as though they might drop the mics and go for blood any second. Luckily, it didn’t come to that, but there was another group waiting in the wings, poised to pounce at the first opportunity. Of course we’re […]

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SEO Frustration

So You Think You’re Ready To Do SEO On Your Own?

Sharehese days a lot of businesses are trying to decide if they should handle their own SEO or hire a company to do it for them. In today’s economy everyone is trying to save money but when it comes to SEO sometimes when you think you’re saving money you could really be losing money. Handling your own Automotive dealership search […]

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Google Disavow Links Tool

Google’s New Disavow Tool

ShareWe all want to manage our online presence, especially when it comes to search engine optimization. Unfortunately, due to the very nature of backlinks, it’s often out of our control. Until now, there hasn’t been an official solution for when you’re bombarded by poor quality links, leading some people to use such links as a tool for negative SEO. With […]

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Google Anti Trust

The FTC Looking Into Anti-Trust Case Against Google

ShareThe United States FTC is looking into the possibility of pursuing an anti-trust case against search engine giant Google. Sources close to the FTC say that four FTC commissioners “have become convinced after more than a year of investigation that Google illegally used its dominance of the search market to hurt its rivals.” A decision to file a law suit […]

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CAN_SPAM

Seven Tips For Spam-Free Email Campaigns

ShareIf your company does a lot of mass emailing as part of your automotive internet marketing strategy, it’s important that you’re careful not to fall into the “spam” category. It can be difficult to walk that line between what is acceptable and what is annoying, but it’s important that you’re able to distinguish between the two. When in doubt, you […]

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Google Page Layout Agorithm

Google Updates Page Layout Algorithm, Significantly Affects 0.7% Of Queries

ShareGoogle’s Matt Cutts just recently announced an update for the Page Layout algorithm, which originally came out in January. This algorithm is designed to reward websites who place their content above their advertisements. In a tweet on the subject Matt Cutts mentioned that 0.7% of English language queries will be affected. This may seem like a small number but in […]

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Twitter Tips For Local Marketing

ShareIf you’re a local or regional business looking to advertise on the cheap, you probably use social media. Most everyone is on Facebook, but does your company have a Twitter? If not, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful and reliable social media marketing tools that enables you to expand your brand and build a community.

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Facebook Like

Likes May Lie: Finding New Metrics

ShareWhen it comes to Marketing using Facebook, are you focusing on quality or quantity? It’s easy to fall into a rut when you’re posting daily, but it’s important that the quality of your posts doesn’t drop off. I’m sure you already know that quality is important, but did you realize that even ONE bad post can ruin your Facebook readership? […]

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Facebook Billion Users

Facebook Hits A Billion Monthly Users

ShareFacebook has hit another incredible milestone yesterday; the social network now has over a billion active monthly users. Did you read that right? That’s a BILLION with a B. Every single month. Marketing using Facebook can potentially reach more people than any other media outlet ever.

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Social media Impact

The Real Impact Of Social Media On SEO

ShareI think everyone can agree, at this point, that social media activity has a serious and measurable impact on search engine results. Search engines may use this social network information differently but no one can deny that it is having a significant effect on SEO for the automotive industry.

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Google Weakening Exact Match Domains

ShareHow have you been optimizing your site for Google? If you’re still ranking well after this year’s barrage of updates, you must be doing something right, because Google is notoriously tough on cheaters. For Google there is a fine line between cheating and good small business SEO. The only trouble is that their definition of “cheating” is the only one […]

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Social Media Marketing

New Survey Shows 87% Percent of Businesses Say Social Media Helps

ShareNearly 9 out of 10 small business owners are saying that social media has been helpful to their business. There are even more impressive stats in the same survey that seem almost low. In this article we’ll explain why social media marketing is so important.

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Taco Bell

Taco Bell: A Case Study

ShareIt’s time for another Wikimotive Case Study. You may remember the last one we did on ThinkGeek.com. This time we want to talk about a fast food juggernaut that has served billions across the globe. We want to talk about a paragon of virtue to anyone who has ever been stumbling and starving at 1 am. We want to talk […]

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governemnt search engine

Congress Gets A New Search Engine

ShareEveryone wants a more powerful search engine, and that includes the United States Government. As anyone who watched School House Rock knows, our law-making system can be fairly convoluted. That’s why this week the U.S. government is rolling out a new search engine to help the politically minded population research legislation being discussed in the House and Senate.

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Facebook Exchange

Facebook Making Bold Moves With A New Ad Network

ShareRecently Facebook has made an announcement that they have begun developing and testing a mobile ad network. Interestingly they aren’t doing just an on-domain network, like they do now, where you can only buy ad space on Facebook. This ad network will be a real cross domain network. This new development could bring a whole new meaning to the phrase […]

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retargeting

Retargeting What It Is And Why It’s Important

ShareRetargeting is the newest toy in the toy chest for digital marketing companies. The perceived ROI it brings is making it very popular and the trend has grown to the point that now even Facebook is getting in the game. So what exactly is retargeting and what are the benefits?

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facebook integration

Facebook Integration Finally A Priority With iOS6

ShareFacebook and Apple are two of the most influential companies on the internet today, but they’ve never really worked well together. The fault falls mostly on Facebook. Their mobile application has been notoriously buggy and all the functionality it promised was never truly delivered. When Apple released iOS 5, everyone thought Facebook integration would be one of the main features, […]

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Gerber Contest App

Gerber’s Great Contest

ShareRunning contests on social media is a risky proposition. It has to be just the right idea, and it has to be handled just the right way. Today, I want to take a look at one recent contest that has completely taken over marketing using Facebook.

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Twitter

Twitter Updates Profiles and User Experience

ShareOn the TODAY show earlier this week Twitter SEO, Dick Costolo made a live appearance to announce updates to the Twitter experience. The changes will affect the look and feel of profiles both on Twitter.com and on their mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android. Twitter users will now have the option of a header-photo not unlike what you have […]

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google adwords

AdWords New Shared Budget

ShareGoogle just rolled out a new feature in their AdWords service: the shared budget. Basically, it’s exactly what you would think it is. It lets you create a single daily budget that is then shared by multiple campaigns in your AdWords account. The idea being that this will make it easier for businesses to optimize their AdWords accounts, enabling them […]

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Snapseed

Google Acquires Instagram Competitor: Snapseed

ShareGoogle is back in the buying market, with the acquisition of a company that seems to be directly related to their battle with Facebook. Google acquired Nik Software, an app development company focused on photography. One app in particular is of note as a competitor to Instagram and winner of the iPad app of the year award in 2011. The […]

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Are You Looking For an Unfair Advantage?

ShareWe have big news for everyone in the automotive business. Our new book “Unfair Advantage; The World’s Leading Automotive Retail Experts Reveal Their Secrets to Give You the Upper Hand to Grow Your Business and Rev Up Your Profits TODAY!” is available on Amazon.com!

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Facebook To Concentrate On Mobile

ShareDoes your website have a mobile version yet? Do you feel like it’s important enough to really dedicate time to? Well, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg does. In a recent interview, he repeatedly cited mobile as the platform to focus on in coming years. As Facebook shifts it’s focus we may need to shift our marketing using Facebook as well.

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boycott clay nissan banner

Clay Nissan Boycott Followup

ShareOn August tenth of 2012, we wrote about the movement to Boycott Clay Nissan (you can read that article here.) As a quick refresher, a woman–named Jill Colter–was fired from her position as a service writer at Clay Nissan of Norwood. Jill has stage 4 brain cancer, and her brothers Jon and Adam claimed that her illness is the reason […]

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Analytics

Using The New Google Analytics Dashboard With WordPress

ShareOne of the best parts of the new Google Analytics is the custom dashboards. This is something you should definitely start using to properly measure your SEO, PPC, Conversion Rates, and more. You can also make custom dashboards for WordPress blogs using a simple plugin called Google Analytics for WordPress plugin. Getting a handle on your Automotive Search engine optimization […]

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Pinterest Growing In Relevancy

SharePinterest has been on our radar for a while now, but there hasnʼt been a lot of hard data showing how the network compares to its contemporaries. Thanks to a new study done by Shareaholic though, we now know a lot more about the benefits of Pinterest marketing. So how does it stack up? Pretty darn well actually.

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blogging for business

Finding Inspiration For Your Blog

ShareBlogging can be tough, especially when your marketing strategy has you posting every day. When you’re blogging for business posting every day can be extremely beneficial but writer’s block starts to become a serious problem. So how do you make sure that you’re getting regular inspiration and at the same time ensure that you’re writing about topics that are relevant […]

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Bing Integrates Facebook Photo Search In Their SERPs

ShareSo you’ve been searching for that hilarious photo your buddy put up on Facebook last week, or you can’t seem to find that one picture from his cookout last year but you know it’s there. Not to worry thanks to Bing we now have the ability to search for photos shared by your Facebook friends. For a while now Bing […]

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Blogging and Social media

Common Blogging Mistakes When It Comes To Social Media

ShareBlogging is about a lot of things, producing good content, building trust with your target market, driving traffic back to your website, adding value to your auto dealerships SEO, but one of the most important things that often gets overlooked is that you can, and should, use blogging in conjunction with your social media marketing as well. A lot of […]

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bloggin for business image

Wikimotive’s New eBook: Blogging For Business

ShareIf you’re involved with the marketing aspect of your web presence, then you’ve probably heard of blogging for business. Simply put, a well executed blog can be the hub of all your internet marketing efforts. Does your business have one? If not, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful and reliable methods of lead generation and SEO bolstering […]

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Pinterest Marketing Image

Pinterest and Instagram Experience Massive Growth This Year

SharePinterest and Instagram, the two new kids on the block. They are niche social networks each catering to a specific gap in the market and each are growing at exponential rates. We can expect Facebook and Twitter to remain the supreme social media leaders but these alternatives are growing in popularity very quickly, Instagram doesn’t have a huge value for […]

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5 Questions To Ask In Your Search For An SEO Company

ShareHere at Wikimotive, we love educated customers. Thatʼs why we put together this list, laying out the top five questions a business should ask any prospective SEO company before hiring them. It doesnʼt cover everything, but with these five questions, you should be able to get a good overall feel and narrow down your prospective partners.

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Facebook Launches Sponsored Search Results

ShareFacebook is undeniably one of the most influential companies on the internet; they dominate the social media landscape and cause web-wide rage with even the most minor of updates. Could they do more, though? They certainly seem to think so.

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Google Penguin & Panda

Google Cracking Down Even More On Unnatural SEO

ShareGoogle announced this week that they would be making further adjustments to their algorithms, specifically with the Penguin and Panda parts of it. If you’ve been reading our blog and following our advice you should have nothing to worry about because you will already be creating good content. If not you might want to pay attention because the adjustments to […]

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Internal Linking

Internal Linking: Sometimes The Most Powerful Links… Come From Within

ShareIf you’re involved with the marketing aspect of your web presence, then you’ve probably heard of internal links. Simply put, they’re links on a website that lead to other pages on that same website (hence ‘internal’). Does your business utilize them? It not, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful and reliable methods of lead generation and SEO […]

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Site Search

Using Site Search To Boost Your Sites Coversion Rate

ShareOne measurement of website success tends to get overlooked a lot in favor of other, bigger numbers like traffic and bounce rate. That measurement is conversion rate, what percentage of visitors to your website convert into a lead. One of the biggest factors when it comes to optimizing your site for higher conversion rates is usability, if users can’t successfully […]

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timeline

Facebook Timeline and Your Business

ShareFacebook has rapidly become one of the biggest players in the SEO field. Weʼve given you tips on how to make social network marketing work for you in the past, but itʼs time for an update. Facebook is implementing a major change by making their new Timeline layout compulsory. In the recent past, users could elect to change from the […]

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Wikimotive’s Landing Page Guide

Share If youʼre involved in your companyʼs internet marketing, then youʼve probably heard the term, “landing pages”. A landing page, or a lead capture page, is the page that a potential customer arrives at after clicking on an advertisement or other link. The page should be related to the ad or link and also should contain a form for gathering […]

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Twitter

The Truth About Buying Twitter followers

Share  The purchasing of Twitter followers has become an extremely popular trend. It offers the instant gratification that many people and businesses crave. When someone sees you have a mere handful of followers, they arenʼt likely to believe you have much clout (or Klout, for that matter). When you have thousands–or tens of thousands–of followers, you suddenly start to look […]

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Social Media Marketing Agency

Using Social Media To Effect Your SEO

Share As we have mentioned before, social media is not just a good way to keep in touch with your customers it’s now crucial to your SEO as well. But just how can you use your social media marketing to help your SEO? We’re going to talk about exactly that, how your social media and SEO can work together to […]

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Pinterest marketing

Pinterest’s Bold New Direction

SharePinterest has generally been ignored by the advertising world at large, but the site is making big moves to assert its relevancy. As of last week, the social media website has done away with their invite system.

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boycott clay nissan banner

The Clay Nissan Boycott

ShareSocial media represents a new dawn for the marketing industry. The level of interaction it enables between business and consumer is nothing short of revolutionary. Most would agree that this is a step forward; more communication is always preferable to less. However, it is not an avenue of communication that businesses can control, or even truly mediate. Social media creates […]

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pinterest marketing

The Pinterest Spellbook For Marketing Wizards

Share If youʼre active on social media (and you better be), than recently you may have seen people on your social networks talk about Pinterest. The site is growing rapidly, already ranking above long running sites like LinkedIn. Knowing this, of course the next thing you want to know is if itʼs a good venue for automotive digital marketing. The […]

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Conatent Strategy

Facebook Reveals New Enhanced Post Targeting For Brand Pages

ShareGeneral consensus in advertising today is usually that the most effective advertising is specifically targeted to a narrow field of people that you want to reach. For years this has been accomplished with complicated technology and it has definitely shown performance improvements from non-targeted to targeted ads. This level of targeting has never been available for Social Media Marketing before, […]

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social media monitoring

Google Purchases Wildfire

ShareSocial media is a broad term that covers a lot of sites on the web these days. Its a term that has a lot of connotation attached to it, and recently, companies have been paying big money for anything that shows a hint of success in the world of social media. Need an example?

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social media spellbook

The Social Media Spellbook For Marketing Wizards

ShareAre you interested in revving up your social media presence? Are you falling flat on Facebook, tanking on Twitter, and blogging for an audience of one? Check out the new comprehensive guide to becoming the king of your social media kingdom. With Wikimotive Social Media Spellbook For Marketing Wizards, you’ll be making the magic happen in no time.

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new site launch

How To Establish Your New Website In Search

ShareWebsites that have been established for a while always have the advantage over a new website when it comes to ranking with Google. Google tends to trust websites that have been around longer, and these websites have had more time to build good back links, which can make them difficult to compete with. Fortunately there are ways to compete by […]

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dunkin flavor radio

Don’t Just Produce, Innovate!

Share As marketers, weʼre always looking for the hottest new thing to get our brand in front of people. For ages, we had signage and print ads, then we progressed into the auditory realm with the radio, then it was video ads on TV, and finally, the ultimate advertisers playground: the internet. Online marketing is the fastest growing advertising area, […]

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facebook marketing

Deciphering Facebook Insights

ShareFacebook has had their analytics tool called, Facebook Insights, for a while now, and since its conception it has grown more and more complex. Insights are now able to show Facebook Page Admins all kinds of useful information which can be a huge help when trying to hone your Facebook marketing strategy. However it can also get a little overwhelming, […]

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social media SEO

There’s A New #1 Factor For SEO Ranking!

ShareSEO is a like a clock, always shifting, and kept true by machinery fathomless to the general population. Even people who make a living learning these intricate machinations are, at best, constantly battling to stay relevant. The hidden algorithms utilized by search engines like Google keep us on our toes, demanding constant vigilance and supreme dedication to the craft. That’s […]

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Wikimotive Logo

Wikimotive Case Study: ThinkGeek.com

Share As marketers, we need to allow ourselves to be both leaders and followers. It’s important to innovate and move forward, if you’re always playing catch-up, how can you get ahead? At the same time, we can’t disregard something just because it’s been done before; necessity demands that we embrace the successful to survive. The trick is finding a healthy […]

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twitter targeted ads

New Targeted Ads On Twitter

ShareTwitter has really blossomed as a powerful tool for digital marketing. With one of the largest and most active communities in all of social media, there is no denying that the service merits your attention. Any time you can reach such a massive group of people for short money, you know it’s in your best interest. And now, Twitter is […]

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Making Sure Your Web Content Is Working For You Not Against You

ShareIn any good dealership search engine optimization campaign you need to establish your dealership as a credible industry leading source of information. This can definitely be a handful but there are a few easy guidelines you can follow to make sure that your web content is helping your case rather than hurting it. Creating great content on a regular basis […]

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social media marketing

Social Media: A Knife Without a Handle

ShareIt’s a powerful tool, one that can truly further your business and bring in customers, but it can hurt you just as quickly. Like any tool, in and of itself, it can only take you so far; it performs based on the skill of its user. That’s why its crucial that you make sure you have the right people in […]

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google analytics v5

Google Finally Makes The Full Switch To Analytics v5

ShareCan you believe that it’s been a year since Google announced the new Google Analytics? Before now you didn’t have to make the transition if you didn’t want to but now, a year later, Google is killing version 4 and version 5 will be the only option. The link back to “Old Version – Reporting” has been removed from the […]

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wikipedia logo

Should you add your business to Wikipedia?

ShareWikipedia has become the go-to resource for an increasingly large number of people. According to Alexa, it is currently the sixth most visited website both in the United States and on the planet. With such an enormous audience, it’s only natural to want your business to have its own page, and with Wikipedia’s content submission system, it’s easily possible. Being […]

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Social Media’s Role In The 2012 Summer Olympics

ShareSocial Media will be playing a large role in this years 2012 Summer Olympics. During the last Summer Olympics in 2008 most of the major social media sites were still just getting started, and internet users have increased from 23% to about one third of the total world population. This year at the Olympics Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter will be […]

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search engine marketing

Where should you spend your SEM budget?

ShareWhen it comes to your advertising dollar, you always want the most bang for your buck. Google has long been a favorite, dominating the market and practically commanding every dollar of your search engine marketing budget. It has been true for so long that many companies don’t even bother with the competitors, but is that a wise decision?

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domain names

Choosing The Right Domain Name

ShareMuch like naming a child, choosing a domain name for your business website can be a long and arduous journey. Its a decision that could have a huge effect on your whole online marketing strategy going forward.  The instinct is to choose the domain that’s the same as your business name, but that’s not always possible. Sometimes your business name […]

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How To Monitor Twitter To Get More Business Today

ShareAny business can, and should, be getting more out of their twitter account simply by utilizing monitoring techniques. There are many sites and services out there that let you search all of twitter for certain keywords. The benefit of this should be obvious to any decent salesman. If you can sell on a cold call or shotgun advertising techniques, how […]

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search spider

Have You Run An SEO Audit On Your Site?

ShareYour website could be the most beautiful looking site of all time on the outside, easy to use well designed, and plenty of great engaging content, but how does it look on the inside? All of those things are important to your dealership’s Automotive search engine optimization but sometimes what’s going on behind the scenes can have just as big […]

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Writing Content For Your Web Site, Do’s And Don’ts

ShareHave you ever seen a beautifully designed website, one with crisp graphics and a flowing layout, that just didn’t deliver the right information? In the rush to get a site smoothed and polished, small businesses often forget about quality writing. Someone involved hammers out some copy and up it goes. Don’t let this happen to you!

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Facebook Marketing Strategies

5 Tips For Better Facebook Management

ShareEveryone understands that it’s important to have a Facebook page, and a Facebook marketing strategy, but you need to be sure it’s not stagnating. Once you’re established, your new goal should be gaining as many fans as humanly possible. It can be tricky sometimes, as people aren’t always keen to follow a business on their personal page, but it’s possible. […]

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New Study Shows Just How Much Social Media Affects Search Results

ShareWe’ve known for a while now that social media signals are used in Google’s search algorithms but now a new study done by Searchmetrics details just how important social  media really is. In light of this new info social media marketing is more important than ever, and just having a profile and a few fans or followers isn’t going to […]

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mobile web sites

The Hard Facts About Mobile Sites

ShareHere in the year 2012, even the most old fashioned of businesses have an online presence. Even if it’s just the equivalent of a Geocities page, people have recognized the value of having at least their basic information on a website. Now though, there’s a new browsing trend that’s growing exponentially, and businesses are again proving slow to adapt. You’d […]

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Wikimotive Logo

Wikimotive Welcomes The Harbour Sports Bar

Share It’s our pleasure to announce the newest addition to the Wikimotive family: The Harbour Sports Bar and Grill! The Harbour Sports Bar and Grill is the premier dining experience in Winchendon, MA. Everything on their menu is made fresh and they have the best seafood in the area. Whether you want a fine dining experience in the formal dining […]

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twitter targeted ads

Top Tips For Tweets

ShareSocial media marketing is one of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy. There are a few major players in the game, the biggest is probably Facebook, but Twitter is a close second. Some even claim Twitter is MORE important for businesses because of its ability to handle rapid fire posting and its accessibility on mobile devices. So for […]

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social media relevance and seo

Social Media Relevance In SEO

ShareThere is an interesting storm brewing in the SEO field, one that could have serious ramifications for a lot of businesses. Currently, the primary SEO strategy for many, many campaigns is link building. Content is posted, links are directed, and all too often it doesn’t even matter how many people truly view or value the content. It’s all about the […]

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Content is King

Content Is King

ShareThere are a lot of articles and blogs out there offering things like “15 steps to optimize your site” or “10 things you need to change for the new Google updates” etc. The problem is most of these 15 steps are extraneous and skirt the real issue. If there is ONE thing you need to know about small business SEO […]

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Wikimotive Logo

5 Tips For Local SEO Practices

Share Every modern business knows the importance of SEO, but businesses who operate at the local level need to make sure they’re not overlooking to importance of local SEO. It happens too often that a local restaurant will drill into small business SEO, online marketing, and social media marketing, while completely neglecting the most important thing of all: LOCAL SEO!

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Facebook Marketing

Does Facebook Marketing Work?

ShareOne of the most discussed topics these days in the world of digital marketing is whether or not social media marketing is actually an effective means of marketing. Social media is definitely a huge part of consumers’ lives but do brand pages actually drive ROI?

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Start Taking Advantage Of YouTube And Video Marketing

ShareVideo Marketing can be an excellent opportunity to to take advantage of the second largest search engine in the world, YouTube. A lot of companies are hesitant to get into video marketing because they think it will be too much effort and too expensive for equipment. The fact is that filming short videos these days can actually be pretty easy […]

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SEO for Facebook

Facebook Creates Video Guide For Optimizing Your Page

ShareIf you’re looking for good SEO advice Facebook probably wouldn’t be the first place you might go. However, the people over at Facebook are trying to change that. Along side an online marketing agency called Distilled, Facebook just launched a new video that will show users how to optimize their Facebook pages. This is the first video Facebook has done […]

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Apple Map Application for IOS 6

Apple Comes Out With A Google Maps Competitor At WWDC

ShareSomeone has finally stepped up and challenged the giant that is Google Maps. Whether or not this turns out to be a fool hardy move remains to be seen but Apple has developed a competitor for Google Maps. They announced the product OpenStreetMap at the Worldwide Developers Conference, not a totally surprising move for a company known for its love […]

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Search Engine Optimization

Make Your Website Relevant With More Than Just Keywords

ShareWe have all heard about the changing Google algorithms and claims that they “understand the world a bit more like people do.” If you haven’t and you run a website or a business please give us at Wikimotive a call, we have a lot to talk about. Many people in the industry have been panicking over these updates claiming that […]

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Facebook Acquires The Pieceable Team For Mobile Innovation

ShareFacebook has had a bit of a rough time since their IPO despite being one of the most hyped IPO’s of all time. Since mid May when they went public Facebook has been trying to boost their stock prices from the initial dive they took. In an effort to become more mobile relevant and boost mobile revenues Facebook has recently […]

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American Sports Fans On Social Media

ShareAccording to a recent study sports fans are getting their news and other sports content through social media and mobile devices more and more. In 2012 so far 26% of sports fans follow leagues teams and players through social media. Last year that number was only 15%. 22% of sports fans said that they use their mobile devices to get […]

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Twitter Facebook Integration

Twitter Makes Cross Posting To Facebook More Seamless

ShareTwitter just recently tweaked the way that usernames, hashtags, and photos are cross posted to Facebook. This adjustment is going to make cross posting for your social media marketing a little more seamless. “The updated Twitter for Facebook integration now includes additional rich media experiences related to the first photo, URL, @mention or #hashtag in the cross-posted tweet,” Twitter spokesman […]

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Blogging man

Increase Your Blog Readership By Following These 5 Steps

ShareIncreasing your blog traffic can be a difficult task, just throwing some content up on your site no matter how good the content is, isn’t going to cut it. If you are struggling to build a decent readership you might be over looking these easy to follow guidelines that will help you make a better blog. You have to market […]

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facebook promoted posts page

Facebook Introduces Three New Features For Facebook Marketers

ShareFacebook made a few new updates for the month of June that Facebook Marketing experts should be very interested in. These updates show an interesting shift in Facebook’s attitude toward those of us who use it for marketing. All of the three updates that I will cover are a long time coming and will make Facebook Marketing more convenient.

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small business seo

Google Launches Webmaster Academy For Beginner Webmasters

ShareGoogle just recently launched a new awesome service through Webmaster Tools for learning how to make a site that preforms well in Google search results. It’s called Webmaster Academy and it’s a comprehensive guide on how to make your website great and covers everything from how to use Webmaster tools to creating and syndicating content through social media. This guide […]

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Social media Impact

New Study Shows Social Media Starting To Replace Face-To-Face Interaction

Share IBM recently did a study with 1,700 different CEO’s in 64 countries to discuss changes in the way business is conducted these days. The topic of discussion was how they engage with their customers. Each was asked how they go about engaging with their customers today and how they see that changing in 3-5 years. Unsurprisingly social media marketing […]

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New Study Shows Marketers Are Clueless About Social Media

ShareDespite all the buzz about social media these days only 49% of marketers have fully integrated it into their internet marketing strategy. This is according to a study done by Forrester Research based on 99 CMOs and marketing VPs in February of this year. The odd thing is that the same study also reveals that the same people are very […]

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Google AdWords for Video

Google Introduces AdWords For YouTube Video

ShareIt used to be that you needed big bucks to advertise via video.  The internet has certainly changed that, but you have still always needed a substantial investment to get a quality commercial completed and actually scene by anyone.  Well, Google is working to change all that, and it should make a big splash in the world of online marketing.

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New Bill Supports User Privacy On Facebook

ShareA new bill proposed by New York and Illinois Democrats Eliot Engel and Jan Schakowsky will change the way employers use Facebook when searching for new employees. The bill is known as the “Social Networking Online Protection Act” or SNOPA and it addresses the growing practice of pre-employment Facebook screenings, intending to make the practice itself illegal. Many employers have […]

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Google algorithms updates

Google Releases About 50 Algorithm Updates For April

ShareEarly this month Google released another string of algorithm updates. About 50 of them to be exact, luckily we have narrowed the field down to only a few that you really should be paying attention to. You may need to adjust your small business SEO strategy so pay attention.

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Social Media Marketing

New Study Reveals More About How Millennials Use Facebook

ShareMillennials make up the core of the Facebook users, they are the people who are between the ages of 18-29 and have grown up in the age of social media. They have made social platforms like Facebook a daily part of their lives and will check in for everything from world news to what their friends are doing. So when […]

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Google GOP

Google Is Officially The Social Platform For The Republican National Convention

ShareThe Republican National Convention will convene in Tampa Florida from August 27-30. During that time they have chosen Google to be their “official social platform and live stream provider.” Google will provide coverage of RNC events, programs and interviews via Google+ and YouTube. This should have a major impact for the GOP online reputation management.

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Over-Optomization

Google Cracks Down On Over-Optimization

ShareWith Google planning to crack down on over-optimization with their newest round of algorithm updates SEOs everywhere are scrambling to find out if they will be affected. Rather than speculate and face heavy penalties it is best to play it safe for now and check a few key places on your website to make sure that your small business SEO […]

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Search Engine Optomization

Automotive SEO: The Backbone

ShareIn this fast-paced world where technology has advanced and is advancing, and marketing in the automotive industry has been and is still challenging, help is on its way. Car dealers benefit by having a sophisticated and high-tech way of exposing their business – brand, dealership, vehicles- with the birth of Automotive Marketing and the aid of SEO for the Automotive […]

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Study Shows Huge Social Media Impact For Automotive Sales And Service

ShareIn a recent study done by Sociable Labs it was revealed that a very significant number of Automotive shoppers are making purchasing decisions based on social sharing. Apparently 1 in 4 shoppers who are active on Facebook have made a vehicle or service department purchase based on recommendations they saw in their news feed. This has confirmed what we’ve always […]

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video silhouette

How To Correctly Implement Video Content On Your Site

ShareSo you’ve finally got some excellent video content you think is worthy of your awesome website. But you’re not sure how to implement it on your site properly to ensure you get the greatest return. Well here’s a guide on how to use your online marketing skills to get that video content the best possible exposure.

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Managing Your Indexed Pages After Panda

ShareSince the Panda update for Google algorithms, more and more people have been trying to manage their Google index by weeding out “low-quality” pages. Managing your index is always a good idea if your goal is good Automotive search engine optimization results, but there are a few common mistakes that you should look out for.

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verizon facebook timeline

How To Use Photos On Facebook For A Sucessful Social Media Campaign

ShareFacebook has changed quite a lot over the years but there is one thing that always remains the same. While certain Facebook Marketing strategies may shift and change the one thing that always gets people interested are stories on a timeline or news feed that are told with images. Recent statistics from Facebook suggest that posts which include a photo […]

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Search Results With Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets: A General Overview

ShareRich snippets these days are every where in the search engine results pages (SERPs), and they can help you improve your click through rate. For most people they help to show if what they’re searching for is within reach on a particular site. They can draw the users attention by providing extra relevant information about their search. By using rich […]

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SEO Comic

Understanding The Google ‘Venice’ Update And It’s Impact On Local Search

ShareThe Inside Search Blog published around 40 something changes to Google’s algorithms in February. Most of these were small little tweaks but there were a couple noteworthy updates. The one I want to talk about today is Launch codename “Venice” which covers improvements to ranking for local search results. There were two entries in the post that pertained to local […]

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Blogging Tips

10 Things To Keep In Mind For A Successful Blog

ShareBlogging is a crucial part of a well rounded online marketing and Auto SEO strategy. Creating a successful blog is hard work but the benefits can be huge. So how do you make sure that your blog is successful? Here are 10 basic tips to keep you on the right track.

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social media marketing

Unified Offers Online Certification For Social Media Marketers

ShareMany people these days might consider themselves a ‘social media expert’ but Unified is actually giving social media marketers a way to prove it. Unified is a social media operating platform, offering tools for planning and analyzing social media marketing strategies. Now they are offering a service called Unified University, which will apparently make you a certified social media expert.

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Great Tips For Dealers On Pinterest And Social Media In General

ShareI recently read a blog post on ADM where J.D. Rucker detailed The Value of Pinterest for Car Dealers. In the post he gave us a few tips on how to get started using Pinterest as a social media marketing tool. Pinterest for those who don’t know is a relatively new social network site where you can organize and share […]

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The Rise Of Mobile

Share People have been talking for years about the “post-PC era” when use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets would exceed that of personal computers. It seems that 2012 is going to be the start of this new era. In 2011 there were 472 million smartphones sold world wide, and tablet sales grew by 250 per cent reaching just […]

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Tim Martell

Wikimotive Workshop to Feature at 2012 AMBC

Share Wikimotive President, Timothy Martell – Featured Speaker See and hear what last years attendee’s and speakers had to say about the Automotive Digital Marketing Bootcamp. Wikimotive’s own Timothy Martell can be heard at 3:30 mark! Need some personalized advice on blogging? Need a blog created and/or managed for you? Give us a ring or use our Wikimotive contact sheet!

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On Target Dollars

NBO’s The Holy Grail Of Marketing

ShareAn article recently published on the Harvard Business Review website explores the idea of NBO (next best offer) as the holy grail of marketing. The article entitled “Know What Your Customers Want Before They Do” outlines how brands can utilize the wealth of data currently available to customize their offers, and target individuals at the right moment through the right […]

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Wikimotive Logo

Get Informed About Internet Marketing In 2012

Share All of us here at Wikimotive will be attending the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) in Las Vegas in February and we couldn’t be more excited. The conference agenda was posted on ADM not long ago and DMSC looks to be an excellent experience for those attending this year.

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Facebook Posting

New Study Suggests Facebook Pages Should Wait At Least 3 Hours Between Posts

ShareFacebook page analytics company EdgeRank Checker has recently conducted a study of 30,000 posts on over 500 pages and they’ve come up with some interesting data. In the pages EdgeRank Checker analyzed they found that the average post will continue to receive likes and comments for around 3 hours after being published. This means that to maximize engagement and impressions […]

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Social Media Employees

How Businesses Are Using Social Media in The Hiring Process [INFOGRAPHIC]

Share Social media plays a larger and larger role in our personal lives, and even for those who don’t work with social media for a living like I do, it is starting to hugely effect our professional lives as well. For a while now social media marketing has been a large focus for businesses looking to strengthen their social image […]

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Failing QR Codes – The Solution?

Share  This article was originally featured on iMedia Connection They have become the standard violator appearing on advertising; in the corner of print ads, across billboards, on buses, or in pieces of direct mail — even peppered throughout this article. You’ve seen them; that little block of even littler squares. Unfortunately the technology behind QR codes was not invented for […]

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WordPress Ads

Bloggers Can Soon Put Ads On Their WordPress Blogs

ShareThe company behind WordPress.com, Automattic, has teamed up with Federated Media to bring a new feature to millions of Word Press users. The two companies have collaborated to give users the ability to place ads on their blogs. This could have a profound effect on internet marketing opportunities.

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Twitter

Twitter Announces 100 Million Monthly Active Users

ShareTwitter CEO Dick Costolo shared some interesting stats about Twitter’s growth, including that it has more than 100 million active users and that signups via iOS device have tripled since the launch of iOS 5.

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Profit Advertising

New Facebook Advertising: Brilliant and Unexpected!

ShareFacebook and Google get compared a lot these days, but with its new advertising strategy, Facebook is adapting Google’s ad strategy to its social media.

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Facebook Photos

The History of Facebook Advertising [Infographic]

ShareOriginally posted on Masahable As Facebook has grown from a collegiate social network to a site that gets action from 7.3% of the world’s population, it has also evolved into a marketing tool. One report estimated that advertisers will spend $4 billion on Facebook advertising this year. Facebook didn’t come out of the gate as a marketing-friendly product in 2004, and it has […]

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Facebook Like

7 Ways to Kill the News Ticker on Facebook

Share This homepage ticker is going to give me a migraine. It shows if you have chat open, and if you close chat, it takes residence above the ads and everything else. Seriously, that’s too distracting. The eye is naturally drawn to movement, and Facebook has already given me attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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hate Facebook

Do You Hate the New Facebook?

ShareComplaints about Facebook’s changes to the site today defy measurement. Publicly visible status updates that complain appear to be going up as public status updates at least once every ten seconds. Comments on these posts are going up much faster than we can count. Plus we have no way to tally the number of complaining posts using the new privacy settings to limit visibility to friends. So is the technology […]

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new facebook sidebar

Facebook News Ticker Redesign Explained

ShareFacebook has redesigned the news feed (again!) and officially launched a ticker in the right-hand side of the screen. Users have been seeing both of these changes in beta test versions in recent weeks, but today they go live across the site. While the news feed and ticker at first seem like duplicates of one another, the latter looks like a skinnier version of the […]

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Facebook

Top 5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Share This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. While automotive Facebook marketing is on the rise among small businesses, many are still struggling to master the basics. “Many people have difficulty with just the basic Page set up,” says social media marketing consultant Nicole Krug. “For […]

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Facebook hits 1 TRILLION Page Views

Share  First reported by Fox News Facebook has officially hit 1 trillion page views, according to figures released for web traffic in June, Time magazine’s TechLand column reports. According to Time, those 870 million visitors are around 120 million greater than Facebook’s reported total number of registered users. The discrepancy may be due to non-Facebook members visiting the site from […]

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reputation management

When Reputation Does Not Matter

ShareSince we’re just about to approach the height of the reputation management craze I figure now is an excellent time to talk about what happens when it doesn’t matter again. Or will it? Recently, I blogged about my stay at The Union Bluff hotel in York Beach, Maine which was somewhat sub par. This particular stay made me think, though. […]

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Automotive Facebook Marketing Bootcamp

#AMBC Ready to LAUNCH!

Share Automotive Marketing Bootcamp Round Tables Ready to Rock People are beginning to make their way in. The look of “deer in the headlights” is prevalent among the newcomers. For a few there will be some refresh, but for many this will be the wake up call they could never have anticipated!

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Automotive Facebook Marketing

Facebook Fans: Are You Marketing to the Wrong People?

ShareYou’re Missing The Buyer! Facebook is an exciting medium. There are amazing success stories and equally amazing monumental failures. Everyone seems to know that they need to be “on Facebook,” but very few people seem to know why other than to say that it’s “where your consumers are” or “you’re missing out on free advertising” or “its the most exciting […]

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future google

Automotive SEO: Google Blasts Sites That Regurgitate Content

ShareWhat does this mean to the future of Automotive SEO? Google announced a major change to the google algorithm today. So what does it mean? This change has effected 11.8% of websites. The goal? To weed out “low quality” websites. “Sites that copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.” I shudder to even quote […]

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controversy

Automotive Marketing Bootcamp: A Polarizing Event

Share Controversy is GOOD! There has been much controversy over the last couple weeks surrounding the Automotive Marketing Bootcamp and the Digital Dealer 10 conference. Some have taken sides, some have remained neutral, but more importantly, people are talking and they are talking about dealer education!

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9 Social Media Guidelines Your Dealer May Want To Follow

Share 9 Guidelines for Social Media Participation at (Insert your Dealership Name) These guidelines apply to (Dealership) employees or contractors who create or contribute to blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, or any other kind of Social Media. Whether you log into Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, or comment on online media stories – these guidelines are for you. While all […]

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Facebook Like - Getting Return Visitors

Social Media Guru’s Still Trying to Sing Pachelbel!

ShareStill Singing the Same Song OK. When a comedian makes a joke about regurgitating the same crap over and over for years it’s humorous! But what happens when your so called “social media experts” keep telling you that you can’t sell on Social Media?

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Facebook Marketing

Wikimotive’s Own Timothy Martell Featured in Auto Dealer Monthly

ShareViewpoints This month, Wikimotive’s own Timothy Martell is featured the Viewpoints section of Auto Dealer Monthly in recognition of the successful Facebook marketing initiative launched at Marlboro Nissan in 2010. What is not covered in the article are the incredible results experienced by Marlboro Nissan as a result in this initiative which are outlined here. In January of 2010, Timothy […]

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Wikimotive Logo

Wikimotive to sponsor Napa Festivities at DMSC!

Share Wikimotive Social Media Superstar Sponsors Social Events at DMSC Wikimotive has stepped up to the plate and sponsored the bus transportation to and from the dinner events at PCG’s Digital Marketing Strategies Conference scheduled this February in Napa Valley prior to NADA! Apropos that the Social Media Superstar sponsor the “Social Events” at the greatly anticipated summit! Conference details […]

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What makes a great Digital Marketing Company?

ShareTop Gun – The “elite” best of the best Each year it seems like hundreds of new digital marketing companies spring up and then disappear. As business owners or internet managers or marketing directors, we see hundreds even thousands of e-mails in our inboxes and solicitations on LinkedIn each day promising everything from “Top Google Placement” to “High Lead Conversion” […]

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Expert Panel Discussion -Featuring Timothy Martell- Social Media Policy Within Your Dealership

Share  Date: Time: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 9:00 AM Pacific 10:00 AM Mountain 11:00 AM Central 12:00 PM Eastern Does your dealership have a Social Media Policy in place? Do you even need one? And if so, what should it say? TK Carsites proudly invites you to join our panel of Social Media Experts as they share their experiences and […]

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Automotive Facebook Marketing

Facebook Marketing for Car Dealers 101

Share  3 Reasons Car Dealers Fail at Facebook Marketing #1 The Wrong Questions Dealer’s are constantly asking me how they can drive more “In Market” or “Relevant Fans/Likes” to their facebook pages. It is in the question itself that dealers go wrong. Social Media isn’t a trick. You can’t approach it by prejudging the value of one fan or like […]

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Business SEO

Automotive SEO: Quality Score Optimization Part 1

ShareQuality score optimization or QSO is a topic that is rarely mentioned in the scope of SEO, yet it is one of the most important aspects of a good SEO and SEM campaign. It is part of SEO because it is through SEO that the Quality Score is applied. But it most directly impacts your SEM or PPC campaign. QSO […]

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Graphic man with arrows pointing towards him

Dealer SEO: Create Pay-per-Click Campaigns

Share The goal for search engine optimization is to rank for free within the organic search results for your target keywords. In contrast, with pay-per click (sometimes called search engine marketing or SEM)your goal is to pay for placement by competing with other advertisers for ranking within the sponsored results section. With organic listing there is no charge when someone […]

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SMO

Automotive SEO: Social Media Optimization

ShareSocial media optimization (SMO) is a type of online marketing that specifically focuses on participating on various social media sites in order to generate traffic, buzz, and back-links to your website. Social media sites are made up of social news sites like Digg, Sphinn and StumbleUpon; video sharing sites like YouTube and Revver; and social network sites like Facebook, LinkedIn […]

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Dealer SEO: Google Analytics

Share Google provides a free analytics solution designed to give you a complete view of every aspect of activity on your website. Possessing the ability to properly analyze and understand all the various data Google provides to you will give you an edge over the competition in terms of your SEO strategy. Additionally, Google Analytics gives you the high level […]

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headache

The Biggest Mistake Marketing Professionals Make With Social Media Marketing

ShareThey ask, “How can I get “RELEVANT” or “IN MARKET” fans/likes/followers to join/like/follow my fan page/tweets?” ANSWER: YOU CAN’T TRICK SOCIAL MEDIA! First of all, the “relevant” fans/followers are the ones who WANT to like/follow you! If a human being made the conscious decision to spend time exposing themselves to your brand, why would you ever be so presumptuous to […]

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linking

Automotive SEO: Link Building

ShareI’ve said it many times before and you’ve likely heard it from other sources as well, “Content is King”. If we believe this to be true, then link building also called a backlink is most definitely the queen of seo. The reason you must have more than just quality content is that Google (and other search engines) evaluate both the […]

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community forum

Dealer SEO: The Forum

ShareIn the last article we discussed how to use a blog as part of your search engine optimization strategy. Unlike a blog, a community forum is a discussion board. Here you will find members and moderators engaging by posting questions and answers and generally discussing common problems. Forums encourage your users to come back again and again by facilitating interaction […]

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manipulate

Online Marketing: The Key to Manipulation

ShareDon’t Cheat! You would probably expect someone who tout’s himself as the master of all things digital to claim to have some super cheat code to search engine optimization and Social Media Marketing right? Hire me and I’ll let you into my “SEO cool club” and you too can get thousands of visitors a day to your website and money […]

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SEO Techniques

Dealer SEO – Content Creation

Share Creating unique or original content is key to your long term SEO success. Your content is what visitors will use to judge value and one of the key elements that search engines use to rank your site. Whether or not you end up on page 1 or page 100 is largely dependent upon the quality and relevance of your […]

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2014 Ford F-150 Raptor

Online Marketing: Generate MONSTER Site Traffic

Share Did you catch that line? If you didn’t watch the video clip, do it now…

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Automotive Internet Marketing

Automotive SEO: Advanced Site Structure

Share In the last article I discussed basic website structure. Once the basic website structure of your site is set up, you can use several other advanced structural techniques to optimize your site for SEO purposes. It may seem counter-intuitive, but in addition to having your content indexed, you may want to tell search engines not to index a particular […]

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SEO. Button on Modern Computer Keyboard. Internet Concept. 3D Render.

Dealer SEO: Basic Site Structure

ShareOptimized website structure and design determines the performance of your website. This is what makes it easy or difficult for users to navigate or search engines to find your content. Balance is important. You need to balance the design of your site between the needs of your users and the search engines. To be successful your site needs to provide […]

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blog or no blog

Online Marketing: The Blog pt1 – your SEO engine

ShareTo blog or not to blog-that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler on the internet to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous SEO, Or to take arms against a sea of traffic And, by opposing end it. To digg, to nofollow link No More-and by nofollow link to say we end The traffic and the thousands of natural pageviews… […]

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Automotive Marketing

Automotive SEO – Page Creation

ShareIn my last article we discussed keyword generation. It is only natural then that we should next talk about the pages upon which your keywords should be targeted… When it comes to SEO, it is important to keep in mind that search engines don’t actually rank websites. Search engines rank individual web pages, thus, in order to be successful with […]

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keyword suggestion tool

Dealer SEO – A Few Words about Keywords

ShareKeyword Generation Keyword generation is one of the most important components of a successful SEO campaign. All keywords are NOT created equally. Some keywords are easier to rank for than others and some require more than just a proficient level of skill to rank for – they require alliances! Sounds like a new survivor episode right? Broad or “short tail” […]

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Automotive Social Media Marketing - Facebook Tips

Online Marketing: The Website Pt. 2 – Build your House

ShareSo you’ve accepted that your foundation was broken and now you’ve got a new one (see Online Marketing: The Website Pt.1 before you proceed). Great! You’ve got the right team or the best website provider in the biz, a STRONG foundation right? Now what? Time to begin building your house! Like all houses, you need to start with a floor and […]

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automotive seo

Ready? On your mark… Get set… SEO!

ShareGetting started with search engine optimization can seem a daunting task. You’re starting with nothing and you know you need to build pages of content and links, etc. But this is the part where you don’t look at the big picture. When I began, I was still selling cars in the dealership and trying to do web design and learn […]

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Digital Marketing Mistakes

Online Marketing: The Website Pt. 1 – A Look into YOUR Virtual Business

ShareThe Website Oooooh. Sends chills down your spine right? LOL OK so we’re not talking about the most emotionally inspiring topic, but it is quite possibly the most important. A lot of people view the website as the beginning – where it all starts. But really it is quite the opposite. This is where is all ends, if you’re doing […]

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Wikimotive SEO Word Cloud

SEO – a brief history

ShareSearch engine optimization is the process of setting up a website so that it ranks well for specific keywords with in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc). Unlike search engine marketing (SEM), also called PPC (pay-per-click) which requires that you pay for every click sent to your website from a search […]

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SMO

Online Marketing – The broad strokes…

ShareThe Broad Strokes Online Marketing… Its a really broad term. How is it different than SEO or SEM or Social Media or Digital Marketing etc? Online Marketing is the game plan. It’s the coaches playbook. Its the summation of all those other components used as part of your strategy to generate leads or traffic or phone calls or clicks or […]

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Tim Martell

Automotive SEO – Wikistyle!

ShareWhy Wikimotive SEO? Welcome to Wikimotive.net. I created Wikimotive for two primary reasons. To offer my services as an industry expert because I realize that, while I can take the time to teach you proper SEO techniques, many professionals simply do not have the time necessary to get the results they are looking for. On the other hand, I remember […]

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Refund vector icon. Style is bicolor flat symbol, cobalt and gray colors, rounded angles, white background.

Vendor Reseller Program

Share Already doing marketing, but trying to stay relevant and current, in a quickly-changing digital market? Not really sure where to start? We can help, with our broad digital marketing service menu!

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