In previous life, I spoke with numerous dealers who were making an odd strategic decision. They would openly tell me they didn’t want to target keywords for certain geographic areas. That is to say, they didn’t want to target a particular town or city because they had a gentleman’s agreement with a dealer in that area. Wow! This disturbed me for a few different reasons. Let’s look beyond the possible market manipulation for a second and talk about good ol’ fashion American competition and survival of the fittest.
Their reasoning struck me as funny because not targeting the same location as their competition makes about as much since to me as not advertising on the TV because the commercials play in a competitor’s area, or advertising in the newspaper because that paper gets delivered to “so and so”. Let me be very, very clear. I have no qualms with competition. As long as they’re not being slanderous or talking smack about me, I say bring it on. I would say the same to you. Don’t let yourself get lazy. Competition is what drives each of us to be better. I saw a Nike commercial some time ago that has stuck with me and sums up what I think: “My better is better than your better”.
As the Dealer Principal or Internet Manager of an auto dealership, you do not have the luxury to pick and choose where to target your dealership’s search engine optimization strategy.
