Proudly serving the industry for which it was named for more than 50 years, Outdoor Power Equipment provides dealers who sell and service outdoor power equipment with valuable information to succeed in a competitive market.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/134954
FEATURE STORY By Blane Vik a good practice to use a variety of keyword match types — broad, phrase and exact. Broad match keywords will provide the most traffic and exact match the fewest; however, using the exact match type will result in more targeted traffic. Myth #2 - Set it and forget it. THE TRUTH: This is a common myth when it comes to PPC. Most dealers don't have the time to constantly make adjustments to their PPC campaigns, but they should. Just as you make changes to your website to keep it current and representative of what is going on at your dealership, you should make changes to your PPC campaigns. Competition comes and goes, which will affect your ad positioning.Your business changes season to season. In spring and summer, you focus on lawn care equipment; in winter, you switch to snow removal products. What specials are you running? Spring Tuneup Special? End-of-season Winterization and Storage? Are you having a customer appreciation event? Are you introducing a new product line? The list goes on and on. I was recently discussing the pros and cons of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising with a dealer, and I realized that there are a lot of myths about Search Engine Marketing (SEM) out there. By the end of our conversation, we were both surprised by how many of the following five myths he believed to be true. How many of the following five myths do you think are true and, more importantly, how many have you been following in your SEM campaigns? Myth #1 - Keywords: The broader, the better. THE TRUTH: Too many dealers focus on using broad, generic keywords like "lawn mower" or "chain saw." Using keywords like these will drive a lot of 20 traffic to your website, but they won't generate qualified clicks and, ultimately, many buyers. The best searches are local and specific. When compiling a list of keywords for your campaign, in addition to using generic keywords, you should use specific keywords ("Toro Lawn Mowers Springfield Illinois"), as well as long-tail keyword phrases ("Cub Cadet RZT S Zero Turn Riders). The more modifiers you add to your keywords, the more targeted your clicks. Using specific and long-tail keyword phrases also opens the door for you to dominate your markets because competition for specific keywords isn't as tight and, is more affordable. Plus, the clicks they generate are more qualified and have a higher conversion rate. It's also OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT In this mobile world, consumers demand instant access to information. If they can't find what they're looking for within three clicks, they move on to the next website. www.outdoorpowerequipment.com Image above ©istockphoto.com/gdas Busted: Myths 5 Search Engine Marketing Myth #3 - Being first is best. THE TRUTH: Many dealers assume that the top position is what they should strive for — at least until they experience sticker shock when they find out how much it takes to be — and stay — at the top. Instead, you should shoot for the No. 3 or No. 4 spot. Contrary to what many believe, consumers don't have to scroll down far on the first page of results to see the third or fourth paid ad. That means you don't have to pay a premium for the first position to guarantee a high clickthrough rate. By targeting the No. 3 or