I’m not here to preach one way or another about dealership microsites because if used correctly they can be very effective.  I’d rather tell you a story and let you decide for yourself on how best to apply them to your dealership (if at all).

I had a dealer in New York call me about two weeks ago inquiring into our dealer websites and SEO.  The first words out of his mouth were, “can you build me a bunch of microsites”?  My regretful response, “why”, led him into a 5 minute seminar on microsites helping with SEO, creating additional SEO rankings and hundreds of back-links to his website.   He also shared his theory on how automotive shoppers “hate dealers”, and that by taking the dealer’s brand away from a microsite makes the customer feel more comfortable to fill out a lead form.

My experience with microsites started in 2004 when I started an online marketing agency providing SEM/SEO services to Retail Automotive.  We were one of the first (if not the first) companies to market Search to car dealers.  Our core product was in-fact a microsite….we called it an “SEO sub-site”.  The SEO sub-site was born out of necessity because our first client’s website provider refused us access to the backend of the website where we needed upload our SEO code and content.  The client wanted SEO and we offered SEO.  Their website provider did not.  So we developed a work-around…

… by creating a sub-domain underneath the client’s main URL.  Soon we were outranking even the dealer’s main website, acheiving thousands of additional rankings and sending all SEO and SEM traffic to our microsite - segregating traffic, leads and costs and ROI to show the dealer.

Great deal right?  So we all thought…including the dealer.  And we continued for years signing up some of the most well-known dealer groups in the country.  Yet my biggest fear from day 1 was that the very website providers we were working around were eventually going to catch wind and bring SEO/SEM in-house.

As our proof of results spread and our name got out there, we were invited to meet with the largest automotive website providers to talk “mergers & acquisitions”.  My partner was excited, but I knew deep down they were planning for their own future which wasn’t going to include us at all.  We were a marketing company, not an inventory management system…or a listing tool….or a pricing tool…or really even a true automotive website provider.  Our product was a glorified lead form that got great SEO rankings.  And dealers loved it because SEO was the hottest thing at the time, and we were best at it.

And through it all, we really never thought about the website visitor.  These poor people had no idea they weren’t visiting the dealer’s main website.  They were searching “bmw dealer los angeles” and landing on our microsite because it was the first result.  Yes we were achieving top rankings for the dealer, but at the same time we were depriving those potential customers of all the wonderful things a dealer invests so much time and money in for their website - real time inventory listings, vehicle information, specials, coupons, incentives, service schedulers and the overall “virtual showroom” experience their main website should be providing if only we had been able to SEO the main website.

And after a solid run, my feared hypothesis turned to reality.  Almost overnight the top providers claimed to be instant Search Engine Marketing experts.  By diluting the true SEO process, they offered a watered-down version to their clients at a price we could not compete with, and we started losing our footing.

I was not disappointed, but rather impressed that the industry “wised up”.  I knew it wouldn’t last forever and we didn’t have the funding or interest to compete with the website providers.  It also led me to ecarlist whose products were so impressive that I dropped everything for an opportunity to develop an “in-house” SEO/SEM solution.  Today we offer the most advanced and complete online dealer solution on the market…bar none.

So at the end of the day, yes we can build you a microsite.  We can build them for Special Financing, Shipping, maybe even Parts & Service or a VIP members portal.  But what we can’t and won’t do is “dumb down” your dealership’s online website presence and deprive your potential customers from getting the full experience they deserve or the information they are seeking just for the sake of better SEO or additional spots on Google.  You’ll have to go back in time to get that from me.

But what are your thoughts and experiences?  I’m very interested to hear.  email me your thoughts/stories at terrence@ecarlist.com