By Colby Horton
Shop Site of the Month
British American Auto Care Inc. - Columbia, Md.
www.britishamericanauto.com
This site offers a clean, professional look with simple navigation and well-written content. Visitors can schedule an online appointment or read testimonials from other customers. The site offers "Diagnostic Forms" to download and complete before visiting the shop, which speeds up the repair process. A nice "Employment" section provides extensive information for prospective employees. The "Notice Board" features articles about the shop and the automotive repair industry.
Web Wise
Optimizing Your Shop's Web Site for Search Engines
One of the major questions shop owners ask when they create a Web site for their facility is how consumers are going to find them in the major search engines. For the past couple of months, Net Worth has focused on pay-per-click advertising to get noticed in the search engines. But there is a less expensive way to increase your rankings in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The concept of "search engine optimization" (SEO) is just as important to the success of your shop's Web site as major design elements such as navigation, graphics and content.
Whether you create a Web site yourself, or you hire a professional to create a site for your shop, make sure you or your hired company has an understanding of how to optimize the site for search engines. It's a concept that is continuously changing. You see that each search engine has a "secret" algorithm that determines your placement in the search engines. A few years ago, webmasters could embed search keywords and descriptions into the coding process and Web sites would successfully rank higher in search engines. That's no longer the case. Because more Web surfers rely on search engines to find information online, the major search engines are becoming much more sophisticated to produce the most relevant results. And although the way search engines rank sites constantly changes, here are a few tips to help your site's rankings.
First, search engines look for the relevancy of keywords. For example, keywords used on your home page should also be found in the title of your site and throughout the text of the home page. So, if the title of your Web site is "Bedford Texas general automotive repair," make sure that exact term is found at least once in the text of your page.
Next, make sure other sites are linked to your site. The more sites that link to your site, the better your search rankings. If you belong to various associations, such as the Automotive Service Association, make sure your site is linked from their sites. The same is true if you belong to the Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, etc. The more relevant links to your site, the higher your ranking in search engines.
However, never fall into the trap of a "link farm." We all get the e-mails that say, "We'll submit your site to hundreds of search engines for one low price." There will never be hundreds of search engines to submit your site to. Participating in such a link trade could decrease your rankings.
Also consider submitting your site to Yahoo's Directory. It costs about $299 per year, and the directory remains a credible reference source for search engines when they evaluate sites.
Net Numbers
The number of spam messages has tripled since June 2006 and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide.
Source: Postini
ASA Web Ways
New Features Added to ASA's Web Solutions
The Automotive Service Association offers an affordable Web site plan for your shop. ASA has expanded the benefit to include some optional features to help you with customer retention. For $35 per month, ASA-created sites can feature "Personal Car Care" pages for your customers, service reminder capabilities and an electronic newsletter mechanism. Visit http://webservices.asashop.org, or call (800) 272-7467, ext. 234, for more information.
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Net Worth is written by Colby Horton, ASA's electronic communications manager. He can be reached at (800) 272-7467, ext. 234, or by e-mail at colbyh@asashop.org.
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