Page Comparison

XML sitemap is a file that lists the primary web pages of a site for search engines to crawl and evaluate for ranking. It also helps search engines understand the site’s structure.

HTML sitemaps are generally designed for users (not crawlers and bots). HTML sitemaps list every subpage of the website, which are often found in the website’s footer for user visibility.

No, we cannot grant customers access to our Google properties. However, customers can create their own GTM and Analytics codes that we can implement alongside our own. By doing so, they can track the same data we are collecting and using for their SEO campaigns.

Reference this resource for GTM terminology and how to help customers set up GA/GTM codes:

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While clear and concise URLs are the most readable for both humans and search engines, it is one of over 200 ranking factors that search engines use to evaluate a website. Depending on the context, having optimized URLs can be slightly beneficial in competitive searches against massively authoritative websites. For example, trying to rank for "nike shoes for sale" in the midst of Nike, Amazon, and other well-known vendors. However, beyond that marginal benefit, optimized SEF URLs by themselves will not lead to top rankings.

In short, the impact a SEF URL has on SEO performance is minimal. There is no concrete evidence to suggest that optimized URLs generate high rankings. What does offer greater value for rankings is quality on-page optimization.

Example of a SEF URL vs a non-SEF URL:

SEF: https://www.domainname.com/harley-davidson-cruiser-motorcycles-for-sale-lewis-center-oh--xallinventory?make=harley-davidson&vc=cruiser

Non-SEF: https://www.domainname.com/default.asp?page=xAllInventory#page=xAllInventory&vc=cruiser&make=harley-davidson

With SEO there’s no such thing as a guarantee. It takes time for search engines to crawl and index sites and for the work that we do to begin to make an impact on rankings. Typically you will begin to see some positive movement in ranks in the first couple months as search engines begin to associate the pages that we have optimized with the keywords we were targeting. 

Looking at your competitors provides us with more data so that we can better gauge how your SEO campaign is performing and progressing. We also look to your competitors to see how they are ranking and for what search terms or keywords which gives us a better idea of the audience in your geography. Additionally, of course we would love to see your site ranking above your competitors so we do also reference their campaign to see where there is opportunity for your site to outrank.

Target Locations 4+ Hours Away

With SEO being a localized marketing strategy, we tend to work within about an hour to two-hour driving radius. That said, once we have established a solid ranking authority in your immediate local areas, we can absolutely begin to push out that radius and focus on further away locations, however the results are not always as reliably effective due to the distance.

Nation

SEO focuses on improving your organic rankings in your local area. The best strategy is to start out local and then as we continue to make progress in your local area, we can continue to push our radius out further. Google and search engines know where your dealership is located and there is no such thing as tricking it into thinking you’re located somewhere that you’re not. So for example, if you’re trying to target California but you’re located in Texas, Google is going to provide users searching for keywords related to your inventory in California with generally California results because Google is always trying to give users the best possible search results and in this situation if there is a dealership down the road from the user vs. a dealership a few states away from the user, Google is going to typically suggest that dealership that is down the road. That said, there has been some success with targeting statewide searches a bit further out and that is something we can definitely explore down the line but we absolutely want to focus on your local area within about an hour to two hours drive first as we start your campaign. 

Our reporting tools are average ranking over the course of the month - a lot of times search results are customized for the person searching based upon search history Search engines aren’t stable, they are constantly changing. We set our rankings based upon mobile rankings, if they’re searching on a desktop these results could differ.