Content and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) analysis of major automobile companies of USA

Manzur Ashraf

Abstract: Theoretical SEO analysis and web content management are widely discussed in literature and in on line communities. However, a close and practical investigations of major automobile websites in USA in relation to SEO and content management were not looked before. In this report, a thorough investigations were accomplished to find out key parameters responsible for website optimizations and popularity. The way in which different key parameters effect/relate to each other are illustrated. The statistics were calibrated on the month of October, 2008. © Adtrans Ltd 2008.

Introduction:

I have classified existing US automobile sites into top sites (most popular ones) and developing sites catagories according to SEP performances and content managements.  

A) TOP WEB-SITES

Main features:

• More than 10+ years old.

• Large number of in-bound links (In-bound links of a website refers to the links present in other websites that refer/redirect to that particular website. Generally the number of inbound links to a website indicates the website's popularity).

• Well-organized contents and in-depth information. Presence of client-interaction techniques (e.g. news feed, conversion form, blog/comments/ advertisements).

• The websites possess their own data sources/databases. They use their data source to automate their web, sales, stock and marketing purposes altogether. They often sell their data source links to small companies (i.e. the small companies use the top site's car database for searching purposes) to gain benefits particularly in terms of link-popularity and profits.

• These sites update regularly (In average 2 kilobytes of contents each week) . The companies have their own web analyst and programmers (static and dynamic page developer, animation designer (flash), database programmer) working as a team. They change/update their contents (blog, news feed is less than 2 weeks), theme/color change of the sites (3 monthes approximately or based on unique days (i.e. national day), promotional campaigns, etc).

Data mining analysis to find out opportunities for improvements:

(a) Customer interaction matters in case of popular sites:

Toyota(dot com) is compared against autosite(dot com). Both sites possess almost same features (mainly a lorge number of in-links and URL submissions¹). However, Toyota's google indexed page/ inbound links is higher than the autosite(dot com). It indicates more customer interactions are happening in toyota site.

(b) Slow content loading can penalize a site:

'Content loading' refers to the execution time of a web site's contents in terms of speeds, resource availability and user-friendliness and likeliness. Search engines execute websites before indexing it into its directories. Some people remarks slow content loading due to rich graphics seems like a spam to a search engine.

dealer(dot com) is a 13 yr old site. It possess rich-graphical user interfaces that takes time to load into user browser. On the other hand, it has a large number (around 600000) of inbound links. However, the website has only 39 indexed pages. Page rank is only 5!!

To check keywords, 'dealer' word is ranked at 2^nd position. However, for car → 100+, website > 100 !! (Therefore, its keywords are not optimized.)

(c ) Both User interactions and URL submissions are needed always to improve SEO²:

Automallusanet.net does not have keyword, domain information, and useful URL submissions to DMOZ, yahoo, etc. It is a very naive web-site and user interactions are absent in this website. Although it has a huge number of inbound links and traffic rank, its PR is only 3.

(d) Database/ data source:

All the popular companies have their own data source either to use by itself or to sell database link to small companies.

However, if I use my own data base in addition to designing and hosting my site, what could be achieved? (Ex: what does cars(dot com) / carsales(dot com).au achieve?)

Point 1) Wide range of functionalities;

Point 2) Sale your data source to small or other companies and gain profit in terms of money, popularity and SEO of your site.

Note, URL submissions and user interactions (OFF page optimizations) is represented by Light blue coloured boxes

 High values of this field indicates a website's popularity to users is represented by green boxes..

Site	Grade (/100)	Domain information (Age/expiry time); e.g. 12y/10m means it exists for 12 years, but expiry after 10 monthes.	PageRank (/10	Google indexed pages	Trffic rank (Alexa)	Inbound links	DMOZ	yahoo	Blog	Del.icio.us	RSS	Conversion form
Automallusa.net	91	N/A (some domains carelessly do not keep all information, resulting in some penalties in SEO)	3	63600	Top 0.4%	27000	0	0	0	8	0	x
Autonation(dot com)	89	12y/1m	5	32800	0.4%	43568	1	1	x	28	0	1
Carsdirect(dot com)	99	10y/4y	6	1770000	0.01%	3415991	1	1	0	1	506	1
Cars(dot com)	99.9	N/A	8	3110000	0.01%	23723900	1	1	1	77	1	1
Toyota(dot com)	99.6	13y/1y	8	13400	0.01%	686653	1	1	1	296	1	1
Autosite(dot com)	99.1	13/7y	5	1050000	0.5%	4080859	1	1	1	87	1	1
Autonews(dot com)	95.6	10/1 y	7	23500	0.2%	151854	1	1	1	97	0	1
Carclub(dot com)	91	13/3 y	4	555000	1%	2247	1	1	0	2	0	0
Autotrader(dot com)	95.1	13/2 y	7	1450000	0.01%	438292	1	1	0	888	0	1
Autoweb(dot com)	98.3	13/7 y	5	1180000	0.33%	19478	1	1	1	104	1	1
Autobytel(dot com)	98.3	13/7 y	5	1330000	0.08%	39699	1	1	1	246	1	1
Audiusa(dot com)	96.2	11y/10m	7	3040	0.04%	51000	1	1	0	62	1	1
Dealer(dot com)	89	13/1 y	5	39	0.17%	60000	1	1	0	16	x	1

A1. Interesting features from top sites

a) autonation(dot com): “get your free Price Quote” [ Name, Email, model of car details ] information

b) carsdirect(dot com): Simple but well planned design

c) cars(dot com): “Dealers car of the week” ( Very careful animation and preview of cars)

-- same feature (Spotlight car by autotrader(dot com))

d) autosite(dot com): Collaboration between autobytel(dot com) and myride(dot com). Note, only autobytel(dot com) has its own database. Due to collaboration, both have same PR.

e) carclub(dot com): autofinance, auto insurance schemes. Their search scheme is pretty similar to carsales(dot com).au, though carclub(dot com) is older than carsales(dot com).au.

f) autotrader(dot com):

-- “certified cars” is an interesting unique feature.

-- Lifestyle central suggestions to buy a suitable vehicle (wonderful idea through online):

Family focus car

Going green

Smart saver

Trend watch

Work and play (leisure driving)

-- Articles:

Nice and colourful articles by experts: Not updated frequently (over the year); Examples are:

Most dependable vehicles (April 08)

Overcoming emotions after buying a car (October 08)

g) Autoweb: Celebrity car parade (Pictures, car models, etc) ---> which gives provisions to show the details of a car.

h) MyAutotrader(dot com)

-- Search quickly according to my own preference sets regularly (II) Email alerts, (III) Save money (special ofers, price reduction coupons)

-- Car research:

a) Animated figures

b) Customer reviews about a car regarding 'comfort', 'performance', 'interior style', 'value for money', 'reliability'.

c) available styles

d) Find/show a model near to it.

e) Side-by-side comparison

f) Expert and driver reviews.

j) Car financing tools:

a) Car loan calculator (online software)

b) Auto financing advice

c) Get financing today (check pre-qualification, check credit problems and provide relevant suggestions using an expert/intelligent software online)

B. DEVELPOING SITES

Site	Grade (/100)	keywords	readibility	Domain info	PageRank	Google indexed pages	Trffic rank (Alexa)	Inbound links	DMOZ	yahoo	Blog	Del.icio.us	RSS	Conversion form
Ezautodealers(dot com)	36			3y/11m	2	19	8.5%	3600	0	0	0	0	0	0
Autocastle(dot com)	72			6y/7m	3	827	1.8%	1430	0	0	0	0	0	1
Auctiondirectusa(dot com)	71			4y/2m	4	1320	0.8%	6700	0	0	0	9	0	1
Autonetusa(dot com)	54 (site quality is avg)			N/A Perm. Redirect not found	4	28 (poor ratio and poor PR)	2.5%	5280	1	1	0	2	0	-
Autousadirect(dot com)	45			5y/10m	0 (banned)	189	39%	12	0	0	0	0	0	1
Autobyte(dot com)	3	Long keys!		10y/2m	0 (banned)	1	Not ranked	2	0	1	0	0	0	0
Adesa(dot com)	87	missing		12y/4y	5	332 (good PR sites and ratio)	0.54% (good user access)	2543	1	0	0	11	0	1
Jmagroup(dot com)	42			10y/8m	4	146	3%	792	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highergear(dot com)	39	6		10y/1 PD not found	3	1	6%	97	0	0	0	1	0	0
Cirrusdesign(dot com)	86			11/8 yr	6	487	0.73%	21277	1	1	0	73	0	1
Buick(dot com)	82			12y/2m	6	291	0.23%	71005	1	1	0	48	0	1
Dealertrack(dot com)	79	18		9/2 yr	3	568	1.4%	31568	0	0	0	0	0	1
Bzresults(dot com)	76	10		4yr/.7 yr	6	5	2.9%	47000	0	0	0	4	1	1
Wynnusa(dot com) (simple site)	73	10		8yr/1yr	4	346	5.6%	11555	0	0	0	2	0	1
Vvcars(dot com) (simple site)	63	x		3yr/8yr	4	43	12%	470	0	0	0	15	0	1
Nittotire(dot com) (heavy GUI)	70	15		9yr/1yr	4	45		20000	1	0	0	10	0	0
Maseratiusa(dot com)	59	30		8yr/5yr	4	0	0.18%	261	1	0	0	0	0	0
Katzkin(dot com)	51	x		9yr/4yr	4	17	4%	2001	1	0	0	2	0	0
Sales360.net	3	x		N/A	1	1	65%	16	0	0	0	0	0	0
Volvopenta(dot com)	40	x		11yr/1yr (PD not found)	5	2	38%	2080	1	0	0	0	0	1

1. Short term average-kind sites (below average/growing PR):

ezautodealers(dot com) is a 3-yr old (1 m remaining expiry date!) domain but got only 19 indexed pages out of 3600 inbound links. Traffic rate is above (8.5%). Its PR is only 2. This is due to the reason that the quality of the site is average. Also no user interactions and directory submissions are present (i.e. No offpage optimisations). Also its average PR (page Rank) of in-bound links is 2.1 (average type)³.

2) A new site can attain higher Page rank even having same website quality:

autocastle(dot com) and auctiondirectusa(dot com) has similar grading (same website quality) in spite of different ages.

site	Domain age	Inbound links	traffic	Average page rank of in-links	Page rank
Autocastle(dot com)	6 yr	lower	---	2.3	3
Auctiondirectusa(dot com)	4 yr	higher	Getting more traffic due to better directory submissions (Del-->9 e.g.)	2.8	4

3. Off page optimisation can even improve an average quality web-site:

autonetusa(dot com)'s web quality (grading) is average type. However, due to more directory submissions and higher inbound links, it attain same PR of auctiondirectusa.net. (point 2). Its average PR of all inbound links is 2.2. So, total number of in-bound links outweighs this average value.

4. Banned websites:

If a search engine (e.g. google-bot) thinks a site as a SPAM (or a fake web site), the site is banned (page rank becomes 0 mainly). PR may be 0 for other reasons as well. Reasons are: domain problem, lack of coding, programming maturity, lack of suitable user interface ( the things that a virus or spam does).

Other reasons (misconducts by web designers) are: high repetitive keywords in headers/body/footers, trying to confuse googlebot by making the site over-smart, irrelevant context, etc.

autobyte, autousadirect(dot com) has PR=0 (No keys, long spammy keys are present)

Though both sites are 5 and 10 year old sites, they have fewer inbound links compared to their ages. In addition, the site was not submitted to external URLS/engines/directories.

Another example is maseratiusa(dot com). It is 8 yr/ 5 yr ( 8 yr old and will expire the registration after 5 years → indicates a matuerd and safe domain). However, it does not have any URL submission history and its google indexed pages are 0. It is highly likely that the search engines pointed the site as a banned site due to some occasional misconduct by the site designers

5. Aged site which can be improved more (possibility to improve SEO):

adesa(dot com) is a 12yr/5 yr (to go) site. Its PR=5. It has an above average ratio of indexed pages and inbound links. It has a high traffic/user access (top 0.5%). It is submitted to a number of directories including 11 submissions at “del...” (high) which indicates a good off-page optimisation. However there are some problems in this site including missing keywords and blogs (user interactions). In addition, a fewer number of in-bound links are present compared to its age. Solution to those issues could improve the page rank to this site.

6. Age does not matter if design and SEO are absent:

Two average (40% grading quality) sites -- “jmagroup(dot com)” and “highergear(dot com)” are 10 yr old sites (aged website). Their PRs are 3 or 4. No URL submissions are there (OFF page optimization is absent). Fewer in-bound links (<100) indicate poor links compared to ages. They don't have any in-bound link whose PR>5. In other words, SEO mechanism needs to be applied to any site for better performance.

7. A close to top sites but having some shortcomings relating to page design:

Cirrusdesign(dot com) (grading of 86%) is 11 yr/8 yr old site. A large number of people access to the site (top 0.7%). Also a large number of inbound links are present relating to the site. However, only a few indexed pages of that site are available in google in comparison to its age. A large number of “Del..” and URL submissions. PR=6 in both cases. Keyword and page optimizations and all-way-URL-submissions are not visible.

Buick(dot com) agrees to this point in the same way!

8. Excessive graphics seems like a spammy site and cuts down PR:

Dealertrack(dot com) is an aged site (9 yr) with a large number of in-bound links and google indexed pages. A large number of user access (1.4%) is into this site. However, no URL submissions are there. Also the excessive graphics limits the loading optimizations and cuts down its popularity (PR is only 3).

9. Short term site having a high PR ( How to quickly attain PR?):

Bzresults(dot com) has good user interactions. Its only 4 yr old site and having web grade of 76% (above average but not the site of best kind). It attained a large number of inbound links (47000) within a short period. OFF page optimzation (RSS feed, communication feedings, form submissions, user interactions) etc are there. A large number of user access (top 2.7%) to the site.

One interesting characteristics is that it has an average PR of inbound links equal to 3.2 ( 13 PR5, 2 PR6, 49 PR4,... 30 PR2, and only 6 PR1, majority is in PR3). Therefore, popular sites are actually linking/referring to this site.

9b. Wynnusa(dot com) is a similar graded site ( design principle) but having more ages ( 2 times). However, it has fewer inbound links (1/4^th of previous point 9) and it was not submitted to any directories. Moreover, its average PR of in-links=2.2 where the highest PR of in-links in only 3 (contrary to many 3+ in PR of previous site). Hence its PR is only 4.

10. Short term site (Another good example)

Vvcars(dot com) (simple site) is an average type (63% grading) site. It is 3 yr old but having 8 year ahead of expiration of registrations. Only 470 in-links are there (compared to 47k of point 9). However, it has 15 Del. articles submissions. It has a PR of 4 (good in short time).

11. Heavy Graphics (another shortcomings)

Nittotire(dot com) is 9 yr old site, having 20000 inbound links. It has 10 del.. submissions. But it has a PR of only 4!

11b. Volvopenta(dot com) is 11 yr old site, slow loading time (hence a grading value of only 40%). It has 2080 in-links. It was not submitted to any URLs, no RSS or blogs (user interactions). It has a PR of 5 having some higher PR in-links.

Summary

a) ON page optimization is required (site titles, tracking, optimal coding, suitable graphics, user interactions).

b) In-bound links of high PR are GOLD. Also try to increase number of indexed pages and ratio of indexed pages to inbound links.

c) OFF page optimizations are also a must-thing for new sites. URL submissions, blogs, RSS, newsfeed, articles, need to be incorporated to increase PR.

d) User-communication, community forum, people's personal urls, linking, etc need to be done always.