Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

Costs and Advertising Programs

Search Engines Reviewed

icarsandturcks.com Features

Does it Compete with My Own Site?

General Questions

Offers Network, Inc. Background

Costs and Advertising Programs

Is $300 the only cost?

Yes. Your Association and Offers Network have negotiated a very good price - with no other costs.

A dealer who uses a third party vendor to manage digital data could even realize some savings. icarsnandtrucks.com offers, for free, tools for building a digital database of your vehicle inventory. With these tools you can export your data to Auto Trader, Cars.com or any other media company. There are no additional fees for this export service. With our tools you can export your vehicle data into Excel, XML, CSV, XLS and soon, the new ADF (Auto Data Format).

What other types of marketing are you going to do?

Our agreement with your Association stipulates that 50% of the $300 fee is re-invested in the marketing and management of your Association’s icarsandtruck.com site. Significantly, 25% of the $300 fee must be invested in a consistent and continuous marketing and promotion campaign, including Pay-Per-Click and other PR promotions.

Why are you able to do this for such a great price? Could others do it?

Ordinarily, it would be prohibitively expensive for an individual dealer to contract for this level of SEO work. Yes, other companies could do this but at a much greater cost. Spreading costs over many dealers throughout the state and with many state Auto Associations allows Offers Network to deliver these SEO services at a very low, per dealer price.

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Search Engines Reviewed

What is search engine optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) [define] is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a Web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or " algorithmic ") search results for targeted keywords . The goal of SEO work is to bring your listing to the top of a search.

Pay-Per-Click (SEM) Versus Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Simply put, SEO is done organically, that is, the Search Engine (i.e: Google, Yahoo, or MSN) brings up a list of Web sites that it believes qualifies according to your search. For Google, this is the list on the left of the screen. SEM [define] usually includes Pay-Per-Click [define] which is paid advertising. Those paid ads brought up under the same search and displayed separately, on Google, on the right of your screen and captioned as Sponsored Links.

How do the search engines rank the search results?

PageRank [define] is Google’s term for where they place you on the list following your search. Getting a good page rank means you have a relatively higher rating and, therefore, displayed closer to the top of the list. The Offers Network SEO services are designed to give individual vehicles the highest possible ranking.

Why will one car be posted over another?

The Search Engines use page ranking algorithms to decide what information to provide, where that information is located within the site and the number of times other people have visited the link (Web site) to determine the order in which they appear. Offers Network understands how these complex set of formulas work and how the application of these rules can yield a higher page rank. It is more of an art than a science.

Can a dealer pay to have their cars at the top of the search results?

On sites such as Yahoo and MSN, there are opportunities to purchase specific search results. Each engine has its own rules. One of the reasons that Google is so popular is that you cannot buy a higher position over any other entry. Google relies on “crowd sourcing” [define] to determine the ranking of search results.

On an icarsandtrucks.com site, no dealer can out-advertise any other. The price and the rules are the same for all dealers. The rules are set by each state Association.

Do people really go to Google to search for specific cars?

The internet is a rapidly changing market place. It changes daily. Nine years ago, Google didn’t even exist. Today Google has a book value of $127 billion. Consumers find cars many different ways. They find cars on EBay, Craig’s List, Auto Trader, Cars.com, your dealership’s Web site and the local daily newspaper’s Web site. In addition, yes, they look for specific cars in a specific location-using search engines like Google and Yahoo. This is a reality and trend that will grow in importance every single day. Consumers want to find “exactly” what there are looking for “exactly” where they live and shop. Google delivers this kind of precise information. It is this type of search that icarsandtrucks.com addresses.

Is this for Google only?

No. Yahoo, MSN and other search engines are also involved. We emphasize Google because they represent such a dominant position in the marketplace. Also, Google does not accept paid search results that will place one dealer’s inventory on top of another dealer’s inventory. The SEO focus for icarsandtrucks.com is Organic Search Results, which are free and unbiased.

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icarsandturcks.com Features

Will border dealers be able to pick up consumers across state lines?

If a consumer searches for cars using your state Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site, they will only find cars from your state. However, our SEO work will optimize vehicles for the area in which they are physically located, as well as for the metropolitan market areas that may lie across the border. A shopper may live across state lines but they can still find your cars when they use search engines.

Can consumers search within a certain number of miles?

Yes, this system allows you to set a radius from which to search for vehicles.

What zip code radius can be searched?

The default range is 50 miles. There are several other range settings: 25 miles; 75 miles; 100 miles. Other ranges can be added as desired.

How many pictures can be added?

Up to eight photos per car can be added.

How is the featured car section handled?

The featured car is presented randomly every time a consumer launches the icarsandtrucks.com site. We do not sell this position. Your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site is a level playing field. Positioning of inventory will not be sold to the highest bidder.

Do you link to the dealer’s Web site?

Yes. Every individual car will have a link to the dealer’s Web site.

Do you have motorcycles, RV’s or campers on the site?

We can host these types of inventory. At this time, however, the site is focusing on optimizing automobile and consumer-level truck vehicle inventory.

What kind of results reporting will you give us?

We will deliver monthly reports stating how many of your cars were presented and clicked.

How long will it take to get 100,000 cars in your site?

In many state icarsandtrucks.com sites, we will find more than 100,000 cars using our initial data search and data retrieval capabilities. After two or three months, we will be completely driven by data feeds from participating dealers. At this point, the total inventory will be determined by the number of dealers in the program. If 100% of an Association’s members sign up for this service then that state’s icarsandtrucks.com site will have more inventory than competing media companies like Auto Trader, Cars.com or Vehix. More dealer participation also helps drive icarsandtrucks.com vehicles to a higher position in search results.

Where do leads go when you get them?

Leads go to the e-mail addresses or phone numbers provided by participating dealers.

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Does it Compete with My Own Site?

Dealers site versus another competing Web site?

The primary goal is to help consumers find your cars. Research has shown that consumers do not want to remember a specific Web site name in order to find a car. Consumers are learning that they can just type into the search engine the brand, year and model of car they want, along with city or area and the search engine will identify those particular cars. If the consumer chooses not to go directly to your Web site, they can still find your cars. This is also a good way for you to sell used cars that are not your brand of car. Adding your cars to your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site, which helps vehicles appear high in search results, can only increase your visibility to the consumer. Further, every individual car will have a link to the dealer’s Web site. Remember, your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site, is your site, too.

Will this site compete with my own web site?

No. Dealers make investments trying to get customers to find their dealer brand in a local market. icarsandtrucks.com is helping the search engines find specific makes and models in a market area. By doing so, our primary purpose is to compliment rather than compete. And, again, every individual car has a link to the dealer’s Web site.

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Data Collection and Transfer of Vehicle Info

How is information collected? How do you get inventory?

The initial inventory in any Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site is created using Offers Network’s internet data search and data retrieval capabilities. We are able to find the vehicle inventories from the majority of dealers using these capabilities. When a dealer signs up for services, we switch to a data feed model. Inventory is updated every time a dealer delivers a new data feed (daily, weekly or monthly).

What are the additional fees to receive daily data feeds?

There are no additional charges.

Reynolds and Reynolds - are we certified?

We will do what it takes to become certified with any vendor, including Reynolds and Reynolds, ADP or any other Dealer Management System. Most provide data to us now without any certification. Remember this is your data not theirs.

Will your site pull from our DMS or other third party service?

Yes. We support all industry formats. We can also customize the program to accommodate nearly any file layout or protocol for transfer.

General Questions

Will you be able to beat Auto Trader?

Our primary service is Search Engine Optimization of the individual cars in your dealership’s inventory. Our goal is to deliver a site that you, as an Association member, own and benefit from. If all the dealers in your state participate in your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site, your Association’s site will have the most cars and most dealers for your state. If 100% of an Association’s members sign up for this service then that state’s icarsandtrucks.com site will have more inventory than competing media companies like Auto Trader, Cars.com or Vehix. This is important as it will help drive inventory in the icarsandtrucks.com site higher in search results and could force the media companies to moderate their prices in your market. Eventually, your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site will be the most important vehicle Web site in your state.

The primary goal is to help consumers find your cars on Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN which are at the top of the list of information sources for consumers. According to Capgemini’s Cars Online survey, 78% of web users rely on the Search Engines when looking to purchase a car. Consumers have learned that they can type into the search engine the brand, year and model of car they want, along with city or area and the search engine will identify those particular cars. If the consumer chooses not to go directly to your Web site, they can still find your cars. This is also a good way for you to sell used cars that are not your brand of car. Adding your cars to your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site, which helps vehicles appear high in search results, can only increase your visibility to the consumer. Further, every individual car will have a link to the dealer’s Web site increasing your own sites Search Engine rank. Remember, your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site, is your site, too.

Can consumers post their cars for sale on our site?

This is completely up to each state Association and their Dealer Members. We have created the ability for consumers to sell cars on any icarsandtrucks.com site. Each state can weigh the pros and cons. Allowing consumers to sell their cars, for free, on your state’s icarsandtrucks.com site could actually increase traffic and result in more sales for participating dealers.

Is this for used vehicles only?

Some dealers have both new and used cars in their digital inventories. Some do not. If you have new and used, then all those cars will be indexed [define] for the search engines and appear in searches in your Association’s icarsandtrucks.com site.

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Offers Network, Inc. Background

How long have you been in business?

Offers Network, Inc. has been in business for six years in a Dot Com Era that started just fifteen (15) years ago. So in internet terms, Offers Network is a mature company. When we began, the primary mission of Offers Network, Inc. was simply to help consumers find items on the internet. In 2005, the focus of our mission became helping traditional media companies create Web sites for car and truck search. We sold these services to newspapers and radio companies so they could compete with companies like Auto Trader, Cars.com and Vehix. In December of 2007, we made the decision to offer our services directly to auto dealers and Automobile Dealer Associations.

Where is your phone support coming from?

Our customer service team is located on the west coast. Once data feeds are set up with participating dealers, the process is automated. Support services will not be out sourced.

Contact Information :
info@icarsandtrucks.com or by phone 866-763-9660
(8:30am - 5:00pm Pacific Time)

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