Global digital marketing agency iCrossing has announced their findings of their Vertical Visibility Index: Automotive. They’re saying that Chrysler, General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Nissan are tops when it comes to online search visibility.

The Vertical Visibility Index: Automotive is the first in their series of studies that analyzes the paid and organic/natural search media visibility. They are looking to identify the leaders within each specific industry vertical that they study.

In the Vertical Visibility Index: Automotive study, iCrossing found that “Chrysler, GM and Nissan North America are doing the best job of taking a synergistic search engine marketing approach, with the highest scores for combined visibility. Ford leads for natural search visibility and Hyundai has the greatest paid search visibility for the keyword set analyzed.”

iCrossing released the key findings of their study:

– At the OEM level analysis, Ford Motor Company has the largest natural visibility share of market with 22%. They are followed by General Motors Corporation (17%), Chrysler LLC (15%), American Honda Motor Company (11%), and Mercedes-Benz USA (8%). Together, these top five companies make up more than 70% of the total natural search visibility share of market.

– At the brand level, Ford has the highest visibility for a brand with 18% of the natural search visibility market share, followed by Chrysler (12%), Honda (10%), Pontiac (8%), and GMC (6%).

– Of the top 25 keywords by search volume, eight keywords had no visibility for any brand: used car, buy a car, race cars, muscle car, car search, auto loan, car loan, and used car prices.

– Ford Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales USA are the only OEMs with visibility on the top volume keyword, “car”.

– Of the Top 50 Most Visible URLs based on 1st page natural rankings, automobiles.honda.com has the highest position (22nd) for this keyword set within the brand URLs, followed by pontiac.com (40th), fordvehicles.com (47th), and toyota.com (49th).

– For the study keyword set, Hyundai Motor Company has the greatest paid search market share of Google paid search with 30%, followed by General Motors Corporation (22%), and Chrysler LLC (17%). Together, these 3 OEMs have almost 70% of the overall paid search market share on Google for the automotive keyword set.

– Combining the information from natural and paid search analyses, Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corporation, and Nissan North America are doing the best job of approaching search engine marketing with a synergistic approach.

In the report, iCrossing talks specifically about how they came about the rankings:

“For the Vertical Visibility Index: Automotive report, iCrossing analyzed natural search engine position data for the following U.S. search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask and AOL. Weighting scores using search engine share of market, keyword volume and keyword positions across each engine, iCrossing used its new proprietary Industry Index algorithm to compute natural search visibility share of market for a set of automotive keywords. Since the score generated for each company represents its share of market across a fixed set of competitors, keywords, and search engines, it is then comparable over time to explore trends.”

What I found interesting is that they looked at Google, MSN, Yahoo!, and Ask, but they also included AOL in the mix. Isn’t adding AOL just going to take the Google findings and multiply it by an additional amount? I mean, the majority of the organic search engine rankings on AOL are all from Google, right? The same with the paid search? So, why would you include AOL?

“For the automotive OEM industry, we generated a set of 102 keywords…”

In this automotive OEM industry, there are a lot more than 102 keywords. I could easily find more. A lot more. Why would this possibly include 102 keywords? Why not 103 or even 100 keywords? Or the top 100 keywords? Anyhow, it’s quite an interesting list, very comprehensive, so I will include it here:

alternative fuel
car online
new car
auto
car payment calculator
new car dealer
auto dealer
car price
new car price
auto incentives
car quote
new car quote
auto industry
car resale values
pickup
auto lease dealer
car retailer
pickup truck
auto loan
car review
pre-owned auto
auto loan calculator
car reviews
pre-owned automobile
auto loan refinance
car sale
pre-owned car
auto online
car search
race cars
auto quote
car show
safe auto
auto retailer
car specials
sedan
auto show
car values
semi truck
auto warranty
car warranty
smart car
automobile
cars online
sports car
automobile dealer
certified pre-owned
station wagon
automobile incentives
certified used
suv
automobile quote
cheap car
truck
automobile retailer
concept cars
truck accessory
buy a car
convertible
truck dealer
buy an auto
coupe
truck part
buy an automobile
crossover vehicle
truck part service
buy new car
electric car
truck repair
buy used car
environmentally friendly car
used auto
buying a car
extended auto warranty
used auto part
car
fast car
used car
car accessory
fuel economy
used car dealer
car dealer
fuel-efficient car
used car for sale
car deals
gas mileage
used car prices
car finance
hatchback
used truck
car incentives
hybrid car
used vehicle
car lease
luxury car
vans
car loan
mini van
vehicle
car loan calculator
muscle car
vehicle sales

For more information and to download their study, take a look here at the research area of iCrossing.

iCrossing is a global digital marketing company that combines talent and technology to help world-class brands find and connect with their customers. The company blends best-in-class digital marketing services - including paid and natural search marketing, Web development, social media, research and analytics — to create integrated digital marketing programs that engage consumers and drive ROI. iCrossing’s client base includes such recognized brands as Epson America, Toyota, Travelocity and 40 Fortune 500 companies, including The Coca-Cola Company and Office Depot. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company has 620 employees in 15 offices in the U.S. and Europe.

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