- Dealer Marketing Magazine

August 20, 2018 — Reunion Marketing personnel noted a remarkable increase in organic traffic for CDK websites that directly coincides with a Google algorithm update. While conducting regular audits, members of the Reunion team discovered a pattern of significant increases in organic website traffic throughout the month of August compared to July.

These numbers prompted an internal audit across Reunion’s entire national dealer network to substantiate the initial finding. We found 91.7% of CDK sites in Reunion Marketing’s dealership network were affected. These sites saw an average month-over-month increase of 45% in organic traffic. Mobile and tablet devices experienced a more significant share, with the top 20% of dealers achieving 209% and 145% increases respectively.

This change comes on the heels of Google’s “broad core algorithm update” that occurred on August 1, 2018. According to an official statement, Google intended for the update to reward previously undervalued sites, focusing on medical organizations. It is evident, however, that it also affected automotive websites.

CDK was not the only platform to experience a jump in traffic. Others like Dealer.com and DealerOn also had several dealerships with increases ranging from 10% to 50%; however, the volume of dealerships affected on these other platforms was not as high a percentage and not outside the range of typical results month over month. The Reunion team did not find that any major automotive CMS suffered an overall loss in traffic.

For more information about our findings, please contact our Operations Manager at michael@reunionmarketing.com or visit our website at www.reunionmarketing.com/contact.