Car Dealer Websites

What to check before you buy

Then ask about the move itself. A migration needs every old URL mapped to a new one with a 301 redirect.

It needs correct robots and indexing settings on the new site, and analytics and conversion goals working on launch day. Google must be told of any domain change.

Have the vendor put in writing that the conversion events work at go-live: forms, calls, chats and credit applications. Get the list of old URLs that will redirect.

Manufacturer programs can also dictate which providers are approved, and incentives may depend on that. Check the brand's website program list.

Check the page editing rights you will have after launch. And ask what happens to content you wrote if you leave.

Test it first. Then sign.

Judge the platform by what a shopper experiences on a phone. Load the vehicle list page, a detail page and the finance form on a mid-range phone over a cellular connection, count the seconds and the taps, and compare the experience with the marketplace listing that sent the shopper. Ask who can edit pages, titles and redirects without a ticket, and what the vendor charges for custom work, since a site the store cannot change quickly will fall behind its competitors.

Examine what the platform lets you change without a vendor. A store that cannot update a banner, a service page, a redirect or a form field the same day will lose time and often leave stale information up for weeks. Ask what the editing tools look like, who has permission, whether changes can be previewed and rolled back, and what the vendor charges for custom work.

Also review accessibility and legal basics. Pages should work with a keyboard and a screen reader, pricing and offers should carry the disclosures required for advertising, privacy notices should match what the site collects and consent should be recorded for tracking. Ask the vendor how it handles accessibility complaints and whether it will fix issues found in an audit, and check who is responsible when the site shows a wrong price from a feed.

Questions to put to every car dealer websites vendor

• Who owns audiences, accounts and creative?
• How is incrementality measured?
• Can spend and fees be separated cleanly?

Other categories dealers compare alongside Dealership websites & CMS: Email, SMS & lifecycle marketing, Digital advertising, SEO, local & AI-search visibility, Digital marketing agencies & managed services, Social media & reputation, and Marketplaces & lead providers.