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DealerOn fell off. Who are the good website providers these days?

Yes. It's a little unconventional, but considering OEMs have both a approved website vendor list AND an approved advertising partner list, unapproved website vendors could take a rip of ad spend (ex: 20-25%) and skirt the approved vendor rules, while still being able to use part of your co-op to fund the website. That's what I'd do if I was trying to sell websites to dealers but I wasn't an approved vendor...
Let’s say a dealership is spending $20,000/month on advertising. If Ford reimburses $8K–$10K/month through co-op, the dealer’s out-of-pocket is around $10K–$12K. Sounds great… until you look at the performance of the websites dealerships are being forced to use.

Many OEM-approved sites:
  • Load in 20–40+ seconds on mobile (especially on 4G)
  • Are not ADA compliant
  • Are full of coding errors and layout shifts
  • And worst of all they suck at conversion rates

Koons Automotive took their mobile site load time from 26s → 2.6s and saw a 1,400% increase in conversion.
Other studies back this up:
  • Amazon: every 100ms of improvement = 1% more revenue
  • Google: 0.1s speed improvement = 7% boost in conversions
  • Walmart: 2% more conversions per second shaved off
  • Mobify: 1.11% more sales per 100ms improvement
So if you took a site from 40 seconds to 0.5 seconds, you’re improving by 39.5 seconds, or 39,500ms. That’s a potential 2,000%–3,000%+ increase in conversions, depending on the study you reference.

That means:
  • OEM-approved slow site → maybe 1% conversion
  • Fast, optimized site → potentially 20%+ conversion
  • Same ad spend, but 20x the ROI
So yes, you might lose $8K–$10K in Ford co-op reimbursement by going with a non-approved vendor…
…but you could gain 20x the leads and sales, especially if your website is loading lightning fast, ADA-compliant, and built for performance.

If we’re talking about running a real business, I’d rather pay $20K and make $500K than get a $10K subsidy and waste the other $10K on a broken funnel.

Just a thought!

And if you do what your saying you can still get the money back from the OEM by calling it advertising.
 
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Or a dealer could spend $1500/mo. on a better website vendor while still maintaining their OEM mandated site. There really is so much to be gained -- this is a several hundred million dollar industry we're talking about here. If I was a progressive dealer, I'd be investing in my web presence communicating to customers why I'm the dealer to choose and removing any friction on the path to sale.
 
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Or a dealer could spend $1500/mo. on a better website vendor while still maintaining their OEM mandated site. There really is so much to be gained -- this is a several hundred million dollar industry we're talking about here. If I was a progressive dealer, I'd be investing in my web presence communicating to customers why I'm the dealer to choose and removing any friction on the path to sale.
I agree with you 100%. Maintaining the OEM-mandated site for co-op compliance while running a second, high-performance website gives dealers the best of both worlds, co-op funds and the freedom to innovate.

That second site becomes a digital testing ground for serious growth!

And the larger the site the better!

The more internal pages the more ways a potential client has to find you, the more pages your able to rank, and the more internal link juice your able to control.

1. Sell OEM Parts and Services Directly

Use the second site to build an eCommerce channel:
  • Sell genuine OEM parts and accessories
  • Promote service specials and schedule appointments
  • Build a subscription model for recurring services like oil changes or detailing
  • And flow link juice from those pages to the cars your trying to sell.
This can drive high-margin revenue while bypassing the clunky structure of OEM shit sites as well as adding more pages, making the site more powerful.

2. Use AI to Create a Blog

  • Use AI to generate long-tail blog content
  • Create FAQ hubs that answer customer questions better than the manufacturer

    This builds organic search traffic, bringing in buyers at zero cost per click.

3. Use Social Media

  • Use AI tools to turn blog post into social content, Reels, and shorts
  • Connect with car influencers
  • Position the website as a community authority, instead of just another dealership website
4. Create Friction-less Funnels
  • Unlike OEM sites, your second site can have:
    • Instant credit pre-approval
    • Chatbots that actually answer questions
    • Fast-loading VDPs with clean CTAs
    • Landing pages tailored to specific campaigns or local audiences

5. Retarget

  • Capture leads with better UI and retarget them via Facebook, Google, or email
  • Test offers, creativity, and funnels without OEM red tape
When the competition is using OEM websites that are complicated, slow, and all look the same, having your own second site could give you a real advantage over the competition.

You're no longer just another dealer. You're building a community that can drive traffic, sell parts, build trust, and convert buyers better, faster, cleaner, and easier.
 
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Have you looked at Team MXS?

In my humble opinion it seems to be all about page speed in today's fast moving market, in the past you had a lot less people using cell phones but today 3 out of 4 car shoppers are searching for their next vehicle on their cell phone.

Teammxs's own website takes 4.2 seconds for the first content paint and that is supposed to be in under a second and the LCP is at 13.2 seconds, and that is supposed to be under 2.5 seconds.

It is full of coding errors and isn't ADA compliant.

I just think dealerships should depend more from their web developers.
 
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NO MATTER WHAT - don't go with Dealer.com - they still don't have responsive websites, so Google demotes a DDC site in search results.

Also - while speed is important, you can't reference studies like Amazon - dealer sites are a totally different thing. Nearly all of the providers have fast sites out of the box - it's the 3rd party scripts and plugins that slow the site down...
 
NO MATTER WHAT - don't go with Dealer.com - they still don't have responsive websites, so Google demotes a DDC site in search results.

Also - while speed is important, you can't reference studies like Amazon - dealer sites are a totally different thing. Nearly all of the providers have fast sites out of the box - it's the 3rd party scripts and plugins that slow the site down...
Well then how about Koons.com (they sell cars) they saw 1400% increase in conversion when they went from 26 seconds to 2.6 seconds.

And I disagree, if it was the 3rd party scripts their own site would load faster.

I could be wrong but I don't think they care because if they cared they'd validate their code!
 
Well then how about Koons.com (they sell cars) they saw 1400% increase in conversion when they went from 26 seconds to 2.6 seconds.

And I disagree, if it was the 3rd party scripts their own site would load faster.

I could be wrong but I don't think they care because if they cared they'd validate their code!
well yeah - 26 seconds is ridiculous - of course they're going to see more conversions if they shorten that timeline.

and it is proven to be true that the 3rd party scripts and plugins slow sites down - and most of them don't care about it at all, which is why their code generally sucks and slows sites down
 
well yeah - 26 seconds is ridiculous - of course they're going to see more conversions if they shorten that timeline.

and it is proven to be true that the 3rd party scripts and plugins slow sites down - and most of them don't care about it at all, which is why their code generally sucks and slows sites down
I totally agree, 26 seconds is insanely bad, but unfortunately it's not as rare as it should be, it's actually about average for OEM-approved sites.

And a good developer should know how to manage third-party scripts efficiently. You should be able to use tools like chat, analytics, inventory feeds, etc., without tanking performance.

However if the site is full of unnecessary bloat and poor coding practices, then it becomes a real problem.

And it matters because the same $20K in ad spend gives you completely different ROI depending on what happens after the click. Speed is just the most obvious thing people can see, but it’s often just the tip of the iceberg.
 
well yeah - 26 seconds is ridiculous - of course they're going to see more conversions if they shorten that timeline.

and it is proven to be true that the 3rd party scripts and plugins slow sites down - and most of them don't care about it at all, which is why their code generally sucks and slows sites down
Koons was originally on DealerOn, and I've never seen one of their sites take 26 seconds to load.

That stat comes from a 3G mobile test, which isn't really representative of a typical user experience.
 


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