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Also, I would not recommend having a separate vanity site that you use as your primary website in 2023. If you had asked me 4 years ago, I would have said absolutely go for it (and we did).


Beyond the obvious downsides of being nearly double the work for you to keep both websites maintained and being confusing to customers. OEMs have made it very difficult for this to be viable today for a number of reasons:

  • Requiring all co-op dollars to be used advertising the OEM-approved site
  • Preventing inventory feeds of in-transit and in-production vehicles from being sent to non-OEM-approved sites
  • Requiring your Google Business Profile URL to link to the OEM-approved site - this is where a majority of your highest-quality traffic comes from
  • Approved vendors not being allowed to install their tool on your vanity website, which would result in you having to pay for 2 separate subscriptions for each tool

However, on the same token, most OEMs have made great progress on their certified digital programs. You're no longer locked down to either Sincro or DDC, and they've expanded their programs to include great options like Dealer Inspire.


It's a fight you will never win, so spend your time and resources on making your approved website as good as possible!