Dealers Are Missing Huge Keyword Gaps Because There VDPs Don’t Rank!

[Ryan Everson]

You're not trying to copy third-party sites you're trying to beat them.

And the question isn't, “Should dealerships try to rank VDPs like third parties do?”
The real issue is: What happens when you delete a page Google already indexed?

Whether a dealer actively tries to rank VDPs or not, the damage is identical every time a vehicle sells:

• You lose crawl history
• Internal links break
• URL equity is wiped
• Google has to trust a brand-new URL again

This creates a level of SEO churn that no third-party site suffers from, because they don’t delete pages the moment inventory changes.

So the opportunity isn’t in just “ranking VDPs.”
The opportunity is in eliminating unnecessary SEO loss that dealerships experience every single day.

Just keeping VDPs live, even if they’re marked sold, expired, or redirected puts you at an advantage:

• Your SRPs become stronger
• Your topic clusters become deeper
• Your site maintains stable authority signals
• Google sees consistency instead of volatility

So if keeping VDPs live already creates a structural SEO advantage...
Why not turn that advantage into a core SEO strategy?

I think you might be a little confused because it's the SRPs, not the VDPs that third parties are using to outrank dealers.

It's way easier to rank one solid SRP page for “Used Chevrolet Silverado” than trying to get dozens of individual VDPs to rank. And if a customer lands on a sold VDP, they would just bounce anyway.

The better move is to 301 the sold Silverado VDP over to the Used Chevrolet Silverado SRP so you can keep most of whatever SEO value (if any) it had in its short 45 day lifespan and actually land the shopper on something they can buy. There’s a reason third party sites use this strategy - it works.

 

[DjSec]

I think you might be a little confused because it's the SRPs, not the VDPs that third parties are using to outrank dealers.

It's way easier to rank one solid SRP page for “Used Chevrolet Silverado” than trying to get dozens of individual VDPs to rank. And if a customer lands on a sold VDP, they would just bounce anyway.

The better move is to 301 the sold Silverado VDP over to the Used Chevrolet Silverado SRP so you can keep most of whatever SEO value (if any) it had in its short 45 day lifespan and actually land the shopper on something they can buy. There’s a reason third party sites use this strategy - it works.

You’re right that SRPs are the big scalable winners, no argument there.
But here’s the part your overlooking:

VDPs feed the authority that makes SRPs rank.

Deleting a VDP is like pulling a fishing pole out of the water.
Sure, the SRP is the main net but the more lines you have in the lake, the more signals Google sees, and the stronger the whole ecosystem becomes.

And when shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for (even if the car is sold), they don’t always bounce. In many cases they:

• check similar vehicles
• browse the inventory
• submit alerts
• explore trims, packages, or price comparisons

Third parties know this, that’s why they don’t delete VDPs.
They convert “sold” traffic into next-best-option traffic.

So yes, 301s help preserve some value, although…

• Some signals don’t transfer.
• Some relevance isn’t passed.
• Internal link pathways break.
• The old URL’s long-term authority is wiped out.

…but keeping VDPs live builds more value:

• crawl history is preserved
• link equity isn’t reset
• internal links stay intact
• clusters stay deep and diverse
• the site sends Google far more relevance signals

SRPs are the ranking engine.
VDPs are the fuel.

The issue isn’t trying to rank VDPs instead of SRPs, it’s stopping the constant churn that weakens the entire domain.

Dealers are bleeding SEO equity every 30–45 days for no reason.

If third parties win with thousands of stable pages, why shouldn’t dealers use the same advantage?

 

[Ryan Everson]

You’re right that SRPs are the big scalable winners, no argument there.
But here’s the part your overlooking:

VDPs feed the authority that makes SRPs rank.

Deleting a VDP is like pulling a fishing pole out of the water.
Sure, the SRP is the main net but the more lines you have in the lake, the more signals Google sees, and the stronger the whole ecosystem becomes.

And when shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for (even if the car is sold), they don’t always bounce. In many cases they:

• check similar vehicles
• browse the inventory
• submit alerts
• explore trims, packages, or price comparisons

Third parties know this, that’s why they don’t delete VDPs.
They convert “sold” traffic into next-best-option traffic.

So yes, 301s help preserve some value, although…

• Some signals don’t transfer.
• Some relevance isn’t passed.
• Internal link pathways break.
• The old URL’s long-term authority is wiped out.

…but keeping VDPs live builds more value:

• crawl history is preserved
• link equity isn’t reset
• internal links stay intact
• clusters stay deep and diverse
• the site sends Google far more relevance signals

SRPs are the ranking engine.
VDPs are the fuel.

The issue isn’t trying to rank VDPs instead of SRPs, it’s stopping the constant churn that weakens the entire domain.

Dealers are bleeding SEO equity every 30–45 days for no reason.

If third parties win with thousands of stable pages, why shouldn’t dealers use the same advantage?

I think your underlying argument here is flawed, because third parties delete their VDPs...

Autotrader - page unavailable

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/123456789/

 

[DjSec]

I think your underlying argument here is flawed, because third parties delete their VDPs...

Autotrader - page unavailable

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/123456789/

You're right that third parties don't keep every VDP live forever but the comparison being made isn't accurate.

The question isn't:

“Do third parties delete VDPs?”

The question is:

“Do dealerships get an advantage by keeping VDP's?”

Third party SEO strength comes from:

• Used Chevrolet Silverado
• Used Honda CR-V near me
• Cheap used cars Tampa
• Cars under $20k

Those SRPs stay live permanently.
Those SRPs accumulate links, authority, time-on-site signals, and massive internal linking.

Dealers DO NOT have this luxury.

So deleting VDPs on a dealer site removes one of the few SEO assets dealers actually have.

2. Third parties “delete” VDPs because they have MILLIONS of pages dealers do not.​

Cars.com and Autotrader can delete 100K VDPs a day because they have:

• insane backlink profiles
• massive domain authority
• nationally scaled SRP clusters
• 50M+ monthly pageviews
• brand trust

Dealers, on the other hand, have:

• ~50–200 VDPs
• almost no backlinks
• weak SRPs
• shallow content depth

The rules are different because the scale is different.

3. Third parties don’t delete ALL VDPs, they keep reusable templates.

Dealers have unique VDP URLs tied to unique VINs.

Third parties use:

• templated URLs
• reusable structures
• static content blocks
• huge category pages that capture ALL the demand
• and VDPs are just transactional endpoints

So even when a VDP 404s, the authority stays inside their ecosystem, not wiped out.

Dealers do NOT have this ecosystem.

4. Third parties keep authority because their VDP deletes feed into massive SRP walls.

When a third-party VDP disappears:

• 99% of SEO signals were already attributed to the SRP
• The SRP remains live
• The SRP retains authority
• The SRP continues ranking
• The VDP isn’t where their SEO value came from anyway

Dealers use VDPs to patch the gaps their SRPs don’t cover.
Deleting them removes the only long-tail content they have.

5. Third parties don’t care about the SEO loss because they overwrite it instantly.

Cars.com has:

• constant new inventory
• constant new listings
• millions of pages refreshed daily

Dealers have:

• maybe 5 new cars a day
• and 5 cars sold a day

The churn hits a dealership MUCH harder.

Comparing the two is a category error.

So yes, third parties sometimes delete VDPs.
But they can afford to. Dealers can't.

Because for a dealer:

• every VDP is unique
• every VDP is a long-tail keyword opportunity
• every VDP deletion loses crawl history, internal link signals, and potential rankability
• and dealers don’t have the domain authority to absorb that loss

So the strategy shouldn’t be:

“copy third parties”
but
“exploit the advantages dealers do have instead of deleting them.”

 

[Ryan Everson]

You're right that third parties don't keep every VDP live forever but the comparison being made isn't accurate.

The question isn't:

“Do third parties delete VDPs?”

The question is:

“Do dealerships get an advantage by keeping VDP's?”

Third party SEO strength comes from:

• Used Chevrolet Silverado
• Used Honda CR-V near me
• Cheap used cars Tampa
• Cars under $20k

Those SRPs stay live permanently.
Those SRPs accumulate links, authority, time-on-site signals, and massive internal linking.

Dealers DO NOT have this luxury.

So deleting VDPs on a dealer site removes one of the few SEO assets dealers actually have.

2. Third parties “delete” VDPs because they have MILLIONS of pages dealers do not.​

Cars.com and Autotrader can delete 100K VDPs a day because they have:

• insane backlink profiles
• massive domain authority
• nationally scaled SRP clusters
• 50M+ monthly pageviews
• brand trust

Dealers, on the other hand, have:

• ~50–200 VDPs
• almost no backlinks
• weak SRPs
• shallow content depth

The rules are different because the scale is different.

3. Third parties don’t delete ALL VDPs, they keep reusable templates.

Dealers have unique VDP URLs tied to unique VINs.

Third parties use:

• templated URLs
• reusable structures
• static content blocks
• huge category pages that capture ALL the demand
• and VDPs are just transactional endpoints

So even when a VDP 404s, the authority stays inside their ecosystem, not wiped out.

Dealers do NOT have this ecosystem.

4. Third parties keep authority because their VDP deletes feed into massive SRP walls.

When a third-party VDP disappears:

• 99% of SEO signals were already attributed to the SRP
• The SRP remains live
• The SRP retains authority
• The SRP continues ranking
• The VDP isn’t where their SEO value came from anyway

Dealers use VDPs to patch the gaps their SRPs don’t cover.
Deleting them removes the only long-tail content they have.

5. Third parties don’t care about the SEO loss because they overwrite it instantly.

Cars.com has:

• constant new inventory
• constant new listings
• millions of pages refreshed daily

Dealers have:

• maybe 5 new cars a day
• and 5 cars sold a day

The churn hits a dealership MUCH harder.

Comparing the two is a category error.

So yes, third parties sometimes delete VDPs.
But they can afford to. Dealers can't.

Because for a dealer:

• every VDP is unique
• every VDP is a long-tail keyword opportunity
• every VDP deletion loses crawl history, internal link signals, and potential rankability
• and dealers don’t have the domain authority to absorb that loss

So the strategy shouldn’t be:

“copy third parties”
but
“exploit the advantages dealers do have instead of deleting them.”

I'm not really sure what your exact position or strategy is here because it seems to change with each post. But most major dealership website platforms already support building custom SRP pages that combine inventory and research content the same way the third party sites do.

In a perfect world, dealers would start by creating dedicated SRP landing pages for their new model lineup, then move on to used body style SRPs, then their most common used makes, and finally their most common used models. But the reality is it's usually easier for them to just spend the $0.15 per click on guaranteed instant VLA or AIA traffic instead of taking the gamble and making the long term investment to maybe outrank third parties, Carvana, and CarMax.

 

[DjSec]

I'm not really sure what your exact position or strategy is here because it seems to change with each post. But most major dealership website platforms already support building custom SRP pages that combine inventory and research content the same way the third party sites do.

In a perfect world, dealers would start by creating dedicated SRP landing pages for their new model lineup, then move on to used body style SRPs, then their most common used makes, and finally their most common used models. But the reality is it's usually easier for them to just spend the $0.15 per click on guaranteed instant VLA or AIA traffic instead of taking the gamble and making the long term investment to maybe outrank third parties, Carvana, and CarMax.

My position has actually been the same from the start:

Dealers should keep VDPs live instead of deleting them, because removing them creates unnecessary SEO loss.
That has never changed.

Everything else I’ve said is simply explaining why deleting VDPs harms SEO and how dealers can turn those pages into an advantage instead of a liability.

Let me clarify the core argument as plainly as possible:

1. A VDP already exists.
2. It already sits in Google’s index.
3. Deleting it destroys crawl history, internal link signals, and URL equity.
4. Keeping it costs nothing.

That’s the entire foundation of my position.

And here’s where we differ:​

You’re saying:

“Dealers should invest in ads or custom SRP work instead.”

I’m saying:

“Dealers should first stop throwing away the authority they already have before spending more money.”

Deleting live URLs is negative ROI.
Keeping them is free.

Whether a dealer invests in SRPs, PPC, or content doesn’t change the fact that removing indexed pages resets SEO progress over and over.

**I’m not arguing against SRPs.​

I’m not arguing against research pages.
I’m not arguing against custom content.**

I'm saying:

VDPs should remain part of the ecosystem instead of being wiped out every time a car sells.

Because no matter how good your SRPs are:

• a deleted URL can never pass relevance
• a deleted URL can never support a content cluster
• a deleted URL can never accumulate signals
• a deleted URL cannot help rank “trucks under 20k” or “used Tahoe under 25k”
• and a deleted URL cannot strengthen anything else on the site

So I’m not promoting more cost, I’m promoting less waste.

You’re arguing for a solution that involves:

• ads
• vendor upgrades
• paid traffic
• long-term platform constraints

I’m arguing for a solution that involves:

• not deleting pages
• preserving authority
• using what the dealer already owns
• compounding signals over time
• building a content moat instead of resetting it every 30 days

I’m describing a world where dealers reduce dependency on 3rd parties and build their own organic asset.

That’s not changing my position, that is my position.

 

[Ryan Everson]

My position has actually been the same from the start:

Dealers should keep VDPs live instead of deleting them, because removing them creates unnecessary SEO loss.
That has never changed.

Everything else I’ve said is simply explaining why deleting VDPs harms SEO and how dealers can turn those pages into an advantage instead of a liability.

Let me clarify the core argument as plainly as possible:

1. A VDP already exists.
2. It already sits in Google’s index.
3. Deleting it destroys crawl history, internal link signals, and URL equity.
4. Keeping it costs nothing.

That’s the entire foundation of my position.

And here’s where we differ:​

You’re saying:



I’m saying:



Deleting live URLs is negative ROI.
Keeping them is free.

Whether a dealer invests in SRPs, PPC, or content doesn’t change the fact that removing indexed pages resets SEO progress over and over.

**I’m not arguing against SRPs.​

I’m not arguing against research pages.
I’m not arguing against custom content.**

I'm saying:

VDPs should remain part of the ecosystem instead of being wiped out every time a car sells.

Because no matter how good your SRPs are:

• a deleted URL can never pass relevance
• a deleted URL can never support a content cluster
• a deleted URL can never accumulate signals
• a deleted URL cannot help rank “trucks under 20k” or “used Tahoe under 25k”
• and a deleted URL cannot strengthen anything else on the site

So I’m not promoting more cost, I’m promoting less waste.

You’re arguing for a solution that involves:

• ads
• vendor upgrades
• paid traffic
• long-term platform constraints

I’m arguing for a solution that involves:

• not deleting pages
• preserving authority
• using what the dealer already owns
• compounding signals over time
• building a content moat instead of resetting it every 30 days

I’m describing a world where dealers reduce dependency on 3rd parties and build their own organic asset.

That’s not changing my position, that is my position.

I personally don’t think keeping sold VDPs live is going to be the secret sauce for outranking the third parties, but if you implement it on a dealership site, definitely share the results.

At the end of the day, results beat theory every time.

 

[DjSec]

I personally don’t think keeping sold VDPs live is going to be the secret sauce for outranking the third parties, but if you implement it on a dealership site, definitely share the results.

At the end of the day, results beat theory every time.

I agree with you 100% ... results beat theory.
And I’m not saying “keeping sold VDPs live” is the magic bullet by itself.

What I am saying is:
It’s one piece of a much larger strategy that stops the domain from bleeding equity every 30–45 days.

But the real power comes from pairing that with a full content ecosystem that most dealers aren’t even close to executing.

Here’s the framework I’m testing:

1. Hyper-local Year/Model/Trim pages

Examples like:

• “2022 Ford F-150 XLT Columbus NE”
• “2019 Accord Sport Columbus NE”

These act as evergreen anchors that interlink into the active VDPs and capture long-tail searches with strong buyer intent.

2. Price-intent search pages

Nobody in the dealer world ranks for these even though they convert insanely well:

• “Used Tahoe under 25k Columbus NE”
• “Trucks under 20k near me”

Third parties dominate these queries because dealers don’t build the pages.

3. Feature-based pages

Shoppers often search for the feature, not the VIN:

• “F150 with tow package Columbus NE”
• “3rd row SUVs under 30k Columbus NE”

These pages link out to VDPs that match the feature.

4. Problem-solving pages

The content third parties use to build trust:

• “Best car for a teen driver Columbus NE”
• “Affordable AWD SUV near me”

Dealers rarely touch this layer.

5. Comparison pages

Top and mid-funnel traffic:

• “F150 vs Ram 1500 Columbus NE”
• “Accord vs Camry for sale Columbus NE”

6. FAQ / issues / capacity / reliability pages

Where Google’s “People Also Ask” lives:

• “Do F150s have transmission issues?”
• “Towing capacity of 2018 Tahoe”

These pages create authority signals dealers almost never build.

7. Buyer-intent filter pages

High-converting:

• “Low mileage trucks Columbus NE”
• “Certified Camry Columbus NE”

8. Condition + location pages​

• “Used 4x4 trucks Columbus NE”
• “Diesel trucks near me”

9. Niche & modified-intent pages

• “Lifted trucks Columbus NE”
• “Custom wheels SUV Columbus NE”

Each page includes:

• an overview
• FAQs
• rich schema
• internal links to relevant active VDPs
• internal links from sold VDPs, so inventory churn doesn’t destroy equity
• structured clusters that feed your SRPs

…and all of it sits on top of:

• ADA compliance
• mobile FCP under 1 second
• LCP under 2.5 seconds
• clean code
• efficient image delivery
• no layout shift
• fast server response times

This is the “start.”
Not the finish.

Keeping sold VDPs is not “the strategy.”

It’s just removing the unnecessary loss from the system so the real strategy can compound over time instead of resetting every 45 days.

And I absolutely agree:
The only thing that matters is testing.

I’ll share results as they come in although it might be better to create a 3rd website for testing and sharing results.