The best example is CarGurus on the VDP question they bury them the same as Carmax and Carvana and those guys are dominating the space.
Is There Actually a Market for Franchise-Level Websites at $399/mo for Independents?
- Thread starter SavvyNick
- Start date
No one does it so not doing it would be typical
This is false because:
VDPs already do rank just not for dealers.
Cars.com
CarGurus
AutoTrader
Edmunds
TrueCar
These sites rank millions of VDP pages for long-tail keywords every day.
If ranking VDPs were “a trap,” these companies wouldn’t exist and they wouldn’t be worth billions.
The problem is NOT that VDPs can’t rank.
The problem is that:
- Dealer VDPs load too slow
- Dealer VDPs have duplicate content
- Dealer VDPs lack structured data
- Dealer VDPs have no internal links
- Dealer VDPs have no supporting topical authority
- Dealer VDPs disappear when the vehicle sells
- Dealer VDPs use generic templates
- Dealer VDPs ignore long-tail keywords
If your VDPs don’t rank, your entire SEO strategy collapses.
Why?
Because:
- 70%+ of organic dealer traffic should be used car inventory traffic.
- Shopper queries are overwhelmingly long-tail.
- High-intent searches map to VDPs naturally.
- “2019 f150 xlt for sale near me”
- “used tahoe under 25k”
- “2018 camry se in stock”
- “awd suv near me under 30k”
What your calling a “trap” is actually:
The #1 most valuable type of organic traffic a dealership can get.
You don’t try to force every VDP to rank.
You build a supporting ecosystem that pushes authority into the right VDPs.
the reason that money is spent on 3rd part platforms is because they rank their VDP's for those keywords.
Any time 770-897-6107 just ask for Gregg and if your not ranking VDP's what is your approach and do you have a sample site?
They bury them in their nav structure so humans don’t browse thousands of inventory pages manually,
BUT they massively expose them to Google through:
- giant XML sitemaps
- deep internal linking
- powerful category pages
- VIN-based structured data
- high authority domain signals
- canonical architecture optimized for search engines
I'm afraid the data doesn't lie. Here is a VDP page for Cargurus I took this screenshot a few minutes ago. If you look at the canonical link for the VDP page, Cargurus is linking Used SUVs / Crossovers for Sale near Land O Lakes, FL - CarGurus which is not the VDP page I'm on. If you're not familiar with canonical linking, this is a way to tell Google if you're page is just a copy of another page, or if you want it ranked.
You would never canonical link to a search results page if you were trying to get a page ranked. This is actually common practice among all the websites you listed to negate all SEO value of VDP's. Cargurus and others understand how google's index works and thus bury VDP's and focus on Search Result Pages instead which has helped them outrank every dealership in the country.
When trying to find best practice it helps to study those who are winning which is what we did when designing our platform.
Used SUVs / Crossovers for Sale near Land O Lakes, FL - CarGurus
Browse the best November 2025 deals on SUV / Crossover vehicles for sale in Land O Lakes, FL. Save right now on a SUV / Crossover on CarGurus.
Also here is a link for one of our sites. https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-jarrettauto-com/4njgvrq0oz?form_factor=mobile
You would never canonical link to a search results page if you were trying to get a page ranked. This is actually common practice among all the websites you listed to negate all SEO value of VDP's. Cargurus and others understand how google's index works and thus bury VDP's and focus on Search Result Pages instead which has helped them outrank every dealership in the country.
When trying to find best practice it helps to study those who are winning which is what we did when designing our platform.
Used SUVs / Crossovers for Sale near Land O Lakes, FL - CarGurus
Browse the best November 2025 deals on SUV / Crossover vehicles for sale in Land O Lakes, FL. Save right now on a SUV / Crossover on CarGurus.
Also here is a link for one of our sites. https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-jarrettauto-com/4njgvrq0oz?form_factor=mobile
Thanks for sharing the site!
Since you’re positioning this as your high-performance example, I want to give you real feedback based on actual standards (Google, WCAG, and W3C.
Here’s what I’m seeing:
1. ADA Compliance
The site fails multiple WCAG checkpoints.
That puts the dealership at real risk of ADA lawsuits and fines.
Any dealer platform today has to meet WCAG 2.1 AA out of the box, that should be the bare minimum.
2. Core Web Vitals
LCP is 4.1s and FCP is 2.5s.
That means:
- A large percentage of users are bouncing
- SEO is suppressed
- Google won’t crawl the site as deep as it should
- Paid traffic performance gets crushed
3. W3C Errors
The page reports ~90 coding errors.
That’s not a deal-breaker by itself, but it’s usually a sign the framework wasn’t tuned for speed or accessibility.
4. Bootstrap Template
It looks and behaves like a standard Bootstrap dealership template.
If the goal is “franchise-grade,” the UI/UX and structure need to differentiate from Carsforsale, DealerCenter, and every other template-driven provider.
Here’s the real question I’m trying to understand:
If your platform is built on Bootstrap, has ADA failures, slow Core Web Vitals, and a very standard layout…
What is the strategy behind this product?
What makes it different from Carsforsale, WebsiteOnDemand, DealerCenter, or any other template provider?
What problem are you solving that they aren’t?
I’m not being negative, I’m genuinely trying to understand the positioning.
Right now, it looks like the same structure and constraints as every other dealer platform, so I’m curious where you see the value or differentiation.
Rather than debating the SEO risk of a 4.1 second LCP vs a 2.5 Second LCP I am honesty looking for feedback from dealers using the $99 sites or the more expensive ones.
You were the one who brought speed and performance into the discussion.
You originally said:
So naturally I assumed you were positioning your platform as faster, more compliant, and more optimized than the $99 providers.
But the example site you shared:
- has a 4.1s LCP
- has a 2.5s FCP
- isn’t ADA compliant
- uses the same Bootstrap layout every other provider uses
- has ~90 W3C errors
- and looks identical to Carsforsale / DealerCenter templates
If your platform is positioned as higher-performance and higher-value, what is the actual edge?
What problem does it solve that the $99 solutions don’t?
Dealers don’t pay more for the same thing.
They pay more when a platform helps them:
- sell more cars
- convert more leads
- outrank competitors
- get more trade-ins
- lower ad spend
- increase gross
- or improve operations
What justifies the higher price?
That’s what I am trying to understand.
I want to say this nicer but I came here to look for opinions from dealers not vendors. It seems like maybe there aren't a lot of dealers here. I am happy to provide dealer references to any dealer that would like them. We consistently help our dealers do all of these.
- sell more cars
- convert more leads
- outrank competitors
- get more trade-ins
- lower ad spend
- increase gross
- or improve operations
When you post in a public forum, everyone can see it and everyone has the right to comment. You made several claims in your first post, and I was simply asking for clarification. I was actually ready to praise your platform if it truly delivered what you described.
But in the process of trying to understand the value you’re offering, it became clear that there were inconsistencies between the claims and the example site provided. Pointing that out isn’t “vendor vs. dealer” it’s just an honest discussion about performance and results.
There are dealers on this forum. Many read without posting. These threads also get indexed and will be referenced by search engines and AI, so accuracy matters.
The issues I pointed out, ADA compliance, Core Web Vitals, and using the same mass-produced template other providers use, are legitimate concerns. Those aren’t personal attacks; they’re basic requirements that impact dealers legally, financially, and operationally.
None of that means you don’t have something to offer. And if you’re open to improving what you have, the conversation can actually help you strengthen your platform rather than shut the door on feedback.
Not shutting the door on feedback but you have made multiple false statements and I am simply not looking to get into a back and forth about it. I was simply looking for dealer feed back on the question.
