Newbie looking for guidance

[Anron]

Hello everyone. I'm Emre.
I recently took over a small independent dealership called Interstate Motors here in Tampa, Florida. I’m still very new to the dealership world. I used to be a pilot in Turkey and recently moved here, so I’m learning everything step-by-step. As you can imagine, everyone is trying to sell me something right now and telling me that I can’t grow without their services. That’s why I figured this community would be a great place to ask for guidance from people who have real experience and proven results.

Currently, I have about 12 cars in inventory. I’m trying to grow, but I’m having a hard time reading the market and deciding which vehicles I should be purchasing. My lot can hold up to 50 units. I’m sourcing mainly through Manheim and occasionally private sellers when I get lucky. I recently registered with local auctions as well and plan to explore those. I also have a flooring line available but I am not using it at the moment. The dealership has been open for about a year but had sold only a few cars before I took over. I’ve been active for about a month and have sold a few as well. The reviews on Google have been very positive so far, and I take pride in standing behind the cars I sell and making sure my customers are happy even if it means taking a loss. I work alone and doing everything myself apart from repairs. I do plan to grow eventually but I got to learn the basics first I believe. Im not doing BHPH and only do financing though lenders.

Right now, I’m trying to better understand how to:

• Generate more qualified leads
• Increase online visibility, branding, and trust
• Choose the right tools, software, and systems
• Determine which advertising platforms and lead sources actually provide ROI

I’m currently using DealerCenter as my website ( www.interstatetampa.com ) provider, inventory management, and appraisal tool. However, I was not happy with my website performance or design, so I recently signed up with Carsforsale and will have a new website through them. I have also considered Dealer.com, but the pricing is significantly higher, though I’m wondering if the data and analytics they provide are worth the investment.

At the moment, I’m listing my inventory on CarGurus, Facebook, and Google. I’m considering adding Autotrader as well. I’ve also been advised to register with NIADA and explore some of their programs.

Any advice, insights, or experiences you’re willing to share would mean a lot to me. I truly appreciate your time and look forward to learning from those who have already walked this path. I’m here to learn, grow, and hopefully contribute in the future. Thanks in advance!

Edit : Im not doing BHPH. I think Im too new for this.

 

[DjSec]

I'll give my two cents ...

1. Website & Inventory Pages: Most of the big “dealer websites” out there can actually hurt more than help. Many are slow, full of code errors, and not fully ADA-compliant, which can cost you leads, traffic and trust. Even worse, the individual car detail pages often aren’t optimized for search engines, so your “money cars” won’t show up for buyers actively searching for them.
2. SEO / Buyer Intent: The real leverage comes from making each car detail page rank for buyer-intent searches. For example, someone searching “2019 Honda Civic Tampa” should be able to find your exact car. That’s how you get qualified leads without spending extra on ads.
3. Lead Generation & ROI: Before pouring money into every ad platform, focus on making your site the hub for your cars. Good page speed, proper SEO, and clear calls to action will help your CarGurus, Facebook, and Google listings convert better.
4. Tools & Systems: A lot of dealers try to use every flashy tool but get bogged down. It’s more important to have a clean website that ranks, tracks leads, and integrates with your inventory system than it is to have the newest widget.

You don't want to look like the competition!
1.) Before you hire someone look at their current customers and see if all their sites look the same.
2.) Check their current customers in Google's Lighthouse tool PageSpeed Insights if the FCP isn't under a second, the LCP under 2.5, and all the signals green keep looking.
3.) Check their code with The W3C Markup Validation Service professionals validate their code, if their code has errors there not a professional.
4.) Make sure the site is ADA compliant WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools if it is not ADA compliant you can get sued and fined and plugins and overlays do not make a website ADA compliant.

 

[SavvyNick]

I would do a lot more research before letting Cars for Sale get ahold of your domain. It can be difficult to impossible to get it back. The big box $99 solutions are going to deliver a $99 result. If you are looking for a long term solutions there are several reputable website companies out there that will help to get you established and fundamentally sound. You also need to consider how LLM's like Chat GPT are changing the search game. Happy to discuss further anytime. I am moving to your area in December by the way.

 

[DjSec]

I would do a lot more research before letting Cars for Sale get ahold of your domain. It can be difficult to impossible to get it back. The big box $99 solutions are going to deliver a $99 result. If you are looking for a long term solutions there are several reputable website companies out there that will help to get you established and fundamentally sound. You also need to consider how LLM's like Chat GPT are changing the search game. Happy to discuss further anytime. I am moving to your area in December by the way.

I’ve also heard similar concerns, especially about lead-sharing and the low conversion quality from marketplace traffic. It’s one of those things I didn't want to say publicly, but it comes up again and again.

The bigger issue, though, is that most web design companies (across all industries) ship sites full of technical errors. There was a study showing that roughly 98% of attorney websites aren’t ADA compliant, and that’s in a field where lawsuits are common and compliance matters. Car dealers may not get sued as often, but ADA rules still apply, and overlays/plugins do not make a site compliant.

On top of that, I’ve personally looked at thousands of dealership websites, including the big providers and none of them pass Google’s own guidelines when you check them through Lighthouse. Basic things like Largest Contentful Paint, layout shift, accessibility contrast, and semantic structure are broken right out of the box.

And the irony is:
These companies sell SEO on top of websites that don’t even meet Google’s minimum technical standards.

If a site isn’t compliant, isn’t fast, and isn’t structurally correct, it doesn’t matter who’s doing your SEO, you’re starting from behind.

For any dealer just getting started, the bare minimum from a website provider should be:

• ADA-compliant code (not an overlay)
• Clean HTML/CSS structure with no 30+ Lighthouse errors
• Fast Largest Contentful Paint & stable layout (Under 2.5)
• Schema markup
• Full ownership of your data
• And FCP under 1 second

Most providers don’t check those boxes, even though these are the fundamentals before you ever spend a dollar on SEO or ads. Dealers don’t realize how much money they’re burning because the foundation is weak.