@Scott Zagurski I wasn't referring to your group/dealer's sites, I understand your website strategy and branding strategy. It was 2 Ford dealers within our region, to the south and competitors to our St. Joseph Ford location.
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POLL OEM Site Only Versus Custom Dealer Site
- Thread starter Bill Simmons
- Start date
Not being critical at all Chad, you guys have done a great job of making your web presence a differentiator. Truly structuring the code in your site for organic lift is really hard on the OEM website path. You have done a great job proving this point.
- Aug 6, 2013
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- Brian
This is a very relevant topic that I hear about almost daily. To the dealers and content creators on this forum; What specific things do you want that your OEM provider can't support either partially or completely? In the interest of elevating the conversation, in lieu of saying "branding" or "custom messaging", please be as specific as possible with the hopes of pulling as many people into this thread as we can. Thank you all for your input..
- Feb 11, 2015
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- First Name
- Alex
That's just too easy. Not going to go into the hundreds of reasons why custom solutions are better.
✨ AI Highlights
Dealers debate whether to rely solely on manufacturer-mandated OEM websites or invest in custom dealer-built sites, with most experienced digital professionals arguing custom sites offer superior branding, functionality, analytics, and SEO—though they require sustained commitment and skilled staff to maintain. Key tension emerges between the OEM perspective (standardized sites ensure minimum quality across all dealers) and top-performing dealers' needs (custom sites allow competitive differentiation and advanced features). The practical consensus leans toward custom sites for competitive markets and engaged dealers, but acknowledges real risks: staff turnover, content decay, Google ranking confusion, and the sustainability challenge of maintaining quality over time.
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