What Should the Perfect Dealership Home Page Look Like?

[ChristianFarah]

Solid breakdown and the speed-first mindset is spot on. One small tweak I’d test is adding a single micro-CTA in the hero (like a trust or utility hook) for users not ready to browse inventory yet. Overall the flow feels intentional and conversion-focused without clutter rarely done this clean.

That same principle of clarity and fit applies in parts sourcing too specialized categories like mangueras Colombia work best when users immediately understand purpose, compatibility, and value without extra friction.

 

[nessauto]

What platform is clocktowerauto.com built in? Who is the Provider? Seems alot like a overfuel site.

 

[TJThompson]

I feel decent page speed matters but far from everything. For example visiting the site I get an ssl warning (I’m guessing you are linking to external scripts that aren’t https). The layout feels a little 2005.

Doesn’t present that well on mobile with bad wrapping and wasted space trying to show icons, and icon description and the value for that icon. The VLP has much to be desired with nothing of interest above the fold initially and a quirky odd thrown together layout of each vehicle.

You said it’s in the works so maybe a ways to go yet.

I appreciate the challenges and there may limitations I’m not aware. To be fair I completed this site recently and it’s always a work in progress. And I’m not a fan of the annoying chat but was forced to compromise lol

ReCar Auto. Used Cars, Trucks, SUVs for sale in Fredericton, Moncton, Halifax, Woodstock & Saint John.

ReCar offers Fixed, No-Pressure Pricing on all of its certified vehicles, as well as Customer First Vehicle Advisors that get paid the same no matter what you choose for your next vehicle. How Car Buying Should Be.

www.recar.ca

 

[DjSec]

What platform is clocktowerauto.com built in? Who is the Provider? Seems alot like a overfuel site.

ClockTowerAuto is built in Django and Python, not a template platform and is designed from the ground up for performance, accessibility, and SEO.

OverFuel publicly claims to build the fastest automotive websites in the industry. That’s a measurable claim, so let’s measure it.

Google’s Core Web Vitals benchmarks are clear:

• First Contentful Paint (FCP): under 1 second
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): under 2.5 seconds

Using PageSpeed Insights, we can test the sites OverFuel themselves showcase on their homepage.

Here are real-world results (mobile):

• almcars — 2.2s FCP / 8.9s LCP
• bobrutherford — 3.2s FCP / 5.4s LCP
• bradenauto — 1.8s FCP / 8.8s LCP
• blackwellkia — 3.3s FCP / 20.8s LCP
• cabledahmer — 1.9s FCP / 4.3s LCP
• dellspowersports — 7.4s FCP / 23.9s LCP
• clementautogroup — 1.5s FCP / 11.5s LCP
• fishersimports — 2.5s FCP / 9.2s LCP
• gravityautos — 1.2s FCP / 9.2s LCP
• budclary — 1.2s FCP / 3.2s LCP

None of these sites meet Google’s recommended performance thresholds.

This isn’t about what can’t be done OverFuel’s own website proves they know how to do it. The issue is that this level of performance isn’t being delivered to their clients.

ClockTowerAuto does meet these benchmarks, and we have live data to prove it.


Performance is only part of the story.

OverFuel also claims to build high-ranking websites. However, Google explicitly states that Core Web Vitals and accessibility are ranking factors.

ClockTowerAuto is designed to be ADA compliant by default.

A quick accessibility scan shows OverFuel client sites are not ADA compliant, which exposes dealerships to real legal and financial risk. Their own site is compliant however their clients’ sites are not.

Shows they do understand the risk ...

On the SEO side, ClockTowerAuto includes:

• Blog posts with FAQ, overview, and advanced schema
• Search Result Pages (SRPs) that can be created instantly
• Internal linking between content and SRPs designed to rank
• Zero page builders, zero bloated JS frameworks

You enter a name and you have an SEO-ready SRP.

We’re not finished building. We’re early.

But ClockTowerAuto is doing what others claim to do, with proof instead of marketing.

We’re just getting started. This is our first dealership website, and it’s been built with a performance-first, accessibility-first mindset from day one.

We’re continuously refining and improving it, and a second dealership site is already in progress.

The difference is simple: we measure, we test, and we improve based on data not marketing claims.

 

[DjSec]

I feel decent page speed matters but far from everything.

Page speed isn’t everything, but it is foundational. Google has been explicit that Core Web Vitals, crawl efficiency, and real-world user metrics directly affect indexing, rankings, and conversions. A site can be beautiful, but if it’s slow or unstable, users bounce and Google sees that immediately.

That said, performance alone doesn’t carry a site layout, UX, and clarity absolutely matter, and those are actively being refined.

I feel decent page speed matters but far from everything. For example visiting the site I get an ssl warning (I’m guessing you are linking to external scripts that aren’t https).

Regarding the SSL warning I haven’t been able to reproduce that yet, but if you saw it, I take that seriously. I’ll run additional checks to identify whether there’s a mixed-content request or an external asset misconfigured. If you have a screenshot, I’d genuinely appreciate it.

The layout feels a little 2005.

I’m open to specifics. The design intentionally avoids heavy JS frameworks and page builders to preserve speed and crawlability, but that doesn’t mean the presentation can’t be cleaner. If there are particular patterns or sections that feel dated, I’m happy to adjust.

Doesn’t present that well on mobile with bad wrapping and wasted space trying to show icons, and icon description and the value for that icon.

The icon + label + value layout is being actively reworked right now to reduce wrapping and wasted space. This is one of those trade-offs where performance-first decisions sometimes expose UX edges that need polish.

The VLP has much to be desired with nothing of interest above the fold initially and a quirky odd thrown together layout of each vehicle.

The current focus is on immediate vehicle identification (year, make, model, imagery) with minimal layout shift, but I’m experimenting with stronger above-the-fold signals like CTAs, pricing emphasis, and intent-based actions.

If you’re willing, I’d genuinely value screenshots or examples of layouts you feel execute this better, especially on mobile.

I’m not positioning this as “finished”, it’s a performance-driven foundation that’s being refined daily. The goal is to balance speed, accessibility, SEO, and usability without sacrificing one for the others.

 

[TJThompson]

Page speed isn’t everything, but it is foundational. Google has been explicit that Core Web Vitals, crawl efficiency, and real-world user metrics directly affect indexing, rankings, and conversions. A site can be beautiful, but if it’s slow or unstable, users bounce and Google sees that immediately.

That said, performance alone doesn’t carry a site layout, UX, and clarity absolutely matter, and those are actively being refined.


Regarding the SSL warning I haven’t been able to reproduce that yet, but if you saw it, I take that seriously. I’ll run additional checks to identify whether there’s a mixed-content request or an external asset misconfigured. If you have a screenshot, I’d genuinely appreciate it.


I’m open to specifics. The design intentionally avoids heavy JS frameworks and page builders to preserve speed and crawlability, but that doesn’t mean the presentation can’t be cleaner. If there are particular patterns or sections that feel dated, I’m happy to adjust.

The icon + label + value layout is being actively reworked right now to reduce wrapping and wasted space. This is one of those trade-offs where performance-first decisions sometimes expose UX edges that need polish.

The current focus is on immediate vehicle identification (year, make, model, imagery) with minimal layout shift, but I’m experimenting with stronger above-the-fold signals like CTAs, pricing emphasis, and intent-based actions.

If you’re willing, I’d genuinely value screenshots or examples of layouts you feel execute this better, especially on mobile.

I’m not positioning this as “finished”, it’s a performance-driven foundation that’s being refined daily. The goal is to balance speed, accessibility, SEO, and usability without sacrificing one for the others.

I did mention maybe it’s still in the works so that’s awesome. Its definitely a process and no shortage of opinions I find lol

 

[DjSec]

I did mention maybe it’s still in the works so that’s awesome. Its definitely a process and no shortage of opinions I find lol

The more professional opinions the better!