Dealership website checklist for Canadian dealers

1. Give every vehicle a useful, stable page

Open a vehicle from your inventory grid and copy its address. That address should lead directly to the same vehicle when opened in a new browser. Include the actual year, make, model, trim, stock number, mileage with units, asking price and relevant equipment. Use your own photos and describe condition honestly; do not let a generic AI description invent options.

• Compare three listings against the source inventory record.
• Share a vehicle link in a private test message and check its preview.
• Confirm photo order, mileage units and contact details on a phone.

2. Make inventory changes predictable

Choose one system as the source of truth. Record who updates prices and how long a change takes to reach the public website. Test the complete lifecycle: add a vehicle, change its price, mark it sold, then remove it. A sold page can remain useful when its status is clear and it links to available alternatives. If a page is permanently removed with no close replacement, a genuine 404 or 410 is preferable to sending every old vehicle URL to the homepage.

• Check that sold vehicles are no longer presented as available.
• Verify price changes on the detail page as well as the inventory grid.
• Do not redirect unrelated sold vehicles to a random in-stock car.

3. Test the enquiry, not just the button

Submit a clearly labelled test lead from a phone. Confirm which inbox receives it, whether the vehicle is identified, and who owns the response. Try a missing required field and an invalid email address. Show a helpful confirmation only after the form succeeds. Ask only for information needed to respond; avoid requesting sensitive financing information through a general contact form.

• Test tap-to-call and the dealership address link.
• Check error messages and keyboard navigation.
• Record the time from submission to the assigned salesperson receiving the lead.

4. Check basic search visibility

Each public page should have a descriptive title, one clear main heading and a canonical URL that identifies that page. Keep review and staging pages out of search. Your XML sitemap should contain only canonical pages you want indexed, not login URLs or broken links. In Google Search Console, inspect a representative vehicle URL and your main inventory page; a successful sitemap submission does not mean every page is indexed.

• Check the public page source for a title, canonical and accidental noindex.
• Confirm robots.txt points to the correct sitemap.
• Link important pages with ordinary, descriptive links rather than relying only on site search.

5. Keep the mobile experience usable

Run a mobile performance test on a vehicle detail page, not only the homepage. Large photos, video backgrounds and third-party widgets can delay the content shoppers need. Size images for their display area, reserve space to avoid layout jumps and load below-the-fold media only when needed. Test with reduced motion enabled and check that buttons remain readable over photographs.

• Try the site on a slower connection.
• Ensure text and controls fit without sideways scrolling.
• Check that inventory remains readable if an animation does not run.

6. Review disclosures and measure outcomes

Have the person responsible for compliance check price disclosures, advertising language, privacy notices and consent practices against the requirements that apply to your dealership. Requirements differ by province and situation; this checklist is not legal advice. Measure completed enquiries and qualified conversations separately from page views. Record a baseline before changing the site, then compare the same measures over time.

• Keep dealership name, address, hours and phone consistent.
• Use current official provincial regulator guidance for your location.
• Review form failures and unanswered leads each week.

Put the checklist to work

Launch test: ask someone who did not build the website to find a specific vehicle, understand its price and send a test enquiry on their phone. Fix anything that prevents that task before adding more marketing channels.

Considering DriveMoose? Explore the platform and confirm the workflows and plan details you need before committing. Some illustrated features may still be in development.