The 15-minute dealer website self-audit: a lot-check checklist

When a dealer asks us for a lot check, we do not start with a pitch. We start by being a shopper: we open the website on an ordinary phone, look for a car, try to work out whether we can afford it, and see what happens when we ask a question at an awkward hour. It takes about fifteen minutes and it tells us more than any report.

You can do the same thing yourself. If you want the reasons behind the checks first, why shoppers look but buy elsewhere goes through what a shopper runs into at each step. Below is the checklist we use, in the order we use it. You need a phone on mobile data (not your store Wi-Fi), a notepad, and the honesty to write down what you actually see rather than what you know is supposed to happen.

Before you start

• —Use your own phone, but open the site in a private browser tab so you are not logged in and nothing is cached.
• —Turn off Wi-Fi. Shoppers browse from the couch, the bus or another dealer's lot.
• —Have three real cars in mind: one that arrived this week, one that has been on the lot for a while, and one that sold in the last few days.

1. Inventory: is what is on the site actually on the lot? (4 minutes)

This is the check that matters most, because a shopper who drives in for a car that is gone does not come back easily.

• Search for the car that sold in the last few days. Is it still listed, or still showing as available?
• Search for the car that arrived this week. Is it there, with real photos rather than a placeholder?
• On the long-standing car, does the price on the page match the price your desk would quote today, with the same fees?
• Are the kilometres there and current?
• Does the number of cars on your inventory page roughly match what you know is available?

If you find a sold car still listed, the article on sold cars still on your website walks through where the delay usually comes from.

2. Speed on a phone (3 minutes)

Shoppers rarely complain that a site is slow. They just leave. So measure it rather than guess.

• Time how long the home page takes before you can tap something useful. Then do the same for the inventory page and one vehicle page.
• Scroll a vehicle photo gallery. Does it stutter, jump, or load images one at a time while the page moves under your thumb?
• Run the vehicle page through Google's free PageSpeed Insights. Look at the mobile result, not the desktop one.

PageSpeed Insights reports Google's Core Web Vitals — loading, responsiveness and visual stability. You do not need to understand every metric. If the mobile assessment fails on your vehicle pages, that is the page your shoppers spend the most time on, and it is the one to raise with your provider.

3. How you show up on Google (3 minutes)

Do this on the phone too, signed out.

• Search your dealership's name. Is your own website the first result? Is your Google Business Profile showing, with the right hours, phone number and a recent photo?
• Search "used cars" plus your town. Do you appear at all — in the map results or below them?
• Search one specific car you have, the way a shopper would: year, make, model and your town. Does your own vehicle page come up, or only a marketplace listing of it?
• Look at the title and description Google shows for your home page. Does it say who you are and where, or something generic like "Home"?

4. Financing and trade-in on the car page (3 minutes)

Pick the long-standing car and pretend you want it but need financing and have a trade.

• Can you start a credit application or pre-qualification from the vehicle page itself, without hunting for a separate "finance" page?
• Does the page explain what kind of credit check happens? Many shoppers worry that applying will hurt their score. A soft inquiry does not affect a credit score, while a hard inquiry can; Equifax Canada explains the difference in plain language. If your tool uses a soft check, say so on the page.
• Can you get some idea of your trade's value from the same page, or at least send its details without phoning?
• After you submit, is it clear what happens next and when someone will contact you?

The test is simple: could a shopper go from "I like this car" to "the dealer has everything they need to call me" without leaving the car they are looking at?

5. After hours (2 minutes, but at the right time)

Do this one in the evening or on a Sunday — when your showroom is closed and many people do their browsing.

• Ask a real question about a real car through whatever your site offers: chat, a contact form, a text button.
• Note the time. Note when, and how, you get an answer.
• If there is a chat, ask about a car you know just sold. Does it tell you the truth?
• If there is only a form, does the confirmation tell you when to expect a reply?

The gap between the question and the first human (or useful) reply is the gap your competitors are filling. There is more on that in after-hours leads.

Scoring it

Do not turn this into a number. Turn it into a short list:

1. 01Things that are wrong today (a sold car listed, wrong hours on Google, a broken gallery). Fix those this week; most are free.
2. 02Things that are slow or awkward (a slow vehicle page, finance hidden on another page). These are conversations with your website provider.
3. 03Things that are missing (no answer after hours, no trade-in on the car page). These are decisions about what your site should do.

Keep the notes and repeat the audit in a month. The second time is faster, and the differences tell you whether anything you asked for actually changed.

Or let us run it

If you would rather not do it yourself, this is what the free lot check is. Send us your website; within two business hours you get a short teardown of what a shopper sees on your lot online, and I call to walk you through it. No pitch deck, and you keep the teardown whether or not we ever work together. Our prices are public, in USD, before you talk to us.