How to Choose a Dealer Website Provider in Canada

Your website is the one place online where you control the whole experience: the photos, the prices, the way a shopper gets in touch. It’s also a multi-year commitment. Switching providers means migrating inventory, retraining staff and risking a dip in search traffic, so it pays to choose carefully the first time.

Most dealer website demos look good. The differences show up later, in page speed, in how inventory flows, in who answers the phone when something breaks, and in what the contract says when you want to leave. Here are the questions to ask, and why each one matters for a Canadian dealer.

1. Is it fast on a phone?

Most of your shoppers will see your site on a phone first, and Google indexes the mobile version of your site (Google Search Central). Google also measures real-world speed and stability with its Core Web Vitals. A “good” page loads its main content in 2.5 seconds or less, responds to taps in 200 milliseconds or less, and doesn’t jump around as it loads (web.dev).

Ask: “Show me Core Web Vitals for three of your current dealer sites, on mobile.” Then run one of their customer sites through Google’s PageSpeed Insights yourself, on a vehicle detail page, not just the home page.

2. How does inventory get onto the site, and back off it?

The website is only as good as the inventory feed behind it.

Ask:

• How do vehicles get onto the site, and how quickly do changes show up?
• Is a sold vehicle removed automatically? In Ontario, OMVIC’s advertising guideline expects sold units to come down promptly (OMVIC).
• Can the same inventory feed your other channels (marketplaces, Facebook, Google) without re-entering anything?
• Are there limits or extra fees for syndication?

3. Can it show prices the way the law requires?

Canadian advertising rules apply to your website just as they do to print. The details differ by province:

• Ontario: the advertised price must include every fee the dealer intends to charge except HST and licensing, and the first page a shopper sees must carry the required information (OMVIC).
• Alberta: everything except GST and financing costs (AMVIC).
• Quebec: an all-inclusive price, with QST and GST allowed to be shown separately (Office de la protection du consommateur).
• British Columbia: the total price except taxes, with conditional rebates shown separately (Vehicle Sales Authority of BC).

Federally, the Competition Act treats a price that can’t actually be paid because of added mandatory fees as misleading (Justice Laws).

Ask: “How does your platform show an all-in price on listings and vehicle pages? Can I set fees once and have them applied everywhere?”

4. Is it accessible, and ready for Quebec?

• Accessibility. In Ontario, businesses with 50 or more employees must make their public websites meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and the organization that controls the site is responsible (Government of Ontario). Even if you’re smaller, an accessible site is easier for every customer to use.
• French. Quebec’s Charter of the French Language requires commercial content to be available in French, and the Office québécois de la langue française treats websites as covered. In 2026 a retailer was fined over website content that wasn’t available in French (Gouvernement du Québec).
• Privacy. Quebec’s Law 25 requires a plain-language privacy policy on your site, and tracking that can identify or profile visitors must be off by default (Commission d’accès à l’information). Elsewhere, PIPEDA or your provincial privacy law applies (Office of the Privacy Commissioner).

Ask: “Which accessibility standard do you build to? Do you support a full French site? How does your cookie banner handle consent?”

5. Are you certified for my brand?

Franchise dealers often need a website approved under their manufacturer’s program, with OEM branding, incentives and vehicle data that stay compliant as the program changes.

Ask: “Are you a certified provider for my OEM’s program in Canada, and who keeps incentive data current?”

6. Who answers when something breaks?

This is where providers differ most, and where a demo tells you least. A broken lead form on a Saturday costs real sales.

Ask:

• Is there a named person who knows my store, or a ticket queue?
• What’s your guaranteed response time, and is it in writing?
• Is support based in Canada, in my time zone?
• Do you review site performance with me, and how often?
• How long does a typical change take, like a new landing page or a homepage banner?

Ask two of their current customers the same questions.

7. What does the contract say?

Ask:

• How long is the term, and what happens at renewal?
• Who owns the domain name, the content and the photos?
• If I leave, can I export my inventory, leads and analytics? In what format?
• What’s included in the monthly fee, and what’s extra (landing pages, SEO, design changes, extra users)?

A provider that’s confident in its service doesn’t need to lock you in.

A quick scorecard

Rate each provider from 1 to 5 on: mobile speed, inventory integration, price compliance, accessibility and French, OEM certification, support, and contract terms. Weight support and inventory most heavily. They’re the two you’ll feel every day.

How Carpages compares

Every Carpages website platform includes a fast, mobile-first WordPress site and built-in inventory management through the Carpages Dealer Dashboard:

• DealerPage+ is a modular site for independent dealers who want something simple, powerful and quick to launch, at a low monthly cost.
• DealerSite+ is a fully customized site with a dedicated Client Success Advisor, a response to any website issue within two business hours, and monthly performance calls.
• OEM certified websites for Ford and Lincoln, Toyota and Lexus and Honda and Acura dealers are built to the manufacturer’s brand standards, with incentive data built in.

DealerPage+ and DealerSite+ include unlimited feed syndication and free advertising on Carpages.ca (ask us what’s included in your OEM package), and none of the three requires a long-term commitment. See them side by side on the comparison page.