Working With WARDORX: How Our Dealership Website Was Built

People ask us about our website. Customers want to know how the Carfax request on every listing works, and other business owners want to know who built it. The answer is WARDORX, a web design and SEO agency here in Calgary. We'd hire them again, and this post explains why.

We've split it into three parts. First, what we needed and what WARDORX built. Second, what working with them was like. Third, a long list of questions we get from car buyers and from other business owners, with straight answers.

Disclosure: WARDORX built and maintains this website and helped us draft this post. We reviewed it, and it reflects our experience. We weren't paid for it.

What we needed from a website

A used car lot is a hard business to put online. Our inventory changes every week. A vehicle can come in on Monday and be sold by Thursday. Every one of those vehicles needs its own page with its own photos, price, history report and payment estimate, and the page has to come down or be marked sold when the vehicle goes.

Most people who visit our site are on a phone. A lot of them are standing on another dealer's lot, checking whether we have something similar for less. Many of them want to know about financing before they care much about the vehicle itself. If you've had credit trouble, the first question in your head is usually "will anyone approve me," not "what colour is it."

So we had a short list. The site had to keep up with the lot without a developer making every change. Each vehicle had to be easy to find on Google. People had to get financing answers early. Every enquiry had to reach our team fast. And the site had to look like Chinook, not like a template with our logo dropped on top.

What WARDORX built for car buyers

Everything in this section is live on chinookautosales.com, so you can check it yourself.

• A page for every vehicle. Each listing has a photo gallery, a video when we've shot one, the price, the specs and a contact form tied to that vehicle. You can search and filter the whole inventory by make, body type, price, year and mileage.
• Carfax on the listing. You can ask for a vehicle's Carfax report right from its page, before you drive over.
• A payment calculator on every vehicle. Change the down payment, term and rate and you'll see an estimated monthly payment. It's an estimate, and the page says so. The real rate depends on your credit approval.
• Online pre-approval. A step-by-step form that sends your application to our finance team, so we can start working on it before you visit.
• A trade-in estimator. Enter the year, mileage and condition of your current vehicle and you get a rough value range. We confirm the real number when we see the vehicle.
• A comparison tool for putting vehicles side by side.
• Call and pre-approve buttons that stay on screen on phones, so you don't have to scroll back up to find our number.
• Buying and financing guides written for Alberta buyers, plus pages for the towns we deliver to.

Shout-out to WARDORX: for putting the payment calculator and the pre-approval form where buyers actually look for them. Financing is the first thing a lot of our customers ask about, and the site answers it on every vehicle page.

What they built behind the scenes

Most visitors will never see this part, but it's a big reason the site works for us.

• Our staff run the inventory. We add vehicles, upload and reorder photos, and mark vehicles sold from a staff panel. We don't need to email anyone to change a price.
• A VIN decoder. Staff type in a VIN and the year, make, model and other details fill in automatically. That saves time and cuts down on typos.
• Window flyers. The staff panel prints a flyer for any vehicle, so the sticker on the lot matches the website.
• A lead inbox. Every enquiry, pre-approval and trade-in request lands in one place, and we get an email when a new one comes in.
• Search engines see real content. Every vehicle page and article is pre-built with its own title, description and text, so Google reads the actual listing instead of a blank page waiting for code to load.
• Structured data. The site tells search engines in a standard format that we're an auto dealer, where we are, when we're open, and what each vehicle is.
• A sitemap that updates itself. When we add a vehicle or publish an article, it goes into the sitemap without anyone touching it.
• Privacy settings that start switched off. Non-essential cookies stay off until you accept them.
• Security headers. The site forces HTTPS and uses a strict content security policy, which limits what outside code can run on our pages.

What it was like working with WARDORX

A feature list doesn't tell you much about whether an agency is good to work with. These are the things we noticed.

They built it around how people buy from us

The site follows the order people actually shop in. Find a vehicle, check its history, work out the payment, then get in touch. Each step has its own tool, and each one points you to the next.

They fixed problems properly

At one point the site's security policy started blocking our vehicle data from loading. The quick way out would have been to loosen the security until the problem went away. They didn't do that. They found the exact rule that was causing it and changed only that. Most of our customers will never know that happened, and that's how it should be.

They kept our name in front

The only WARDORX branding on our site is a small "Site by WARDORX" line in the footer. There's no banner and no popup. The site is about our dealership and our vehicles.

They don't promise what nobody can promise

If an agency guarantees you first place on Google, be careful. Nobody controls Google's rankings. WARDORX's page on how they approach SEO for Calgary businesses says that words like "guaranteed" and "instant" turn a description into a promise. Their reports are meant to show what changed, what was measured, and what can't be concluded yet. We'd rather hear that than a big number nobody can back up.

Another shout-out: to the WARDORX team for building a site our own staff can run day to day. Being able to update a listing ourselves, without waiting on anyone, has made the biggest difference to us.

Questions car buyers ask us about the website

Is the inventory on the website up to date?

Our staff add, edit and remove vehicles themselves, so the site reflects what's on the lot as closely as we can keep it. Vehicles do sell quickly sometimes. If you've got your eye on one, call us at (403) 235-0123 before you drive over.

Can I see the vehicle history before I visit?

Yes. Ask for the Carfax report from the vehicle's page and we'll send it to you.

How accurate is the payment calculator?

It's a good starting point, not a quote. It does the math on the price, down payment, term and interest rate you enter. Your actual rate depends on your credit approval, which is why the calculator says it's an estimate.

Does the online pre-approval check my credit?

The form asks for your consent to a credit check, because our lending partners need your credit information to give you a real answer. You'll see that consent box before you submit, and nothing goes through without it.

What does the trade-in estimator tell me?

It gives you a rough range based on age, mileage and condition. Two vehicles of the same year and mileage can be worth quite different amounts, so we confirm the final number after we see yours in person.

What happens after I send an enquiry?

It goes into our team's lead inbox right away, and an email notification goes to our own Chinook address. A real person from Chinook follows up with you.

Is my information safe on the site?

The site only loads over HTTPS, so what you type in a form is encrypted on its way to us. We use your information to answer your enquiry or work on your application, and our privacy policy explains the details.

Are you tracking me?

Non-essential cookies, like the ones analytics tools use, stay off until you accept them in the cookie banner. If you don't accept, they stay off.

Does the new website change how I buy from you?

No. You deal with the same team at the same AMVIC-licensed dealership at 2011 50 St SE. The website just lets you do more of your homework before you come in.

Questions business owners ask us about WARDORX

Who is WARDORX?

WARDORX is a web design and SEO agency based in Calgary. They work with local businesses on websites, search visibility and customer follow-up.

Do they only work with car dealerships?

No. Their site has pages for other local trades too, including HVAC contractors, landscapers and dental practices. Car dealerships are just one of the kinds of business they work with.

How much does a website from WARDORX cost?

We're not going to share what we paid, because your price will depend on what you need. A five-page site for a contractor is a very different job from a dealership with a live inventory. Ask them for a written scope and they'll tell you.

Will they guarantee me first place on Google?

No, and you shouldn't trust anyone who does. They'll tell you what they plan to do, how they'll measure it, and what the numbers do and don't show.

Can I see more of their work?

Yes. Their write-up of the Chinook Auto Sales project covers our site from their side, and the rest of their site covers the other industries they work with.

Would you hire them again?

Yes. That's the main reason we wrote this.

Did WARDORX pay you to write this?

No. We pay WARDORX for our website. They don't pay us, and we got nothing for this post. They helped us put it into words, and we checked every line before it went up.

What to ask any agency before you sign

Whether or not you talk to WARDORX, get answers to these questions before you sign anything:

• Who owns the domain, hosting, analytics and Google Business Profile? Make sure the answer is you, and get it in writing.
• What's included, and what costs extra? Agree on the scope now so you don't argue about it later.
• How will you measure results? Ask which numbers they'll report, where those numbers come from, and over what dates. Rankings, visits, calls and sales are four different things.
• Will every page have its own content? Twenty pages that only swap out the town name won't help your customers.
• Can my staff make everyday changes? If every price change needs a developer, you'll feel it every week.
• What happens after launch? Ask who makes changes, how you request them, and how long they take.

Next step

Shopping for a vehicle? Browse our current inventory, get pre-approved online, or call us at (403) 235-0123. Run a Calgary business and need a better website? Get in touch with WARDORX, take the questions above with you, and tell them Chinook sent you.