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WEBSITE MIGRATION

Your DealerOn Contract Renews in 90 Days. You Have Options.

If you run digital marketing for a dealership group, you've already noticed: the platform you're locked into ranks worse than your competitors running custom stacks.

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WEBSITE MIGRATION AT A GLANCE
  • Next.js
  • Vercel
  • Supabase
  • DMS API Integration
  • Cloudinary
  • Algolia
  • 95+LIGHTHOUSE AVG
  • 12+ yrsSENIOR-LED
  • Fixed feeNO SCOPE CREEP
  • 200+PROJECTS SHIPPED
CLUTCH 5.0 VERIFIED

Overview — 01

Take back control of your dealership website -- faster pages, better leads, no vendor lock-in.

DealerOn / Dealer Inspire to Next.js Migration

A structured migration service that moves dealership websites off managed SaaS platforms and onto a custom Next.js codebase deployed to infrastructure you control. We replicate and improve existing page architecture, transfer accumulated SEO signals, and hand off a documented codebase your in-house or agency team can maintain independently. The engagement ends with ownership, not a new subscription.

The gap — 02

What is holding your current website back?

Common gaps we find in nearly every audit.

Your contract auto-renews and the platform controls which features you can access, at what price, and on whose timeline.
Risk: Each renewal cycle locks in another year of fee exposure with no path to ownership, while competitors on custom stacks ship changes in hours instead of waiting on vendor queues.
Core Web Vitals scores on managed dealer platforms routinely lag behind custom builds because the platform optimizes for their multi-tenant architecture, not your specific inventory and traffic patterns.
Risk: Google uses page experience signals as a ranking factor. A persistently slow site costs you organic impression share on high-intent search terms like make, model, and trim queries where rank position directly drives leads.
Years of inbound links, indexed URLs, and structured data markup are tied to URL patterns and templates the platform owns, not you.
Risk: An unplanned migration or platform discontinuation without a proper redirect and canonical strategy can wipe out search equity that took years to accumulate, with no recourse against the vendor.

Safeguards — 03

How we build this right

Every safeguard, built in from Day 1.

301 Redirect Mapping for Every Indexed URL

We crawl your live site and cross-reference Google Search Console data to build a complete redirect map before a single page goes dark. No indexed URL is abandoned without a destination.

Structured Data and Schema Continuity

Existing Vehicle, LocalBusiness, and Review schema is audited, corrected where malformed, and re-implemented in the Next.js build so rich result eligibility is maintained through and after cutover.

Performance Baseline Documented Pre and Post

We record Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse scores, and crawl metrics on the legacy platform before migration begins and again after launch, giving you a defensible before-and-after record for internal reporting.

Scope — 04

What we build

Purpose-built features for your industry.

Full Codebase Ownership at Handoff

You receive a documented Next.js repository in your own version control account. There is no license fee, no platform dependency, and no call to a vendor required to deploy a change after the engagement closes.

Inventory Feed Integration Rebuilt to Spec

We reconnect your DMS or third-party inventory feed directly to the new build, with VDP and SRP templates architected for performance and crawlability rather than adapted from a generic platform template.

Incremental Cutover to Protect Lead Volume

Where traffic volume warrants it, we stage the migration by section rather than flipping the entire domain at once, so any indexing delays are isolated and your lead forms remain live throughout the transition.

CMS Layer Your Team Can Actually Use

We pair the Next.js build with a headless CMS configured for the page types dealer marketing teams actually edit: specials, hours, staff, and landing pages, without requiring a developer for routine updates.

Stack — 05

Built on a modern, secure stack

Next.jsVercelSupabaseDMS API IntegrationCloudinaryAlgoliaGoogle Maps APITailwind CSS

Process — 06

Our development process

From discovery to launch. Quality at every step.

01

Audit and Migration Scoping

1 week

We pull a full crawl of the existing site, export Search Console performance data, document all third-party scripts and integrations, and produce a written scope covering URL mapping, redirect strategy, and integration requirements before any build work begins.

02

Next.js Build on Staging Environment

3-4 weeks

The new codebase is developed against your brand standards and inventory feed on a staging domain. VDP, SRP, homepage, and key landing page templates are built, tested against performance targets, and reviewed with your team before any DNS change is discussed.

03

Pre-Launch QA and Redirect Verification

1 week

Every redirect in the map is tested programmatically. Forms, chat integrations, analytics tags, and ad conversion pixels are verified against the staging build. We do not schedule a cutover date until a documented QA checklist clears without open items.

04

Cutover, Monitoring, and Handoff

2 weeks

DNS is updated during a low-traffic window. We monitor crawl errors, Core Web Vitals, and lead form submissions for two weeks post-launch and resolve any indexing anomalies before closing the engagement and transferring repository access.

Social Animal

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Related resources — 07

Questions — 08

Frequently asked questions

Not if the migration's handled properly. We build a full 301 redirect map covering every VDP, SRP, and landing page on your current site. Schema markup, metadata, and sitemap structures get preserved or improved in the process. Most clients actually see ranking gains within 60 days, because page speed and Core Web Vitals scores improve substantially after the move.
We connect directly to your DMS provider -- CDK Global, Reynolds & Reynolds, DealerTrack, or others -- through their data feed APIs. Inventory flows into your Next.js site in near real-time, with no middleman and no platform fee attached to the pipeline.
DealerOn's Apex Digital Retail is proprietary -- it stays with them when you leave, full stop. We build custom payment calculators, trade-in estimators, and finance application flows directly into your new site, connected to your preferred lending partners and CRM. You own the code and the leads, with no licensing fees or feature restrictions attached.
Every lead form gets rebuilt to submit directly to your CRM via API -- VinSolutions, DealerSocket, elead, or whatever you're running. Submissions hit your CRM instantly with nothing in between. We also wire up UTM tracking and conversion events so you can actually attribute leads to their source.
A single-rooftop migration typically runs 10 to 12 weeks from kickoff to launch. Multi-rooftop dealer groups take 14 to 18 weeks, depending on how many components can be shared across locations. Your old and new sites run in parallel during QA, so there's no downtime at cutover.
DealerOn charges $1,500 to $3,000-plus per month in platform fees -- that's $18K to $36K annually for a site you don't own. A custom Next.js site on Vercel runs roughly $20 to $100 per month in hosting. Even with ongoing development retainer hours factored in, total cost of ownership drops considerably within the first year. Most dealers recoup the migration cost well before month twelve.

More solutions — 09

Explore related industries

Need enterprise scale?

200+ employee company? Complex multi-tenant, auction, or multi-location requirement? We have a dedicated enterprise capability track.

View Enterprise Hub

Get started — 10

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Whether it's a migration, a new build, or an SEO challenge — the Social Animal team would love to hear from you.

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