How to Publish Your Inventory Site in Inventory Link

Builder turns the inventory you already have into a website and puts it live when you say so. Here is the whole run, from opening Builder to watching the first request come in.

1. Open Builder in the dealer portal

   Open the Inventory Link portal from the My Inventory button on the CRM dock, or sign in to it directly, and choose Builder. It sits next to the dashboard, the inventory list, the inbox and Requests, and it reads from the same inventory the CRM and the text and email composers read from.

2. Check the inventory first

   Open the inventory list before you build anything. The site is assembled from those records, so whatever is in there is what a shopper will see. If units are missing, connect the feed or run the website import now rather than after you publish.

3. Pick the template and write the top of the page

   Choose the template, then fill in the Headline and the Supporting line. Say what your store actually is: the town, the makes, the thing you are known for. The drafted copy underneath gives you a starting point for the rest; read it and change the parts that do not sound like you.

4. Choose the address

   Take the Direct link the portal issues if you want to be live in the next five minutes, or use Create a new address and point a domain of your own at the site. Most stores start on the direct link, send it to a few people and move to a domain once they like what they see.

5. Say where the leads go and what the pages show

   Set Where the leads go and fill in Email the lead to with the addresses that should be told, usually the sales desk and the BDC. Turn on Show matching vehicles from your inventory so a shopper reading an offer sees the units on your lot that fit it rather than a promise with no cars behind it.

6. Build it and look at it

   Build the site, then open How it looks and check it on a phone and on a desktop. Walk it like a customer: front page, finder, a vehicle, the request sheet. Fix what you find and build again. This is the cheap part of the job, so do it twice.

7. Publish, then regenerate as the lot changes

   Publish when the site reads the way you want it to read. From there, regenerate whenever you want the site to catch up with the lot, and new units arrive with their photos, their decoded build and their price already in place. Use See the leads to watch what the site brings in.

Two things have to be true before you open Builder. Your vehicles have to be in Inventory Link, and you have to know where you want the site to live. The inventory arrives one of three ways: a provider feed connected under Feeds, an import that reads the vehicles from your own dealership website, which the import inventory from your website page covers, or units added by hand in the portal. A broker with no lot switches on auto broker inventory mode instead. An inventory feed and DMS access are not required in any of those cases.

The portal opens from the My Inventory button on the dock at the bottom of LeadLocate CRM with single sign on. Builder sits beside the dashboard, the inventory list and Requests. You do not need your web vendor for any of this, and you are not replacing the site they run for you; this is a second, lighter site built from your actual cars.

Give yourself twenty minutes and a phone on the desk next to you. You will want to look at the built site on a small screen before anything goes live, because most of your shoppers will.

A front page with your headline, your supporting line and the vehicle finder on it. A listing page with every unit in your inventory, each one carrying the decoded year, make, model and trim, the mileage, the price and the photos on the record. A page per vehicle with the full build, the government safety and efficiency figures the automotive database attached, and a Schedule a Visit sheet that rises from the bottom of the screen on a phone.

The address is whatever you chose: the direct link the portal issues, or a domain of your own. Load it on the phone you left on the desk and walk it the way a shopper would, from the front page to a vehicle to the request sheet.

From that point the site keeps up with the lot on its own. A unit that arrives overnight by feed is on the site after the next regenerate, decoded, described and photographed, and a unit that sells comes off it the same way. Nothing a shopper can reach changes until you publish, so you can build, look, change your mind and build again with no one watching.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

Yes, and it is the same template, which is what makes it worth doing. Every salesperson in the store can have an inventory site built from the one you just published, showing the store inventory under their own name, photo and contact details. The store controls how the sites look and what they say, because they all come from one template, and a change to the template is a regenerate away from being on every one of them.

The reason to bother is the link. A salesperson who texts a customer a link to their own inventory site is sending that customer to a page that says call me, not to a page that says call the store and hope you get me. When the customer picks a vehicle and sends a request, it arrives with the salesperson's name on it. The car salesman personal websites page covers that side as a selling tool.

The site built with no vehicles on it. The inventory has not reached the portal yet. Open the inventory list first; if it is empty, the feed is not connected or the website import has not run. Fix the inventory and build again, because the site is assembled from the inventory record and nothing else.

The address does not open. If you pointed a domain of your own at the site, the name has to resolve before the page will answer, and that takes a little time after the records are set. Use the Direct link in the meantime; it works immediately. The custom domains and DNS page covers the records.

The copy is not what you want. The drafted text is a draft, and you are meant to edit it. Rewrite the Headline and Supporting line in your own words, change the body where it does not sound like your store, and build again. Nothing reaches a shopper until you publish.

A lead came in and nobody got it. Check Where the leads go and Email the lead to, then check your notification preferences in the CRM. The lead is on its record either way, so nothing was lost; it just did not reach the right phone.

A sold unit is still on the site. Regenerate. The rebuild takes the current inventory, so the sold car drops off and anything that came in overnight goes on.

The product side of this task is on the inventory website builder page, which covers build, publish and regenerate in more detail and explains what it replaces. If you already have a website you are happy with, the embeddable inventory widget puts the same live inventory on it with a single line of HTML instead.

The pieces that ride along with the published site have guides of their own in the LeadLocate Help Center: the vehicle finder on the front page, the Schedule a Visit request that arrives when a shopper picks a time, and the manufacturer offers that appear on the brand pages for the makes you carry. A layout, a second rooftop site or a campaign specific template beyond what Builder ships with is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

Does publishing this site replace my dealership website?

No, and it is not meant to. Your web vendor keeps running the main site. This is a lighter inventory site you control, useful for a campaign, for a second rooftop or for a salesperson who wants a page of their own.

How does the site stay current when cars sell?

Regenerate rebuilds the site from the inventory record, so sold units drop off and new arrivals go on with their photos, decoded build and price. The site is never a snapshot of last week.

Where do leads from the site end up?

In the dealer portal under Requests and in LeadLocate CRM as a lead with the vehicle attached, plus an email to the addresses you listed. Your team works it from the lead record like any other.

Can I use my own domain name?

Yes. Create a new address in Builder, point your domain at it, and the site answers on your name. The direct link keeps working the whole time, so you are never waiting to be live.

Builder makes an inventory site out of the cars you already have, publishes it when you say so and keeps it current as the lot turns. See it in the pre-recorded demo or start month to month.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.