I think this topic applies to just about every company in the RV Industry, if not all.  I’ll focus on RV Dealers for now and then move on to other types of companies in a later post.

All RV Dealers, no matter how big or small, have the ability to host their website with a company like RVUSA.com, who provides website and email hosting as part of the package for listing your inventory on their RV Portal website.  There’s really only one other company that provides website hosting, inventory management and advertising to a large network of RVers and that’s RVTraderOnline.com.

Sure there’s other RV Industry “website hosting” companies that provide website hosting and inventory management, but they don’t have an RV Portal or RV Community website that drives RVers to your website.  They try to pick up that slack by doing Google Pay-Per-Click campaigns but that can get expensive and is only a temporary fix.  I’ve talked to some dealers who are paying double or triple what they would pay at RVUSA.com and they are only getting website hosting and an inventory manager.  They soon realize that their website doesn’t really get any traffic, it’s not optimized for the search engines, it’s not a custom website like they were told and/or the email leads have dwindled down to just about nothing.  Unfortunately, by the time they’ve found us they are locked into a 12-month contract.  At that point they have to signup with RV Portal(s) to stay in business, which ads more expense on top of what they are already paying their “website hosting provider”. 

I want you to spend your money wisely when it comes to website hosting.  Make sure your getting the most bang for your buck and take these things into consideration: 

• What tools or features are the most important to you? 
• What will help you save time and money?  
• Have you compared all the hosting options? 
• If so, are you comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges?

I know some RV dealers tend to host with their local Internet Service Provider, but there are pros and cons to that scenario as well.  Yes, it’s probably inexpensive hosting but…

• Will your website get enough traffic to keep the email leads rolling in?
• What is the up-time for the server your website will be hosted on?
• Are they backing up your website on a nightly basis in case the server crashes and wipes out everything?
• Do they have a plan of action when a catastraphic failure does happen to get your website back up and running quickly?
• What is their customer service response time and are they friendly?
• What is their technical support response time?

More often than not, if you do decide to host with your local company you’ll still have to sign-up with RV Portals to get your dealership and inventory out in front of RVers.  So unless you are a small RV Dealer who does not want to grow the business (and I’ve come across some of you) hosting your website with an RV Portal is truly spending your money wisely.

I personally don’t like companies that prey on those who don’t understand search engine optimization, website design and maybe aren’t as computer savvy as the next guy.  Integrity, honesty and just plain kindness has just gone right out the window with some of the RV hosting companies that I’ve been talking to dealers about.

My goal is to help individuals and companies in the RV Industry, whether they are a customer of mine or not.  I’m not going to blow smoke up your behind and/or promise you the moon and stars just to get your money – that’s just not how I operate.

If you have questions about website hosting, providers, etc., let me know.  I’ll be happy to help.

Cindy Spencer  🙂

NEXT BLOG:  The person that takes care of my RV listings is not with the company anymore.  What do I need to do?