What should an equipment dealer's website include? A page for each business you actually run, and a way to ask each one a question without phoning first. Most dealers are three or four businesses under one roof: new and used sales, a service shop, a parts counter, and often a rental fleet. A contractor pricing a used loader, a farmer whose baler quit mid-season, a mechanic holding a serial number and a superintendent who needs a skid steer for two weeks each arrive from a different search, needing a different page. A machine is bought once and serviced for years, so the last three usually visit more often than the first, and some of them are next year's machine buyers.
We read the websites of eight US equipment dealers in October, from a small used-equipment yard to multi-branch ag, construction and forklift dealers. Every one had searchable inventory. Half took a service request online, half had a parts request form, and one published rental rates we could read.
How do used equipment dealers get inquiries beyond Machinery Trader?
By giving buyers a reason to look them up, not by pulling units off the marketplace. Seven of the eight dealers ran inventory search on their own domain, and the eighth sent used-equipment shoppers to a separate domain it owns. None sent shoppers to a marketplace instead.
Four of the eight run those inventory pages on Sandhills' hosted system, and Sandhills publishes Machinery Trader. Sandhills describes that setup as one inventory entry that feeds both the dealer's hosted site and its trade sites, so a unit reads much the same in both places. Whatever your shop did to a unit, the inspection, the repairs, the parts replaced, belongs in that entry, because the marketplace is where many buyers compare.
What a marketplace can't carry is the dealership around the listing. There, your unit sits beside other dealers' units, and the comparison often comes down to price and hours. A buyer who then searches your name should find what no listing card holds:
- Whether you service that make, and whether you stock its wear parts.
- How far you'll deliver it, and what that costs.
- A trade-in desk that's a person, and a finance contact at your dealership, even when the lender is the OEM's.
- The branch the unit sits at, and who to ask for.
For franchised dealers, the OEM's website program, dealer agreement or co-op rules can govern brand pages, logos and prices. One ag-equipment maker's 2026 co-op guidelines, for example, count websites as co-op advertising, require pre-approval for dealer-created ads, and won't credit an ad showing competing products (used equipment excepted) or a price other than suggested retail. The advice here applies most freely to independents, and to the pages your OEM doesn't control.
What does someone with a machine down need from your service page?
Seven of the eight had a service page. Four took service requests online and three said to call. Three named the brands they work on, and one said outright that it takes all brands. Five mentioned field or on-site service, and one gave a response time.
For a machine stuck on a job site, the service page should say:
- The makes you work on, including ones you don't sell, if you take them. A buyer searching a brand next to your town is often checking exactly this, which is why each line you carry deserves a brand page that states your dealer status and service work.
- Shop, field or both, and how far the field trucks travel, with any travel charge.
- How soon someone responds to a down machine, if you can stand behind a number.
- A direct line to the service desk, and a short request form: make, model, serial, hours, where the machine is, and whether it's down or due for maintenance. That last answer sets the priority.
How should a parts customer order from you?
Four of the eight had a parts request form, and every one asked for the serial number. Two sold parts through an online store. Three left it to phone, email or a general contact form.
Many parts customers would rather talk to the counter, but the form catches the request that comes in at 9 pm, and a good one asks for what the counter needs anyway:
- Make, model and serial, plus the part number if they have it.
- A photo of the part or the machine's serial tag.
- Pickup or ship, and where.
- The counter's direct number and hours next to it, and a link to the manufacturer's parts catalog where one exists.
It's the same question a distributor's buyer asks, whether it's in stock and at which branch, with a machine attached.
What does a contractor renting for one job need?
Seven of the eight rent equipment. Six had a rental page and three a rental request form. Only one published rates we could read, as a downloadable sheet priced by model. The rest mostly listed categories (excavators, skid steers, telehandlers) and a phone number.
A superintendent pricing a job wants the size and a rough cost before calling:
- The units by category with the spec that matters, such as operating weight, bucket size or lift capacity.
- Daily, weekly and monthly rates, or a "from" rate and the minimum rental period.
- Your delivery area and charge.
- A request form with the date needed and the duration, plus whether they'd consider rent-to-own if you offer it.
What should a buyer have to type to ask about a unit?
Name, phone, email, ZIP, and yes or no on a trade-in and on financing. That's enough to call back with a number. The two sites in our sample built on one dealer-website template both put a "Get a Quote" page in the main navigation, at 18 and 33 inputs, with fields for a make, model, year, serial number and hours. On a listing we opened on one of them, the template's own inquiry form was shorter, 11 fields, and carried the unit's year, make and model along without the buyer typing them. That's the right idea, though it still showed fields for a street address and how they heard about you, which appear to be optional. Ask for the minimum it takes to quote and let the call gather the rest.
Then link the doors to each other: a used listing to the service work done on it, the service page to the parts request. The customer who came in for a filter this spring could be the name on next year's loader quote.
