Our Methodology

What We Measure

Conscivo analyzes the publicly visible digital presence of automotive dealerships across the United States. We look at three dimensions of a dealer's online footprint:

• Pulse — the vendor technology stack powering your website, from chat tools and CRM to analytics and compliance. We detect which tools are present using network traffic analysis, cookie inspection, DOM signatures, DNS records, and robots.txt directives.
• Site Health — your website's technical performance measured by Google Lighthouse, the same tool Google uses to evaluate websites. We measure Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO scores.
• Presence — how complete and visible your dealership is online. We check for key pages (About Us, Service, Parts, etc.), staff pages, social media profiles, and YouTube content.

These three scores combine into a single Conscivo Score — an overall measure of your digital readiness.

How We Collect Data

All data is collected from publicly accessible sources:

• Vendor Detection — Our automated system visits your website using a standard web browser and observes what loads. We identify vendor tools through their publicly visible signatures — JavaScript files, cookies, network requests, meta tags, and DNS records. We maintain a library of 148 vendor signatures across 29 categories, refined through manual verification against thousands of dealer websites.
• Lighthouse Scores — We run Google's open-source Lighthouse tool against your homepage to measure performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. These are the same measurements available to anyone using Chrome DevTools. Scores can fluctuate based on server load, network conditions, and recent site changes.
• Presence Checks — We verify the existence of key pages by checking common URL patterns and navigation links. Social media profiles are detected through links on your website. Staff information is extracted from publicly visible team/staff pages.
• Dealer Directory — Our master database of dealership locations comes from official manufacturer directories (OEM websites). We currently track 19,800+ unique dealer websites across 41 brands.

How Scores Work

• Pulse Score (0–100): Calculated as the percentage of 17 detectable vendor categories present on your site. A site with tools in 9 of 17 categories scores 53. We track 29 total vendor categories, but only 17 are reliably detectable through automated detection — the remaining 12 are used for enrichment but excluded from scoring.
• Site Health Score (0–100): The overall Lighthouse score, which is a weighted average of Performance (50%), Accessibility (15%), Best Practices (15%), and SEO (20%). These weights are set by Google, not Conscivo.
• Presence Score (0–100): Based on five components — Key Pages (40 points for having standard dealership pages), Staff Page (15 points), Staff Size (15 points based on listed team size), Social Profiles (15 points for Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube), and YouTube Content (15 points based on video count).
• Conscivo Score (0–100): The average of your available component scores. If only Pulse and Site Health have been measured, the Conscivo Score averages those two. As more components are checked, the score becomes more comprehensive.

Score Labels:

Peer Circle & Rankings

Your Conscivo report includes a Peer Circle — the 5 nearest dealers to your location regardless of brand. In automotive retail, your closest competitors are your neighbors, not just same-brand dealers across the state.

Rankings are calculated at both the state and national level. Your percentile rank shows where you stand relative to other measured dealers. Rankings update as more sites are measured.

Distance is calculated using the Haversine formula based on ZIP code centroids from dealer directory listings. Each unique dealer website is counted as one entry — multi-brand rooftops with separate websites appear as separate entries.

Vendor Performance Analysis

Our Vendor Intelligence data measures correlations between vendor tool presence and site performance. This analysis compares the average Lighthouse performance score of sites that use a particular vendor or vendor category against sites that don't.

Critical context: Correlation does not imply causation. A vendor appearing on high-performing sites does not mean that vendor makes sites faster. It may mean that dealers who choose that vendor also tend to invest in faster hosting, better content management, or more technical staff. Similarly, a vendor appearing on slower sites may simply be popular among dealers with older or more complex websites.

We report what we observe. We do not recommend or criticize any vendor.

Vendor pair analysis identifies combinations of tools that correlate with better or worse performance. These correlations are subject to the same caution — many confounding factors exist. Sample sizes are noted for every data point. Results from fewer than 10 sites should be interpreted with particular care.

How Often Data Updates

Our systems run continuously. Different components update on different cycles:

• Vendor Detection — runs on a rolling schedule, with each site re-checked approximately every 30 days. New sites from manufacturer directories are added regularly.
• Site Health (Lighthouse) — updated on a rolling hourly cycle. Scores reflect conditions at the time of measurement and may vary between checks.
• Presence (Staff, Social, Key Pages) — updated on a rolling cycle. New components may show as "Not yet checked" until the system reaches your site.

The "Checked" date on each report component shows when that specific measurement was last taken.

Limitations & Disclaimers

Conscivo is an automated observation tool. Our measurements have inherent limitations:

• Vendor detection relies on publicly visible signatures. Some tools may not leave detectable traces, and our signatures may not cover every product version or configuration. Detection is a best effort, not a guarantee.
• Lighthouse scores are point-in-time measurements taken from our server infrastructure. Scores may differ from measurements taken from other locations or at other times.
• We detect vendor presence, not vendor configuration or effectiveness. A site may have a chat tool installed but poorly configured — we cannot measure that.
• Staff and social media detection depends on consistent page structures. Sites with unusual layouts may not have their staff or social links detected.
• Our analysis is limited to publicly accessible pages. Password-protected areas, internal tools, and backend systems are not measured.
• All data is provided "as is" for informational purposes. Conscivo is not responsible for business decisions made based on this data. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any vendor mentioned in our reports.

For questions about our methodology or to report a data issue, contact us at info@conscivo.com.