This article will explain the (2) data collection methods that dbaPlatform utilizes in order to populate Vehicle Listings on Google; the website scrape and the self-service FTP.
To begin, dbaPlatform has the ability to collect and process vehicle data in two different manners: the website scrape, and the self-service FTP. Although these both accomplish the same thing, they differ significantly in capabilities and how they operate. Below, you will find a detailed description of each so that you can decide which method is best for you.
Website Scrape
With the website scrape, dbaPlatform will crawl an auto dealership’s website and pull the vehicle data from the site and push that to Google for Vehicle Listings. The scrape will grab ALL of the inventory from the site, meaning that everything that is on the website will be sent to Google. dbaPlatform does the hard work for you - just a quick activation, and the feature will be posting ALL of the site’s vehicles on Google within 24 hours.
Self-Service FTP
With the FTP, you are responsible for providing the data to dbaPlatform by submitting a .csv file with the dealership’s inventory to our FTP server. The credentials to connect to the FTP server are available within your dbaPlatform account if you choose FTP as your data source when setting up your dealer. FTP submissions give you the ability to only include the vehicles that you wish to be displayed on Google’s Vehicle Listings.
A sample FTP data file can be found here. Please follow this template if you choose the FTP option.