AI Search for Auto Dealers: New SEO Strategies

Search engines now display generative AI snippets at the top of search results pages. What does this mean for vehicle dealers, and how can you better optimize your website to make sure you’re seizing a part of this premium page real estate? 

We’ve written about the importance of SEO for car dealerships, and here we’re sharing specific strategies for increasing car dealership website traffic by leveraging AI search engine algorithms. 

You can apply these strategies to create higher-ranking landing pages, to increase your chances of being featured in AI summaries on search engine results pages (SERPs), and to grow a more holistic overall automotive marketing strategy.  

5 SEO Strategies for Dealer Landing Pages 

Listed below are five simple tactics you can use to ensure your website content is both accessible (easy to find) and digestible (easy to understand and use) for leading-edge AI tools: 

• Start with the main idea. State your purpose quickly and clearly near the top of your landing page. One simple way to do this is to include a question your customers might ask. Then, provide a clear and succinct answer to that question, followed by helpful and relevant supporting details. 

• Use clear headings and metadata. Today’s search tools rely heavily on schema markup to help them synthesize website content. Clearly defined, well-organized h1, h2 and h3 heading tags and other metadata help make the information you present easier for search algorithms to read and understand. 

• Don’t forget body text formatting and structure. Organization isn’t all about headings; you can also increase readability for your webpage’s body content by adding structural elements, such as bullet points, to organize related information. You can also draw attention to the most important details with boldface text, italics, highlighting and other styles.  

• Consider an FAQ section. If you’ve identified multiple questions potential customers are asking about specific vehicle makes or models, include these queries on your relevant landing pages. To learn which questions are being asked most, look up vehicle parts or known questions on Google or Bing and check the SERP for a generated list of related search terms. Alternatively, you can use automotive marketing software to identify keywords related to your real-time dealer inventory, location and target audience segments.  

• Add imagery and alt text. High-quality photography can help make your web pages look cleaner and more informative, and the right schema text can help AI search pull those images into its results, setting you apart from your competitors. For all photos and graphics, be sure to add detailed, accurate alt text tags with appropriate keywords. 

How Can Dealerships Get Their Content Featured in Search Summaries? 

Although we don’t know exactly how search engine AI decides what to include in its synthesis, our SEO team has done extensive research and testing to achieve better results for our auto dealer clients. Here are some content strategies we believe earn a better chance of featuring: 

• Include specific financial terms and seasonal offers. Writing conversational content about lease specials for specific makes and models lets you take advantage of unique search terms related to your seasonal offers, and at the same time catch long-tail search queries related to your inventory. For example: “$0 down on a 2025 Mazda CX-5.” 

• Write about features, benefits and comparisons. Potential buyers like to compare competitive offerings. Include content that highlights a vehicle’s specific features — like trim style, truck-bed size or infotainment system — and go into as much detail as possible to highlight terms your customers might search. You can try calling out benefits to the buyer, describing when and why a feature might be appealing, or comparing and contrasting features on similar vehicles. 

• Develop local, lifestyle-aligned content. Dealerships should use different messaging when targeting audiences for electric vehicles in California versus commercial vans in Texas. Make your content and keywords relevant for your customers by accounting for your location and factors like local culture, weather, recreation and industry.  

How Should Optimizing SEO for AI Fit Into a Broader Automotive Marketing Strategy? 

Your webpage optimization efforts should be one part of a strong, cohesive marketing plan. Website content can be strategically aligned with many other online marketing tools that car dealerships use. For example, if your goal is to build a finance landing page for the 2025 Acura Integra, a collaborative effort can be made to drive traffic to that page from every avenue possible — such as Facebook ads, your Google Business profile, or your YouTube channel. 

If you already have pages that are ranking highly, you can leverage those pages to direct traffic farther through your automotive sales funnel to inventory landing pages and individual VDPs. If you’re starting from scratch, you can use the tips in this article to inform your content and direct new page builds. 

See Into your Competitive Landscape 

As the role of AI in automotive marketing becomes increasingly prominent, it’s more important than ever to create impactful content that drives ROI. Schedule a free, no-pressure demonstration with a MarketAI Platform Expert to learn how our real-time inventory marketing platform can help you identify new opportunities.