Sutherlin Subaru · 531 Gallaher Rd, Kingston, TN 37763 · checked 2026-09-11 21:52 UTC

What is wrong

1. Reviews go unanswered. The owner replied to 15% of the newest reviews and 2 one- and two-star reviews stand unanswered. Shoppers read the answers; so do the AI assistants. see the evidence
2. The homepage is heavy on a phone. On a phone the homepage is 14.4 MB and 334 requests. Most buyers are on a phone, on a mobile network, and Google measures this. see the evidence
3. AI assistants name the store only some of the time. We asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini 3 questions a Subaru shopper in Knoxville would ask. Sutherlin Subaru was named in 3 of 6 answers. Instead they named Grayson Subaru, Wallace Subaru and Grayson Hyundai Subaru. see the evidence
4. Asked what is on the lot right now, the assistants can't see the inventory. On the "in stock right now" questions the store was named 1 of 4 times. see the evidence
5. AI quotes other sites about the store, not the store. When the assistants back up an answer with a link, they point to cars.com, caredge.com and graysonsubaru.com and to the store's own website only 9 of 118 times. A dealer's site that AI doesn't quote is a dealer AI describes second-hand. see the evidence
6. The store is off Google's first page for buying searches. For 4 of 10 searches a buyer makes, such as "subaru lease deals knoxville, tn", "used cars knoxville, tn" and "subaru dealer near me knoxville, tn", the store is not in the top 10. Google's own AI answer shows on 3 of these searches and cites the store on 1. see the evidence
7. Bing barely knows the store, and Bing is what ChatGPT reads. ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot search through Bing. There the store is in the top 10 for 0 of 10 searches, and searching its own name puts the site #1. see the evidence
8. The phone number on the site is not the one on Google. Engines match a business by name, address and phone. Two phones read as two businesses. see the evidence
9. The Google Business Profile is incomplete. The profile is what Google Maps and the AI assistants read first. Today the Q&A section is empty. see the evidence
10. The homepage title does not say the city. The title is the first line Google shows and reads. It does not mention Knoxville. see the evidence
11. No pages for the cities the store sells to. Buyers in the towns around Knoxville search with their own town's name. The site has no page for them. see the evidence

What we do about it

• The homepage is heavy on a phone. Compress the images, defer the scripts, drop the third-party tags that don't earn their keep. Measured before and after.
• Asked what is on the lot right now, the assistants can't see the inventory. Make sure every vehicle is in the inventory sitemap the day it lands and that Bing and Google pick it up, so the assistants can quote the lot, not a guess. The vehicle pages already carry price and availability in the code engines read.
• AI quotes other sites about the store, not the store. Give the site pages the assistants can quote: a plain answers file for AI crawlers, a real FAQ in the code they read and the store's rating in the code. This is done once and stays done.
• Bing barely knows the store, and Bing is what ChatGPT reads. Register the site with Bing, submit the inventory sitemap, turn on instant indexing. Most dealers never do this, which is why it works.
• The phone number on the site is not the one on Google. One phone everywhere: site, Google, directories.
• The Google Business Profile is incomplete. Complete the profile once: claim it, hours, services, description, the questions buyers ask answered in Q&A, photos of the showroom, service bays and staff.
• The homepage title does not say the city. Rewrite the homepage title and description with the city and the brand.

• Reviews go unanswered. Every review answered within 48 hours, the negative ones first, in the store's own voice, with your sign-off on the tone.
• AI assistants name the store only some of the time. Put the store where the assistants look: detailed recent reviews, the directories they cite, local press and video, and pages on the site that answer these exact questions. We ask the same questions again every week and show you the count.
• The store is off Google's first page for buying searches. Pages the store is missing: one for each city it sells to, one for each model, written for people and kept current. These are the pages Google and its AI answer pull from.
• No pages for the cities the store sells to. One page per city, written for that city, not copied.

What changes, and how you will see it

Every two weeks you get this page again, with the new figures next to these. Nothing is modelled: the same questions to the same assistants, the same map points, the same searches.

What we need from the store

• The site runs on DealerOn. Changes go through the vendor's admin or a support ticket, there is no server on this platform and that is normal. We need the store to add us as an agency user.
• Manager access to the Google Business Profile for every rooftop.
• Viewer access to Google Analytics and Search Console, and Bing Webmaster Tools if it exists.
• One person who says yes or no to new pages and the tone of review replies, in writing.

Already fine

• Google Maps shows the store at 25 of 25 points for "subaru dealer".
• Google Maps shows the store at 25 of 25 points for "subaru service".
• 25 new reviews in the last 30 days.