We audited every SONS and affiliated dealership website across your three-state footprint — measuring how your sites perform in the AI-powered search engines your customers are already using.
No SONS site scores above 25 out of 100 on AI visibility. When a customer asks an AI engine for a Kia dealer in McDonough, a Cadillac dealer in Columbus, or a CDJR store in Montgomery — your sites appear in fewer than one in four answers. Three out of four times, a competitor gets the recommendation.
| Dealership | AI Visibility | AI Mentions | Authority | Organic Traffic | Traffic Trend (YoY) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SONS CDJR Montgomery, AL |
25 |
40 | 23 | 6.3K | +2.1% |
SONS Kia Montgomery, AL |
23 |
22 | 24 | 10K | −30% |
SONS Chevrolet Columbus, GA |
22 |
45 | 22 | 8.8K | −2.9% |
Jackson Acura Roswell, GA |
21 |
47 | 24 | 6.1K | +2.4% |
SONS Kia McDonough, GA |
21 |
44 | 13 | 8.1K | +22% |
SONS Ford Auburn, AL |
19 |
48 | 24 | 4.7K | −17% |
SONS Honda McDonough, GA |
17 |
64 | 29 | 8.5K | +4% |
SONS Cadillac Columbus, GA |
14 |
5 | 8 | 182 | +7.7% |
AI visibility scored 0–100 by Semrush across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, and Gemini. A score of 25 = your site appears in roughly 1 in 4 relevant AI answers. Authority Score = domain credibility 0–100.
182 organic visitors per month. Authority score of 8 out of 100 — Semrush's lowest rating category. Only 5 AI mentions across all platforms. 475 keywords ranking in Google total. A typical mid-market dealership site ranks for 5,000–15,000 keywords. This is not a gap that SEO alone closes. It needs a full digital presence rebuild before AI search makes the distance permanent.
SONS Kia Montgomery is down 30% in organic traffic year over year. SONS Ford is down 17%. Both sites also have a configuration that prevents AI search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini — from reading their content at all. The traffic declines and the AI lockout are compounding each other every month. The gap with local competitors widens without intervention.
SONS Honda has 64 AI mentions and a domain authority of 29 — the strongest foundation in the portfolio. Yet its AI visibility score sits at 17. Getting cited by AI and getting recommended by AI are two different things. SONS Honda is on the radar. It is not being trusted enough to be the top answer. That gap is closeable — and it makes this site the highest-upside property in the group.
Toyota dealers are winning generic car searches across every market SONS operates in — including for Chevrolet, CDJR, and Ford queries. Their authority scores, content depth, and review velocity give them reach that crosses brand lines entirely. AI engines do not care what franchise you hold. They recommend who they trust most.
Every site scores in the failing range on Google's mobile performance test (threshold: 50). Google uses these scores directly in both traditional search rankings and AI recommendation confidence. For a group where most customers search on their phones, slow load times are a direct revenue problem — not a technical one.
| Site | Perf Score | Page Load (LCP) | Interaction (INP) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nalley Isuzu Brunswick, GA |
39 | 20.7s | — | Critical |
SONS Cadillac Columbus, GA |
27 | 16.2s | — | Critical |
SONS Chevrolet Columbus, GA |
27 | 4.0s | 711ms | High |
SONS Kia McDonough, GA |
28 | 3.1s | 628ms | High |
SONS Kia Montgomery, AL |
28 | 1.6s | 611ms | High |
Gallatin Honda Gallatin, TN |
32 | 1.1s | 580ms | High |
SONS CDJR Montgomery, AL |
28 | 2.3s | 412ms | Moderate |
BMW of South Atlanta |
26 | 2.2s | 371ms | Moderate |
Nalley Buick GMC Brunswick, GA |
26 | 3.9s | 303ms | Moderate |
SONS Ford Auburn, AL |
31 | 2.5s | 263ms | Moderate |
Nalley Honda Brunswick, GA |
26 | 2.0s | 233ms | Moderate |
SONS Honda McDonough, GA |
26 | 2.5s | 282ms | Moderate |
Jackson Acura Roswell, GA |
N/A | — | — | Data pending |
LCP = Largest Contentful Paint (how long before main content loads). INP = Interaction to Next Paint (how fast the page responds to a tap or click). Google's passing threshold: LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms. Performance scores below 50 are classified as failing.
In 2024, a small fraction of car searches started with an AI engine. That share is growing fast. Within two years, AI-generated answers will be the first touchpoint for a meaningful portion of car buyers — before they visit a dealer site, before they read a review, before they fill out a lead form. The dealerships that earn AI trust today compound that advantage as adoption accelerates. The ones that are not yet visible will find the gap more expensive to close the longer they wait. This audit reflects where SONS stands at the beginning of that window.
We work with dealerships and dealer groups to build the kind of presence that AI engines trust and recommend — across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity. Everything we do is measurable, outcome-focused, and tied to your specific markets and competitors.