The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) search tools is changing what collision repairers may want to be doing in terms of search engine optimization to keep their shop name in front of drivers using the web to find a shop.
Gemini, Google’s primary AI tool, for example, often attempts to give the user the answer to what they are looking for at the top of the search results, without needing to click through to additional links, a so-called “zero-click search.” Enter, “what should I do after a collision,” and Gemini tries to offer those instructions, using information it has found from listed sources such as Allstate and Progressive.
“What we want to do as search professionals is make sure that we are one of those cited sources,” Garrett Zafuto, a search engine optimization specialist with Sokal, said at a recent Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) meeting.
The good news, Zafuto said, is that if you’ve been doing traditional search engine optimization previously, that’s likely to do a lot to help you show up in AI search tools. But he also offered a number of tips to improve the chance of showing up in AI-driven searches.
Short paragraphs beat long-form content for AI visibility
“Tip No. 1: Write in short paragraphs,” Zafuto said. “From the data that we have, we can tell that these AI tools tend to prefer short, easily digestible chunks of information.”
He noted that back in the day, the best practice for SEO was said to be long-form content with long paragraphs, so Google and Bing have a lot of information to latch onto.
“But as it turns out, writing in long-form content isn’t always the best thing,” he said. “AI tools tend to prefer shorter paragraphs, two to three sentences. So if you find yourself writing in longer paragraphs, try to condense those or even break up those paragraphs.”
If your shop offers different services, for example — collision, mechanical, aluminum — write a two- or three-sentence blurb about each.
Why your FAQ page may be your most valuable SEO asset
Zafuto’s second tip: Write in a question-and-answer format. He said AI tools like it when you’re answering a specific question that a real person might have.
Garrett Zafuto, a search engine optimization specialist with Sokal, said AI-powered search tools appear to prefer website content written in shorter paragraphs. “As the business owner or manager of a collision repair shop, it’s important to start thinking about the actual questions that you’re getting from people who visit your shop and make sure that those questions make it directly into the content of your website.”
He said it’s not enough to just answer the questions, but it’s also important to ensure the questions themselves are in the content as well. “These AI tools really love that kind of stuff.”
A FAQ (frequently-asked questions) page, for example, could include such questions as “How long do repairs take,” or “Do you work with my insurance company,” with a two- or three-sentence answer to each. Or you can include this type of Q&A on each page of your website.
“Huddle up with your team and ask them the types of questions that they tend to get,” Zafuto said. “What sorts of questions can we brainstorm to get onto our website to be picked up on by these AI tools?”
He said like some other AI search tools, ChatGPT shows “its homework,” listing the sites where it is drawing the information presented to the user. Making your site a trusted source for answers to the types of questions consumers ask can help get a link to your site in the AI search response.
Behind-the-scenes code changes that boost AI search performance
In addition to website content changes, there are some behind-the-scenes coding that get help AI “make sense” of your shop’s website. Zafuto suggesting including “llms.txt” files on your website.
“The llms.txt file is a very, very new thing,” Zafuto said. “It’s a grassroots effort by a bunch of nerds who are trying to standardize the way that our websites are communicating to these AI tools. It’s pretty much a plain text sitemap of your website.”
He notes that it’s different than a regular sitemap because it has the titles of each of your pages. “It includes the description of each of your pages so that when an AI tool comes to look at your website, it can better contextualize what the purpose of your pages are and their relationships to each other.”
He also recommends including “structured data” on your website.
“It’s a special type of code that goes into the backend of your website. It was originally designed by Google and other providers of search engines to help make better sense of websites,” Zafuto said. “You include basic information about your business in an easily digestible format so that search engines as well as AI tools can easily pick up on these bits of information.”
He noted that it’s providing information such as the name of the business, the hours of operation, the address, and the services offered. “It saves these AI tools and these search engines the trouble of having to read everything on your website just to get the basic facts about you. So, this is a little bit more of an old-school SEO thing, but it’s even more important when it comes to AI tools.”
In addition to basic information about your business, include structured data about the questions and answers you are providing through your website so that AI tools can pick up on that easily, Zafuto recommends.
Customer reviews are now more important than ever
Zafuto said getting as many positive customer reviews is more important than ever.
“One thing that I see all the time when asking these AI tools specific questions is that they tend to prefer businesses that are very highly rated on platforms such as Google and Yelp,” Zafuto said. “It’s important to keep a well-optimized Google business profile. If you haven’t touched your Google business profile in a while, you might want to give it a little bit of a tune-up.”
If you haven’t gotten a review in several weeks or even months, he suggested asking every single customer for reviews. “In addition to that, focus on responding to your reviews, even the negative ones, because Google actually looks at these responses as an indication of how active you are on their platform.”
If you’re having trouble getting customer reviews regularly, Zafuto suggested, consider offering a bonus to the employee who gets the most reviews, or consider hiring a reputation management company to send requests out to customers on your behalf.
Traditional SEO still matters
Lastly, Zafuto said, continue the search engine optimization (SEO) practices you’ve previously been doing.
“While these AI tools might be changing the search landscape, they aren’t completely overhauling it,” he said. “So it is important to continue honing in on SEO best practices.”
John Yoswick