AI visibility benchmark · Des Moines, IA · Oct 15
Des Moines buyers are asking AI where to buy a car.
No dealership owns these answers yet.
We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 12 real buyer questions in 6 parts of the Des Moines area. 86% of the 215 answers sent buyers to a marketplace, and the most-named dealership showed up in just 12. The lead is up for grabs — see where you stand before your competitors do.
“What's the best used 7-seat SUV I can get for $800 a month in Fort Dodge?”
The answer named
- Fort Dodge Ford
And sent the buyer to
- cars.com
- edmunds.com
- carmax.com
- facebook.com
The dealerships AI names in Des Moines
The whole field is bunched together: the leader is named in 12 of 215 answers, and a handful of answers separates the top three from the pack. Counted across the 18 tracked Des Moines area dealerships; ties share a rank. Nothing is paid for — VIN Index members are counted exactly like everyone else.
- 1Fort Dodge Ford12 of 215
- 2Lauterbach Buick-GMC10 of 215
- 3Kemna Chevrolet of Fort Dodge9 of 215
11 more Des Moines dealerships were named. Is yours one of them?
Your opportunity in Des Moines
Most of these answers are still up for grabs.
Here’s how to take them first.
168of 215
Des Moines buyer answers name no tracked local dealer yet
We do thisAnswer pages built around these exact questions, filled with your inventory.
55of 60
Dealer sites missing vehicle data AI can read
No complete machine-readable price, mileage and year on the vehicle pages.
We do thisEvery vehicle published with its price, mileage and year labelled for AI.
53of 94
Inventory hidden behind JavaScript
Vehicle pages that don’t fully appear to most AI crawlers.
We do thisVehicle pages served as plain, readable HTML.
33of 64
Dealer sites turn away an AI crawler
At least one refused — most often GPTBot, ClaudeBot, OAI-SearchBot.
Your fixAllow AI crawlers in your site’s firewall or bot settings — usually a single setting.
VIN Index publishes your inventory as pages AI can read and cite — straight from your feed, with no change to your website — and every enquiry goes to you. The first dealers here to do it are competing with almost no one.
Website figures: the newest VIN Index AI-readiness check of every Des Moines area dealership website we track (96 sites, Oct 13–Oct 20) — wider than the 18 dealerships on the leaderboard, which are the ones we match by name in answers. Each card counts only the sites where that particular check gave a clear result, so each has its own total. Sites may have changed since. Totals across dealerships, never about one.
The VIN Index content engine
AI quotes pages that answer the question.
We write them for you.
01
Finds the questions
The buyer questions AI is fielding in Des Moines — like the 12 on this page — matched to what you have on the lot.
02
Writes the answers
A page for each question, built from your live inventory, prices and payments, published on your own VIN Index site.
03
Tracks the citations
Regular checks across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity show which pages AI is quoting, and which questions to answer next.
An Ottawa used-car dealership, on the content engine
40 answer pages · through Sep 28
0→10
From invisible to named in nearly half its buyer answers (10 of 21) in 10 weeks.
14days
From its first answer page going live to AI citing it as the source.
171
Times AI cited its VIN Index pages in the last 14 days, across 37 different buyer questions.
The dealership’s own tracked questions, not this page’s sample, and none names a dealership. “Named” compares the same questions and assistants in its first ten days of checks (Jul 18) and its latest ten (Sep 28). Citation counts are from our checks, not buyer traffic. One dealership’s result, not a guarantee.
215
AI answers saved across 6 parts of the Des Moines area
86%
cite a listing marketplace like CarGurus, AutoTrader or Clutch
22%
name one of the 18 tracked local dealerships in the answer itself
12 of 215
the most any single Des Moines dealership was named — nobody's running away with it
The 12 questions, asked in every area
- I have $20,000 cash for a used car in Des Moines. What should I buy?
- What kind of used car can I get for $400 a month in Des Moines?
- What used pickup truck can I get for $600 a month in Des Moines?
- What's a good used pickup truck under $30,000 in Des Moines?
- What's the best used 7-seat SUV I can get for $800 a month in Des Moines?
- Which independent used car dealers should I consider in Des Moines?
- Which used SUV should I buy for under $25,000 in Des Moines?
- What's a good used commuter car in Des Moines for under $400 a month?
- What's the best used 7-seat SUV under $30,000 in Des Moines?
- I'm paying cash for a used commuter car in Des Moines. What can I get for $15,000?
- What used SUV can I get for about $500 a month in Des Moines?
- Where should I buy a used car in Des Moines?
Each asked in Ames, Urbandale, Newton, Ankeny, Fort Dodge, Des Moines — 215 answers in all. No question names a dealership, so a dealer only counts when AI brings them up on its own.
Where the answers send buyers
Which websites the 215 answers pointed buyers to. The marketplaces publish a price and a payment for every car in one place — exactly what a budget question asks for — so that’s where the answers go.
86%
of answers cite a listing marketplace
26%
of answers cite a local dealership’s own website
Linking isn’t recommending: an answer can list a dealer’s page among its sources — any dealer’s, not only the 18 on the leaderboard — without naming that dealer to the buyer. That’s why this is higher than the 22% of answers that name one.
- 1cars.com142 / 215
- 2cargurus.com109 / 215
- 3edmunds.com89 / 215
- 4autotrader.com75 / 215
- 5iseecars.com58 / 215
- 6carfax.com43 / 215
- 7truecar.com30 / 215
- 8gychevynewton.com26 / 215
- 9carmax.com25 / 215
- 10gycdjrnewton.com24 / 215
The questions no Des Moines dealer is winning yet
How often each question’s answers named a local dealership, across every area and every assistant. “Where should I buy a used car in Des Moines?” gets a dealer named 83% of the time; the budget questions are where the answers go elsewhere.
- I have $20,000 cash for a used car in Des Moines. What should I buy?6%
- What kind of used car can I get for $400 a month in Des Moines?6%
- What used pickup truck can I get for $600 a month in Des Moines?6%
- What's a good used pickup truck under $30,000 in Des Moines?11%
- What's the best used 7-seat SUV I can get for $800 a month in Des Moines?11%
- Which used SUV should I buy for under $25,000 in Des Moines?17%
- What's a good used commuter car in Des Moines for under $400 a month?22%
- What's the best used 7-seat SUV under $30,000 in Des Moines?22%
- I'm paying cash for a used commuter car in Des Moines. What can I get for $15,000?28%
- What used SUV can I get for about $500 a month in Des Moines?35%
- Which independent used car dealers should I consider in Des Moines?17%
- Where should I buy a used car in Des Moines?83%
Share of that question’s answers (18 each) naming at least one tracked local dealership.
The assistants don’t answer alike
Same questions, same areas, same day. How often each one named a local dealership, and how often it pointed to a marketplace.
ChatGPT71 answers
Gemini72 answers
Perplexity72 answers
Get ahead before the rest of Des Moines does.
Most of these answers don’t name a Des Moines dealer yet. VIN Index turns your inventory into pages AI can read, quote and cite — prices, payments and the facts buyers ask about — and sends every enquiry straight to you.
How we measured this
One saved sample: 12 questions asked in each of Ames, Urbandale, Newton, Ankeny, Fort Dodge, Des Moines, answered by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with web search on October 15, 2026. Five monthly-payment, five cash-budget and two dealer-discovery questions per location. No question names a dealership. Answers in the consumer apps can differ, and a new sample can differ from this one.
Every answer figure uses the same 215 successful answers. “Name a local dealership” means the answer text names one of the 18 dealerships we track in this area, identified from their own websites; that list is not every dealer in the area. “Cite a marketplace” means the answer’s sources include a listing marketplace or national online retailer.
These counts describe what the answers said. They are not shopper traffic, sales, or a dealership’s position within an answer, and they do not show why any dealership was or wasn’t named. Differences between individual areas rest on 36 answers each and are not reported.