We helped a local car rental company earn visibility in AI recommendations through technical GEO, useful content, third-party sources and measurement. Positions refer to the monitored local query groups.
AI recommendation / New York
What are the best local car rental companies in Brooklyn?
05
Drivo Rent a Car
Local rental service with Brooklyn and airport locations.
drivo.com / local recommendation
01 / Context
Drivo operates in New York and New Jersey, with locations concentrated around Brooklyn and the airports.
In organic and paid search, it competes with Hertz, SIXT, Enterprise and Avis: international brands with far more locations and substantially larger budgets.
We looked for another route into the customer’s consideration set: relevance to a specific need, rather than the scale of the rental network.
Drivo’s service locations5 locations
BRKConey Island AveBrooklyn
BRKJSYork StreetBrooklyn
JFKSouth Conduit AveAirport
LGA94th StreetAirport
EWRCarnegie AveNewark
The GEO foundation
GEO built on existing work: local landing pages, an extensive blog, backlinks and end-to-end analytics. Since 2023, the number of queries with search visibility had grown roughly 25-fold, while the backlink and external-mention profile had gained more than 25,000 entries.
Search visibility≈25×
Queries for which the website appears in search results.
2023202420252026
Rounded figures from working SEO snapshots for 2023–2026. These are the foundations for GEO, not results attributed to GEO alone.
02 / Starting point
In November 2025, Drivo rarely appeared in non-branded answers. Some AI responses also repeated negative context from third-party sources.
November 2025
“Is Drivo a reliable car rental company?”
!
Inconsistent sentiment, limited use of owned content and little presence in non-branded recommendations.
01Measure
We tested hundreds of commercial and local prompts.
02Rebuild
We mapped question groups to landing pages and content.
03Strengthen
We strengthened external sources, reviews and consistent brand information.
04Track
We connected visits and conversions to Google Analytics and Roistat.
03 / Demand mapping
We measured branded prompts separately so they would not inflate visibility. The main focus was on situations where people were still choosing a rental company.
01NY
New York
best car rental companies in NYCaffordable car rental in New York02BK
Brooklyn
best car rental company in Brooklyncar rental near Coney Island03✈
Airports
best car rental near JFK Airportcar rental near LaGuardia with easy pickup04$
Rental terms
long-term car rental in New YorkNYC car rental with no hidden fees05→
Trip scenarios
SUV rental for a family tripcar rental for a weekend outside NYC06⇄
Comparisons
local alternatives to Hertz in NYCDrivo vs Sixt for airport car rentalPrimary platforms
◎ChatGPT✦GeminiGGoogle AI
We also used Perplexity and Copilot for additional checks.04 / Implementation
0150+
The website as an answer source
We reworked more than 50 landing pages, clarifying the opening screen, headings and context, and adding FAQs, structured data and llms.txt.
Why it matters
Clear opening content makes it easier to identify where the service operates, who it is for and which terms apply.
02Aa
Content that supports the choice
We expanded the blog around informational queries, comparisons, travel routes and questions people ask AI assistants.
Why it matters
Local competitors left some informational needs unanswered. We focused on topics that could support both organic rankings and inclusion as a source in AI answers.
03↗
Third-party credibility
We developed a review strategy and strengthened directory listings, publications and backlinks. The budget for off-site promotion exceeded $5,000.
Why it matters
At the start, third-party sources contributed to negative brand context. We addressed this by making reliable information available beyond the company’s own website.
05 / AI visibility
The clearest progress appeared in local queries about Brooklyn and car rental near airports.
BeforeNovember 2025
01–03Global rental chainsdominant presence
04–10Aggregators and local brandscompeting for visibility
10+Drivooccasional appearances
AfterMay–June 2026
01–03Hertz, Enterprise and SIXTconsistent visibility
05–07Drivolocal recommendations
08+Other local brandsselective appearances
AI AssistantsGoogle Analytics 4
0 → ≈150recorded AI-referred visits per month0150
Positions vary by prompt, language and AI platform. This case shows an aggregated snapshot of priority query groups, not a fixed ranking across the market.
06 / The customer journey
Direct referrals attributed to AI assistants do not capture every potential touchpoint in the journey. We kept that distinction clear in measurement.
First contactChatGPT / GeminiDrivo is recommended
discovery
ResearchDrivo websitelocations, vehicles and terms
return visit
Next visitGoogle / Directbranded search
action
ConversionBookinglower-funnel action
Google Analytics + Roistat
We connected AI referrals to the wider analytics setup and began examining their role in the journey beyond last-click attribution.
07 / Results
Regular appearances in monitored local AI recommendations.
A shift from negative to predominantly positive brand context.
Measurable AI-referred traffic connected to subsequent user actions.
What changed for Drivo
GEO began as an experiment: could a new discovery channel help a local brand compete for attention with global chains? Once recommendations became consistent and AI-referred traffic measurable, GEO became part of the ongoing SEO, content and analytics program.
