Buyers and sellers are increasingly turning to AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, among others, to ask questions like: “Who is the best real estate agent near me?” or “Who is the top listing agent in my area?”
And AI is answering.
That shift is driving a new focus: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). It’s centered on structuring your digital persona so AI systems can find, understand and recommend you.
In other words, it’s about making sure you don’t get overlooked by the bots. Because lately these bots have emerged as a key pathway to get connected, ultimately, to a human.
The AI-Recommended Agent
Being findable online used to center on search engine optimization, which prioritizes getting ranked on Google search results. But GEO is all about getting recommended by AI engines.
Rick Janson, a luxury real estate pro with Compass in Denver, has seen the impact firsthand on his business in becoming AI-recommended. One client found him through a Gemini AI search as they were looking for Denver real estate agents. That converted into a $1.7 million listing appointment.
Not only that, the client told him: “‘Don’t worry about selling me—you already got the job.’”
AI didn’t just surface Rick Janson’s name. It summarized his digital footprint into a ready-made recommendation, including his credentials, video content and professional background. It effectively pre-qualified him before any direct conversation even took place.
That kind of AI-driven visibility is what pushed Janson to create 10X Search, a platform designed to help other real estate professionals achieve the same results in their markets. His clients have reported direct listing inquiries originating from ChatGPT and included in AI-generated recommendations, and in some cases even appearing above major real estate companies.
How AI Pulls Your Information
AI systems generate answers and summaries—blurbs that users increasingly focus more on than the actual search results.
But Janson found after his own personal audit of the 50 top-performing agent sites: Websites built for SEO aren’t necessarily built to be surfaced as AI summaries. “I found over 70,000 technical errors across those 50 sites that were preventing them from being found by AI,” he says. “The issue wasn’t lack of content. It was a lack of machine readability.”
Janson, author of the upcoming book, “AI Search Optimization for Real Estate,” developed a system for 10X Search that evaluates more than 40 optimization factors per page, focusing on how well content is presented, how pages are built and how information gets labeled. It looks at such signals to better understand content, like metadata (e.g., page titles and descriptions) and scheme markup, which adds structured labels that explain what a page is about. AI systems also crawl elements like the page headings and text descriptions provided for images and videos.
How to Improve Your GEO: 5 Tips
Here are a few ways to make yourself more findable by AI search engines, according to the experts.
1. Check how AI sees you.
Ask your favorite AI tool specifically about yourself and your business as well as what are the top real estate companies and agents in your area. See if and what it surfaces about you. Review whether the answers are outdated, incomplete or contain any errors. Next, review the sources of information to find out where it’s collecting the information from so you can target those same types of pages, if possible.
Also, for a broader look, tools like Mangools AI Search Grader and SEMrush can evaluate your brand’s overall visibility and performance within AI search engines.
2. Focus on answering real questions.
Janson recommends finding out what people are currently asking about your industry, such as by perusing Google’s “People Also Ask” feature. It can usually be found within Google Search results often near the top or middle of the page. This can reveal current search behavior.
For example, a Google search on “prepping a home for sale” turns up questions like “How should you prepare a house before selling?” or “What is the biggest red flag in a home inspection?” Take these questions and then structure content around them, making the question the headline and clearly, succinctly writing up an answer so it is machine-readable, Janson says.
3. Lean into hyperlocal content.
One of the biggest opportunities in GEO is hyperlocal dominance, Janson says. While large real estate platforms dominate at scale, Janson argues that individual agents can outperform by focusing on neighborhood-specific and intent-driven searches. Frequently create neighborhood-level content and offer niche local expertise, in which larger platforms often only generalize.
4. Build up your digital reputation.
AI systems evaluate more than just content. They also weigh reputation signals, such as your reviews and ratings, consistent use of keywords (like regarding your services, locations and specialties), as well as media mentions and backlinks across the internet.
For example, “a steady stream of recent, relevant reviews signals trust and activity,” says Janson, noting new reviews should constantly be flowing in.
Alex Montalenti, CEO of RealGrader, said during a recent .RealEstate webinar, “Get Found on AI Search, Google Search and Social Media,” that agents should ensure their online profiles are complete. RealGrader, part of the 2023 REACH startup companies, offers tools for agents to build their digital reputation. Montalenti suggests prioritizing the following sites:
- Google Business Profile
- YouTube
- Real estate sites, like Realtor.com
5. Be consistent.
Inconsistencies online—like outdated profiles, missing links, duplicate listings or lack of reviews—can weaken AI visibility, Janson says. He says strong GEO requires a focus on consistently publishing and strong distribution across multiple platforms. His clients typically publish over 40 optimized content assets per month, with AI’s help.
Overall, he says, improving AI visibility comes down to focusing consistently on some of the following fundamentals:
- using consistent branding everywhere
- actively collecting reviews
- linking all social media profiles back to a central website
- posting regularly across social platforms
- ensuring online business profiles are constantly up to date and completely filled out
“We are at one of those pivotal moments—where AI is coming, just like Google came in 2000,” Montalenti said. “It’s all about building authority and your AI visibility footprint.”
After all, consumers aren’t just scrolling blindly online nowadays. They’re asking AI to narrow their search and tell them what to pay attention to. Which begs the question—will AI be dropping your name to your next client?
