How Mortgage Brokers Can Get Mentions in AI Search

For the past 2 years, SEO has changed drastically to the point where we currently describe it as “search everywhere optimization” rather than the traditional search engine optimization. Thanks to the advent of AI, our agency has seen a tripling of revenue in this service offering as savvy businesses vie to have their brand included in the AI that sits atop Google and the other search engines.

Today, about 2/3 of all searches online are known as “zero click searches,” because the consumer finds the information that they want without having to click on any of the traditional listings. So, while we still spend time attempting to move up in the traditional rankings, we are spending much more time creating content and optimizing for the large language models (LLMs) that feed content to the AI providers such as Chat GPT, Claude, Gemini, and others.

There are two things that we do first when it comes to optimizing for AI. First, we make sure that all of the directory listings are up to date and match exactly to what is on the company website. The directory listings you know are Google Business Profile, Facebook business, and Apple Maps. There are many others, of course, and some that you have never even heard of, but they all provide ranking signals to the LLMs so they need to be accurate. They are also very helpful in gaining recognition in the always increasing “near me” searches that are common today.

Second, is reviews. Review management is now more important than ever, because the LLMs want to recommend companies that have a positive reputation. Ask your past and current clients to review your business. The LLMs not only love to see a great review score, but they also love recency. In fact, Gemini has suggested that if you don’t have a 4.0 review score or better on Google,  you likely won’t be as likely to make it into the AI listings. 

One review site that has recently taken on greater importance is YELP. While you might think of YELP as more of a restaurant review site, as of July, 2026, it is now providing review content for ChatGPT which is the most popular AI site in the USA. So, make sure you have a lot of great reviews on YELP. 

Now comes the search everywhere optimization part. Some sites consistently are showing up as sources for gaining AI listing results. Our favorites are Reddit, Quora, and LinkedIn stories. The LLMs value independent opinions and we’ve seen our clients get mentions on these sites from our efforts. 

Consumers looking for mortgages today are asking much longer questions in search than they did 20 years ago. In fact, they might write an entire paragraph of what they are specifically looking for. Here’s where your website can play a huge role. Research the questions that consumers are asking in the mortgage industry and then take those questions and provide a Q&A section on every possible page of your website. Imagine if you are the only source on the internet for that question. There’s a good chance you can find your business listed in the AI results. 

Two of the coolest things about the new AI world is that small businesses are on more of a level playing field versus large competitors. Moreover, whereas traditional SEO often took several months to show results, we’ve often seen results for our mortgage broker clients in a month or two. 

Gaining access to the AI is very time consuming. You’ll need the buy-in from numerous employees to make it work. Or, you’ll need to hire somebody who has the experience and proven track record to get it done for you. But, if you are successful in getting there, your prospects will come already pre-sold, because they’ve already been told by an independent source that your company is the best choice. 

Bob Bentz is president of Purplegator Marketing Agency & Consultants in Philadelphia. His company represents several mortgage broker companies for its seo services.