What AI-First Search Means for Real Estate Agents: Expert Advice on Staying Visible

Excelling in the era of AI-first search: SEO insights from Kyle Whigham at Luxury PresenceThe search landscape is shiftingWhat this means for visibilityWhat we know — and don’t know — about AI-first searchAI tools elevate content that feels credible. For agents, that means showcasing your unique, hyperlocal insights, proven experience, and a clear personal or brand identity across multiple online platforms.Content that’s organized, easy to read, and uses elements like FAQs or how-tos (via Schema markup) tends to get cited. AI favors clarity, so formatting best practices matter.Genuinely helpful content, written from an expert’s perspective, particularly when it offers something unique about a specific city or niche, tends to stand out. Hyperlocal content — neighborhood guides, market snapshots, and community blogs — often performs best. The more specific, the better.Google’s AI Mode breaks queries into sub-questions based on user intent. Your content should aim to cover the full journey, not just hit a keyword. Content strategies must evolve to focus on topical expertise and depth.AI often answers the question upfront, which could mean fewer clicks. But those who do click are often ready to act.Measuring LLM-driven visibility — like Google’s AI Overviews (AIO) — is still messy. While Google Search Console now includes AIO traffic, there’s no way to filter it, making the data noisy and hard to trust. Attribution is inconsistent: LLMs may cite your brand without driving clicks, creating visibility without clear ROI. Traditional tools don’t account for this, so we’re monitoring closely and exploring new ways to track impact beyond impressions and traffic.We genuinely believe that if you’ve been following SEO best practices, cultivated a strong online brand presence, and showcased your respective local/niche expertise, you should see success in LLM answers. However, we are actively experimenting with which strategies, types of content, and how online mentions can drive success in LLMs.We know that LLMs can generate different answers for different users based on query phrasing, location, and personal chat history. Google’s AI Mode takes this a step further by further personalizing results based on a user’s past searches, location, device, habits, etc. This means that an AI answer shown to a buyer in New York City very well may differ from a buyer in Palm Beach, even for the same question. This makes it harder to control or reasonably predict your visibility in LLMs.Historically, evergreen content performs well in SEO. But AI might prioritize freshness, especially for market data. We’re betting on keeping content regularly updated.There’s speculation that LLMs will heavily favor large publishers and established domains (think Zillow, Redfin, Forbes, etc.). If this trend continues, smaller brokerages or individual agents risk becoming deprioritized unless they carve out clear authority in a local niche.How Luxury Presence is staying ahead of the curveWe structure content around real questions your clients ask — guides, how-tos, market updates — using clear formatting and schema markup to help AI find and cite it.We’re testing new tools to detect mentions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI platforms so we can see what’s working.AI rewards authenticity. We highlight your personal insights, local knowledge, and clear brand voice — because you’re not just a name on a site. You’re the expert in your market.Looking ahead: Visibility in the age of AI