Is Your Commercial Real Estate Firm Ready for the AI Content Shift?
- Walter Fitzgerald
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
A tactical guide to making your firm’s insights visible, structured, and cited in AI-powered discovery.
By Walter Fitzgerald * A note on the author: At 83 years old, Walter isn’t your typical copywriter—and that’s exactly why we love him. His offbeat take on blogging and colorful storytelling make him a standout voice at ATYPICAL.
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Traditional SEO Isn’t Dead, But It’s No Longer Enough
Your website has always been a digital storefront, a lead magnet, and a trust builder. But in today’s AI-driven search landscape, how prospects find you has fundamentally changed. To put it simply, if you're still optimizing for top search rankings, you're already behind.
Modern AI tools, like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, aren’t pointing users to a list of links. They’re answering queries directly, pulling from sources they deem credible, well-structured, and authoritative.
AI doesn't care how pretty your homepage is if it can't make sense of what's on it. And it’s no longer about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about being the one worth quoting. This shift means Commercial Real Estate firms need to optimize for a new priority: being cited, not just seen.
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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): What CRE Teams Must Understand
From Search Rankings to Trusted Sources
GEO and AEO are the new playbooks. Instead of trying to rank #1 on Google, the objective now is to be quoted as the definitive answer to a user’s question. For CRE firms, brokerages, tech platforms, and owner/operators alike, this means content has to be built for clarity, trust, and machine-level structure.
Reminds me of the old newsroom days when, if your copy wasn’t clear enough to be read cold on the 6 o’clock news, it got spiked. AI works the same way: no clarity, no airtime.
Here’s what AI engines are looking for, and where you need to be visible:
Structured Content Formats: Making Your Expertise Easy to Extract
AI models break down content into pieces they can easily understand and serve as answers. The more structured and modular your content, the more likely it is to be cited.
What to Create and Where to Apply It
Content Type | Why AI Cites It | Where CRE Firms Must Show Up |
Answer Capsules / Direct Answers | Clear, 1–2 sentence summaries that provide an immediate response to a question. | Use under question, based headers, blog sections, and FAQs. |
How-to Guides & Tutorials | Step,-by,-step formats are ideal for instruction-based queries. | Think: “How to Calculate NOI” or “Steps to Secure a Triple Net Lease.” |
Listicles & Comparisons | Scannable, digestible formats are AI favorites. | "Top 5 Markets for CRE Investment" or “Yardi vs VTS: A Feature Breakdown.” |
FAQs & Q&A Content | Mirrors how users phrase questions to AI. | Create FAQs on investment risks, lease types, and financing options. |
Definitions & Explainers | Simple, jargon-free definitions signal clarity and trust. | Define terms like "Cap Rate", "Ground Lease", or "Build-to-Suit". |
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Authority, Driven Content: Becoming the Source AI Trusts
AI platforms are engineered to avoid hallucinations. That means they prioritize sources that demonstrate real, world expertise and verified experience. You’ll need to build both onsite and offsite authority to be part of the AI answer.
Build Trust Like a Thought Leader, Not Just a Marketer
Content Type | Why AI Cites It | Where CRE Firms Must Show Up |
Original Research & Proprietary Data | AI can’t create new data, so it cites those who do. | Share quarterly reports, local market data, and client case studies. |
Expert Attribution/Bios | AI looks for content tied to real professionals with verifiable credentials. | Every major article should have a linked bio with credentials, publications, and transaction history. |
Structured Data (Schema) | Schema helps AI understand content purpose and relationships. | Work with your web team to add invisible “tags” to your content using schema markup. Focus on the most relevant types for CRE, like:
These tags are added behind the scenes in a format called JSON-LD, which makes your content easier for AI tools to find and cite accurately. |
Fresh, Updated Content | AI deprioritizes outdated information. | Set a quarterly refresh cycle for reports, articles, and thought leadership. Always show the last updated date. |
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Off-Site Presence: Where Else AI Is Looking for You
AI engines like Perplexity don’t just rely on your website; they scan the broader web for signals of trust and relevance. These platforms reward active voices that participate in industry conversations and are cited by others.
Expand Your Visibility Beyond Your Own Site
External Source Type | Why AI Cites It | Where CRE Firms Must Show Up |
Reddit, Quora, Industry Forums | User-generated content offers rich, authentic insights that AI loves to pull from. | Answer questions in relevant threads, share lessons learned, and link to deeper resources. |
Aggregated Review Platforms | Trusted third-party reviews build credibility. | Get your clients to leave specific feedback on G2, Trustpilot, or Capterra. |
Industry Publications & Podcasts | AI tracks patterns of citation and mentions. | Submit guest articles, get quoted in CRE media, and issue PR around research or transactions. |
YouTube (and video platforms) | Video How-Tos, and explainers are now pulled into AI summaries. | Post walkthrough videos, tutorials, and expert talks. Include transcripts and embed videos in blogs. |
Google Business Profile (GBP) | Local queries pull from structured data in GBP. | Ensure your NAP details are consistent, reviews are recent, and hours are current. |
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Your Updated CRE Content Checklist for GEO Success
Immediate Actions
Add Answer Capsules under key headers
Refresh your content quarterly: update stats and show the date
Use human authorship: add bios with experience and credentials
Reformat for scanning: lists, tables, bold headers
Avoid link clutter in key paragraphs (especially the direct answers)
Medium Term Upgrades
Implement schema markup (FAQPage, RealEstateListing, HowTo)
Create topic clusters around major investment themes
Strengthen offsite signals, get mentions, reviews, and backlinks
Launch a YouTube strategy for search-friendly, visual explainers
Optimize Google Business Profile for every active market
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Final Thought: AI Doesn’t Just Find the Best Content, It Finds the Best, Proven Experts
AI doesn’t just rank content, it qualifies it. To stand out in this new search landscape, your content needs to be built for both human trust and machine precision. When it is, you become the answer, not just an option.
But adapting to this new model takes more than good content. It takes a partner who understands both the nuances of commercial real estate and the technical mechanics behind AI-driven discoverability.
Whether you're a brokerage looking to build thought leadership, a CRE tech firm aiming to dominate high-intent searches, or an owner/operator seeking better visibility for your portfolio, this shift is your signal to align with a digital partner that gets GEO and AEO from the inside out.
Because let’s face it, if your content isn’t built for AI, it’s about as useful as a billboard in a blackout.
If you're looking to stand out in this new era of AI-driven discovery, you know where to look, because real visibility starts with strategy.
As always,
Stay ATYPICAL 😊
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What’s the difference between SEO and GEO for commercial real estate firms?
Answer: Search Engine Optimization helped your property pages and blogs show up in search results. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) takes that a step further by ensuring your expertise is quoted directly in AI-generated answers. In today’s landscape, being listed isn’t enough. It’s like showing up to the dance but never getting picked. Nice, but not the point.
CRE firms need their content to be structured in a way that platforms like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, and Perplexity can trust, parse, and cite. GEO is about becoming the authoritative voice in answers related to leasing, investing, or market trends, not just showing up on page one.
How does AI decide which commercial real estate content to cite?
Answer: AI systems look for content that’s built for credibility and clarity. That means:
Structured formats (tables, lists, answer capsules)
Author attribution from real brokers, analysts, or executives
Updated insights (outdated reports get buried)
Technical markup, like schema, to help the AI understand what your content is
In short, if your content looks like it was written by a bot from 2014, don’t expect a bot from 2025 to trust it. AI tools reward firms that treat their content like data, organized, verified, and current.
How often should commercial real estate teams update their content?
Answer: Every quarter is a strong benchmark. In CRE, market dynamics shift fast; lease rates, vacancy trends, and investor sentiment can change month to month, and AI platforms will factor this in. Content that’s older than 18 months sees a major drop in visibility.
Make sure your market reports, blog articles, and portfolio pages reflect the most recent data and display a clear “last updated” date.
Think of it like giving your best content a new suit; same substance, just better dressed.
What types of content should commercial real estate firms optimize first?
Answer: Start with content that already performs or supports high-value client interactions:
Market reports for specific asset classes or geographies
Investor and leasing guides that explain key metrics like cap rates, NOI, and IRR
Blog posts that cover evergreen topics, FAQs, or how-to content
Reformat them to include answer capsules, expert bylines, updated stats, and structured lists.
Why is schema markup essential for commercial real estate content?
Answer: Schema markup turns your website into a source that AI can read like a database. For example, labeling a listing with RealEstateListing or a guide with HowTo tells the AI exactly what the content is and how to use it. Without a schema, AI tools may miss or misinterpret even your best content.
It’s the digital equivalent of speaking clearly into the mic because mumbling your brilliance doesn’t help anyone. For CRE firms, using structured data is like putting up a signpost that says, “This is trustworthy, specific, and built for answers.”
