How to Build an Online Review Strategy that AI Search Can’t Ignore
When it comes to getting online reviews, most agents have the same process: they close a deal, hand over the keys to their client, and then eventually, they send a polite email asking for a quick review on Google.
And from there, maybe they get one, or maybe they don’t.
If they do get one, the agent celebrates the 5-star rating and moves on to the next transaction; and for years, that was enough to be considered an online review strategy. Reviews were seen as a badge within your online presence strategy to convince someone that you were a good choice to work with.
And while having online reviews is still a critical part of an agent’s online presence strategy for those reasons, it’s also now a critical part of an agent’s AI visibility strategy.
Your AI visibility strategy is the active effort you make to show up in AI search results, like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, etc, with the goal of helping them understand who you are, where you work, and what you’re good at, so that when buyers or sellers are looking, they find your brand and your website.
But how does your online review strategy tie into your AI visibility strategy? While your online review strategy, within your online presence strategy, is all about building trust with your target audience, your online review strategy, within your AI visibility strategy, is all about building trust with LLMs and AI agents.
★ Want to learn more about building AI visibility? Have a look at these posts:
- Why You Can’t Build an AI Visibility Strategy Without a Website
- Creating an AI Visibility Strategy for Your Real Estate Brand
- Building a Real Estate Online Presence Strategy to Get Found in LLMs (like ChatGPT)
To understand why online reviews are so critical for AI visibility, you have to understand a bit about how AI search works and how it chooses who to recommend and who to ignore.
While traditional Google search focuses heavily on keywords and on-page optimization (which is still very important to plan around), AI search and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) focus on trust and authority. To do that, Google uses a framework called EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) to evaluate websites, and AI engines, in addition to Google, use very similar logic.
★ You can learn more about EEAT in this blog post called: How, and Why, to Prove Your Experience to AI, LLMs, and Search Engines.
That means when someone asks an LLM or AI for a local real estate recommendation, the AI is putting its own reputation on the line as well, so it wants to provide the best, most accurate, answer possible. To do that, it searches for signals across the web that validate your business through EEAT.
For example, the AI might ask itself:
- Does this agent actually have a track record of established success?
- Are real people talking about them on third-party sites?
- Is their brand mentioned consistently across multiple platforms?
To be successful in this, you must have a strong, well-built, professional website that details out everything about who you are, what you do, and who you do it for, but you also need to balance it out with consistent, positive, online reviews that tell people and AIs the same thing.
So while your website might say you’re the number one agent in your city, your online review strategy should be able to back that up as well. Together, they both provide undeniable proof about you and your business.
Building an Online Review Strategy for AI Visibility
When you’re building an online review strategy, in most cases, it’s hard enough to even get one review from someone, never mind multiple reviews, and if that’s the case, you should prioritize getting Google reviews to build local AI visibility, but if you’re able to, you should consider building an online review strategy that builds reviews in multiple places and on multiple platforms. For example, you should also get online reviews on:
- Industry-Specific Platforms, like RateMyAgent, Zillow, or anywhere else that people can review their experience working with a real estate agent.
- Social Platforms, like: Facebook Business, Reddit, or anywhere else that has backed, reputable feedback from real people.
- Local Platforms, like Google Business (I already mentioned this above, but it’s worth mentioning again as Google Reviews play an important role in local searches and AI visibility).
The more places you have an online review strategy, the more trustworthy you appear to your target audience and LLMs and AIs as well.
Getting Reviews for AI Visibility
When you’re asking your clients for an online review, it also helps if you provide them a little contextual guidance. For example, don’t just ask them to write, “Leslie was great!” While that’s nice for your ego, it doesn’t give AI engines much context. Instead, give your clients a couple of details to help them write detailed, contextual reviews. Ask them to mention the neighborhood, the type of transaction, and the specific problem you solved.
An AI-optimized online review looks something like this: “Leslie is an incredible and reliable downtown Vancouver real estate agent. She helped us downsize from our family home into the perfect condo in Gastown. Plus, she made what we thought would be a stressful move incredibly easy!”
When an AI crawls and reads an online review like that, it associates you and your brand with things like: Vancouver real estate agent, downsizing, family home, and Gastown.
While there’s a bit more to it, essentially, the more high-quality content and online reviews written about you in this format, the more AI will associate you with that specific niche, area, and demographic.
And, once someone does write you an online review, don’t just leave it at that. You should also make sure you’re replying to reviews, again, by providing some context. For example, don’t just reply with: “Thanks!” Instead, say: Thanks so much! It was a pleasure helping you downsize your family home and find such a great condo in Gastown!”
Quick replies to your online reviews tell humans, search engines, and AIs that your business is active and that you’re engaged in each and every transaction.
Once someone writes you an online review, don’t just leave it on the online platform they wrote it on. Instead, add it to your website if you’re able to. While AI engines pull data from third-party sites, they also rely heavily on your own personal website to understand your experience, location, and a lot more.
★ Want to learn more about building a positive online presence that helps with AI visibility? Have a look at these posts:
- How to Build an Online Presence Strategy for Your Real Estate Brand
- Creating a Real Estate Brand Identity Visibility Strategy
- Planning for How Your Audience Searches For You (and Finds You) Online
Future Proof Your Online Review Strategy
The way people search is changing fast, but the basics around building trust haven’t changed at all.
By taking action now to position your brand across multiple online review platforms, you’ll stay steps ahead of your competition, and take the steps to help your brand and business look appealing to both traditional search engines and AI search engines alike.
Want to integrate AI into your long-term marketing strategy? Download our Artificial Intelligence in Marketing Planning Guide for Real Estate Agents. It has key insights into how you can plan for using AI in your marketing strategy to better set you and your business up for long-term digital success.
