How Constitution Lending Ranks in AI Search for 50+ BOFU Queries

Many marketing teams and brands are experimenting with on-site tactics to appear in AI search results. These tactics are meant to help LLMs better understand content and brand relevance. The most common ones we hear about include inserting llms.txt files, adding key takeaways to articles, and publishing short 300-word blog posts.

But from what we see, there’s no hard data proving these tactics actually work.

Based on data from 20+ clients, we know that exposure in LLMs comes from our Prioritized GEO strategy: ranking for traditional SEO bottom-of-the-funnel keywords with highly differentiated content.

So, we wrote this article to show an example of how we used Prioritized GEO to help Constitution Lending, a private money lender, appear in the top three AI recommendations for 50+ bottom-of-the-funnel prompts, despite having a domain authority under 40.

How LLMs Recommend Products and Services: They Search the Web When Users Ask for Recommendations

Our AI search strategy is based on a simple reality: all major LLMs search the web to help formulate responses. This process is known as grounding.

In the example below, you can see how Google AIO — the largest AI search tool today by traffic — uses our content to generate its AI summary for the query “LLC mortgage lenders.” This is an important keyword for Constitution Lending, as a large portion of their target market consists of borrowers looking to secure mortgages under an LLC structure.

In this case, Google AIO is literally an SEO summarizer (an “overview” of the search results below), so it’s influenced by traditional SEO rankings. 

Even OpenAI says that ChatGPT searches the web whenever it determines users can benefit from web information — not only when someone explicitly clicks the “search” button.

You can see this when asking ChatGPT for product recommendations. It will almost always say, “Searching the web” (as shown below).

Sometimes, it even tells you what it’s searching for: 

Perplexity also lists its sources when formulating a response, which typically correlate with articles ranking on the first page of Google.

This means AI search visibility is fundamentally linked to traditional SEO. If we rank for “best private lender,” for example, LLMs are more likely to surface our content when searching the web to provide recommendations for private lenders.

In fact, there’s a strong correlation between the keywords we rank for and our visibility in AI search results.

For example, one of our most valuable keywords is “best LLC mortgage lenders,” where we currently rank #1 on Google. We also rank for close variations, including “mortgage loans for LLC” and “mortgage lenders for LLC.”

Using Traqer, the tool we developed to track AI search visibility, we can see that Constitution Lending appears as a top recommendation in ChatGPT (Column #1), Perplexity (Column #2), and Google AIO (Column #3) when users ask for LLC mortgage lenders.

Side note: Nobody knows exactly which prompt users are entering — especially in ChatGPT — because users often have long, multi-turn conversations. As a result, tracking visibility for a single prompt isn’t very useful. Instead, Traqer is built to monitor visibility across topics, where multiple prompts approach the same topic from different angles or with different wording. 

We don’t know exactly how users will phrase a given question, but we can run a range of natural-sounding prompts and measure overall visibility for that topic. If visibility is high, we know we’ll show up regardless of how users ask. If it’s low, we know there’s work to do.

For Constitution Lending, examples include topics like “private lenders” or “LLC mortgage lenders.” We’re also ranking on the first page for “best DSCR lenders,” “top DSCR lenders,” “DSCR lenders,” and “best DSCR providers,” among other variations.

In Traqer, we can see that we’re consistently in the top 1–3 brands cited for prompts related to DSCR lenders.

Here are the exact prompts we’re tracking for that topic and where Constitution is being mentioned or cited as a source:

What’s also interesting is that we see very little AI visibility for keywords we aren’t yet ranking for. 

For example, Constitution Lending recently started offering cash for houses, and we began publishing content on that topic not long ago. Some of those articles aren’t ranking yet. When we check Traqer for “sell my house fast Connecticut,” Constitution Lending rarely appears as a recommendation, showing how a lack of SEO rankings directly correlates with a lack of AI visibility.

These are just three examples, but the pattern is consistent across different keywords and clients. When we rank well in traditional SEO for a keyword, our AI search visibility for related prompts increases. When we don’t rank well in SEO, AI search visibility is limited. 

Below, we walk through our process for ranking in traditional Google search and, as a result, gaining exposure to LLMs.

Our 4-Step AI Search Visibility Strategy for Constitution Lending

Step 1: Identify Bottom-of-the-Funnel, High Intent Keywords

At the start of the engagement, we used Pain Point SEO to identify bottom-of-the-funnel keywords that someone urgently looking for a private lender would search for on Google.

We’ve written extensively about why you should target bottom-of-the-funnel keywords in your SEO strategy. In short, bottom-of-the-funnel keywords convert 10x to 25x better than top-of-the-funnel keywords because the reader is actively looking for a solution and there’s significant buying intent. 

In Constitution Lending’s case, that means borrowing intent (and yes, these keywords are still generating traffic and leads through traditional SEO, even in today’s post-ChatGPT and post-AIO world).

For Constitution Lending, these bottom-of-the-funnel keywords included:

• Best DSCR lenders in Connecticut
• Best LLC mortgage lenders
• Best fix and flip lenders
• Fastest closing private lenders

Articles that rank for these keywords — and therefore gain AI visibility — are far more likely to convert than top-of-the-funnel keywords (e.g., what is a DSCR lender, how do I calculate DSCR), where readers still need to do research before applying for a loan.

Focusing on bottom-of-the-funnel keywords is even more important in the context of AI search visibility because these are the only topics where LLMs mention brands, products, or services in their responses. If you ask an LLM a top-of-the-funnel question like “What is a DSCR loan,” it’ll simply explain the concept without recommending or linking to any brand, because there’s no buying intent.

The old content marketing convention — where a company like Constitution Lending would write content like “What is a DSCR loan” in hopes of getting traffic — is being upended by AI search. Content like that never converted well into leads (as we’ve shown for years), but it at least used to generate traffic. Now it doesn’t even do that. 

Step 2: Prioritize Lower-Competition Keywords Using Underdog SEO

Normally, we’d start producing differentiated content to rank for the bottom-of-the-funnel keywords identified in Step 1.

However, many of the lenders we were competing against had 80+ domain authority, thousands of backlinks, and decades in the lending space. Constitution Lending, by contrast, was a relatively new website with lower domain authority. We knew we were unlikely to outrank these high-authority competitors in the short term by targeting the same bottom-of-the-funnel keywords.

Instead, we applied our Underdog SEO framework to start ranking in Google and AI search results sooner.

Underdog SEO focuses on prioritizing keywords tied to specific use cases or verticals. These long-tail, vertical-specific keywords are typically easier to rank for because larger lenders aren’t targeting them, which means there’s less competition and less tailored content on the web. Since traditional SEO is the path to AI visibility, targeting lower-competition keywords helps us get on LLMs’ radars faster.

For example:

• What we didn’t target first: Best hard money lenders

• What we targeted: Best hard money lenders for first-time investors

• Why? Only one article on the first page is specifically tailored to first-time investors. The rest cover hard money lenders broadly and simply happen to rank for “best hard money lenders for first-time investors” due to limited competition. By creating content specifically tailored to first-time investors, we’re far more likely to rank well.

These are some of the vertical-specific keywords we ended up prioritizing for Constitution Lending:

• DSCR lenders for multifamily homes
• Private money lenders for residential real estate
• Hard money lenders for first-time investors
• DSCR loans for construction
• Commercial loans for rental properties
• DSCR loans for wholesalers and brokers

Step 3: Write and Publish Highly Differentiated Content on Constitution Lending’s Website

With a list of bottom-of-the-funnel keywords prioritized using Underdog SEO, we began drafting long-form blog posts to rank for them.

A common mistake at this stage is hiring freelance writers with little to no domain expertise. This often results in what we call a Google Research Paper: generic content that simply regurgitates what’s already been said online.

This is problematic because AI effectively acts like a salesperson. When LLMs search the web, they consume your content and use it to communicate your value props and differentiators to users. In other words, the content you publish directly shapes how LLMs describe and position your solution. 

For example, below you can see ChatGPT using nearly identical language to what we published in our article:

If your content lacks detail on how you address customer pain points better than the competition, AI won’t have enough information to make a compelling case for your solution. Instead, it will default to the same generic language it uses for every other option on the market.

Additionally, AI develops a deep understanding of users (their context, intent, and pain points) through both current and past conversations. When it searches the web, it looks for solutions that best align with that context. 

If your content doesn’t clearly explain how your solution addresses those needs, LLMs won’t connect your offering to users’ unique circumstances, which ultimately limits visibility.

This means your content needs to clearly articulate your differentiators and speak directly to the pain points your target customers are likely to express to LLMs.

• How are we better than the competition?
• What problems do we solve?
• Who do we serve best?
• In which scenarios or use cases do we truly shine?

With this in mind, we interviewed experts at Constitution Lending who work with borrowers every day and deeply understand their challenges. Those conversations surfaced a few consistent themes:

• Most lenders are slow. Borrowers want fast funding.
• Many lenders reject applications at the last minute. Borrowers want early certainty that they’ll get funded.
• Many lenders require large down payments. Borrowers want lower down payments.

We then created content that directly explains how Constitution Lending solves these problems.

As a result, when a borrower tells an LLM they’re looking for a fast, low-down-payment lender that won’t reject applications at the last minute, LLMs are far more likely to recommend Constitution Lending. We’ve essentially given LLMs the exact information they need to make that connection.

Step 4: Get Brand Mentions on Other Sites That Appear as Citations

Another important component of our Prioritized GEO strategy is securing brand mentions on sites that already appear as citations for the AI prompts we want to rank for. This places Constitution Lending within the articles LLMs actively reference when formulating responses. Brands shouldn’t build citations from just any website in their industry — only from sites that LLMs actually cite.

This works through the same mechanism described earlier. When LLMs search the web for solutions that match a user’s query, appearing across multiple cited sources (including your own site) increases overall AI visibility.

That said, we haven’t begun citation outreach for Constitution Lending yet. So far, we’ve focused on publishing high-quality content on their own site, which has already driven strong AI visibility. In the near future, we may begin outreach to cited websites to secure inclusion in their articles.

Note: We suspect that the lack of brand mentions across multiple third-party sources explains why they appear less frequently in ChatGPT compared to Google AIO and Perplexity. Our data suggests ChatGPT prioritizes diverse brand mentions and places less emphasis on owned content alone. We’ll continue monitoring ChatGPT visibility as we begin citation outreach.

Results: We Appear in the Top 3 AI Recommendations for 50+ Bottom-of-the-Funnel Prompts

Without getting too deep into the specifics of Constitution Lending’s business, our content strategy focuses on four core areas:

1. Lending: Constitution Lending provides financing to borrowers purchasing investment properties.

2. Investing: Constitution Lending allows investors to purchase shares in loans in exchange for borrower interest payments.
   
3. Cash for houses: Constitution Lending buys houses directly, helping homeowners sell in as little as 24–48 hours.
   
4. Non-performing loans: Constitution Lending operates a real estate fund that invests in non-performing loans.

Lending Results

On the lending side of the business, the goal was to get LLMs to recommend Constitution Lending to users when they search for any type of real estate investment lender. 

In the screenshots below, you can see that they’re first in Google’s AI overview for numerous keywords:

If we look inside Traqer, you’ll see that they have strong visibility for several bottom-of-the-funnel prompts in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AIO:

Investor Results

We also create content targeting keywords investors would search for when evaluating real estate loans. 

As a result, Constitution Lending appears as a top recommendation for bottom-of-the-funnel AI prompts such as:

We Buy Houses Results

Constitution Lending recently expanded into the houses-for-cash business, helping homeowners sell quickly at a fair price. They can purchase houses in as little as 24 hours, compared to the months it often takes with a traditional real estate agent.

Our objective, therefore, is to appear in AI search results whenever someone asks for help selling their house fast.

We only began publishing “houses for cash” content a few months ago. Even so, Constitution Lending is already being recommended for several bottom-of-the-funnel AI prompts such as “sell my house fast Waterbury” and “sell my house fast Bristol.”

Non-Performing Loan Fund Results

The non-performing loan fund is another part of the business where we only recently began publishing content. Many of the real estate investment funds we’re competing against are massive — firms like Blackstone and Vanguard that have been around for several decades.

As a result, we expected it would take several months to gain traction in AI search results. However, we’re already seeing AI search visibility for prompts where users are actively looking for a fund.

Increase Your AI Search Visibility with Our Prioritized GEO Strategy

Schedule a quick call to learn how we can help your brand increase AI search visibility for high-buying intent keywords.