Borrowers research for months before they apply, and most of that research now happens in Google and AI assistants rather than a bank branch. The brokers winning are the ones visible during that window.
I run search programs for brokerages directly, so a senior specialist does the work rather than an account manager relaying it. Every recommendation is judged on qualified enquiries, not rankings.
Everyone chases “mortgage broker [suburb]” and a rate-comparison blog, competing head-on with aggregators and lenders who will always outspend you. The situational searches that actually convert go unclaimed.
Commission on one loan can be substantial and clients often return for refinancing and investment purchases, so lifetime value is high. Borrowers also arrive with specific circumstances, and those specifics are where a broker beats a bank.
Own the situational searches where a broker genuinely adds value — self-employed, credit issues, first home buyer schemes, investment structuring — alongside the local terms worth having.
Borrowing is a months-long, anxious process. Coverage is built at each point, in Google and in the AI tools now answering these questions.
Someone works out what they can borrow and whether their situation is even possible. This is now heavily AI-mediated, with assistants answering before any site is visited.
“can I get a loan if self-employed”, “how much deposit do I need”
They shortlist brokers or consider going direct to a bank. Reviews, lender panel, specialisation and whether an AI tool names you decide who gets contacted.
“best mortgage broker [city]”, “broker vs bank direct”
One broker gets the call. How clearly you explain the process, your fee structure and their specific situation convert the enquiry.
“mortgage broker [suburb]”, “first home buyer broker near me”
Scope follows your business, your market and your service mix. These are the components a program draws on.
Working out which borrower situations are most profitable and best suited to you, then building coverage around those first.
Pages for the specific circumstances where a broker adds real value, alongside a focused set of genuinely useful location pages.
Visible accreditations, lender panel and experience, because Google and AI models both assess who stands behind financial content.
A complete, actively managed profile plus consistent details across every listing. Reviews carry a lot of weight here.
Structured data and consistent, corroborated facts so AI tools name you when someone describes their borrowing situation.
Content written inside credit advertising requirements and signed off before publishing, plus credibility built off your own site.
A business doesn't run on traffic. It runs on the work that gets won and what that work is worth.
LeadSight, my own attribution software, ties enquiries and closed work back to the channel that produced them, so your monthly report shows what SEO returned in dollars rather than which keywords moved.
How LeadSight works →I keep my client list small, and broker SEO works best where you want a pipeline beyond referral partners.
Self-employed, complex income, credit-impaired, commercial. Specificity is exactly what search and AI answers reward.
Where you have capacity across multiple brokers and referral flow alone won't fill it.
Where clients return repeatedly and lifetime value across a portfolio is substantial.
Sometimes, with proper local work, but it's rarely the best use of budget. Aggregators and lenders spend heavily there. The searches worth owning are situational: someone self-employed, someone with a deposit problem, someone buying through a trust. Fewer searches, dramatically better enquiries, far less competition.
They already do, which is why the strategy has to account for it. A model can explain how a loan works. What it can't do is assess a specific situation and submit an application, so it hands people off — and the businesses it names are the ones with clear, corroborated, specific information about what they handle.
Everything is written to stay inside credit and advertising requirements, and nothing publishes without your sign-off. As with most regulated industries, what the rules prohibit is also broadly what Google penalises, so compliance and good SEO pull in the same direction.
Yes. Google treats it as YMYL: content that affects someone's money, so visible credentials, accuracy and verifiable business credibility matter more than in other industries.
No. I keep my client list deliberately small and won't take on a directly competing brokerage in the same catchment and specialisation.
Local work often moves within weeks. Situational visibility takes two to three months to compound, and given borrowers research for months, judge the full picture over two to three quarters.
Send your domain through and I’ll review your site, your competition and your AI visibility before we speak. No obligation, and a straight answer on whether it’s worth the spend.