Mortgage Brokers Unlock ChatGPT Leads With Smart SEO

As consumers increasingly turn from Google to AI tools like ChatGPT for information, mortgage brokers have a new avenue to explore for lead generation. This shift presents an opportunity for savvy professionals to adapt their strategies and capture a growing market. Published on 20 Jun 2025.

The Shifting Tides From Google to AI Search

While Google's dominance in search isn't vanishing overnight, cracks are appearing. The tech giant faces ongoing antitrust litigation and a more immediate challenge from artificial intelligence (AI) search tools like ChatGPT. Mortgage brokers should prepare for the continued growth of these platforms.

A February survey revealed that 27% of Americans now use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT instead of Google. Furthermore, an article in the Wall Street Journal noted that 400 million people were using ChatGPT weekly. In response, mortgage lenders have been rapidly introducing new AI tools to stay competitive.

One Broker's Blueprint for AI Lead Generation

Carlos Scarpero, a mortgage broker at Edge Home Finance with a background in search engine optimization (SEO), has successfully adapted his strategies to capture loan customers from ChatGPT.

“I’m ranking on the AI tools and ChatGPT,” Scarpero shared. “I closed four this month, and three out of the four were from AI, which is crazy to me.”

Mastering Niche Markets The Key to AI Visibility

Scarpero's success stems from specializing in VA loans, particularly those for individuals with low credit scores. His extensive content on these specific loan types allows AI searches to recommend him to potential clients.

“I do a ton of low credit score VA loans,” he explained. “That’s my niche. I just have a lot of content on that. So if you go into ChatGPT and say, ‘I’m a Veteran. I have bad credit, and I need a VA loan. Who should I call?’ If they’re located in one of the 33 states where I’m located, my name will probably pop up and usually be number one. I got a ton of calls.”

Strategic Content That Outmaneuvers Big Lenders

His journey into effective SEO began when he considered cannabis loans as legalization efforts grew in Great Lakes states. Although that market didn't prove strong for him, the SEO knowledge gained was invaluable when applied to the VA loan sector.

“I started looking at pockets where there’s less competition,” Scarpero said. “One is VA renovation, which nobody even offers, so it’s pretty easy to write. Nobody else is targeting it. And two is a low credit score VA loan.”

This focused web content gives him an edge over larger lenders for these niche loans, as their websites often don't target these specific keywords with sufficient depth.

“Even the big online lenders, they’ll write one blog post to touch on the topic, just because they want that top of authority of having all the topics,” he noted. “They don’t really want that 580 credit score borrower. The 550 credit score borrower, they definitely don’t want. And so that’s what I target.”

He even creates content designed to attract clients who may have been turned away elsewhere: “I create some content around, ‘If you’ve ever been turned down by Veterans United, call me,’ type of stuff.”

New AI tech in the mortgage industry aims to automate lending tasks, with Katie Sweeney, EVP of broker strategy & advocacy at Rocket Pro, seeing it as a way to improve work-life balance and strengthen human connections, not replace brokers. Find out more — Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) June 18, 2025

In addition to targeting specific VA loan types, Scarpero develops regional content for the states where he is licensed. He discovered that AI search tools like ChatGPT particularly favor regionally targeted content.

“I also have different pages that are state-specific,” Scarpero shared. “So if you type, ‘Bad credit score, VA, Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana,’ I have pages targeting those phrases. I wasn’t even trying to get on the AI. It just kind of happened. I figured out that the super-targeted pages, the AI loves that stuff.”

Elevate Your Online Game A Call to Action for Brokers

Technology is advancing rapidly in the mortgage space, and companies are urging brokers to embrace new technology to scale their businesses.

Scarpero strongly encourages fellow brokers to develop a robust web presence to attract more customers, noting that many he knows have minimal websites, if any.

“From a broker level, my competitors aren’t doing this stuff because it’s way over their head,” Scarpero stated. “Most of them don’t have a website, let alone an online presence. The big online guys, they don’t really target local markets, because it’s too small a search phrase.”

While ChatGPT results might not yield enough volume for large lenders, Scarpero finds them highly effective for small brokers.

“In Ohio, it will get maybe two calls a month, which is fine by me,” he said. “I’m in 33 states, so that’s 65 calls a month, which is amazing.”

Building a Winning Website in the AI Era

For brokers looking to build an online presence, a comprehensive website rich with unique content is the essential starting point.

“Most of them have a (bad) templated website,” Scarpero observed. “There are three or four providers that provide these kinds of things. They’re fine, but they’re not going to rank. You’ve got a website with the same content that everybody else has, and they get shocked when it’s not ranking. You have nothing unique to show the world.”

Scarpero emphasized that the current technology boom allows brokers to create distinctive websites with powerful tools, without needing to invest thousands in web designers for generic, templated sites.

“You can build stuff in AI that’s almost as good as what the big lenders have,” he concluded. “I don’t have a $200 million budget. It’s just little old me in my spare bedroom here, just building out crazy little web pages.”