How Custom Builders Can Get Found on ChatGPT (and Land $1M+ Leads)

Cameron examines a home-building enquiry that named ChatGPT as its source, then looks at how a builder’s website, project examples and wider online presence can help buyers research their options.

What you’ll take away

• Make it clear what you build and where you work.
• Give buyers specific project examples and evidence of your experience.
• Look beyond your own website when reviewing how your business appears online.

Transcript

From the published episode transcript. Automated transcription may contain errors.

What's up guys? Cameron here from Contractor Scale. Now, in this video I wanted to quickly break down how to get found on ChatGPT because. Obviously everybody knows the world's changing a lot, especially, you know, previously from going from no internet to internet. A lot of people got left behind when they were advertising in the Yellow Pages and things like that. And we're going through another phase of that right now with a lot of people who are doing the research, going through and searching up things, not using Google, but instead using other tools like ChatGPT, Claude Gemini, and those type of things.

So if someone searched up Best Custom Home builder me, but they didn't use Google, they use chat GPT instead, would you show up in there? And if not, you're probably gonna be invisible going forward. And this is another area that you need to take into consideration for people that are coming through now. I wanna give you an example because this is one that just came through from another client of mine, and I wanted to share the exactly what they sort of filled out and what it looks like, and give you some advice on how to actually show up on this new platform because.

If you're going to get into this platform, you're gonna end up with much better clients. Because what tends to happen is the people using these tools, they're doing a lot of research, they're asking all the questions that normally they would harass you on the phone with, and they're getting all of the, the information together so that when they talk with you, they're going to be in a much better position to move forward. So lemme show you through this really quickly. Okay. So this is a lead form submission that came through from.

Them or from their client, I guess you could say. Now, I've tried to get rid of as many personal information pieces here, but for example, this is a 4,000 square foot home. They've cited here directly that they came through from chat, GPT, so lake house expected completion time, 12 to 16 months. Now down here we've got drawings done and already in motion and budget, one to 1.2 million. Okay? So not a bad lead by any scratch of the imagination. Looking to move forward sooner rather than later.

What ended up happening is this lead came through, they called, then the client sent back a form for them to fill out to give some more information, and that's where this one came through. But they've basically gone through and done all the research before they got to this point. So what does it actually look like from the searcher and how they find you? Let's take a look. So this is another example, and this is a really, really basic example of how you might show up in a search term.

So in here, someone said, I'm looking to extend my house in Auckland. Who should I contact? Now, what it's done here has gone. Here are some reputable home extension specialists in Auckland vetted for quality, transparency, and experience. Now, I'll tell you right now that this result here. There's another client of mine, but they are not ranking number one for this query. Okay? They are on page one, but they're not at the top. So really interesting correlation here doesn't line up exactly with Google search. So if you are doing SEO and everything else, that's great, but this is actually a little bit different in how these results show up.

And there's a few different criteria that you need to look at in order to get this pushed up higher. Okay? So this is how it might look right now. This is obviously the, the shortest amount you could search up. I've done this for all of our clients to see who's sitting where. And obviously this is one that I'm just showing you now. But normally what would happen is someone would have a much longer discussion or query or go through their thought pattern here around, here's what I'm looking to do, here's what I have in place.

You know, this is what it's gonna look like. Here's some inspiration, all this different sort of stuff. And then they would look at who's the best person to work with. So as far as what happens on the back end, I've tried to break that down as best as I can by trying to manipulate the search result here. So if somebody searches, for example, for a custom home builder, it's specifically focused on design and build. 'cause I don't wanna have to manage anything. Who should I choose now?

This is where they start to get a bit more depth in the queries that people are looking for. So, again, if you've ever done SEO, normally it was all about keywords and search terms. Someone would type in home extension Auckland, or they would type in custom home builder near me. That's not necessarily the case anymore. Now there's gonna be a much longer, more in depth. Question or phrase that will get you to show up in in the result. So if I just look across the right hand side here, this is the one I wanted to show you really quickly and I'll just skim through it, but it's gone through this process and it's done all the research for you.

Okay. So it's gone down a search that for all of these different results, okay, it's returned those results and then it's gone. Actually, I need to focus on true design and build services with full project management. Perfect for hands off experience. I'll shortlist about five, so then it's shortlisted them and it's gone through everywhere from websites, Facebook, Instagram, and Yelp. All the different search results here, and then it's gone through another round here and, and dug deeper into some of these options. And then it's specifically looked at a few other places like press releases and again, dug a bit deeper as far as awards and things like that.

And so the point I'm getting at here is it's no longer just about being, you know, the top of a specific search. People are really getting personalized in the answers and the way that they are showing up and getting research from these. AI tools is in a similar way. So down here it's also talking about doing due diligence between are they registered with the Better Business Bureau, are they, you know, got project examples showcased on other platforms. Now, if you are. Focused on one area marketing, you need to start thinking a bit more broad.

'cause as you can see from this example, it's not just looking into the website, it's not just looking into social media. It's ticking off all of these things here. So making sure that you're across all different aspects to show up as far as the right person for the job. Okay, now, there are a few ways to manipulate this and a few ways to kind of get found and, and for the right queries that you're looking for which is a topic for another day. I've got a bit of a checklist here that you can run through, but some of these things, for example, come down to the basics of does your website say what you do, what makes you special, where you're located.

Some of these things, quite often people try to get too creative with the taglines that they use and all these other things when. We need to be quite precise on answering these general queries and then using other pages on the website to showcase. Okay. So I'll jump onto that checklist in just a second. Now, this one here may or may not make sense to you. There's a service in the backend of the internet called CloudFlare. What it does is protect sites and reroute them and all these kind of things.

But this is a brand new update they just have as well, is control how much AI crawlers can access your site. Now, what they're actually doing here is they're giving you an option. Do you want your website to be crawled as far as for training purposes for these AI tools? Because a lot of people who might have a, a blog or a news site or that sort of thing, they don't want AI models to kind of steal all their content, but you actually think, need to think about it Another way is if you want to be found on these platforms, you've got no downside at all to blocking them at all.

So I would always make sure to, you know, leave these options off and just say, yeah, sure. Come and steal or, or, you know, train the model on my data because that's gonna give another or that's gonna at least make sure that you are found from. Any queries that come through. Okay. So just a little side note there is don't try and block the process. Don't try and avoid it. Don't try and move away from it. Make sure you lean into it because these are the, the things that you need to be looking forward to.

Having people come through in this new sort of wave of how people are finding you. Now this next one here is the checklist. So I'm gonna make this available to you. If you want it, just gimme a comment or send me a smoke signal or whatever you wanna do. This goes through a few different key points as far as how to become chat GPTs number one, recommendation. Okay, so first piece here I've got is the website foundation. Making sure that you nail your core message. So does, do you explicitly state what you do and where, for example, lake Norman, custom Home builder or Charlotte Luxury Remodeler.

Okay. Then get really clear on the services that you offer. So too many people will basically have one page and try and cram it all in there and it's not structured correctly and all that sort of thing. You need to break these out into smaller pieces so that the. Tools that are, are crawling your website can actually read it really easily. Do you have a, a dedicated process page? Do you have a service area, you know, outline that? Here's all the suburbs we work in. Do you have anything that makes you special, unique, that sort of stuff?

We work with Buildertrend or we use this specific process or this you know, tooling or whatever to, to work with people. Okay. The next one is around digital authority. So, not just the website, but have you got your Google Business profile together? Have you got your other citations or references available? So how's Home Advisor Angie's List, Yelp, all of these other, I guess directory platforms where you can showcase yourself, you should at least be listed on. So it just gives you another mention around the internet and do you, have you got any awards?

Press that kind of thing. Are you on Master Builders House of the Year Awards? And if so, you know, can you tie those together with your online presence? Another way to do this is around press releases and things like that. Another great way to. Tell the world what makes you guys special? Okay. And then some stuff down here, which is more about the technical side of things, is making sure that, again, you can get picked up on. Don't try and block this whole process. So lots and lots of stuff that could go on about this.

I guess the key point of this is that the world is changing and the way that people are research. There's a few different stats and figures I could share on this as far as Google search versus versus chat, GPT and other, you know, ways that people are finding information. And typically it was all Google. You know, people would say, Google it. Now that's changing a lot. People are saying, oh, I'll ask chat GPT. So. Just something to consider if you haven't taken it into account, you need to be working with this model.

And looking forward to how you can showcase on this. I'll share a bit more on this in other forums, but don't wanna get too deep on this one. It's already a bit of a technical sort of piece. So on that one, I'll leave you with that and feel free to chuck me any questions down below. Cheers.