How does Google (and Bing, ChatGPT and every other search engine, AI or not) rank a website #1?
SEO and AISO: one rule for Google and AI search
Today, a motivated seller doesn’t only type into Google. They ask ChatGPT. They read Google’s AI Overview. They ask Gemini, Copilot or Perplexity.
Getting your website to the top of the regular search results is SEO: search engine optimization. Getting your website picked, quoted and recommended by AI search is what I call AISO: AI search optimization. (You will also hear GEO or AEO. Same thing.)
Here is the part every new “AI SEO expert” will not tell you: ultimately, you do not need to do anything fundamentally different to rank in AI. The same foundation is valid for all of them.
Why? Because all search engines need to return the results their users will find valuable, because if not, people will stop using the search engine. Google, Bing, Yahoo, ChatGPT: same job, same rule, same winner.
Don’t take my word for it. Google says it itself: “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary.” And Bing, whose results also power Yahoo, says GEO doesn’t guarantee you a citation, just like SEO doesn’t guarantee you a ranking.
So everything on this website works for both. When I say “rank #1,” read it as: rank #1 on Google, and get recommended by AI. (Want the deep dive? Here is everything about AISO, AI search optimization.)
So how does every one of them decide which website that is? If you have ever sat through a strategy call with an SEO agency, you have heard the pitch:
- “We’ll build you high-authority backlinks.”
- “We’ll do your keyword research and put your keywords in every title, heading and image.”
- “We’ll publish four 2,000-word blog posts a month.”
- “We’ll get your time on page up and your bounce rate down.”
- “We’ll raise your click-through rate with better meta titles.”
- “We’ll build your citations and your Google Business Profile.”
Sound familiar? Every agency is selling you the same list, and every one of them has it backwards. To see why, you first have to understand what Google is actually trying to do.
What Is Google Trying to Do?
Google has one job, and only one job: rank the best website #1.
Imagine Google had a track record of putting crappy websites at #1. (I said “IMAGINE.” I didn’t say Google always returned crap. I said imagine, for a moment.) Every time you searched, you got garbage, while Yahoo always put exactly what you were looking for at the top.
Which search engine would you use? Google, that always returns complete trash, or Yahoo, that always knows exactly what you are looking for? Yahoo, of course. Duh!
No one would use Google anymore, right? What do you think would happen if no one used Google anymore? Nobody would click Google’s ads, and Google would go broke.
So I repeat. What do you think Google’s one and ONLY job is? To rank the best website #1, or they cease to exist. So, Google is dead serious about that one job. Every ranking it hands out is its best judgment of which website its users will be happiest with.
And what are its users looking for? Imagine you wake up with a disgusting rash in a place where the sun ain’t supposed to shine. Ever. Are you going to call the girl you have a crush on to come take a look? Go to the library and ask for a book on it? No.
You go to Google, from the privacy of your evil lair, and you type exactly what’s wrong. That is a pain-point-fueled, intent-based search. Your search was driven by your pain.
And Google’s one job is to find the one website whose message resonates most with that pain, and put it at the top. A motivated seller searching for a way out is no different.
If your message is “I have food,” your audience better be starving.
Which brings us to the real question: how does Google know which website is the best?
Do Backlinks and Keywords Make Your Website the Best?
Remember that pitch? Backlinks, keyword this, keyword that, keywords everywhere, time on page, click-through rate, bounce rate. That is exactly where all these agencies go wrong.
None of it is the point.
Say you decide it is time to buy the newest, biggest-screen, highest-resolution, Bigger-Than-My-Ego, plasma-infused, AI-powered Big-Ass TV.
Do you really care how many backlinks Best Buy has when you decide whether to buy it from them? Or do you care about the reviews of the TV, the offers and the customer ratings?
Exactly.
The backlinks, the mentions, the time you spend on the site going over the specs, the ratings and the reviews: all of that is the side effect, the consequence of the site actually providing value. You didn’t go to that site because it has backlinks. You went because it offered you value.
A homeowner landing on your website is no different. And that homeowner has to be a true motivated seller.
Backlinks, time on page, click-through rate and bounce rate are consequences. They show up once your website already is the best one in your market.
Every marketing agency understands this in reverse. They focus on backlinks, time on page, click-through rate and bounce rate in order to rank. And focusing on these things is a one-way ticket to doom.
Those things are just a consequence: an indicator that you are doing the right job, and that your website is liked by the people who land on it. A side effect. A symptom. They are not the recipe for ranking.
How Does Google Know Which Website Is the Best?
So if those numbers don’t tell Google which website is the best, what does? Google’s own users.
The way you rank is by letting Google know that Google’s traffic loves your website far more than any other website. Well, how do you let Google know this? Isn’t it obvious?
Day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out, all different people from random IP addresses fill out your form far more often than they fill out anybody else’s.
Nobody fills in a form for fun. If a complete stranger is willing to enter their private and personal information on your website, your website must have given them exactly what they came looking for.
That is the one thing you cannot trick. The one thing you cannot fake. The one thing you cannot manipulate.
But it’s not enough for your website to provide value. Google has to be able to see that it does.
Say your site is amazing, but the first thing it tells people is to call you. They call, they leave, they bounced. Google can’t see what happened. So even though your site gave them value, Google can’t tell, and you won’t rank #1.
That is the whole idea behind SmartForms in Apex Vivus: a form that asks sellers about their situation, so more of the strangers who land on your site actually fill it in.
So in other words, you rank #1 by converting visitors into leads.
Do you see something funny?
While every other stinking agency says:
“Rank #1, and therefore you will get leads.”
I say: no, no, you doofus! It is:
“Get LEADS, and therefore you will rank #1.”
And the crowd goes wild, all chanting, “Jerr-ralll! Jerrr-all! We love you!” SHHHHSHHSHHHHSHHHH (sound of crowd roaring) SHHSHHSHHHRHRHRHHR. “Marry me, Jerryll!”… Yeahh.
[From within the roaring crowd]:
WAIT!!!
“BULLSHIT!!”
[And the crowd goes quiet, and everyone turns around and sees a scrawny person (one of our competitors, of course), all confident and cocky, thinking, “I got you now, you SOB!”]
“You think you are so slick, Mr. NASA robotics scientist. If what you say is true, smartass, how can you ever rank #1 if you have a new site, or have no traffic going to your site, if you say you need conversions to rank #1? But you need traffic to get conversions, and you need to rank #1 to get traffic. It’s a chicken-and-egg thing. Explain THAT, Mr. Fancypants.”
AAhhhh. AAAHHHHH… You think you got me, huh? Well, check this out, my silly non-believer, you.
How Do You Rank a New Website With No Traffic?
He is right! (Good job.) Let me explain his point.
Now, if you understand this correctly, you will start to question what I am saying. To convert people into leads, you need people on your website. So you need to rank #1 to get people to your website. But you only get to #1 when you get conversions, and you only get conversions when you rank #1. It is a chicken-and-egg thing.
The answer is this: Google works like a scoring game. You get points for the things you do right. Some of those points depend on your rankings. Some don’t, like website speed.
Google doesn’t only rank page one. It ranks every position, #100 and #101 included. So imagine Google gives you 10 points for a solid backlink from a relevant, authoritative website, 30 points for a lead, and 5 points when your visitors stay, click around and engage.
The issue is that you need traffic to earn those points. So how can you compete with the websites on page one when you rank #99 and get no traffic at all?
Good question. But when you rank #99, are you truly competing with the #1 website? Nope. You are competing with #98 and #100. And they are in the same boat as you: no traffic, no leads. You are always judged against your immediate competition.
Here is where Google’s algorithm shines. Some points don’t require traffic at all. A website that loads faster than your competition, pictures that are optimized and have alt text, internal links that connect your pages in a logical hierarchy so Google can crawl your whole site: they all earn you points.
Earn more points than the website directly ahead of you and you take its position. Then you keep earning points, beating the website in front of you one by one, until you reach #2.
Now you are actually competing with the #1 website.
Let’s say the #1 website gets 100 visitors, and 49 of those 100 visitors fill in the form. That is a 49% conversion rate.
You, at #2, don’t get 100 visitors. You only get 80. But if 40 of those 80 visitors fill in your form, that is a 50% conversion rate. Fewer visitors, but a bigger share of them picked you.
Google says: “Interesting. I wonder what would happen if I temporarily switched them around.”
So for a while, you at #2 become #1, and the #1 website drops to #2. Those are the “Google fluctuations” everybody panics about. Wink wink, hint hint.
Now, at #1, say 120 people visit your website and 80 of them fill in your form. That is a 67% conversion rate. Google says: “AH HAH, I KNEW IT! Your rightful place in the search results is the #1 position.” And Google keeps you there, permanently… until it finds someone better.
Do you see how it works? (At least, that is the result of my reverse engineering Google.)
If you get traffic, you get to use both kinds of points: the ones that don’t require traffic and the ones that do.
If you don’t get traffic, you use the points that don’t rely on traffic. Yes, it is impossible to beat the website at #1 when it gets traffic and you don’t. But you are not trying to beat #1. You only need to beat the website directly above you.
Notice that even the points that don’t need traffic are all about one thing: a better experience for Google’s users. It is about value, and nothing else.
The website that generates the most leads is the website that will rank #1.
That is why everything I teach comes back to one question: why would a seller pick you over everybody else? Start with the 3 Pillars of Conversion.
Ohh, and if you would rather watch me flip houses, and hopefully make some money doing it…
Leads, Rankings, and Closed Deals
Every post below was published by the person named, on their own account. Most came from organic leads. A few came from ads, because my students apply the same 3 Pillars to paid traffic too, and they say so in their own words.
I started the SEO program 2 years ago. At the time, I had a few rentals but had never bought a house off market and didn’t even know what a purchase contract looked like. I worked the program and got my first lead about 4 months in. I found a local mentor to teach me how to take down the leads I had coming in and kept working the SEO program. I hated most of the web design stuff and felt like quitting on multiple occasions. But I put my head down and pushed through. More leads started coming in. I focused mostly on BRRRR’s and wholesales. I had to learn how to manage rehabs and contractors. It’s been overwhelming to say the least. Last year I did 14 deals. This year I’m already at 15 deals closed or under contract. Last week I closed on my first ever flip. This is the check I got at closing. Net profit is around $165,000….that’s more money than I’ve ever made in a year, much less in one deal. In 3 days I will close on another $45,000 profit flip and I have two more flips being rehabbed that should net around $225,000 combined. My family’s life is changed. We are being generous with our profits and giving more than we ever have to organizations doing great work with people experiencing homelessness and human trafficking victims. I’m taking more time off to spend with my wife and kids and we joined a boat club. Lol that may seem silly but that was a goal my wife and I set 3 years ago for our real estate pursuits. We just wanted to make enough money to join a boat club. And we are having a blast!
When this flip profit got over 6 figures, I felt weird about sharing my success. I don’t want to be the rich a-hole gloating about my success. I’m literally tearing up about how grateful I am as I write this. So this post is not to brag but to say thank you to Jerryll and the other students I grouped up with who have helped me along the way. I also hope it encourages others grinding through the modules. It really does work but you have to stick with it. If it was easy, everybody would be doing SEO. Most importantly you need to know your “Why”. That’s what will help you push through the dark days and the struggles. I guess I can officially call myself a house flipper now… 😂
And I got a check!
Win-win-win!
No adspend at all on this deal! Just Jerryll Noorden’s techniques
I guess I’m now considered an OG student of Jerryll Noorden’s. I signed up for his program about 1.5 years ago and did the full SEO program. I literally spent 90% of my savings to pay for it. I was reselling items on eBay that I bought at garage sales and thrift stores in order to pay my bills while I worked full time on the SEO program. I know… sounds crazy. Luckily I have an awesome, supportive wife and she was working as a nurse at the time to provide some kind of stable income.
I made my money back that I invested in the program all within the first year plus some. Not necessarily as money in the bank but definitely through equity because I kept some properties as rentals. I definitely made some mistakes. Not only was I learning how to generate leads but I was also learning how to take down deals off market and negotiate with sellers. (I had never bought an off market deal before this program)
In 2021 I did ok. I acquired a few more rentals, had a few small wholesales, and JV’ed a few more for 14 total deals last year.
Now that my website is much more solidified in its rankings, 2022 has started off with a bang. In the first two months of the year, I have 10 deals already closed or under contract. I just closed on my biggest wholesale deal ever just 2 weeks ago. A lady contacted me through my website and said she had an inherited house that needed a ton of work and she wanted $35k for it. (The picture below is of the house) I wholesaled it for $76k almost immediately and made a $41k profit!!
Here’s the cool part. She told me that she really wanted to sell to me because of stuff I wrote about on my website. See, my wife and I decided when we started the business that we were going to donate 5% of all our wholesale and flip profits to support organizations helping people struggling with homelessness. (There’s some backstory on that on our “About Us” page on our website if you’re curious to know more) www.newhorizonhomebuyers.com
I am also about to close on a flip in a week that the guy literally started tearing up in his kitchen as he told me how he wanted to sell his house to us because of how we supported those causes.
I didn’t realize when I made my website how much talking about those sort of things would impact my business. I didn’t make the decision to tell that part of our story to try to “convince” people to sell me their house. It’s something my wife and I are truly passionate about and we wanted to share it. And I think that genuine kindness and care for other people shows through even in business. It has helped my business grow and make money. And now we can give more of it away!
The business we are all in can be intense and cut throat at times, but we don’t have to conform to that norm. It is possible to be kind, generous, and profitable!
I’m not necessarily sure what my main point here is, but that’s just our story so far. 😊 Take from it what you will. Hope that encourages some of y’all. See you on the flip side!
I highly recommend if you have not teamed up with a couple other people to work on your stuff and do Google Meets throughout the week to critique and ask questions, you need to do so! Marcel, Vishal, and I teamed up a couple weeks back and it was like pouring gasoline on a fire for us three getting our pages done and looking good.
Also, 3 in a group seems to be the perfect number so that each Google Meet we can go over each person’s page in about an hour total and have our list of improvements to make and what to get done before the next meet.
If you’re looking for a couple partners, post in the comments and then start making groups. Don’t be shy! You already paid thousands of dollars for this course. Make sure you get the most out of it!
Oh yeah, one more thing. If you haven’t grouped up with 2-3 other people in this group to do the modules together and keep each other accountable, you’re missing out on a huge part of how to be really successful with this program. Seriously, DO IT!
And **cough cough** Michael Mayo is one of the most positive supportive human beings that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Give that man a raise! But this screenshot of my inbox is no lie.
Jerryll’s system converts motivated leads. It’s a lot of work, but a little over a year later, we are consistently getting leads and I couldn’t be more proud of the work I put in and how grateful I am I took a chance on a guy with a beanie on that didn’t live in Cali. 😉
Proof is in the pudding ladies and gents. Do the program, take it seriously, don’t expect handouts, and do it in the order you are supposed to. The biggest mistake I have seen is trying to compare yourself when writing your content block and taking from other websites. ORIGINALITY will be your success. Be yourself and try not to be the victim of comparison.
I wanted to share a screenshot of my SEO webform leads for the month of July so far… 38 in total and it is only the 20th of July! And they are all real leads. NO SPAM. We have seen an uptick in webforms in the past 2-3 months, and I would not even be close to this number if I hadn’t taken the time to do Jerryll Noordens credibility and SEO program CORRECTLY.
The best advice that I have to offer for this sunny Wednesday morning is to not go into your modules “half-assed”. (sorry to be so blunt.) BUT, the results you get are a direct reflection of what you put into them. I started his program back in March of 2020 and it was the best investment my company and I have ever made! Thank you Supreme Overlord! Cheers to kicking some serious ass for the rest of 2022!!
Have faith in Jerryll Noorden’s system, put in the work, follow his guidance, and you will surely see results!
How we flipped this house.
Watch Jerryll flip houses… and hopefully not go broke doing it.
Windsor, CT · 12 parts · Bought $71K, sold $255K
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Questions About How Google Ranks Investor Websites
What is AISO, and is it different from SEO?
AISO is AI search optimization: getting your website picked, quoted and recommended by AI search like ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI Overviews, Copilot and Perplexity. It is also called GEO or AEO. You do not need to do anything fundamentally different from SEO. Every search engine, AI or not, has to return the results its users find valuable, so the same foundation wins in both. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
How do I get my investor website recommended by ChatGPT?
Do the same thing that ranks you #1 on Google: build the website motivated sellers find the most valuable, make sure search engines and AI crawlers can read it, and answer their questions clearly. Any public website can appear in ChatGPT search as long as it does not block OpenAI’s search crawler. There is no special trick, and nobody can guarantee a citation.
How does Google rank websites #1?
Google has one job: rank the best website #1. It knows which website is the best by watching its own users. When strangers fill out one website’s form far more often than anybody else’s, day in and day out, that website gave them what they came for, and Google ranks it #1.
What is search intent, and why does it matter for a real estate investor website?
People turn to Google with a pain point and type exactly what is wrong. Google’s one job is to put the website whose message resonates most with that pain at the top. A motivated seller searching for a way out is no different: if your message is “I have food,” your audience better be starving.
Should my investor website push sellers to call instead of filling in a form?
No. If the first thing your website tells people is to call you, they call and leave, and Google can’t see that your website gave them value. It is not enough to provide value; Google has to be able to see it, and a filled-in form is how it sees it.
Do backlinks help a real estate investor website rank #1?
Backlinks, time on page, click-through rate and bounce rate are consequences of having the best website, not the recipe for ranking. A backlink from a relevant, authoritative website earns some points, but focusing on these things instead of conversions is a one-way ticket to doom.
How do you rank a new investor website with no traffic?
At #99 you only compete with #98 and #100, and they have no traffic either. Beat the website directly above you with points that need no traffic: a faster website, optimized pictures with alt text, and internal links in a logical hierarchy. Climb one spot at a time.
What are Google fluctuations?
When your website reaches #2 and converts better than #1, Google temporarily switches the two around. If you convert better at #1 than the website that was there, Google keeps you there.
