Semrush tracked 1,094 topics inside ChatGPT over six months, from January through June 2026.
85% of those topics have no brand ownership.
Why bring this up? Because real estate agents compete for visibility on Google, Zillow, and social feeds. AI search is a new arena, and most agents haven’t touched it.
We’re turning Semrush’s findings into five moves you can run to start building topic authority in ChatGPT.
#1. Pick Your Two or Three Topics
Ownership gets harder as demand rises.
- Among high-demand topics in the study, 11.3% had a clear owner.
- Among low-demand topics, 19% did.
This high-demand group accounted for 98% of the AI search volume in the sample. The topics with the toughest competition make up most of what buyers ask ChatGPT.
Pick two or three topics tied to how buyers and sellers in your market search. Keep each one narrow enough to test, the way the report’s own categories work:
- “First-time homebuyer in [city]”
- “Sell a house fast in [neighborhood]”
- “New construction vs. resale in [market]”
So, for example, if a ChatGPT user indicates they’re a first-time buyer in your city, the goal is to have your name/real estate brand come up when Chat suggests the best agents to contact.
You do that by locking down that topic with related content for first-time buyers across multiple channels, leaning extra hard on those ChatGPT is most likely to cite.
Before committing, run each candidate topic through this filter:
- Existing signal: Search your website and social channels for the topic’s keywords. Count what exists before adding more.
- Local competition: Ask ChatGPT one or two questions about the topic in your market. If the same agent or brokerage keeps showing up, narrow the topic to a specific neighborhood or property type.
- Business fit: List the services you offer today. Keep the topics that match one of them.
- Client questions: Pull up your recent client messages and appointment notes. Write down the questions that came up more than once.
#2. Audit Where You Actually Stand Today
The study set clear thresholds for topic ownership.
- A category owner appears in at least four of five related prompts, with a lead of five percentage points over the next brand.
- An emerging leader appears in three or more prompts without that lead.
- Everything below that bar counts as unsettled.
Strong SEO fundamentals don’t predict ownership on their own. When the report compared each topic owner against its runner-up, the owner had higher organic traffic in 48.4% of those comparisons and a higher Authority Score in 52.5%.
Run your own five-prompt test. Open ChatGPT and ask about your topic using each type of question:
- Definition
- Comparison
- Alternatives
- Use case
- Buying question
Example: Here’s what that looks like for a topic like “first-time homebuyer in [city]”:
- Definition: “What does a first-time homebuyer need to know before buying in [city]?”
- Comparison: “What’s the difference between using an agent and buying a home on my own in [city]?”
- Alternatives: “What other options does a first-time homebuyer in [city] have besides a traditional mortgage?”
- Use case: “How should a first-time homebuyer in [city] prepare to make an offer in a competitive market?”
- Buying question: “How much should a first-time homebuyer in [city] budget for closing costs?”
Note where your name shows up and where it doesn’t.
Kevin Indig, founder of Growth Memo and co-author of the Semrush study, cautions against treating the SEO comparison as a definitive finding.
“Treat that as a hypothesis, not a finding. What the data actually shows is: traditional SEO metrics aren’t enough to explain who owns a topic. While they play their role, there’s more to it.”
#3. Build Coverage Across Every Angle
Winning a single prompt is not the same as owning a topic. ChatGPT can name you in one answer and skip you in the next four.
Build content that answers every angle of your topic:
- Definition: a plain explanation of the term or scenario
- Comparison: agent vs. iBuyer, agent vs. FSBO, one neighborhood against another
- Alternatives: the other paths a buyer or seller might consider
- Use case: a specific scenario, like relocating for a job or downsizing
- Buying question: what it costs, how long it takes, what to expect
Plan to reuse this content across formats, not a single post you publish once and set aside:
- Your blog
- Site pages
- Social media posts
#4. Earn Mentions Where ChatGPT Is Actually Listening
Citations and mentions play separate roles for ChatGPT. For each category, the study tracked two rankings:
- the domain ChatGPT cited most as a source
- the brand ChatGPT mentioned most in the answer text
Those two rankings named the same domain in 21% of categories.
Earlier Growth Memo research found that 74% of users picked the top-mentioned brand as their final choice. The mention drives the decision more than the citation underneath it.
Agents need visibility in the sources ChatGPT pulls from, aside from your own website:
- local press
- community forums
- review platforms
- industry mentions
Third-party mentions build the kind of trust signal ChatGPT rewards when it decides who to name in an answer.
#5. Protect the Lead Once You Have One
Owners with a five-point lead retained first place in 90.4% of month-over-month comparisons in the study.
- Topics where leadership flipped had a median lead of 1.3 percentage points.
- Topics where it held had a median lead of 2.9 points.
If you show up for a topic across the board, keep publishing and collecting mentions so the margin grows.
Resting on an early win invites a competitor to close the distance.
If a competitor holds a narrow lead in your target topic, treat this stretch as your best window to close the distance before they build a bigger cushion.
Run the Play This Quarter
Topic ownership compounds. Once ChatGPT associates your name with a topic in your market, the data shows you’re likely to hold it.
Pick your two or three topics this week. Run the five-prompt audit. Start filling in what’s missing.
85% of topics tracked in this study are still unclaimed. Start this quarter, and you’ll be the name ChatGPT reaches for when the next buyer asks a question on the topics you own.
