AI assistants like ChatGPT are changing how people search for information, and this has big implications for financial services marketing. Instead of just typing keywords into Google, users are increasingly asking conversational questions like “What’s the best way to save for retirement in the UK?” or “Which bank has the lowest mortgage rates for first-time buyers?” and getting human-like answers from AI. It’s called “Chat”GPT not “Search”GPT for a reason; interactions were always intended to be conversational “chats” not a blunt query and result.
And while ChatGPT’s traffic is still small compared to Google’s with the latest figures for July 2025 showing Google received 41.91% of all web traffic, whereas ChatGPT saw 0.19%, Perplexity saw 0.02% and Copilot 0.01%, but its rapid growth shows that AI-driven search is here to stay. ChatGPT is now in the top 10 most visited sites in the world. But as mentioned, it is still some way behind Google and behind other traditional search engines.
Looking at the finance sector specifically, Google’s traffic share was 35.7%, Bing 2.2%, ChatGPT 0.1%, with Perplexity and Copilot barely registering.
For UK financial brands, from mortgage providers and banks to pension advisors and insurance brokers, this shift in search behaviour is crucial. It means your prospective customers might find answers about your services without ever visiting your website, as AI platforms like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, or Perplexity can summarise information and even recommend products directly in the conversation. The question for marketing teams is clear: “How do we make sure our brand and content surface in those AI-driven answers?” This blog post will guide you through optimising your financial services website for ChatGPT and other AI search tools.
How ChatGPT Search Works (and How It Differs from Traditional Search)
Optimising for ChatGPT and other LLMs isn’t identical to traditional SEO, because the user experience and the AI’s approach to retrieving information are very different. In a nutshell, conversational AI search gives a single, synthesised answer in response to a query, instead of a page of 10 blue links. A user might ask, “Should I fix my mortgage or go for a tracker rate?” and ChatGPT will deliver a detailed explanation or recommendation in a friendly tone, possibly mentioning certain banks or products, without the user needing to click any additional links.
It might include footnotes linking to the sources (maybe your blog if it has relevant information on the subject).
By contrast, Google would have listed a bunch of website links for the user to sort through. This means that if your content is referenced by the AI, it might be paraphrased or summarised rather than quoted directly. There’s less traffic from “rank #1” because the AI is doing the heavy lifting of compiling the answer.
Another key difference is how ChatGPT (and similar AI) choose information. Traditional search engines use algorithms that heavily weigh factors like keywords, backlinks, and structured data. ChatGPT, on the other hand, doesn’t maintain a real-time index of the latest web pages (unless it’s actively browsing), it relies on its trained knowledge plus whatever live sources it fetches when answering a question. As a result, it puts more emphasis on credibility and relevance signals it has learned. Content quality, brand mentions across the web, and overall authority influence what the AI “knows” and deems worthy to mention.
Does it really make a difference?
Unsurprisingly, yes. It has been noted that in financial services, particularly, AI-generated results can differ significantly from the usual Google results. Therein lies both an opportunity for those who haven’t been able to muscle their way to the top of rankings due to the sheer volume and legacy of content on market leaders’ sites, and a risk to those who have been sitting pretty at the top for years, only worrying about 1 or 2 close competitors.
An excellent example of this is in Price Comparison, a fiercely competitive sector where keywords like “car insurance” have been in contention for about 15 years. Notably, in our research with Similarweb last year, where we looked at thousands of ChatGPT queries we found that the top-ranking PCW, Compare the Market, was only recommended 2% of the time, whereas the lowest (but still high) ranking PCW, Confused was by far the most suggested PCW.
More critically, it was the insurers themselves that got the most mentions, as the LLM had already compared factors like product features and customer reviews, so why send you to another comparison site?
Write with E-E-A-T and accuracy in mind
When it comes to content creation, quality and accuracy have never been more important. ChatGPT and other AI models don’t “rank” websites by traditional signals, but they do differentiate between high-quality, credible information and fluff. In the financial services space – firmly a Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) category, this is especially crucial.
Google has long held financial content to higher standards of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and AI assistants are similarly trained to avoid surfacing anything that could cause harm in finance contexts. In practice, this means if your site’s content is lacking clear expertise or contains dubious claims, an AI is likely to skip over it in favor of a more trusted source. So, how do you demonstrate E-E-A-T and accuracy in your content?
Publish authoritative, comprehensive content
Aim to cover topics in depth and with real insight. If a user asks an AI, “How do I transfer my pension to a new provider?”, a superficial 300-word blog post won’t cut it. But a 1,500-word guide that explains the transfer process step-by-step, includes considerations (like checking fees or ensuring no loss of benefits), and perhaps even cites FCA guidelines or stats, will position your site as a thorough resource. Comprehensive content shows both users and AI that you know your stuff. Importantly, demonstrate expertise, if you have in-house experts (like certified financial advisors, mortgage brokers, etc.), have them contribute quotes or insights to the content. This adds real-world experience (“Experience” in E-E-A-T) to your pages.
Ensure accuracy and cite sources
Nothing will erode trust faster (with users or an AI) than factual errors or outdated information. Double-check all statistics, financial facts, and regulatory information in your content. If you mention that “UK inflation is 6.8%” or “the ISA allowance is £20,000”, be sure those figures are current and correct. Where appropriate, cite reputable sources. While an AI might not show the citation to the end-user, having those references in your content can indirectly boost your credibility in the AI’s eyes. And if you publish any kind of data or rates, include the date of last update on the page; “freshness” is a signal that both Google and AI value (a recent study by Ahrefs showed AI assistants prefer to cite more up-to-date content).
Put credentials and compliance front-and-center
In financial services, who is giving the advice or information matters a great deal. Make sure your content has clear authorship or at least editorial oversight by qualified professionals. For example, if a chartered financial planner or mortgage advisor reviews your blog posts, say so. Add author bios that highlight their qualifications (e.g. “Jane Smith, CeMAP-certified Mortgage Advisor with 10 years of experience”). This isn’t just to impress human readers, AI systems scanning your site look for these credibility signals too
Demonstrate trustworthiness through transparency
Make sure your site as a whole screams trust. This includes having a detailed About Us page (with your company’s history, mission, leadership team, and maybe photos), clear contact information, and obvious regulatory disclosures. If your site lacks basic transparency (no contact info, no team page, no mention of your FCA registration), it may be deemed less credible overall. A well-rounded site with complete About pages, policies, and credentials will reinforce to an AI that you’re a legitimate player in the financial industry.
In summary, write high-quality, accurate content and back it up with visible signals of expertise and accountability. This combo is your best bet to become one of the go-to sources an AI trusts for financial queries.
Structure content for Q&A and AI Clarity
One big way AI search differs is in the format of the queries – people tend to ask full questions or make requests in natural language (e.g. “How can I lower my car insurance premium?” or “Explain equity release in simple terms.”).
To optimise your content for ChatGPT and similar tools, you should align with this conversational, Q&A-focused style. In practice, this means structuring your website content in a way that makes it easy for both humans and AI to quickly find direct answers to common questions.
Use question-based headings and sections
A great tactic is to identify the common questions your audience has, and use those questions as headings (H2s/H3s) on your pages. For example, on a mortgages landing page, your subheadings could be things like “Who can get a first-time buyer mortgage?”, “What deposit do I need for a buy-to-let mortgage?”, or “Fixed vs Tracker: Which Mortgage is Better?”. Under each, provide a concise answer or explanation. This not only helps readers who are scanning for specific info, but it also matches the format that AI loves to leverage. If ChatGPT gets asked one of those exact questions, it can easily pull the answer from your well-structured content. Even if the question isn’t word-for-word the same, having Q&A style content makes it more likely the AI finds a relevant chunk to use.
Answer clearly and directly (then elaborate)
When you pose a question as a heading, start the section with a direct answer, almost like you’re answering in a single sentence for an FAQ. Then you can elaborate with more detail or examples. For instance, if the heading is “How does an offset mortgage work?”, you might begin with: “An offset mortgage links your savings account to your mortgage, so your savings balance is deducted from your mortgage amount when calculating interest This means you pay interest only on the difference, which can reduce your overall interest cost.” After that clear answer, you’d continue with more detail or an example. The idea is that AI tends to pull the first few lines of a relevant section when forming an answer. By front-loading the straightforward answer, you increase the chance that the AI grabs the correct, helpful info from your site.
Keep paragraphs and sentences concise
Both AI models and human readers prefer content that is easy to digest. Aim for short paragraphs (2-4 sentences) and break up text with bullet points or numbered lists where it makes sense. For example, if you’re describing the steps to apply for a loan, use a numbered list for the step-by-step process. Not only does this formatting help users, but an AI scanning the page can quickly interpret structured steps or points. Clear subheadings, bullets, and small paragraphs act like signposts for an AI, helping it navigate your content and extract the right snippets efficiently.
Include FAQ sections site-wide
Beyond integrating Q&As into your main service pages, consider having a dedicated FAQ page or Knowledge Base for your brand. Think about general questions like “How do I open an account with [Your Bank]?”, “Is [Your Firm] regulated by the FCA?”, or “What happens if I miss a mortgage payment?”. Answer them on an FAQ page in a clear, conversational tone. If ChatGPT or Bing is asked something about your specific brand or a common query related to your services, there’s a good chance it might pull from this page.
Shape your content as if you’re directly answering your customers’ questions. Not only will this improve your organic SEO), but it also makes it far more likely that an AI searching for those answers will use your text in its response.
Create Trust: Reviews, Testimonials, and Signals of Credibility
In an AI-driven search world, your brand’s reputation across the internet can significantly influence whether an AI recommends you. ChatGPT’s knowledge isn’t limited to your website – it’s drawing from the collective voices of the internet, including things like customer reviews, ratings, news articles, and forum discussions.
For financial services, where trust is paramount, you’ll want to ensure a positive, credible presence both on your site and off.
Customer reviews and testimonials
Integrate reviews and testimonials into your site content wherever appropriate. For example, if you have a page for Business Loans, include a short testimonial from a satisfied client like “X Bank’s business loan helped us expand our business, the process was smooth and transparent,” along with the client’s name and company. These not only reassure human visitors but also provide affirming language that an AI might pick up on. If a user asks, “What do people say about [Your Company]’s mortgage services?”, ChatGPT might summarise common sentiments from reviews (e.g. “Customers frequently praise the personalised guidance and quick approval process.”). By encouraging clients to leave detailed reviews on your site or third-party platforms, using natural language, you increase the pool of positive statements an AI can draw from.
Off-site ratings and discussions
Don’t ignore third-party platforms where your customers voice opinions. Common ones in finance include Trustpilot, Google Reviews, Feefo, or industry-specific forums (like sections of MoneySavingExpert or Reddit’s r/UKPersonalFinance). A strong average rating on Trustpilot or Google (and a presence of thoughtful responses to any negative reviews) can bolster your brand’s perceived trustworthiness. If ChatGPT has seen that you consistently have, say, 4.7/5 stars with hundreds of reviews, it adds to the confidence to mention your brand in a positive light. One study found that ChatGPT cites Reddit quite often (around 11% of the time in certain studies) – which suggests that getting people talking about your brand in popular threads (organically, of course) can contribute to the AI’s knowledge.
Awards, accreditations, and industry mentions
Highlight any financial awards or accolades your company has earned – and do it prominently on your site. If you’re “Mortgage Broker of the Year 2025” or made the “Top 10 UK Fintechs” list in a major publication, shout about it (e.g. on your homepage or an “Awards” section). These function as third-party endorsements. Similarly, mention partnerships or memberships that carry weight: e.g. if you’re a member of UK Finance or CII (Chartered Insurance Institute), or your advisors have CFP or CFA charters, include those logos or text. From an AI perspective, being frequently named in authoritative contexts (press articles, “best of” lists, professional directories) means your brand is seen across trusted sources.
Digital PR
Use a trusted financial service digital PR agency to help your brand get featured in relevant publications. Whereas Google relies on backlinks, simply getting your financial services business mentioned in quality relevant publications can increase the trust LLMs give your brand. An Organic Labs study put brand mentions and digital PR, near the top of its list when it comes to confidence for LLM optimisation strategies.
Think of trust signals as your brand’s online reputation footprint. You want that footprint to be large and glowing. Encourage and amplify positive reviews and testimonials. Be transparent and proud about your credentials and compliance. Build your presence on reputable sites and publications. All these efforts not only reassure human customers, but they collectively make your brand unmissable when an AI combs through its knowledge to answer a finance-related question. If lots of real people and popular websites vouch for you, an AI will feel more confident recommending you.
Optimise Key Service Pages (e.g. Mortgages, Loans, Pensions, Insurance)
Now that we’ve covered broad content and credibility tactics, let’s zero in on your money pages, the key service pages that drive your business (Mortgages, Personal Loans, Pensions, Investment Services, Insurance offerings, etc.). These are the pages you really want AI assistants to understand and feature when relevant, since they directly tie to your bottom line.
Front-load with an AI-friendly summary
Just as we discussed answering questions directly, each service page should start with a concise, benefit-driven overview of the service. Essentially, treat the first 1-2 sentences as an “executive summary” that could stand alone. For example, a mortgages page might begin: “First-Time Buyer Mortgages .we offer competitive fixed-rate mortgages designed for first-time homebuyers, with low deposit options and personal support from application to approval.” In two lines, you’ve covered who it’s for, what it is, and a key benefit. If an AI scans this page, that introductory blurb can serve as a quick answer. As mentioned earlier, AI models will grab the first relevant lines they see on a page, so by front-loading the key info, you ensure the AI picks up the right context about your service from the get-go.
Break down the details with clear headings
After the intro, organise the page content with descriptive headings that map to what users (or AI) might want to know. For a loan page, you might have sections like “Interest Rates and Fees”, “Eligibility Criteria”, “How to Apply”, “Repayment Terms”, and “Frequently Asked Questions”. This structured approach not only helps users navigate but also makes it easier for an AI to pinpoint specific information.
Include FAQs or common concerns on each page
We mentioned a site-wide FAQ section earlier, but it’s smart to also include a short FAQ at the bottom of key pages focusing on that specific product/service. For example, on a Pensions service page, you might have Q&As like “What’s the minimum pension pot you work with?”, “Can I transfer an old pension to you?”, or “Do you offer ESG investment options in your pension plans?”. By marking these up with FAQ schema, you again enhance how clearly that information is presented to search engines and AI. Plus, it provides quick snippets an AI could use if those exact questions (or similar ones) are asked.
Add a human touch and trust elements in-line
While facts and features are key, don’t forget to humanise your service pages with elements that build trust (which, as we discussed, also aids AI’s perception of you). Again, this kind of content serves a dual purpose: it reassures readers that real experts are behind the service, and it provides context to AI about your company’s philosophy and expertise.
Use schema and structured data for services/products
If your financial service can be treated like a “product” with attributes, consider adding structured data to those pages. For example, For a mortgage page, MortgageLoan schema could include the mortgage type, grace period, and so on. Similarly, ensure your pages with reviews/testimonials have Review schema so that the AI (and search engines) can see that “This page includes a 5-star rating” if applicable. While ChatGPT doesn’t have a guarantee of using schema, structured data helps any AI better comprehend page content. One study even noted that pages with schema markup had a significant increase in the quality of data pulled by ChatGPT.
Provide contextual internal links
Within your service pages, link to related educational content, and vice versa. If you have a blog post about “How do mortgages work?” and you’re a mortgage lender, that post should link to your mortgage product page with anchor text like “fixed-rate mortgage options”. Likewise, from the product page, you might say, “Not sure which mortgage is right for you? Read our guide on choosing between fixed and variable rates,” linking to the blog. These internal links create an internal knowledge network on your site.
Optimising these key pages makes them much more legible and appealing to AI systems, without sacrificing human usability. You’re essentially laying out information such that if ChatGPT “scanned” your page, it would instantly grasp the main points a user cares about.
Strengthen Technical Aspects
Behind the scenes of all your great content, you need a solid technical foundation. Think of ChatGPT and similar AIs with browsing as supercharged web crawlers. Ensuring your site is technically sound will help these AI systems find, read, and interpret your content accurately.
Make sure your site is crawlable
Only publicly accessible and easily indexed content is accessible to ChatGPT. So make sure your website doesn’t have any technical restrictions that would prohibit AI from understanding it. Examine your meta tags and robots.txt file: Important content should be able to be crawled without any restrictions.
Get indexed on Bing
Since ChatGPT with browsing uses Bing’s search results, it’s important that Bing has your most up-to-date content. Use Bing Webmaster Tools to send your XML sitemap and keep track of how well your pages are being indexed. Just like with Google, make sure Bing is aware of your new product pages, blog posts, and other updates. If your website is properly indexed on Bing, ChatGPT is more likely to find it when searching for answers. However, there are now reports that ChatGPT is also using Google to train and power ChatGPT results, so ensure all pages are indeed and in the sitemap there also.
Monitor AI crawler activity
Keep an eye on your server logs or analytics for signs of AI-specific crawlers. For example, OpenAI’s GPTBot started crawling websites in 2023 (user agent string looks like Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; OpenAI-GPTBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/gptbot)) . If you spot GPTBot hitting your site, it’s potentially gathering data for ChatGPT’s model. Similarly, other AI services might use their own crawlers. Monitoring this can give you insight into what sections interest AI. If you notice, say, that your “Investing 101” glossary page is being crawled frequently, that hints it’s a valuable resource – make sure it’s comprehensive and up-to-date (perhaps people are asking AIs about basic investing terms that lead them there).
Ensure content is in HTML (avoid heavy client-side rendering)
Many modern websites (including some bank and fintech sites) use dynamic content loading – for instance, rates, calculators, or reviews that only load after a user interacts or via JavaScript. Be cautious here: if the content isn’t present in the initial HTML, a crawler might miss it. A good practice is to have server-side rendering or static fallbacks for critical info. If you have an interactive loan calculator, also provide a text summary of the result or a sample calculation scenario in the page content. If your site shows live stock prices or mortgage rates via script, ensure there’s at least a baseline rate or example in text as well (and update it periodically). And never put important text in images without alt text.
AI share buttons
This is still a very new technique, AI share buttons are a novel kind of sharing tool designed to facilitate the sharing of your website’s content directly with AI-powered tools, rather than just other people. Instead of “Share on LinkedIn,” these buttons say things like: “Summarise this article in ChatGPT” “Explore this content in Perplexity” “Open this in Grok”. They embed your page URL within an AI prompt, for example, a financial example from https://metehan.ai/:
<div class=”ai-financial-tools”>
<a href=”https://chatgpt.com/?q=Simplify+this+financial+analysis:+https://yourfinance.com/market-report”> Simplify (ChatGPT)</a>
<a href=”https://www.perplexity.ai/search/new?q=Compare+with+historical+trends+https://yourfinance.com/market-report”> Historical Context</a>
<a href=”https://www.google.com/search?udm=50&aep=11&q=Assess+risks+mentioned+in+https://yourfinance.com/market-report”> Risk Assessment</a>
</div>
If you’re running a WordPress site there’s already a plugin by Optimizo that will add an AI share button to your post.
In theory these buttons aim to encourage users to feed your content into LLMs, optionally prompting the AI to cite your website and maybe increase the likelihood that your site gets remembered and referenced in future AI-generated responses. Further testing and studies still need to be done to understand the effectiveness of this approach.
Give AI crawlers the same level of importance as you would give to search engine crawlers. Making your website fully accessible allows AI models to easily read and understand your content. This is the basic step for any additional improvements.
Final Thoughts: Building a Future-Proof Strategy for AI
The rise of AI in search doesn’t mean you throw out everything you know about SEO, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Traditional SEO and AI optimisation go hand in hand. Think of optimising for ChatGPT, Bing Chat, or Perplexity as the next natural step in your SEO evolution. You’re still focusing on quality content, solid technical SEO, and authoritative digital PR, but with a new emphasis on conversational language and on-site trust signals to cater to AI’s way of finding answers. In other words, you’re not abandoning what works; you’re tweaking it for a world where search results are delivered by an answer engine.
At Balance financial services marketing agency, we tell clients the secret to SEO success is attacking all three areas, technical SEO, content and digital PR. The same three principles are also the same for the new age of AI search. Writing with E-E-A-T in mind, structuring content for Q&A, emphasising reviews and credibility, polishing your money pages, and tightening up technical SEO, you are essentially making your website AI-ready. You’re telling the AI: “Here are the answers, clearly written and from a trustworthy source.” Do this consistently, and over time your brand becomes woven into the AI’s knowledge graph for financial topics.
