Author: Jamie Saine

How do you get recommended in AI search? That’s a question many businesses are asking themselves right now … and one that will be increasingly important as AI search continues to grow in popularity. 

While there’s no official checklist to make sure your business is recommended when someone uses AI or a chatbot, best practices for AI search visibility are emerging. And to help you focus your efforts even more, BrightLocal just put out an in-depth analysis of where major AI search engines pull citations from. (Big shoutout to BrightLocal for this amazing data!)

To help you focus your efforts (and make sure you don’t miss a critical AI citation source), I’m going to dive into the data that’s most relevant for real estate investors and local home service providers.

Key Takeaways

• AI search engines and chatbots are an increasingly popular way for people to gather information and answer questions. Appearing in an AI search result can improve your website traffic and generate highly motivated leads. 
• Individual business websites make up around 93% of AI-cited domains, so make sure your website is structured correctly for LLMs.
• Online business directories are major sources of information for AI search results. Make sure you claim your business profile on each directory and match your NAP (name, address, phone number) across profiles so AI recognizes your business as a single entity across platforms.

Table of Contents

1. Why AI Search Matters
2. Most Common Sources Cited by AI Search
• Business Directories Play a Major Role in AI Search Results
• Most Important AI Sources for Service Providers
• Other Commonly Cited Sources for AI Search
3. The Evolving World of AI Search

Why AI Search Matters

AI search engines — both the ones built into traditional search experiences like Google and chatbots like ChatGPT — are increasingly popular ways for people to gather information. Whether they’re asking an informational question like “how much does a new roof cost” or are looking for recommendations for the best local business, AI offers a more interactive search experience that lets users ask follow up questions and refine their search in a way that feels conversational and organic. 

And that’s not just a hunch; we’re seeing it in AI usage numbers. In May 2026, Google reported some impressive numbers about adoption of its AI search features.

• AI Overviews has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users
• AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly active users just a year after its release
• Queries in AI Mode have more than doubled every quarter since the feature’s launch

It’s not just Google either. In late August, the European Union designated ChatGPT as a “very large online search engine.” It’s the first AI chatbot to receive that designation, according to Search Engine Journal. They reached this designation because ChatGPT has more than 159 million average monthly active recipients in the EU alone.

At the beginning of 2026, Search Engine Land reported that 37% of users start their search journey with an AI tool. Pew Research reported that 42% of US adults use AI chatbots to search for information. McKinsey put that number at 50%.

People are clearly using AI search.

But this usage also has an impact on traditional SEO and organic traffic. While chasing the number 1 spot in search results has long been an SEO gold standard, having that top “blue link” (the first non-paid search result spot) doesn’t have as big of an impact anymore.

Google has also restructured its search result pages, often putting AI overviews, Google Business Profiles, sponsored results (aka, ads), Reddit, videos, and discussion/forum links above organic links. SQ Magazine found that AI Overviews now appear on roughly 48% of all queries (a 58% increase since February 2025). That’s a lot of information and links to contend with before searchers reach the traditional organic website results. 

This — and the increasing usage of chatbots to gather information — is leading us into an era of “no click” searching … meaning searchers get the information they want without ever clicking on a website. In the first four months of 2026, 68% of Google searches ended without a click, according to Sparktoro — a 12.5% increase from 2024.

On the plus side, searchers who do reach your site might be more motivated. Carrot’s own early research shows that traffic from AI referrals converts at 31% — a noticeably higher rate than other traffic sources. This may be because people trust AI recommendations or they’ve done a deeper level of research before reaching individual websites, so they’re further down their buyer’s journey.

Most Common Sources Cited by AI Search

Now that we’ve established that being recommended by AI is important to lead generation, let’s dig into the BrightLocal data to understand where AI gets its information from.

The good news for local business owners with a lead generation website is that around 93% of domains cited were individual business websites. Making sure your website has good site speed and follows AI SEO best practices gives you an even better chance at being cited for a relevant query.

An unsurprising finding is that Google Business Profiles (GBP) make up 28.5% of citations. A good GBP is particularly important for appearing in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode (duh). So make sure you claim your Google Business Profile!

One common citation source I was surprised by was Yelp. It’s the second most commonly cited source for AI Overviews and AI Mode. But it plays an even bigger role on ChatGPT thanks to a recently announced partnership. It’s now the most commonly cited source on ChatGPT. This is particularly important for home service providers like HVAC, roofing, plumbers, electricians, painters, and contractors. Not only does ChatGPT use Yelp as an information source, it actually inserts Yelp reviews, ratings, photos, and even the “Request a Quote” feature into the responses it provides.

Business Directories Play a Major Role in AI Search Results

Yelp isn’t the only business directory impacting AI search results. BrightLocal found that 451 unique directories were used as sources by LLMs. Here are the top five most pertinent to home service providers. (I skipped more commonly cited directories that don’t matter to businesses targeting local homeowners, like TripAdvisor and OpenTable).

Cited Source	Percentage of Total Citations	Percentage of Businesses
Google / Google Business Profile	28.63%	94.17%
Yelp	9.53%	84.65%
Facebook	2.23%	93.06%
Better Business Bureau (BBB)	0.33%	29.30%
Angi’s List	0.24%	18.97%

Google’s top three sources for AI Overviews and AI Mode are Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Facebook. ChatGPT favors Yelp, BBB.org, and Angi’s List (I removed TripAdvisor and OpenTable to get to a more relevant top three for home service providers).

Most Important AI Sources for Service Providers

BrightLocal was kind enough to drill their data down even further, so we can isolate the sources AI most commonly cites for service businesses. Plumbers even get their own micro drill-down.

For service businesses, the top 5 most commonly cited sources are:

1. Google: 45% of citations
2. Yelp: 12.3% of citations
3. Facebook: 4.4% of citations
4. BBB.org 1.6% of citations
5. Angi’s List: 1.4% of citations

Other common home service provider directories also appear on this list, including Houzz (#7 with 0.7% of citations), Thumbtack (#8 at 0.5%), HomeAdvisor (#9 at 0.5%), and Yellowpages.com (#13 with 0.2%).

The numbers for plumbers specifically are fairly similar, with a few notable deviations. This directory list is likely more helpful to home services specific providers (like electricians, roofers, etc.) than the list above (which can include things like dentists and veterinarians).

1. Google: 54% of citations
2. Yelp: 13.8% of citations
3. Facebook: 3.1% of citations
4. Angi’s List: 2.2% of citations
5. HomeAdvisor 0.9% of citations

Interestingly, the Better Business Bureau dropped out of the top five for the plumbers list. It did come in at number six with 0.9% of citations but had fewer overall citations, which is why HomeAdvisor beat it out. This suggests that you should be listed with the BBB, but you may not need to invest in the accreditation.

An interesting note for home service providers, MapQuest (yes, the website we all used to print out directions before Google Maps and apps became a thing) appears in the top 12 for both the Services Businesses and Plumber lists. It ranks #6 (1.2% of citations) and #8 (0.9% of citations), respectively. So make sure you claim your business on MapQuest and ensure all the details match your NAP and company details on your website and GBP.

Other Commonly Cited Sources for AI Search

While online directories play a big role in AI search results, they aren’t the only sources. Other sources come into play strongly when searchers are looking for more information queries like how to questions, “best” recommendations, and comparisons. For savvy business owners, these types of queries are a great way to get your website cited.

News websites are also commonly cited. BrightLocal highlighted the top 20 most commonly cited non-directory sites and news websites make up 11 of them. So getting onto a local news segment as a featured business or by sponsoring a local event could give you an AI search boost.

BrightLocal also looked at the impact social platforms have on AI search results. The most commonly cited social media platforms by far are Instagram and Reddit. BrightLocal classified Facebook as a directory for their report rather than a social platform, so it’s not reflected in this category. But if it were, it would be #1. Worth noting, YouTube is number three, but only pulled 0.38% of total citations (compared to over 1.75% for Instagram and Reddit).

The Evolving World of AI Search

These insights are great and are invaluable to helping online marketers and business owners know where to focus to keep up with this nascent search tool. But the sources detailed in this post (or even in the broader report) aren’t the end-all-be-all. BrightLocal found that “a staggering 116,000 unique domains were cited” during their research, meaning AI is pulling from many other sources depending on the query.

You can dig into the full report and see the study’s methodology by visiting Top Sources and Directories for Local AI Search by BrightLocal.

For now, make sure your website is set up correctly for AI search (like all Carrot websites are out of the box), claim all your business profiles, and keep up with AI visibility best practices as they evolve.

What is an AI website builder?

An AI website builder uses AI (artificial intelligence) to generate a fully coded website for you based on a written prompt or interaction with a chatbot that builds and adjusts your site in real time. It allows users to generate functional websites without needing to understand or write code.

AI website builders have been popping up left and right over the past couple of years, allowing anyone to launch a site quickly. They often claim to remove the need for web design experience and website development (or coding) skills, making them an attractive, affordable option for the masses. Even marketing agencies and web developers have embraced these tools to speed up production.

An AI-built website can be just as effective as a traditionally built site … if you choose the right AI builder. As more AI website builders enter the market and gain popularity, it’s increasingly important to understand exactly what they offer, what you’ll get, and what you can expect from the experience.

In this article, we’ll cover some of the most common issues with AI website builders. Understanding these limitations and shortcomings will help you know what to look for and choose the right AI builder for your project. Doing a little research up front and picking the best AI website builder for your needs will save you time and hassle down the road as you’re building your site and using it to generate business.

Key Takeaways: What to look for in an AI website builder

• Not all AI website builders are the same. Understanding your goals and the limitations of different AI builders will help you choose the best one for your project.
• Pay attention to the cost structure. Some AI website builders charge a flat subscription fee, some charge a subscription plus additional fees for AI usage, and some are strictly usage-based, which can drive up costs or stop progress when limits are hit.
• Choose an AI website builder that specializes in your specific industry and is transparent about what framework and sources it uses to establish layout, content, SEO, and technical best practices. A vibe coded site can look good but not have the right best practices in place to perform well, rank in search and AI, or convert visitors to customers. The ultimate goal is not to have a website; it’s to have a website that drives business.

Table of Contents

1. Understand what you need and each platform’s limitations. 
2. Make sure the AI builder specializes in your specific industry.
3. Know how the AI makes its design and coding decisions.
4. Be mindful of usage limits or credit costs.
5. Choosing the right AI website builder.

Understand what you need and each platform’s limitations. 

The first place to start when you’re thinking about using AI to build a website is to understand what you expect the outcome to be. 

You might be saying to yourself, “Duh, the outcome is having a website.”

But think about it this way: When you’re looking to buy a new car, you probably don’t just want any car. You want one that fits your needs. Gas mileage, number of seats, how well it will handle the weather where you live, transmission type, power, price. Those and a million other factors go into your decision about what car to buy.

Choosing an AI website builder is similar. You need to break down what “having a website” means to you and what you expect that website to do.

Do you want whatever solution you choose to be able to:

• Host your site (ie, allow it to go live and be accessible online)
• Allow you to manually make tweaks and edits to the design or content
• Support forms, online ordering, or appointment booking
• Integrate with other software you use
• Handle SEO best practices for you
• Include analytics or other marketing tools

These are just a few of the things you should be thinking about. Understanding your needs falls into two main buckets:

1. Your technical needs (what you want the AI website builder to be able to do)
2. The results you want your website to drive (get found online, generate leads, sell product, etc.)

Before you choose an AI website builder, make a list of requirements for each of those buckets (to the best of your ability). This will help you evaluate the pros and cons of popular AI builders.

For instance:

Lovable is popular for launching AI-built websites and apps, but as your site gets more complex, it becomes harder to manage. Many people say it’s good for mocking up ideas, but not as great for a long term solution if you want to grow.

Claude is another popular AI solution, but it’s not specifically a website builder. It can create a website, but it doesn’t have hosting options. If you want to take your Claude-built site live, you need to be tech savvy enough to load it into a hosting platform. Plus, if you want to make changes using Claude in the future, you’ll need to do the whole process again.

Carrot (in the spirit of transparency) isn’t the best solution for an e-commerce website. Carrot’s AI website builder is geared toward local lead generation for home service providers and real estate professionals.

Understanding your needs will help you pick the right AI website builder to work with … before you spend hours trying to get it to build the perfect site only to get stuck.

Make sure the AI builder specializes in your specific industry.

You wouldn’t go to the grocery store for lumber, you’d go to a hardware store. It’s the same thing with websites — whether you’re using an AI website builder or working with a web designer and developer. You want to work with someone who understands your industry and goals so they can produce a site that works for you, not a generic website that doesn’t actually fit your needs.

If you look at reviews and forums, getting a “generic” site is a common complaint when people use AI website builders. AI can build a site, but unless you spend a lot of time telling it exactly what you need, it’s going to give you something generic that likely won’t meet your actual end goals.

Look at the AI builder’s home website. Does it mention your industry or show examples of sites that are similar to what you need? Many solutions claim you only need to start with a simple prompt or idea and “watch it become a website.” But if they’re that broad, they’re treating all sites as fundamentally the same. The reality is, a restaurant site is different from an e-commerce site is different from an HVAC website. They need different pages, need to show visitors different things, fit into SEO and AI search differently, and need different contact methods. But a generic AI website builder doesn’t know — or care — about these differences. It’s just going to pop out a site and promise you that it’s great. (Hint: it’s probably not.)

Taking the time to find an AI website builder that specializes in your industry will result in a better site. These systems know exactly what you need, from the right pages to include to the best language and keywords to use to overall best practices to accomplish your goals.

Know how the AI makes its design and coding decisions.

This one is a bit deeper level, but knowing these details can save you a lot of headaches, wasted time, and lost customers.

Like with choosing an AI builder that specializes in your industry, you want to make sure the builder you work with builds sites based on real, up-to-date best practices. Art is subjective; what makes a high-performing website isn’t. Teams of people have spent decades testing and refining website design, SEO, and web copy best practices. (Including the team at Carrot, who have been constantly testing and refining websites for our customers for over a decade.)

The thing is, best practices change over time — and these changes are important. Following out-of-date SEO “best practices” can get you penalized by Google, meaning your site won’t show up in search. AI search optimization is similar to modern SEO optimization, but some small differences are beginning to appear. Having an AI-generated site that doesn’t understand those nuances means you’ll miss out on an increasingly important online lead source. (Just because it is AI doesn’t mean it knows or will implement best practices to make a business show up in AI search.)

You can tell an AI builder to create a site that is optimized for SEO and AI search, but how is it deciding what optimized is? What best practices is it referencing? You’ll either need to give it references to follow (which requires time and expertise on your part), or ask it where it’s referencing for best practices (then spend time validating — and potentially correcting — those … which also takes expertise).

The same goes for the backend code of your site. As you use the AI to make changes and tweak your site, is it generating clean code, or is it adding new code to the existing base until you end up with a sloppy, slow backend that will negatively impact site speed and performance? 

Knowing how to check for these details requires a certain level of knowledge that many people using AI website builders don’t have. Choosing a builder that makes its methodology transparent gives you peace of mind … and a better performing site.

Be mindful of usage limits or credit costs.

This is a big one, and one people don’t always think about until they run into a very big hurdle. 

Because AI is still relatively new, companies are still figuring out how to price their products. In the case of AI website builders, companies often take one of three approaches:

• A flat subscription fee for their software (like you would pay for a traditional website)
• Usage-based pricing (often in the form of credits, tokens, or hours)
• A subscription fee plus an additional fee for the AI usage (either a flat “AI Add-On” fee or a usage-based fee)

The benefit of the flat fee approach is that you know you’ll be able to finish your project without hidden fees or limits that stop your progress. The upfront cost might seem higher, but so is the ceiling, giving you more room to experiment.

On the flip side, usage-based pricing can drive your costs to unexpectedly astronomical levels or put a stop to your work until your usage resets (sometimes hours, sometimes the next day, … sometimes the next month). This can delay your site’s launch or mean you have to switch to a more economical solution midway through your project (without getting your initial spend back).

The other challenge with usage-based pricing is that you may not know how long it will take to build your site. If this is your first AI-generated website, you may find yourself making a lot of edits or realizing your prompt wasn’t as detailed as it needed to be. In these scenarios, every little change goes against your usage.

When evaluating an AI website builder, look at its pricing model, its usage limits (if any), and Google how long it typically takes people to build websites on that platform. YouTube and Reddit are good resources to see what the experience is like and how long it might take.

And remember, you’ll want to factor in what other features and tools the platform offers (like domains, hosting, SSL certificates, analytics, and integrations) and account for the cost of moving to a higher plan to get the features you need or purchasing additional software.

Choosing the right AI website builder.

Choosing the right AI website builder for your project comes down to understanding your ultimate goal, the technology and framework underpinning each AI builder, and your personal tech-savviness. While anyone can vibe code a website with an AI builder (that’s their appeal after all), the end result isn’t always easy to use, maintain, or performs well. 

Most AI site builders do exactly what you tell it to do … and nothing more. That means SEO optimization, conversion optimization, and quality content often go out the window with AI. And technical elements you’d get in a traditional setting — like a clean sitemap, proper heading structures, a robot.txt file, and optimized image alt text — might not be in place unless you know to ask for it.

Before you lose hours playing with different builders or commit to a solution, you need to understand what they offer, how they work, and what struggles you might run into … while building and after launch. Reading reviews and watching videos about different AI builders you’re evaluating is a great way to see how it works, understand pros and cons, and evaluate if it will fit your needs.

Finally, make sure you choose a solution that offers help from an actual team. Help center articles and video tutorials are great, but sometimes you need to talk to a person to solve a problem or figure out what’s going on. AI can help you build a website, but it isn’t a replacement for good customer support yet. That personal touch can make or break your experience.

For the past 13 years, Carrot has helped local real estate investors and agents dominate search results and generate highly motivated leads with websites built on SEO best practices, industry-leading performance, and visitor-to-lead conversion elements driven by science and testing, not guesswork or trends.

That’s why websites on the Carrot platform dominate 30-50% of the top search results for impactful real estate keywords across major markets. And why members who try something else come back time and time again.

“Was promised the moon … wasted $9k, didn’t get what was supposed to be delivered, they stopped responding to my emails and texts, and lost all the [SEO] progress I had with my Carrot site. Expensive learning lesson.” — Gagan S.

“I had a PPC vendor who built a super techy site that they swore would out convert my Carrot site — it didn’t. I paid $5,000 to have a custom site designed that was really pretty, but I got less leads. My expensive, pretty site was converting at 1-2% on SEO when my Carrot site was converting at like 8.5% on SEO.” — Ryan Dossey

When you build a product that performs well, people want to use it. And we noticed local marketing agencies using Carrot to get real-world results for their clients. The platform worked for them and delivered those client results, but it wasn’t easy for agencies to use. So we fixed it.

CarrotAgency empowers local marketing agencies to launch high-performing, SEO-optimized websites in minutes based on their own custom template and built on Carrot’s industry-leading lead generation website platform. Managing clients is simple with a clean, streamlined dashboard that eliminates complicated account switching. Effortlessly keep all your client sites optimized with AI-powered recommendations and auto-fixes. CarrotAgency allows solo-operators and small local marketing agencies to grow their client base and deliver high-quality results while controlling costs.

Key Takeaways

• SEO specialists, PPC providers, and content marketers can now offer website services to clients without being a web dev expert. Carrot’s easy-to-use platform makes launching and maintaining a top performing website simple. It’s an ideal way for local marketing agencies to add a new revenue stream and meet important client needs.
• CarrotAgency makes it simple for small agencies to launch and manage client websites without expensive tools, large teams, and lots of overhead costs. It’s an ideal, affordable solution for small marketing agencies working with local service providers like real estate investors, HVAC, roofers, plumbers, and general contractors.
• CarrotAgency incorporates AI tools that make it faster and easier to launch and maintain a website designed to generate local search results.

Table of Contents

1. Features that Make Agency Life Easier
• AI Website Builder
• Custom Template
• Agency Management Dashboards
• Task Management
• AI Site Improvements
• Built-In Site Maintenance
• Bulk Redirect
• Your Choice of Business Model & Client Billing
• Lead Management CRM
• User Management
2. Sites built for modern online search
3. Who is CarrotAgency a good fit for?
4. How much does CarrotAgency cost?
5. Stop struggling

Features that Make Agency Life Easier

CarrotAgency offers all the website, marketing, and SEO tools members love from Carrot, but adds features designed to help agencies work faster, smarter, and with less effort. It’s built for small, local marketing agencies that want to help local business owners — particularly those who provide services to property owners. The built-in AI and SEO tools and easy-to-use website platform allow small agencies to take on more clients without adding expensive software or running into time and execution constraints.

Here are some of the CarrotAgency features that early adopters find most exciting.

AI Website Builder

Carrot’s AI website builder allows members to quickly and easily create a website personalized to their business simply by answering a few questions (or inputting an existing URL for the AI builder to pull information from). Every site launched is built on Carrot’s proven, conversion-optimized framework and includes key site elements like contact forms in the ideal spots, top page load speeds, and mobile optimization.

But the AI website builder takes things a step further, creating SEO, location, and content strategies customized to each business. These strategies are automatically implemented, targeting the best keywords, creating personalized web copy, and adding location pages that target each market. Upload a logo and select the color palette during the AI experience, and you’re ready to launch with a personalized website in just minutes with a fraction of the work.

Agencies use this tool to quickly launch client websites or create example sites to pitch new clients. Seeing a site that already matches their brand, has their logo and colors, and features pages for each of their markets makes the experience come to life and makes clients excited to work with you.

Custom Template

Many agencies have specific elements they like all their client sites to have. Maybe it’s particular page sections, certain navigation items, or a specific homepage design. While Carrot websites offer a highly optimized framework, we want to make sure agencies can further customize their client sites with the elements that work well for them. But adding those elements individually to every new site takes time … and CarrotAgency is all about saving agencies time and making their work easier.

So every CarrotAgency account includes a custom template for your agency. Work with our team to design your ideal template while preserving good site performance, then use that as your base to launch new client sites even faster with less work. Customize the corner radius on boxes, add the perfect drop shadow, introduce shaped divider lines to make a page more dynamic … the Carrot website editor lets you make sites look unique and stand out with just a little tweaking (no coding required).

Agency Management Dashboards

One of the biggest challenges for agencies using Carrot before this release was accessing different client websites and switching between client accounts. Not impossible, but a pain. That was the first thing we set out to fix when building CarrotAgency.

The new management dashboard lets you quickly and easily navigate to any client or website. This feature alone saves hours each week.

Task Management

How do you manage your tasks? Do you have an elaborate to-do list or expensive project management software like Asana? What if you have multiple team members or work with subcontractors? Keeping up with tasks, managing deadlines, and ensuring everything gets done is a job itself. Missing a task could mean a client’s site isn’t fully optimized, doesn’t get launched, their SEO takes a hit, they don’t show up in AI search results, or they’re wasting PPC spend. Task management is critical to your business, but it shouldn’t take as much of your brainpower as it probably does.

CarrotAgency includes a simple but powerful built-in task management tool. It comes pre-loaded with the website launch tasks that are part of every Carrot website so you (or your team members) can easily work through the checklist. You can also create your own task templates. These are great for one-time tasks that need to happen for every new client and recurring weekly or monthly tasks that need to stay on your radar.

You can assign tasks to any team member and keep track of which are complete, which are due soon, and which were missed so nothing slips through the cracks. It’s part of CarrotAgency, no expensive project management software or upgrade required.

AI Site Improvements

One of the biggest challenges to expanding your client list is the sheer amount of time working on each client takes. Beyond adding fresh site content, launching new PPC campaigns, and keeping up with SEO and AI search updates, you barely have time to go back and check for issues or other optimization opportunities. This either means your clients’ sites aren’t performing as well as they could be, or you have to limit your number of clients to ensure they each get top-notch service. That inherently stifles your business’s growth potential.

CarrotAgency removes a major hurdle with built-in AI Site Improvements. Similar to SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console, this feature highlights issues and areas for improvement across your client sites. Better than SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console, Carrot’s AI Site Improvements will soon make these improvements for you via auto-implemented optimizations. It’s like having a specialist on hand at all times without having to hire one.

Built-In Site Maintenance

Maintaining site security, struggling with plugin updates, and worrying about site speed optimizations take away from your more important work — doing marketing for your clients. But with WordPress sites, custom builds, and AI generated sites that need to hosted somewhere, those important but tedious maintenance tasks take a lot of time. Carrot takes care of foundational site functionality for you. We do the security patches. We optimize site elements to keep pages speedy. We release improvements across our entire ecosystem to maintain top performance. You only have to worry about optimizing sites for your clients, not the underpinning functionality.

Bulk Redirect

When taking over a client’s website, there’s a good chance there’s a decent amount of cleanup and site hygiene you want to do. If that includes implementing a lot of redirects (which it often does), it can be an incredibly tedious and time consuming process. If you’re doing it yourself, that’s a lot of time away from more important client work. If you’re paying someone to do it, that’s a lot of money spent on busy work.

The bulk redirect feature lets you upload a CSV of desired redirects that are then auto implemented for you. The system warns you of collisions, malformed paths, or paths that don’t exist on the site to prevent issues.

(We want to make sure CarrotAgency works for agencies, and this is a direct result of asking what’s needed and responding. Bulk redirects was a member requested feature. This one’s for you Bryan! If there’s something you’d love to see added to CarrotAgency, let me know)

Your Choice of Business Model & Client Billing

Each agency has a preferred model. Some agencies launch a site and bill the client; others manage a site the client already has. CarrotAgency supports both.

With the Agency-Owned model, you create the site for your client and work the cost of the website into your client billing. Each client site on Carrot is $29/month. You have direct access to the site and can add your client if they want the ability to login. With this model, the client pays you, not Carrot, for the website. The client does not need a paid Carrot subscription. If your client engagement ends, the client can sign up for their own paid Carrot subscription and you can transfer site ownership to them.

With the Client-Owned model, the client signs up for an individual paid Carrot subscription and gives your agency access to the site. (Their site still shows up in your client management dashboard, just like normal.) They pay Carrot directly and you don’t incur any additional monthly costs above your base CarrotAgency subscription. If your client engagement ends, they simply remove your access to their site.

You can have both types of account in your agency membership, allowing you to choose whichever option is best suited to each client.

Lead Management CRM

Every Carrot website subscription comes with the free version of CarrotCRM, and agency-managed sites are no different. CarrotCRM is a best-in-class lead management software that makes it easy for businesses to respond to new leads quickly, track lead progress and follow-up tasks, and keep leads engaged via drip campaigns and automated messaging. Originally designed for real estate investing (with built-in property data and nearby comp insights), CarrotCRM will soon expand to other industries.

This is an amazing feature to offer your clients. Spreadsheets are unreliable and most CRMs are prohibitively expensive for small businesses. CarrotCRM gives your clients access to a professional-grade CRM at no additional cost.

“I’ve used a bunch of CRMs, I’ve used Salesforce, I’ve used HighLevel, and they can get complex. I like the simplicity of CarrotCRM. A lead comes in, you see it, it’s at the top, you see the status, you can tag it, you can do whatever you want. The simplicity of the system actually helps us a lot and enables us to just do what we need to do with a lead. That’s the best part. What I love about CarrotCRM is it’s simplicity when compared to other CRMs.” — Kevin Riggi

User Management

And, of course, CarrotAgency features robust user management. Limit what team members can do within the agency account, restrict team members’ or contractors’ access to specific client sites, and invite your clients to access their own sites and reporting dashboards without seeing everyone else’s information. This permission management lets you grow in a way that makes sense to you, whether that’s adding full-time team members, working with a VA, or using subcontractors.

Sites Built for Modern Online Search

The way people find local businesses online has changed dramatically in the past couple of years. People have long turned to search engines to find local businesses and service providers, but over the past two years, the use of AI for local recommendations has sky rocketed. Use of AI tools for local recommendations grew from 6% in 2025 to 45% in 2026, according to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026. That is a major behavior switch! Local search marketers can’t ignore AI search optimization if they want to keep their clients competitive.

This is changing how local search agencies need to position their clients. Good SEO alone is no longer enough. While following SEO best practices helps businesses show up in AI search, it expands beyond that into holistic entity building.

Carrot not only understands how AI impacts local business visibility, we’re leading the way in helping businesses adapt and stay ahead. This means our sites are designed with AI search in mind, including LLMs.txt files and AI-friendly page elements like clear site structure, FAQ sections, and features that keep business information cohesive across the entire site.

AI today doesn’t just mean AI that can build a website. It means creating a site that’s prepared for how AI impacts search and local business discovery. Carrot has both fronts covered.

Who is CarrotAgency a Good Fit For?

CarrotAgency is built for anyone who wants to help local businesses get found online. Whether you have a marketing agency right now or have been thinking about helping others improve their marketing, CarrotAgency is an excellent place to start.

Because it’s designed for ease of use and fast results without major effort, it’s ideal for solo marketers and small teams that want to build their client base without adding expensive tools or more headcount. It’s particularly good for SEO agencies, PPC providers, and content marketers who want to expand their services to include websites. Before CarrotAgency, you needed the confidence, knowledge, skills, and time to design, develop, and maintain websites if you wanted to offer this service. With CarrotAgency, you can add this highly valuable solution to your service offerings without being a website expert. Carrot handles most of the heavy lifting, and our drag-and-drop features and visual editor make tweaking and updating sites simple. (Trust me, I built a lot of the pages on this site, and I am by no means a web dev. If I can figure it out, so can you!)

Carrot sites are optimized for real estate and home service providers like HVAC, roofers, plumbers, and general contractors. Local search has been our specialty since 2013, and we’ve tested thousands of website elements and iterations to figure out what works for these types of businesses to show up in search and convince visitors to turn into leads and clients.

Want to work with a different type of business? We’ve had members launch sites for pool cleaning, dumpster rentals, any number of property-based services. With your agency-custom template, you can create the framework of a high-performing site for just about any local business. Own your niche and grow your business. Carrot makes it easy.

How much does CarrotAgency cost?

A CarrotAgency subscription is $299/month.

Each site you add for a client (the Agency-Owned model) is $29/month.

You can add client-owned websites to your agency dashboard for no additional charge.

There is no limit on how many clients or websites you can add to your agency account.

Stop struggling

CarrotAgency is all about eliminating the little paper cuts that slow down your business and make it harder to get work done. It’s not a huge agency-level software with an enterprise-level price tag. It’s built for small marketing agencies that want to help local businesses attract local customers.

No more pain from building (and maintaining, and updating) dozens of custom WordPress sites. No more wasting time with vibe coded AI sites that have nightmare backends with zero conversion optimizations, meaning you just have to do it all again down the road … if your client even still trusts you. CarrotAgency is a simple, clean experience that takes the headache out of the hard stuff and lets you focus on what you do best.

And this is only just the beginning. CarrotAgency just launched and we’re already making improvements. An AI suite add-on is coming soon that will make your work even quicker. A white-labeled version is on the roadmap. And we’re always soliciting feedback from real users so we can make your life easier and your business more successful.

Stop struggling with expensive, overly complex solutions. Stop wasting time on tasks that should be automated. And stop limiting your agency’s growth because “you don’t have time.” Demo CarrotAgency.

Just like that, another year is almost gone. And what a year it’s been! From the impact of AI to increasing regulations on real estate wholesaling to a still questionable real estate market, 2025 kept investors on their toes and gave them a lot to think about.

And next year is sure to be just as exciting! 

To help you prepare, we talked to some real estate industry experts to get their predictions for 2026 and how investors can prepare.

There will be more opportunity than ever in real estate over the next 5 years, but it’ll take a big change in how you do business. — Trever Mauch

Key Takeaways

• AI search and state regulations on residential wholesaling had a major impact on the real estate investing landscape in 2025.
• Real estate investors need to step up their game in 2026. Those who aren’t ready to commit to better processes, tools, and talent will find themselves out of a job.
• AI is going to be just as big — if not bigger  — in 2026 (surprise!). Real estate investors need to learn how to use it wisely and optimize for AI search.
• 2026 will be the year of focusing on the right deals instead of just deal volume. This involves building the right relationships and taking the right approach to each opportunity.

Table of Contents

• Impacts to real estate investing in 2025
• AI has a HUGE Impact on Search Traffic
• Growing Real Estate Wholesale Regulation
• How the real estate market will change in 2026
• Investors need to step up their game in 2026
• How to be a successful investor in 2026
• AI in 2026
• Prep for a Successful 2026

Impacts to real estate investing in 2025

In 2025, we saw some major impacts to real estate investing. You should know about all of these as we go into the new year.

AI has a HUGE Impact on Search Traffic

If your web traffic or leads have dipped this year, it might not be a softening market or increased competition. It might be the impact of AI search.

AI has been a major theme of 2025 across all industries, and one of the most noticeable impacts is how it’s changed people’s search habits. While the old routine was to go to your favorite search engine and click on a link that looked relevant, AI has swept that process away almost entirely.

A solid half (50%) of consumers purposefully use an AI search tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, according to an October report from McKinsey & Company. And these folks aren’t just looking for information. The majority of users told McKinsey that “it’s the top digital source they use to make buying decisions.” Meaning they’re turning to AI for recommendations and insights, not just a list of potential services or providers. The report goes on to predict that AI search tools could reduce traffic from traditional search channels (like Google or Bing) by 20-50%.

Even consumers still using a traditional search engine are likely to be hit with an AI result first anyway. The McKinsey report found that roughly 50% of Google searches return an AI Summary Overview, and the trends point to that number increasing to 75% of searches by 2028 (though I’d honestly be surprised if it takes that long). Real estate investors who have honed in their SEO to rank high in search results have a solid foundation set for AI search, but they can’t rest on their laurels.

Learn how to adjust your SEO for AI search >

Growing Real Estate Wholesale Regulation

States regulating residential wholesaling is nothing new (it’s been happening since at least 2019, when Illinois updated its Real Estate License Act). This year, multiple states introduced, passed, or implemented their own wholesaling laws:

• Pennsylvania began requiring people who wholesale residential real estate to have a real estate license beginning in January 2025.
• Tennessee signed a wholesaling bill into law in late March 2025 that went into effect only two weeks later (on April 8, 2025).
• Ohio’s Senate unanimously passed SB155 in June 2025 to introduce state wholesaling regulations, and the bill was signed by the Ohio governor late this year.
• Oregon requires residential property wholesalers to register with the state, effective July 1, 2025.
• Maryland’s wholesaling disclosure law went into effect on October 1, 2025.
• Oklahoma started imposing several requirements and restrictions on licensed and unlicensed wholesalers on November 1, 2025.
• Connecticut passed legislation (as part of its state budget) requiring real estate wholesalers to register with the CT Department of Consumer Protection starting July 1, 2026.
• North Carolina introduced House Bill 797 in April 2025 that would impact wholesaling with an “effective” date of October 1, 2025. As far as I can tell, it’s still sitting with the NC Senate, but if you wholesale in North Carolina keep an eye out for potential legal requirement changes.

This is a reminder to keep a close eye on the requirements and regulations in anywhere you wholesale real estate. Whether you’re just getting started or have been in the game for a while, things can change.

For those hopeful of preventing strict regulations on wholesale real estate, presenting the right message could be key.

“Wholesaling has been branded ‘predatory’ by the retail real estate lobby. In reality, the vast majority of wholesalers are doing a massive service to the market  — taking non-sellable real estate and getting more inventory on the market, solving problems agents can’t solve with a listing, tackling the hardest properties, increasing property values over the long term, etc.,” said Trevor Mauch, Carrot CEO.

Communicating these benefits to lawmakers could help make sure sensible — rather than overbearing — regulations are put in place in states considering them.

How the real estate market will change in 2026

The state of the real estate market has been a hot topic for several years now, and it’s clear that investment opportunities have cooled off since their pandemic-years peak. But what wil happen in 2026 is anyone’s guess. Some real estate pros think it will be more of the same, while others feel the dam will finally burst.

Dean Rogers, an expert flipper and wholesaler in California and trusted REI coach, doesn’t see things changing much. “The market will stay stagnant and relatively stuck.”

But Brandon Jarvela, an 8-figure investor with more than 600 real estate students, thinks 2026 could be the year the REI space sees more movement again. “I think this could be the year of the inventory snapback. For the for two years, we’ve all been living in this weird low inventory limbo with pent-up sellers and confused buyers. I think that tension is gonna break. We’ve got a wave of financial pressure that’s hitting every day homeowners, and I think we’re gonna see a sharp rise in off-market opportunity for the investors who are prepared for that type of velocity. Investors who aren’t just cherry picking are gonna win big time.”

Carrot CEO Trevor Mauch predicts real estate markets will stabilize a bit, with properties moving “a tab faster” than they did this year. But overall, he doesn’t see a huge change for next year. Those who want to survive, however, have to be ready to adapt.

“We’re in a transitioning market, and there won’t be big appreciation like there was in 2020-2024. This makes it so flippers who didn’t operate effectively aren’t covered by price appreciation, which will thin out flippers. Wholesalers will also be thinned out in the market even further in 2026. Technology + laws + the market are forcing wholesalers and flippers to adapt. There will be more opportunity than ever in real estate over the next 5 years, but it’ll take a big change in how you do business.”

Avrom Smith, owner of HAS Holdings LLC, also feels investors can no longer ignore regulations. “2026 will be no different from any other year in terms of deal opportunities. However, as a wholesaler, more states are beginning to regulate wholesaling, and it’ll be critical to have backup exit strategies in order to close deals.”

Investors need to step up their game in 2026

Trevor isn’t the only one who foresees the investor industry thinning out next year. Both Dean Rogers and Brandon Jarvela agree that things will get tougher and that investors who want to succeed need to adjust and overcome.

“Wholesalers that operate like real business owners and real businesses will dominate,” Jarvela commented. “The hobby people, the side gig type people, the people still slinging contracts in group chat site, I think they’re gonna have a really hard time. 2026 is the year where wholesalers are gonna get real lead sources through PPC, through agent relationships, data data-backed lists. They’re gonna have real dispositions systems or they’re gonna get wiped out by regulation. Regulation is getting heavier and heavier. You see lower spread and increasing seller expectation, so the bar is officially gonna be set higher for investors.”

Rogers agreed, noting that, “Investors have to level up their game. They have to lean into their systems even more, and they have to have better talent on their team. I think that everything has to bring the cream right to the top, so everybody’s gotta be on their A game to be successful. The biggest game changer is the talent piece. The people who are the best trained and are the best prepared are gonna be the ones who win. A lot of real estate investors will give up and the ones that don’t will rise to the occasion.”

But with challenges comes new opportunity. Stefon Henry of PNW Home Offer believes “there will be more off-market sellers, which in some markets means increased competition. Opportunity will be better in sub-markets.”

The key to keeping up, according to Avrom Smith, is to not ease up on marketing. “Marketing will continue to be paramount in terms of generating lead flow.”

In fact, a small survey of real estate investors (conducted by Carrot) found that the majority plan to increase their marketing budget and the number of marketing channels they use in 2026.

Trevor recommends doubling down on direct-to-seller marketing, especially online. “We’ll see more sellers seeking to sell online,” he believes.

How to be a successful investor in 2026

How exactly do you step up your game for 2026? A lot of it comes down to where you focus your energy and the relationships you build.

“Master two things: speed and sophistication,” Jarvela said for 2026. “Speed to lead, speed to offer, speed to close. Then sophistication in your deal structure, like whether you’re doing innovations or doing creative finance. We use something called a retail buyer program, but also dispo optimization, JV workflows, all that stuff that separates the actual operators from the amateurs. I think 2026 is gonna reward investors who run these types of processes and systems and can solve more problems.”

Several pros recommend focusing even more on the right deals next year.

Stefon Henry recommends underwriting more conservatively in 2026. “Double down on lead quality, not lead volume. Find sellers who need speed + certainty more than the highest price.”

Tony Stewart, owner of Property Peace in Ohio, agrees. “Be very strict in working with the real numbers and not speculating.

“Focus on increasing margins, not higher volume. Fewer but better deals is the name of the game,” Trevor added. “Off-market property opportunities will increase in ‘26. Focus on expired listings, sellers in distress that need help, etc.”

Trevor also recommends partnering more deeply with real estate agents. 

“Most agents aren’t shifting to ‘hybrid,’ but they’re starting to get squeezed hard by a slow retail market and many deals can’t be done on the retail market, so they’re looking for opportunity to create new listings. Savvy investors will see agents as their best friends in 2026.”

Another angle to explore in 2026 if you wholesale real estate is taking down more deals yourself. “Take downs are going to be a key strategy to survive,” Trevor predicts. While this may be counterintuitive since you’re no longer wholesaling at that point, it’s a more advanced technique with better margins for investors who can pull it off.

“The real opportunity is to actually become the buyer. Wholesalers currently lock up contracts, close a low percentage of them, and create a bad reputation. In 2026, become the actual buyer, taking the property down. If you can get 2-3x the profit taking the deal down, quick clean out, list aggressively at a low price to sell quick — do that versus wholesale. If you can’t get 2x taking it down, that’s when you wholesale instead. You should be in and out of a deal in 90 days, 120 days max,” he said. 

When done right, this can give you an advantage over wholesale competitors, Trevor explained.

“Educate the seller on what wholesale contracts actually say, ‘You see this says [this other investor] can back out of the deal all the way up to the day of closing, they aren’t putting up earnest money, etc, etc. With us, we are the buyer and we stand by it. We can and will perform.’”

AI in 2026

The investors who adopt AI as a team member, not just a shiny toy, are going to pull away from the pack fast. 2026 is the first year that a small team can operate with enterprise-level firepower. — Brandon Jarvela

AI was big in 2025, and it’s not going to slow down in 2026. Almost every investor I talked to mentioned AI and everyone who responded to our survey said they will either increase their usage of AI or start using it.

“AI will continue to rewrite the books. We haven’t even scratched the surface of its capabilities,” Avrom Smith predicts.

“AI is going to outperform any and all lead generation, so focus on building a relationship with AI. Let AI get to know you, know your business,” another investor commented.

AI has been a big topic of focus here at Carrot, with Trevor recently hosting two webinars on the subject:

• Website Tweaks Investors Make to Rank in AI Search to Get Motivated Sellers
• The 3 OFF-PAGE Tactics that Drive 80% of AI SEO Results

And hosting monthly interactive AI Search Visibility trainings. So it’s no wonder that he agrees AI is going to play a big role in real estate lead generation next year. He recommends focusing heavily on dialing in elements that help you rank in AI SEO and increase website conversion. 

Join the next AI Search Visibility Challenge >

Brandon Jarvela agrees that using AI wisely can have a major impact next year. 

“Not the cheesy ‘AI wrote my email’ type stuff,” he said. “I’m talking about the real-time lead scoring, predictive, seller motivation, automated follow-up that sounds human, and even dispo engines that match buyers to deals instantly. The investors who adopt AI as a team member, not just a shiny toy, are going to pull away from the pack fast. 2026 is the first year that a small team can operate with enterprise-level firepower.”

Prep for a Successful 2026

While what will happen over the next 12 months is anyone’s guess, these real estate pros have been in the game for a while and know how to recognize a trend. At a bar minimum, pay attention to changing local regulations and DO NOT ignore AI. Whether you’re optimizing your brand presence for AI SEO or using AI tools to get more done in less time, its impact is here to stay and ignoring it will just make you fall behind. 

What are your predictions for the real estate marketing and future of investing for 2026? Let us know in the comments!