A study of 1.2 million ChatGPT responses found that longer content in the finance vertical is penalised for AI citations. Standard SEO advice says write more. For Australian financial licensees, the data says the opposite.

Kevin Indig at Search Engine Journal analysed 98,000 citations across 1.2 million ChatGPT responses. Finance content shows a 0.86x citation lift for longer pages. This means length is a net negative in this vertical. In every other vertical studied, longer, denser content performed better. Finance is the exception.

The likely reason: AI systems in financial services optimise for precision. A focused 600-word page on "SMSF setup costs in Australia" will likely outperform a 3,000-word superannuation overview for AI citation purposes. The same study found that finance content peaks at 10–19 headings, which is far more than the standard 3–4 used on most advice firm websites.

What to do this week: Open Google Search Console and identify your top three ranking pages. Check word count. If any exceed 1,500 words, draft a focused version covering only the single most important question on that page. Run both through ChatGPT manually and note whether your firm appears for either version.

Source: Search Engine Journal

The same study found that declarative intro language — flat, direct, no hedging —produced a +14% aggregate citation lift across all verticals. Content that opens with "it is generally considered..." or "many advisers believe..." underperforms relative to content that states facts plainly.

For licensed practices, this matters more than for most. Compliance training pushes copy toward caution. That's appropriate in SOAs and disclosure documents. But using the same hedged register on educational content like FAQ pages, service descriptions, or blog posts not subject to advice obligations, is an unforced error that reduces how often AI platforms quote you.

What to do right now: Open the first paragraph of your Services or About page. If the first sentence contains any of "may", "generally", "can help", "could be", "it is believed", rewrite it as a flat declarative. "Collins Financial Planning advises pre-retirees on superannuation transition strategies in regional Victoria" beats "we may be able to help you consider your retirement options."

Source: Search Engine Journal

In LogitRank's AI visibility scanning this month, a Melbourne mortgage broker specialising in nurses was tested across three queries. On "best mortgage broker for nurses Melbourne," the firm appeared on two of five platforms. When the query shifted to "best home loan specialist Melbourne healthcare workers", which is a natural variation any prospective client might use, the broker dropped from all five platforms simultaneously.

A direct competitor was cited first by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot across both query variants. The cause: the firm's entity data was anchored to "nurses" only. No semantic coverage of "healthcare workers", "midwives", "allied health." A client who searches slightly differently finds competitors instead.

What to do this week: Identify your most important search term. The one you'd most want to appear for in ChatGPT. Generate three natural language variations (the way a different client might phrase the same need). Run all three through ChatGPT and Google. Any competitor appearing on the variants where you don't is your entity vocabulary gap.

Source: LogitRank AI Visibility Scans, April 2026

Webflow surveyed 400+ marketing leaders and practitioners on their AEO maturity. 68% of leaders reported having a defined, operationalized, or piloted AEO strategy. Only 26% of practitioners described themselves as actively implementing AEO or as experts in it. The gap in training is similar: only 23% of practitioners had received hands-on AEO instruction. Most describe theirs as "high-level" or "still in planning."

For Australian financial services firms, the AEO conversation tends to happen at principal level, which is where it usually stops. If the person responsible for website content (often an admin or outsourced provider) hasn't been briefed on what AI visibility requires, the strategy stays in someone's inbox.

What to do right now: Ask one question internally: who in your practice is responsible for how your firm appears in ChatGPT and Google? If the answer is "nobody in particular" or "I'll look into it," you have an ownership gap. The Webflow data shows that as the strongest predictor of whether AEO work actually gets done.

Source: Webflow, The AEO Divide (2026)

The common thread: what works in other industries — long content, cautious language, narrow keyword anchoring — actively works against you in financial services AI search. The rules aren't just different. In finance, several of them are reversed.