Authored by Simon Andrew, director of brand strategy, copy and clarity. His professional interests include brand strategy, messaging and storytelling - and how these interface with AI Visibility Strategy, AI-search generative content creation and agentic AI.
A homeowner thinking about selling has questions long before they have an estate agent.
What might my house sell for? Should I renovate first? How do I choose someone I can trust? And how do I avoid making an expensive mistake?
Those questions became the starting point for Rare Erf, my property seller advisory website for Hermanus and the surrounding Overstrand.
As a copywriter and property consultant, I wanted to build a useful resource for prospective sellers, with content that search engines and AI-powered search services could also understand and use.
The project brings together positioning, editorial planning and practical copywriting. It also illustrates why much of the work involved in optimising for AI search happens before you write the first sentence.
Start with a clear purpose
The Rare Erf homepage makes the business easy to understand: a seller advisory service, focused on premium property in a defined part of South Africa.
It identifies the audience, the area served and the decisions the service helps people make. It also explains my relationship with Fine & Country and distinguishes seller advice from professional valuation, legal and tax services. seller advisory
My reasoning is straightforward: clarity gives both readers and search systems less to guess about.
Before asking whether a website is optimised for AI, I would ask whether a stranger can explain what the business does after reading its opening paragraphs.
Build the content around decisions people actually face
The Rare Erf blog follows the practical concerns of someone preparing to sell: pricing, improvements, timing, selling costs, mandates and choosing an agent. hermanus property
That creates a coherent editorial focus. Each article has a job to do.
A useful test when planning content is to complete this sentence: “After reading this, the reader will be better able to…”
If the only answer is “know that our business exists”, the article probably needs more thought.
This is also how I approach AI search: give the system something useful to work with when a person asks a specific question. Simply repeating the service and location in every paragraph adds little.
Give the reader an answer early
The article on pricing a property in Hermanus begins with a concise explanation of the process: assess comparable sales, account for the individual home, examine competing stock and agree a pricing and review plan.
The detail follows. hermanus property
That order matters. A reader can grasp the main answer immediately, then explore the reasoning. My editorial judgement is that it also makes the passage easier for a search system to interpret and summarise.
An opening should earn the next minute of attention. It should not spend that minute announcing that the subject is important.
Turn a broad search into useful guidance
Consider the article on choosing an estate agent in Hermanus.
It addresses the familiar search for the “best” agent, then helps readers assess suitability: relevant experience, evidence behind the suggested price, marketing quality, communication and negotiation.
The structure includes interview questions, warning signs and a final checklist. It also links to outside sources, including the property regulator. hermanus property
This gives the page several useful points of entry. Someone choosing an agent may need help with the interview, the proposed marketing or the mandate before they can make a decision.
For me, that is good commercial copywriting: demonstrate the quality of your thinking while helping the reader make progress.
Make the local detail mean something
Adding “Hermanus” to a generic property article would be easy. Writing advice that reflects the place takes more care.
The Hermanus property seller guide discusses individual areas and practical considerations such as coastal access, wind exposure, outlook, maintenance and the setting of a particular property.
It gives the broader resource a local purpose. hermanus property
My view is that useful specificity makes content a better candidate for a closely matched question. Someone asking about selling a coastal home needs more than advice that could apply equally to a flat in any city.
Place names should carry information, not simply occupy space.
Create a connected body of advice
The seller guide provides the broad overview. More focused articles address individual decisions in greater depth.
There are also contextual links between relevant pages. For example, the pricing and renovation articles link readers to advice on choosing an agent. hermanus property
This helps people move from one question to the next. It also supports discovery: Google’s guidance on AI features and websites explicitly includes internal linking among its established search practices. developers.google.com
I think of this as designing a useful reference shelf. Each article needs to stand on its own, while belonging to an intelligible whole.
Give the advice an identifiable author and a clear basis
The articles carry my name and explain my background and connection to the business.
The renovation article also demonstrates another useful habit: separating advice, evidence and illustration. It includes links to supporting sources and labels its financial example as hypothetical. hermanus property
A byline does not prove expertise. An outbound link does not make every claim correct. But clear attribution and relevant references give readers a better chance to assess the advice.
That is the standard I want the writing to meet before discussing its suitability for AI search.
Keep the writing human
Readable structure does not require a lifeless voice.
A seller considering renovations may be anxious about wasting money. Someone comparing agents may be uncomfortable questioning a confident salesperson. Someone setting a price may be struggling to separate a financial decision from years of memories.
The copy needs to recognise those feelings while still giving practical guidance.
My approach is to make the information easy to follow and the voice worth spending time with. Being found is only useful if the person who arrives finds a reason to stay.
Be precise about what “optimised” means
Rare Erf has strong editorial foundations for AI search: a defined subject, useful answers, local context, clear structure and identifiable authorship.
That is a statement about the content and its design. Demonstrating results would require separate evidence of search visibility, AI citations, visits and enquiries.
Google says its existing SEO practices remain relevant to AI Overviews and AI Mode; it requires no special AI schema or additional optimisation. It also makes clear that eligibility does not guarantee inclusion. Other services have their own systems. developers.google.com
Technical checks—such as crawling, indexing and page performance—remain part of the work. No content format can promise a recommendation.
What this means for your website
Rare Erf illustrates the kind of work I believe copywriting should do: clarify a business’s value, understand the customer’s questions and turn expertise into useful, accessible content.
My aim is to make the website worth finding, worth reading and worth returning to.
If you want to explore the approach, start with the Rare Erf seller advisory website and its property advice articles.
And if your own website needs clearer positioning, stronger answers or a content plan built around your customers’ decisions, let’s talk.