Does it deserve the fanfare?

After much anticipation, ChatGPT has finally entered search. And it’s bringing a new approach to how we find information online. 

The new ChatGPT search promises to offer timely, relevant answers, provide live updates, deliver visuals like weather and stock prices and share sources for further exploration.

This move signals a shift in the search landscape, positioning ChatGPT as a direct competitor to traditional search engines like Google.

With its personalized, context-aware responses, ChatGPT search offers users an alternative to traditional search results pages (SERPs) – one that eliminates the need to sift through links and ads.

But as this innovative new player enters the field, the question remains: does it deserve the fanfare?

How does ChatGPT Search work?

ChatGPT search is essentially a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, and it works in much the same way as the current version available to the public.

The main difference is ChatGPT search will now provide real-time recommendations. This includes informational citations and links to other sites in the same way we’ve known to expect from the likes of Google and Bing.

The search index itself appears to be based on Bing’s search engine, possibly hinting at a greater partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI.

With this in mind, ensuring proper indexing by Bing and Google will certainly improve your chances of being found.

Plus, allowing OAI-SearchBot (the primary crawler for ChatGPT search) within your site’s robots.txt means the platform can more easily crawl and index your pages, instantly making you more discoverable.

What this means for Google and the search landscape

ChatGPT search could disrupt Google’s business model by keeping users on one platform for both information and decision-making.

This could diminish the value of Google’s search-based ads, threaten its market share and pose one of the biggest challenges the company has faced in decades.

Not only does ChatGPT search match the functionality of Google’s AI Overviews launched earlier this year, but it goes further by offering a more conversational and user-friendly experience.

As AI continues to capture public interest and the uptake of ChatGPT grows, we’re likely to see a shift in user behavior, similar to the impact of TikTok Search.

This could lead to more people moving away from Google and traditional search engines, gravitating toward more intuitive and interactive platforms.

Marketers must diversify their organic strategies to maintain results, reach their audiences and drive growth across multiple platforms.

That said, ChatGPT search isn’t drastically different from Google’s current search model.

Both platforms leverage large language models (LLMs) to analyze data and understand user intent.

While Google has long used LLMs and natural language processing (NLP) through BERT and MUM to improve its search results, ChatGPT’s conversational approach provides an additional layer of interactivity that could alter the search landscape.

The evolution of search

The evolution of search is shifting toward providing more context, reducing the need for users to visit external websites.

While this enhances the consumer experience, publishers must embrace emerging platforms like TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube to re-optimize content and maintain organic traffic.

The key difference now lies in the user experience. ChatGPT search offers information in a single, conversational response, unlike traditional search engines that present lists of links.

These narrative-style answers allow for follow-up questions, keeping the conversation on topic without interruptions from paid ads or sponsored content.

Although Google’s AI Overviews and Bing’s Copilot have attempted to offer a ChatGPT-like experience within their traditional search results, they still rely on separate links and can’t provide the interactive Q&A that ChatGPT search can.

This shift in search presents a major opportunity and risk for brands. 

With rapid changes, it’s crucial for businesses to partner with expert agencies that can quickly identify trends and adapt.

Early adopters of new technologies tend to succeed, so having experts ahead of the curve is essential to preparing your organic strategy for the future.

What does this mean for your SEO strategy?

ChatGPT search introduces a new conversational way for users to find information, but its overall impact on your SEO strategy will likely remain limited. 

Keyword targeting and high-quality, credible content will remain essential for relevance and rankings. 

Making content valuable to users will be more important than ever, as ChatGPT offers a deeper understanding of context than other platforms.

ChatGPT search still operates on principles similar to traditional search engines, relying on crawled and indexed content and LLMs to deliver the most relevant information. 

This means marketers can continue to leverage structured data and schema markup to improve content relevance and enhance visibility in search responses.

A strong search experience optimization (SXO) plan will be crucial for brands to stay competitive in an evolving market.

While platforms may change, the focus for organic output should remain on producing high-quality, authoritative content that is clear, topic-relevant and trustworthy.

Building credible backlinks will continue to boost content authority and visibility.

Optimizing for long-tail keywords could help capture an increase in traffic, given the emerging preference for longer-form searches and response expectations.

ChatGPT search: A new challenger in the search engine landscape

ChatGPT search may change how people search for information, but the core elements of a strong search strategy remain unchanged.

High-quality, trustworthy content is still key, and brands that focus on SXO, structured data and long-tail keywords will stay ahead of the competition.