While ChatGPT may have started as a fun experiment for many users, it has quickly become a significant force in the SEO landscape. OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. It took only five days to reach one million users, breaking every previous record by weeks.
Although ChatGPT has undergone several updates since then, one of the most significant was released in October 2024. This update includes ChatGPT search, which has left many people wondering whether their SEO strategies will still be effective. The answer is yes and no.
What is ChatGPT Search?
ChatGPT used to answer questions based on its training, meaning that the information it provided was only as current as its most recent update. However, the newest update integrates search features with the chat application. Users can now use ChatGPT instead of traditional search engines to access information. It can now browse the web in real-time and provide information that may not have been included in its training data.
Now, users can search ChatGPT rather than seeing a traditional SERP page. This has significant implications for businesses seeking to generate leads, build credibility, and maintain online visibility. Ranking on SERPs may not be as effective if more and more users are not even using traditional search engines. If people are asking ChatGPT for recommendations instead of trusting first-page rankings to recommend services and products, how can you get ChatGPT to highlight your website?
How Does ChatGPT Search Feature Websites?
Even before this update, people could ask ChatGPT to recommend businesses or service providers. ChatGPT would provide them with lists of relevant websites based on its training. Now, these lists will be generated using a blend of the chatbot’s training and real-time data. Additionally, when ChatGPT uses search data to answer a question, it may cite its sources. Being featured in these lists or cited in a source is a new way for businesses to improve traffic. As ChatGPT steals more search volume from traditional search engines, it’s crucial that you have the right strategies to rank in ChatGPT search.
ChatGPT Search Ranking Factors
Before adjusting SEO techniques for ChatGPT, it’s important to understand how ChatGPT chooses sites to include in its answers. Several factors have already been identified as significant: brand mentions, reviews, recommendations, relevancy, content age, and authority. Most of these factors can be sorted into two categories: credibility and relevancy.
Strategies for Ranking in ChatGPT Search
The good news is that many well-established SEO strategies continue to be important; AI favors websites with no technical errors, a positive user experience, original content, and fast loading speeds. However, depending on what SEO strategies you are already using, some adjustments may be required if you are hoping to increase your chance of being highlighted in ChatGPT search. At Outpace SEO, we focus on establishing visibility, credibility, and relevance to help our clients rank in ChatGPT.
Establish Visibility
With ChatGPT search emerging as a significant factor, it’s important to make sure that your pages are visible to its search engines. Currently, ChatGPt Search uses Bing’s index and its own algorithm. Here’s how to make sure you are visible to ChatGPT:
- Allow OAI-SearchBot: This is ChatGPT’s primary crawler, so make sure it’s enabled in your robots.txt file.
- Ensure you are in Bing’s index: It’s not enough to be indexed by Google search anymore; you’ll want to start making sure that your pages are being indexed by Bing as well. You can use Bing Webmaster Tools to identify any gaps in Bing’s index of your site.
- Maintain clear site architecture: A user-friendly, effective site architecture with strong internal linking can help guide AI through your website and establish context and visibility.
- Maintain technical SEO optimization: ChatGPT selects websites partially based on user experience, so in-depth technical optimization remains as relevant as ever.
Establish Credibility
Similar to traditional search engines, ChatGPT highlights websites that have credibility and authority in their niche. Here are some ways to improve your credibility:
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- Transparency: Transparency helps establish your credentials as a current expert in your industry. This may include featuring research sources, repair processes, or credentials to provide ChatGPT with a background that establishes your expertise.
- Testimonials and reviews: Testimonials and reviews are a significant factor in ChatGPT search. Asking customers for genuine reviews, highlighting positive reviews, and engaging with reviews can help establish your reputation as a credible business and build relevance.
- Certifications/awards: If your business qualifies for awards or has industry certifications, these should be featured clearly on your website. This helps to establish your competitive edge in your industry.
- External linking: Linking to other authoritative websites can help establish both credibility and relevance.
Establish Relevance
- Update content regularly: ChatGPT ranks websites partly based on content quality and freshness. Refreshing your content regularly and updating the publishing date when you do so can help prove your relevance.
- Content quality: Quality matters as well. Your content should be original, clear, and concise. Remember, ChatGPt is a conversation-based application, so it is more likely to draw from clear and concise content. Longer articles seem to do better; aiming for over 1000 words is a helpful rule of thumb in general.
- Format Content clearly: Organizing your content using H1s, H2s, and H3s helps ChatGPT quickly understand what you are offering. Implementing long-tail keywords in your headers can also signal relevance.
- Keyword Priorities: To be featured in queries that are actually relevant to your business, you must optimize content for the right keywords. Long tail keywords are more likely to be typed into ChatGPT Search since people increasingly prefer its conversational user experience.
- Structured data: Using structured data is an excellent way to enhance relevance and establish your website’s authority. This improves your site’s indexability and relevance.
Start Ranking With ChatGPT Search
At Outpace SEO, we are constantly updating our practices to keep up with the changing world of SEO. Our in-depth technical optimizations and comprehensive content strategies provide our clients with a competitive edge in both traditional search engines and ChatGPT search.
