Nov 9 2024
Latest Google AIO Updates May Impact SEO via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google continues updating AIO rankings, increasing the presence of larger shopping-related panels and ads that push organic search results lower on the page. The good news for search marketers is that AIO volatility in shopping queries is stabilizing, with AIO rankings increasingly matching sites typically ranked in organic search.

  • Arguably the most important change is the addition of advertising in AI Overviews, which has the effect of pushing organic search results lower down the page.
  • Citations to websites within AIO for general queries rose by over 300% since August, with the biggest growth (200%) experienced in September.

Since November 1, 2023, BrightEdge has been tracking a consistent set of search queries representing billions of searches across nine industries. The key point is that they are tracking the same queries every month using their unique technology, the BrightEdge Generative Parser (TM). The BrightEdge Generative Parser detects and tracks AIO formats, analyzes AIO search results, and provides insights into daily trends.

AIO & Top Ranked Organic Increasingly Match Since September

BrightEdge noticed a trend beginning in September where AI Overviews increasingly showed links to websites that matched the organic search results. This means that traditional ranking factors that put a website in the top of the organic search results should pay off in citations in AIO.

AIO Stability Continues To Improve

The BrightEdge data showed an 8% improvement in day-to-day stability and a less than 1% fluctuation the pixel size of AIO Panels. That means that AIO search results were less volatile and more dependable. Volatility in shopping-related search queries decreased 37% (from early August) to 26% (as of late September). The lower volatility indicates that rankings should be more consistent, a trend that hopefully will carry over into the holiday shopping season that begins in November.

More Precise AI Overview Results

That stability was accompanied by a 15% reduction in keywords with an AIO, demonstrating an increase in how precise search queries are to web page topics and perhaps may reflect a greater use of natural language in queries.

Bright Edge noted:

“As ads deploy, Google is more precise about where AIOs are most helpful.”

That trend toward more precise and concise AIOs began in August and continued through September, by which time Google AIO was collapsing unordered lists by an additional 14.6% over the previous month. Collapsed unordered lists show a concise answer in the visible part and reveal additional information if users click to see more.  That trend continued in October, with the percentage of collapsed unordered growing by an additional 20%.

While that sounds like a lot, perhaps the most dramatic change was with the amount of times the AIO Product Carousel is triggered, experiencing a 300% increase since it initially was rolled out.

The trend of bigger AIO features suggests that shopping related AIO results with ads in them may increasingly displace organic content.

According to BrightEdge:

“As Google injects ads into AIOs in October, two features have experienced significant increases. Particularly with product carousels, there are direct opportunities for advertisers. As these are not taking up more space, it suggests those ads will likely displace an organic listing if this trend continues. All these trends point to a holiday shopping season where AI will play a bigger role than ever, but maybe not in the way we originally expected.”

YouTube Citations Increased In AIO

E-commerce-related YouTube citations within AIO increased by 121% through September, which may reflect that users prefer to watch videos while researching products This calls attention to the importance of video influencers as well considering multimodal strategies that incorporate video content for shopping-related topics (where the intent makes sense).

AIO for shopping wasn’t all growth in September, as queries related to certain topics triggered less AI Overviews.

The following topics showed less AIO results:

  • “Queries for Specific Products: -7.2%
  • Furniture and Home Décor: -2.7%
  • Clothing and Fashion: – 2.2%
  • Searches for ‘best’: – 1.7%
  • How-to and Instructional Shopping Searches: -1.6%”

Early Stage Research Intent

Another AIO trend discovered for October was an increase in research-phase search queries and intent. Publishers relying on search should be on the lookout for any traffic drops that may be correlated to an increase in AIO search results related to research-phase queries.

October Ecommerce AIO Trends

  • “81.1% deliver broad knowledge sharing
  • Only 1.4% provide step-by-step guidance
  • AIOs prioritize educational content over how-to directions
  • Early-Journey Content Structure
    39.8% use list structures for easy scanning
  • Strong preference for broad explanations
  • Content organized for information gathering
  • Emphasis on comprehensive understanding”

Kinds Of Answers Shown In AI Overviews

The BrightEdge data shows that in October discovery and research types of queries triggered the most AI Overviews.

The top 3 kinds of answers show in AI Overviews were:

  • Definitions and overviews
  • Explanation of causes
  • Data points

BrightEdge explains what it all means:

  • “The data clearly shows that AIOs are optimized for early-stage research and discovery.
  • Educational content with expert guidance on what’s trending or critical data points is more helpful to cite than specific how-to instructions.
  • Success means aligning your content with this top-of-funnel focus – comprehensive, educational content wins over transactional guidance that could be replaced with ads.”

Most Common Type Of Answer In AI Overviews

Takeaways

BrightEdge’s research offers many insights on the kinds of content Google’s AI Overviews is prioritizing and how it’s ramping up for the holiday shopping season which begins with Black Friday. If traffic patterns are changing then it may be due to the updates to the kinds of queries are triggering AIO and an increase in advertising which, combined with larger sizes of AIO panels, could be pushing organic results lower.

It must be emphasized that organic results have not been the norm for well over ten years and at this point it’s anachronistic to still be thinking in terms of ten blue links. This is why the BrightEdge data is important because it’s showing what’s going on in the search results.

Key Insights

  • Ads are now featuring in AI Overviews
  • Volatility in shopping-related queries is stabilizing, creating a more predictability
  • Google is becoming more precise about what triggers AIOs
  • Product carousels increased by 300% in October
  • Collapsed unordered lists that requires users to click to see more information increased by 20%
  • Queries for specific products are less likely to trigger AIOs
  • Research-phase queries and intents are increasingly the top triggers for AIO

Read the latest research data by BrightEdge

New AI Overview Trends: What to Expect for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (PDF)

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Cranium_Soul

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Nov 7 2024
LinkedIn Video Posts Generate 3X More Reach, Study Finds via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

LinkedIn’s push into video content is showing results, according to new research by marketing expert Caroline Giegerich.

Her analysis, published in Adweek, tests LinkedIn’s claim that video gets five times the engagement of text posts.

She writes:

“Curious to test LinkedIn’s claim that videos receive five times more engagement, I wanted to see if the hype held up. Additionally, with a staggering 84% of marketers utilizing video in their content strategies, I wanted to go deep and understand the real value of the format.”

Key Findings

Giegerich’s 90-day analysis revealed video posts consistently achieved higher reach than written content:

  • Her lowest-performing video posts garnered nearly triple the impressions of top-performing written posts
  • Her most successful video reached 774,000 impressions
  • Her video posts averaged around 250,000 views

Giegerich found the most success with:

  • Videos under 5 minutes
  • Direct-to-camera approach
  • Morning posts between 9-11 AM EST

Additionally, she notes adding personal flair to videos may have aided their performance:

“In terms of the content itself, I keep my videos under 5 minutes and speak directly to the camera about technology in terms everyone can understand to make it accessible.

I also post in the morning between 9 – 11 AM EST. If Gossip Girl covered tech, she’d be me. Over time, I added fun sound effects and captions with Capcut.”

When To Use Text Posts

Giegerich says that video works best to create awareness at the top of the sales funnel. Once people are aware, text posts are more valuable.

She states:

“My written posts dominate the top three spots for engagement, even though my video posts drive significantly more awareness. For example, my top-written post by engagement drove 68 times fewer impressions than my lowest-performing video post.”

Based on her testing, text posts received more targeted distribution to her connections, while videos were recommended to people outside her network.

Giegerich adds:

“One format is more targeted to my network and the other is being heavily fanned by the LinkedIn algorithm to an audience outside of my immediate network.”

Limited Monetization Opportunities

The study highlights LinkedIn’s limited monetization options compared to its competitors:

  • The current program offers sponsored posts and consulting opportunities.
  • The creator accelerator program is restricted to only 100 participants, selected in 2022.
  • The platform lags behind TikTok and Instagram when providing incentives for creators.

What This Means

LinkedIn’s algorithm tends to favor video, but Giegerich’s research highlights that video and text serve different roles.

Video posts excel at broad awareness and can achieve higher impression counts, though their performance is often unpredictable.

In contrast, written posts foster stronger engagement within established networks.

For marketers, Giegerich suggests a balanced approach: use video for visibility and maintain written posts for engagement.

Featured Image: JarTee/Shutterstock

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Nov 7 2024
YouTube Expands Creator Control Over Ad Partnerships via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

YouTube has updated its video linking system, giving creators in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) more control over advertising partnerships.

This addresses several long-standing issues in collaborations between creators and brands.

Previously, creators lacked a direct way to start advertising relationships. They had to wait for advertisers to reach out.

The new system allows creators to take a more active approach to monetization. Channels can now reach out to advertisers aligned with their audience.

This update is available to channels in the YouTube Partner Program that run ads on Shorts.

In an announcement, a YouTube representative states:

“We’re launching the ability for creators in YPP with more than 4,000 subscribers to send video linking requests for shorts to advertisers via YouTube Studio.

YouTube will recommend creator-initiated tagged content to brands if they choose to run ads.”

Key Features For Marketers

Performance Data

For creators, having their videos linked to advertisers’ accounts clarifies how their content performs and resonates with audiences.

This information can inform future content strategies and help creators refine their approach to brand collaborations.

Once a video linking request is approved, advertisers can access information through their Google Ads accounts.

This data includes organic video performance metrics such as view counts, engagement rates, and audience demographics.

Rights Management

Creators can restrict their content usage to only linked Google Ads accounts.

This feature, accessible through YouTube Studio’s Advanced Settings, helps prevent brands from using a creator’s videos without permission.

By linking videos to advertisers’ accounts, creators grant permission for their content to be used in ad campaigns.

A YouTube representative confirms creator-initiated video linking requests work the same way:

“These creator-initiated links will act in the same way as advertiser-initiated links, which confirm rights between brands and creators, and gives advertisers the ability to view organic video performance in Google ads.”

Up to 300 Google Ads accounts can be linked per channel

Looking Ahead

With the introduction of creator-initiated video linking, channels have more freedom to choose the brands they work with.

This can potentially lead to more authentic and engaging advertising opportunities.

Featured Image: daily_creativity/Shutterstock

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Nov 7 2024
Automattic Taunts WP Engine With Provocative Website via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Automattic appears to have created a site that draws attention to the number of customers that have left WP Engine for another web host. The site includes a searchable database of websites hosted on WP Engine that can also be downloaded as a CSV spreadsheet.

The name of the website is WP Engine Tracker, it features a prominent Automattic logo and a link to an associated GitHub  repository that shows an Automattic employee is the developer of the website.

Ongoing Dispute Between Automattic And WP Engine

The website is the latest escalation in a dispute initiated by Matt Mullenweg, WordPress co-founder and CEO of Automattic, who argues that WP Engine’s contributions to WordPress development fall short. WordPress relies on contributions and sponsorships from volunteers, businesses, and individuals who benefit from the platform. The underlying principle is that the more everyone contributes the more the entire community benefits, strengthening WordPress’s position as the world’s most popular content management system.

The text of the website features a number representing the websites that have left WP Engine and an explanation:

“This is the number of websites that have left WP Engine and found a new home since Sep 21, 2024.

Search below to see if a site is still hosted by WP Engine”

Comments Left On WP Engine Tracker GitHub Repository

The website links to a GitHub repository that lists the author of the WP Engine Tracker website as being someone who works for Automattic.

Screenshot Of Author Listed On GitHub Repository

The Issues tab of the official GitHub repository contains critiques of the project and some criticism.

The first comment notes that the counter is incorrect because it claims to count websites that have left WP Engine but that it should be saying how many domains have left. The reason is because of the “websites” listed redirect to one domain, which means that the count is inflated.

Another person commented:

“It’s possible some folks have left WordPress as well, so saying sites have left WP Engine doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve gone to another web host that supports WordPress. This is a really tacky endeavor. I am not impressed at all.”

The latest comment calls the website “amateurish”:

“Also the check, if a domain is hosted by WPE, is quite amateurish.

https://github.com/wordpressenginetracker/wordpressenginetracker.github.io/blob/trunk/index.js#L118

missing dot at beginning for some
only checks subdomains
I’m not sure what the goal of this website is and what Matt tries to achieve. But the community is getting increasingly annoyed of such unprofessional behavior of Matt and in the security community some also think about dropping 0days for WordPress and related plugins / themes due to this whole situation.

The feedback under the tweet from the official WordPress account and in the reddit community shows, what most of us think.

The whole situation hurts everyone more than needed.”

Screenshot Of GitHub Repository For WP Engine Tracker

What Is The Point Of The Website?

It’s unclear what the purpose of the WP Engine Tracker website is other than the stated purpose of tracking sites that have left WP Engine.

The website draws attention to the specific domains of websites that have moved away from WP Engine but what purpose does that serve? Is the purpose is to draw attention to sites that could be solicited to move away from WP Engine? If so, there’s nothing on the website that encourages that use of the information.  The WP Engine Tracker website is silent about what site visitors should do with the data.

Visit the WP Engine Tracker site here

Visit the WP Engine Tracker GitHub Repository here.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Wirestock Creators

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Nov 6 2024
YouTube Launches ‘Data Stories’ For First-Day Video Metrics via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

YouTube’s latest update introduces experimental features to enhance creator analytics and community engagement,

Additionally, YouTube is rolling out improvements to brand collaboration.

Key Updates

Data Stories

YouTube is testing a “data story” feature in its Studio mobile app that helps creators understand their video performance.

This tool provides a visual breakdown of the first 24 hours’ metrics, making it easier to identify key performance drivers.

Screenshot from: YouTube.com/CreatorInsider, November 2024.

Data stories transform YouTube’s analytics for creators by offering a narrative format instead of the traditional multi-tab dashboard.

“Most Relevant” Filter

YouTube recently rebranded its Comments tab to “Community” and is now introducing a “most relevant” comment filter.

This new feature, currently being tested with a select group, analyzes a channel’s comments to highlight potential engagement opportunities, such as viewer questions.

Screenshot from: YouTube.com/CreatorInsider, November 2024.

The introduction of the “most relevant” filter in the Community tab is timely, as YouTube aims to reinforce its position against competitors like TikTok and Instagram.

This feature:

  • Utilizes AI to pinpoint valuable comments throughout a creator’s entire channel
  • Prioritizes viewer questions and fosters meaningful interactions
  • Assists creators in managing engagement more efficiently on both mobile and desktop platforms

Video Linking

YouTube is allowing eligible creators to initiate video linking requests with advertisers.

This option is available to YouTube Partner Program members with more than 4,000 subscribers and focuses specifically on Shorts content.

Screenshot from: YouTube.com/CreatorInsider, November 2024.

Previously, only advertisers could start video linking requests sent through emails and YouTube notifications. The new system empowers creators to proactively connect with brands, as YouTube suggests tagged content to potential advertisers.

Once approved, these links enable advertisers to access organic video performance data through Google Ads and establish clear content reuse rights between creators and brands.

Looking Ahead

As YouTube continues to roll out these features, here’s what you need to know:

  • Data stories are in beta – most creators won’t have access yet
  • The new comment filter should help spot meaningful viewer interactions faster
  • To use the brand linking tool, you’ll need 4K+ subs and YPP status

YouTube’s collecting feedback on all these features, so expect tweaks and updates. Keep an eye on your Studio dashboard for when these roll out to your channel.

See the full news update below:

Featured Image: JarTee/Shutterstock

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Nov 5 2024
Google Search Snippets Show Contradictory Information, Study Finds via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

A recent investigation finds that Google’s Featured Snippets may display conflicting information from the same source material, depending on how users phrase their search queries.

This raises concerns about the search engine’s ability to interpret content accurately.

Sarah Presch, director at Dragon Metrics, discovered that Google’s Featured Snippets pull opposing statements from the same articles when users frame questions differently.

For example, searching “link between coffee and hypertension” generates a Featured Snippet highlighting caffeine’s potential to cause blood pressure spikes.

Searching “no link between coffee and hypertension” produces a contradictory snippet from the same Mayo Clinic article stating caffeine has no long-term effects.

Similar contradictions appeared across health topics, political issues, and current events.

The investigation found that asking whether a political candidate is “good” versus “bad” yields dramatically different results despite the fundamental question remaining the same.

Impact On Search Quality

“It’s one big bias machine,” Presch notes, explaining how Google’s algorithms appear to prioritize content that matches user intent rather than providing comprehensive, balanced information.

The findings align with internal Google documents from 2016, where engineers admitted, “We do not understand documents – we fake it.”

While Google maintains these documents are outdated, SEO experts suggest the underlying technical limitations persist.

Presch adds:

“What Google has done is they’ve pulled bits out of the text based on what people are searching for and fed them what they want to read.”

Mark Williams-Cook, founder of AlsoAsked, commented on the findings, stating:

“Google builds models to try and predict what people like, but the problem is this creates a kind of feedback loop. If confirmation bias pushes people to click on links that reinforce their beliefs, it teaches Google to show people links that lead to confirmation bias.”

Implications

These findings have implications for content creators and SEO professionals:

  • Featured Snippets may not accurately represent comprehensive content
  • User intent heavily influences how content is interpreted and displayed
  • Content strategy may need adjustment to maintain accuracy across various query formats

Google’s spokesperson defended the system, stating that users can find diverse viewpoints if they scroll beyond initial results.

The company also highlighted features like “About this result” that help users evaluate information sources.

Recommendations

Based on these findings, publishers should take the following actions:

  • Develop comprehensive content that remains accurate regardless of how queries are phrased.
  • Recognize the impact of search intent on the selection of Featured Snippets.
  • Track how your content is displayed in Featured Snippets for different search phrases.

As Google moves toward becoming an “answer engine” with AI-generated responses, digital marketers and content creators need to understand these limitations.

Featured Image: Song_about_summer/Shutterstock

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Nov 4 2024
ChatGPT Search Indexing: Essential Steps For Websites via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

As the availability of ChatGPT Search expands, understanding its indexing mechanics will be vital for digital visibility.

While Bing’s index plays a key role, OpenAI’s system surfaces content using its own crawlers and attribution methods.

Here is a breakdown of the technical requirements for ensuring your website is indexed correctly.

Technical Framework

ChatGPT Search combines Bing’s search index with OpenAI’s proprietary technology.

According to OpenAI’s technical documentation, the platform utilizes a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, enhanced with synthetic data generation techniques and integration with their o1-preview system.

The platform employs three distinct crawlers, each serving different purposes.

The OAI-SearchBot serves as the primary crawler for search functionality, while ChatGPT-User handles real-time user requests and enables direct interaction with external applications.

The third crawler, GPTBot, manages AI model training and can be blocked without affecting search visibility.

Implementation

Proper indexing begins with robots.txt configuration.

Your website’s robots.txt should specifically allow OAI-SearchBot while maintaining separate permissions for different OpenAI crawlers.

In addition to this basic configuration, websites must ensure proper indexing by Bing and maintain a clear site architecture.

It’s worth noting that allowing OAI-SearchBot doesn’t automatically mean the content will be used for AI training.

It can take approximately 24 hours for OpenAI’s systems to adjust to new crawling directives after a site’s robots.txt update.

Content Attribution

ChatGPT Search includes several key features for content publishers:

  • Source Attribution: All referenced content includes proper citation
  • Source Sidebar: Provides reference links for verification
  • Multiple Citation Opportunities: A single query can generate multiple source citations
  • Locations: Searches for specific locations will return an interactive map, as shown below.
Image Credit: OpenAI

Additional Considerations

Recent testing has revealed several important factors:

  • Content freshness affects visibility
  • Pages behind paywalls can still be cited
  • URLs returning 404 errors may still appear in citations
  • Multiple pages from the same domain can be referenced in a single response

Recommendations

Indexing in ChatGPT requires ongoing attention to technical health, including regular verification of the robots.txt file and crawler access.

Publishers should prioritize maintaining factual accuracy and up-to-date information while implementing a clear content structure.

This ensures that pages remain accessible across traditional search engines and AI-powered platforms, helping websites achieve broader visibility.

Featured Image: designkida/Shutterstock

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Nov 4 2024
OpenAI Reddit AMA And SEO For ChatGPT Search via @sejournal, @martinibuster

CEO Sam Altman and OpenAI executives held a Reddit AMA to answer questions, including those about ChatGPT Search, providing an inside look at how it works. Their answers offer insights into what SEO may look like in the immediate future.

The people from OpenAI answering the questions:

  • Sam Altman, CEO
  • Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer
  • Mark Chen, SVP of Research
  • ​​Srinivas Narayanan, VP Engineering

Why ChatGPT Search Is Important

ChatGPT Search is not a search engine, it’s an AI chatbot with search, which means it doesn’t compete with Google as a search engine, it simply replaces it with something else that people already use for work and play. Now it has additional utility as an assistant in daily life and search.

Another advantage to ChatGPT Search is that it doesn’t show advertising nor does it follow users around the Internet. Users already trust ChatGPT with personal and business information so it’s already has goodwill with users.

What makes ChatGPT Search a threat to Google is that Users are already familiar with ChatGPT and have good feelings about it. Because it’s already in use there is no switching away from Google to break the habit of searching with Google.

Sam Altman On Why ChatGPT Search Is Better

In the Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, a Redditor asked OpenAI CEO what the value of ChatGPT Search is over other search engines.

The person asked:

“My question is about the value ChatGPT Search offers compared to popular search engines. What are the unique advantages or key differentiators of ChatGPT Search that would make it worthwhile for a typical search engine user to choose it?

Sam Altman answered:

“For many queries, I find it to be a way faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for. I think we’ll see this especially for queries that require more complex research. I also look forward to a future where a search query can dynamically render a custom web page in response!”

That bit about a “custom web page” is something to look out for because it hints at personalization based on what a user is searching for.

Complex Queries Are ChatGPT’s Advantage

Altman’s response about ChatGPT Search’s handling of complex queries calls attention to an advantage over Google. ChatGPT users are accustomed to using natural language, whereas Google users habitually use keyword searches. Keyword searches disadvantages Google because it’s harder to understand those queries, which is why Google displays People Also Ask features in Search.

Natural language queries is the way users interact with ChatGPT and that is an advantage for ChatGPT Search.

Grounding For Better Answers

The next question was about OpenAI’s progress on preventing ChatGPT from making things up (aka hallucinations) and also about how it’s going to incorporate fresh data to the index.

Both problems are generally approached with a technology and technique called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) which selects data from an up to date database like a search index or a knowledge graph and then provides that to the LLM-based chatbot to summarize and use as a base for an answer.

This is the question:

“Are hallucinations going to be a permanent feature? Why is it that even o1-preview, when approaching the end of a “thought” hallucinates more and more?

How will you handle old data (even 2-years old) that is now no longer “true”? Continuously train models or some sort of garbage collection? It’s a big issue in the truthfulness aspect.”

The answer was given by Mark Chen, SVP of Research

“We’re putting a lot of focus on decreasing hallucinations, but it’s a fundamentally hard problem – our models learn from human-written text, and humans sometimes confidently declare things they aren’t sure about.”

Mark Chen continued his answer by saying that they are getting better by the use of “grounding” which is something that Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) helps large language models with. Chen also reveals that they believe that using Reinforcement Learning (RL) may help models stop hallucinating.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a way to teach a machine with experience, rewarding it when it’s correct and withholding the reward when it’s not correct, thus reinforcing good answers. The machine “learns” by making choices that maximizes rewards. In the context of hallucinations, a reward could be a score or signal that indicates that the answer is factual (and it could also be provided by human feedback scores).

Mark Chen continued his response:

“Our models are improving at citing, which grounds their answers in trusted sources, and we also believe that RL will help with hallucinations as well – when we can programmatically check whether models hallucinate, we can reward it for not doing so.”

Does ChatGPT Search Use Bing?

The next question is about what search data does ChatGPT Search use.

The question asked:

“Is ChatGPT Search still using Bing as the search engine behind scenes?”

The answer was provided by Rinivas Narayanan, VP Engineering at OpenAI:

“We use a set of services and Bing is an important one.”

That’s an interesting answer because it’s commonly assumed that Bing is the only search engine. The answer indicated that ChatGPT Search uses multiple “services” and that Bing is the most important. What are the other services that ChatGPT might use? That’s an open question.

What Does OpenAI Say About SEO For ChatGPT Search?

Someone asked the important question about how to optimize content for ChatGPT Search in order to improve rankings. The question was answered by Kevin Weill who said that they were still figuring it out, which could mean that they don’t know or that they’re still figuring out what to say about optimization.

Kevin Weill, Chief Product Officer responded:

“This is a great question—the product just launched today so there’s a lot to figure out still about where search will be similar and where it will be different in an AI world. Would love any feedback you have!”

Takeaways – SEO For ChatGPT Search

Chief Product Officer Kevin Weill is right, these are still the early days of their search and much can still change. The OpenAI Reddit AMA offers first hints at what SEO is growing into.

Other insights:

  • Bing is the main service ChatGPT Search uses but there are other services it uses as well. That makes Bing an important search engine to rank in.
  • ChatGPT users are accustomed to natural language interactions and may during the course of their work day use ChatGPT Search.
  • OpenAI may use Reinforcement Learning at some point to get a better handle on hallucinations.
  • Personalization may be arriving at some point in the future in the form of a dynamically rendered web page.

Beyond those takeaways is the consideration that OpenAI is not directly competing against Google with a standalone search engine, it has created a completely different experience for searching the web.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Vitor Miranda

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Nov 1 2024
Google Updates Crawl Budget Best Practices via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google has updated its crawl budget guidelines, stressing the need to maintain consistent link structures between mobile and desktop websites.

  • Large websites must ensure mobile versions contain all desktop links or risk slower page discovery.
  • The update mainly impacts sites with over 10,000 pages or those experiencing indexing issues.
  • Link structure consistency across mobile and desktop is now a Google-recommended best practice for crawl budget optimization.
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