With the emergence of ChatGPT Search (or SearchGPT), the search engine developed by OpenAISEO practices are changing. This new tool, powered by generative artificial intelligence models, offers SEO agencies and others SEO professionals a new opportunity to position yourself effectively and generate qualified traffic, thanks in particular to quotations in your answers.
While not all the subtleties of how it works have yet been revealed, there are a few best practices you can adopt to improve your SearchGPT ranking. Here's what we know.
Understanding how ChatGPT Search works
ChatGPT Search combinesMicrosoft Bing search index and a artificial intelligence developed by OpenAI, which integrates the latest language models, GPT-4o and o1-preview.
ChatGPT Search uses AI models to understand and generate answers to user queries in natural language. Unlike traditional search engines, it doesn't just index web pages, but interprets the context of queries to provide accurate, relevant answers. The main objective is therefore to make your content understandable to these models, so that it is deemed relevant.
To appear well on Search GPT, it's essential to understand that AI seeks to satisfy the user's intentions, often looking to provide complete answers directly. This means that content that comprehensively answers specific questions and is clearly written has a better chance of being promoted.
Promote site indexing on ChatGPT Search
According to, OpenAI technical documentationChatGPT Search uses three main crawlers:
- OAI-SearchBot The main crawler for content indexing, optimizing site visibility on ChatGPT Search.
- ChatGPT-User This crawler responds to user requests in real time and facilitates interaction with external applications.
- GPTBot : Intended for training AI models, this crawler can be blocked without affecting the ranking of sites in searches.
To maximize your visibility, it is essential to authorize the OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User crawlers to access your content via the robots.txt. You can, however, block GPTBot if you don't want your content to be used to train models.
When updating your robots.txtHowever, it can take up to 24 hours for ChatGPT Search's systems to take this change into account.
Ensuring good indexing on Bing
ChatGPT Search is part of the Microsoft Bing index, so it's also essential to make sure your site is listed on Bing.
Optimizing your content for ChatGPT Search's natural language
GPT models are based on natural language understanding. Here are some tips for optimizing your content:
- Write clear, concise and relevant content Make sure your articles directly answer users' questions. Search intent must be at the heart of your strategy. Think of each page as an answer to a question or query.
- Use conversational keywords Web users often ask complete questions (e.g. "how to improve SEO for Search GPT") rather than short keywords. Tailor your content to answer these queries. Answer questions as they would be asked in natural language.
- Create high value-added content AI models can detect redundancy and superficial content. Produce content that is useful, original and brings a unique perspective to your visitors.
- Take care with your titles and subtitles Use H1, H2 and H3 to structure your content clearly, making it easier for AI models to understand. Titles should contain relevant yet natural keywords.
Creating reliable, relevant content
To position yourself on ChatGPT Search, content reliability is essential. OpenAI claims to pay particular attention to the quality and credibility of sources, which is crucial to avoid the problems of misinformation and hallucinations sometimes associated with AI. To maximize your chances :
- Cite your sources Make sure you clearly reference reliable sources when producing content. This will help establish your page's credibility.
- Get external endorsements : Being quoted by other media, recognized sites or on social networks is an asset. The more your content is relayed, the more likely it is to be perceived as trustworthy.
- Update your content regularly Information must be relevant and up-to-date. This is especially true if you're dealing with recent topics or hot news.
Adapt your content to the context and intent of your users
Search GPT's AI seeks to understand the context behind each query. This means it's essential to optimize your content for different search intents, whether informational, transactional or navigational.
- Create specific pages for each type of intention For example, a well-optimized product page for those wishing to buy, and a comprehensive guide for those in the information-seeking phase.
- Use FAQs : Adding FAQ sections to your pages can improve their relevance to natural language searches.
Optimizing your content for Bing and ChatGPT Search
At Daware, we've seen a correlation between Bing and ChatGPT Search results, which is why it's so important to follow Bing's own optimization best practices. If you've already worked on the SEO of your content on Bing, you're well on your way to ranking well on ChatGPT Search. Here are some optimization best practices for Bing that are also valid for ChatGPT Search:
- Create content for users : Your priority should remain the creation of quality content that meets your visitors' expectations, rather than focusing solely on algorithms.
- Offer unique content : Your content must be original, and not duplicate that of other sites.
- Use optimized media The inclusion of original images and videos improves user engagement. Don't forget to add alt text for accessibility and optimize page load speed by using appropriate formats.
- Avoid bad SEO practices Like Google, Bing warns against unethical strategies such as cloaking, duplicate content and link buying.
Create content adapted to direct responses ("Zero-click search")
The aim of ChatGPT Search is to provide direct, clear answers, without forcing the user to click on a link to obtain an answer. To maximize your presence in these response snippets :
- Provide clear, concise answers Place a direct answer at the beginning of your content. Provide succinct, direct answers at the top of your pages to increase your chances of being featured in an enriched extract.
- Use bulleted lists or tables These formats are often used in enriched extracts, as they make it easier to summarize information.
Exploiting structured data and markup
Structured data plays an important role in the indexing and understanding of your content by search engines. To optimize your site on ChatGPT Search :
- Use Schema.org tags Markup patterns help to describe the content of your page, making it easier for AI models to understand. For example, for articles, use the "Article" tag.
- Strengthen your About page and your contact pages Include information on your certifications, articles published on other platforms and links to external contributions, all with the appropriate structured data. This helps reinforce E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust), an increasingly important criterion in SEO.
- Highlight customer reviews, testimonials and case studies to reinforce your site's credibility. AIs often consider these elements as signals of trust. Structured "review" data helps search engines to understand these reviews and the associated ratings.
Think local SEO
ChatGPT Search offers an interactive map for local searches. If you have a local establishment, make sure it is well referenced in online rankings or in regional press articles, as this helps boost its visibility on the platform.
Highlighting E-E-A-T to optimize your referencing
To rank well on ChatGPT Search, it is crucial to highlight :
- Your expertise Publish detailed articles, tutorials and case studies to demonstrate your expertise in your field.
- Your experience Share personal anecdotes, concrete examples and projects you've completed.
- The authority Accumulate quality backlinks by being mentioned on reliable sites. The quality of these backlinks is taken into account by the AI to assess the relevance of your content.
- Confidence Make sure your site is secure (with a suitable SSL certificate), provide clear contact information and work on transparency of information (complete legal disclaimer).
Measure and adjust your ChatGPT Search SEO strategy
SEO on Search GPT is evolving rapidly. To stay successful on ChatGPT Search, it's important to monitor your results and adapt:
- Performance monitoring : Use analysis tools compatible with ChatGPT Search to evaluate your positioning.
- Experiment Test different formats, such as short videos and enriched content, and identify those that best meet users' needs.
- Keep up to date with best practices Follow developments in AI algorithms and SEO by reading blogs (our blog on traffic acquisition for example 🙃), taking part in webinars or talking to SEO experts.
Conclusion
Optimizing your site for ChatGPT Search involves combining traditional SEO strategies with an approach adapted to artificial intelligence models. By focusing on the quality of your content, the reliability of your sources, and providing accurate answers to users' questions, you'll maximize your chances of appearing well on this new platform. Those who can adapt quickly to these new technologies will be the first to benefit.
Ready to improve your SEO on ChatGPT Search? Contact Us to apply all these best practices and track your results to get the most out of this AI platform.
