SearchGPT: Is It the Future of Online Research?

The arrival of SearchGPT in the search engine domain has been explosive. People are increasingly asking whether this new contender will dethrone the current champion: Google.

This question is particularly relevant as Google already has a similar tool in deployment, formerly known as Google SGE, now rebranded as AI Overview, which faced some setbacks early on and disappointed users.

What is SearchGPT?
SearchGPT is OpenAI’s brand-new search engine that combines features of traditional search engines with conversational artificial intelligence.

Its functionalities are essentially similar to those of ChatGPT, with which it shares a common interface:

• Conversational space
• Direct answers
• Follow-up questions

The main difference between the two tools lies in their ability to interact with the web. SearchGPT continuously interacts with the web, enabling access to fresh and updated data. Each generated response is sourced, allowing users to easily access the cited websites. If users want more information, SearchGPT will also provide a selection of natural results, similar to Google.

How to Access SearchGPT?
To use SearchGPT, follow these simple steps:

1. Log in to your ChatGPT account.
2. Once in the interface, click on the planet-shaped icon on the left, below your text space.
3. Write your query and press “Enter.” Depending on the query, SearchGPT will generate a response, accompanied by a button to access the “contributor” sites.

If needed, at the bottom of SearchGPT’s response, there is also a button labeled “Sources.” Clicking on it opens a sidebar displaying all the “Citations,” or contributing sites. Under these citations, in a section titled “More,” you will find a list of additional sites offering related content on the raised topic.

OpenAI has implemented all necessary means to ensure SearchGPT’s success. It has ensured that its new search tool combines user-friendliness and content reliability to enhance user experience. The question remains whether the technology will keep pace and if the chosen business model will enable this innovation to carve out a place in the ultra-competitive search engine market.

The SearchGPT Model
The Commercial Promise of SearchGPT
As of now, OpenAI has opted to make its search engine service free. Since December 16, all ChatGPT users can freely access SearchGPT. The interface remains devoid of advertisements, but like ChatGPT, there is a limit on the number of daily free queries.

However, the business model chosen for ChatGPT was already not profitable. Despite a strong year-over-year revenue growth, profits have not followed suit. In 2024, the company could see losses amounting to $5 billion.

This raises a significant question: will OpenAI change its compensation system for its search engine?

• Freemium Hypothesis: This model would allow users with a paid subscription to be (similar to what YouTube offers) exempt from advertisements. Free users could receive unlimited answers in a space subject to sponsored ads.
• Plain “Free” Hypothesis: This model argues that it would be complex to charge users for a service they previously accessed for free. The model advocated here is similar to that used by other search engines: 100% unlimited, 100% free, 100% “you are the product!”

However, these last two hypotheses would contradict a point often touted as a brand asset: the absence of advertisements. The introduction of ads on the search engine would require revising the marketing argument advocating for an “ad-free” space more conducive to learning and more objective in its results (especially on commercial queries).

Today, beyond the innovative system offered by contextual AI, which understands search intent and provides clear and synthesized answers to posed questions—this is the very concept of this revolutionary tool—the brand’s promotional pitch includes:

• Increased Transparency: Through the systematic citation of sources used in generating answers, ensuring greater visibility for contributors to the provided responses.
• Better Respect for Press Rights: First, through the respect for paywalls in generated responses, and also through the citation system described above.
• Reliable Results: Through partnerships with major press names, including Associated Press, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Dotdash Meredith, Financial Times, GEDI, Hearst, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, and Vox Media, as well as Le Monde as a French media partner. SearchGPT also limits AI hallucinations in its results through retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which I will elaborate on later in the article.

The Technology Behind SearchGPT
To meet its commercial promises, OpenAI relies on what it knows best: the GPT-4 language model. This proprietary technology allows for understanding queries within a specific framework and context and generating relevant responses based on the established context, mimicking human language. It is thus GPT-4 that enables SearchGPT to understand you, respond in intelligible language, and “keep track” of the conversation.

The company has chosen to combine this technology, which it owns, with a technique known from conversational search engines like AI Overview and Perplexity.

To limit the hallucinations of its AI and thus ensure reliable responses, SearchGPT employs retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). This technique combines two different AI systems: a retrieval AI and a generation AI, enabling real-time data collection and the generation of precise responses.

Additionally, to ensure the reliability of the responses provided to users, SearchGPT bases its answers on reliable partners. Firstly, to gain efficiency and provide exhaustive responses, OpenAI’s new search engine has opted not to create its own index. Instead, it relies on Bing, which allows its search engine to achieve speed, relevance, and freshness of information when selecting data and generating its answers.

Moreover, strategic partnerships with press and major media were established. These partnerships enable SearchGPT to offer reliable and high-quality content to its users. However, the partnership does not guarantee media articles will appear during searches, thus ensuring the objectivity of the generated responses.

Will SearchGPT Dethrone Google?
This is the burning question on everyone’s lips: can this new AI-powered rookie in search engines challenge the undisputed leader, Google?

It may seem like an odd question: after all, Google commands nearly 91% of the global search engine market share and 86% in France, and this leadership hasn’t shifted for years.

However, on its part, OpenAI, with ChatGPT, has witnessed impressive growth since the release in 2022. ChatGPT has completely revolutionized our usage patterns and is now part of our daily lives. Many people use it as an alternative to conventional search engines, and its traffic has already surpassed that of Bing. It would not be surprising if the little brother follows a similar path and outperforms its elder sibling, as SearchGPT has been specifically developed to be a search engine.

Are We Witnessing the End of Blue Links?
Some seem to think so and have chosen to withdraw their investments following the announcement of SearchGPT’s release last July, causing a drop in Alphabet’s stock, Google’s parent company.

Nonetheless, it is currently impossible to clearly identify a decisive trend in user behavior regarding the future of both companies, as no figures have been disclosed.

Comparing SearchGPT and Google Results
Our analysis will thus solely rely on the user experience provided by both platforms.

It’s worth noting, however, the method employed for this comparison: we posed the same queries to both search engines.

The functioning of Google differs from that of SearchGPT: long-tail questions phrased in “natural language” do not align with conventional user search methods on Google.

Consequently, the chosen phrasing for this test is likely to favor SearchGPT.

SearchGPT vs. AI Overview: Will There Be a Winner?
AI Overviews have only just been released and are already facing competition: Perplexity, Claude, and now SearchGPT. Despite a name change and a rocky launch, AI Overview is now integrated into Google in over a hundred countries.

Close to the SearchGPT model, AI Overview provides synthetic answers to user questions directly in Google’s SERP. However, this tool has still not been deployed in Europe, complicating a comparative analysis.

Feedback from US users indicates that SearchGPT offers better attribution for the sites and content generated in its interface, positively impacting clicks compared to the tool provided by Google.

Thus, while we cannot guarantee a winner in the battle between Google and SearchGPT, we observe a trend towards the integration of generative artificial intelligence in search engines: AI Overview, Perplexity, Copilot…

Even if SearchGPT were to cease operations tomorrow, other AI-based search engines would emerge. So why not embrace this change today?

How to Be GPT-Friendly: SEO Optimizations to Implement
As of now, no “SEO” guidelines have been issued by AI Overview. However, professionals in SEO are prioritizing considerations for a dedicated optimization methodology for the SearchGPT search engine.

Validate Your Indexability on Bing:
Before optimizing your content or any other SEO elements on your website, ensure that your site is indexable on Bing. As a reminder, SearchGPT uses Bing’s index to generate its responses. A good position in this index naturally enhances your appearance in SearchGPT results.

To help validate your website’s indexability, Bing offers its own tool: Bing Webmaster Tools, which includes a URL inspector.

How to Write for SearchGPT?

Select the Right Keywords:
Unlike Google, SearchGPT offers a conversational interface, and its AI can understand the context of user questions while maintaining the conversation. This differentiating mode of operation should create new semantic opportunities for SEO professionals. New pages based on long-tail keywords in natural language can thus be considered by brands looking to optimize their content for these new search engines.

Provide Quality Articles:
What constitutes a quality article for SearchGPT? Similar to Google, a quality article must meet search intent. This concept will be even more significant on SearchGPT thanks to its AI’s ability to “understand” the context of a query. However, unlike Alphabet’s giant, SearchGPT tends to favor multidimensional articles. Hence, simply multiplying articles with different angles will not suffice. The AI needs to consume more information to create comprehensive summaries, anticipating future searches by users. For technical subjects, it has been noted that OpenAI’s search engine tends to favor content that includes usable information and concrete examples (especially in technology) to be as pedagogical as possible for users.

Use Natural Language:
As requested by Google with the announcement of AI Overview, the texts should be written in natural language, close to a conversational tone, rather than in a conventional style. The goal is to adopt accessible language for all while avoiding vulgarity and structural chaos. Just because the tone of dialogue is prioritized does not mean that hierarchy should be neglected: good text structuring retains its importance, whether or not Google is part of the landscape.

Collaborate with Trusted Partners: The Importance of Popularity:
One area not to be overlooked in your SEO strategies is popularity. While challenging to work on and sometimes bordering on the forbidden, it remains essential. It is understandable that SearchGPT developers are concerned about the reliability of results. This same lack of reliability undermined AI Overview when it was released. To avoid this pitfall, while SearchGPT has established agreements with the press, it may also require sites wishing to appear in its results to demonstrate their credibility.

Reassuring the AI regarding the reliability of your domain could thus become a key strategy for SEO professionals: EEAT, quality referring domains, etc. Everything must be done to prove your authority on the topics you address. Note: In the e-commerce field, SearchGPT shows a tendency to favor product comparisons. In a push for transparency and reliability, it seems unlikely that brand sites will be favored. Thus, it may be more prudent to invest in articles published on specialized sites rather than seeking to directly promote product listings on your sites.

Schema Markup, Structured Data: Improve AI Understanding:
Structured data is a tool we already used to help Google’s robots categorize information. They function similarly for SearchGPT. To assist it in classifying elements on your site, ensure these tags are well defined:

• Article
• FAQ
• Author
• Product
• Organization
• Image
• and any other data useful for your site

Quality Images to Enhance Value with SearchGPT:
SearchGPT not only understands your intentions but also the content of your images. It is thus essential to provide high-quality visuals that SearchGPT can leverage in generating its responses to users. This observation is especially true for technical subjects: combining the facts and examples from your articles with diagrams and infographics to aid understanding could enhance your visibility in this new search engine.

It can be deduced that, like Google, SearchGPT appreciates varied content on a page. Therefore, it is recommended to use ,

to attract the attention of SearchGPT’s robots to your content. Far from being revolutionary, SEO for SearchGPT relies heavily on Google’s guidelines while offering a few specificities, particularly in the treatment of semantics and popularity. The emerging keyword for this new search engine seems to be “reliability.” Thus, it will be crucial to establish your authority as a domain with the new crawlers of SearchGPT.

How to Track Your SearchGPT Performance?
Currently, there is no specific tool dedicated to tracking SearchGPT. This complicates the follow-up of its evolution on OpenAI’s search engine. While we could anticipate that the positioning of pages may lose importance, it remains helpful to know your impression rate or, if not, your click rate in this new environment. If tracking impressions is still complex, click tracking is accessible via Google Analytics. Although subject to cookie consent, this tracking does not precisely reflect reality but gives you an idea of trends related to your performance.

To access this data in Google Analytics 4, follow these steps:

1/ Go to > Lifecycle Report> Acquisition > User Acquisition.

2/ Click on the button to add filters, uncheck the “All users” box, select the “Traffic generated by referring sites and affiliates” box, and then click on “Apply”.

3/ Uncheck the “All users” box, select the “Traffic generated by referring sites and affiliates” box, and then click “Apply”.

4/ In the first column of the table, open the drop-down menu and select “User’s first source”.

You will already be able to observe the number of visits to your site from SearchGPT.

5/ To go further, click on the “+” button in the first column, then select “Page/screen” and “Landing page + query string”.

So, you will be able to view the landing pages of users coming from SearchGPT.