ChatGPT SEO: What Carries Over From Google and What Doesn't
ChatGPT SEO is the work of getting your business found, cited and named when ChatGPT answers a buyer's question, and it builds on your Google SEO while changing which crawler you let in, which questions you answer and how you measure.
Assuming a good Google ranking covers you can cost you buyers. In Ahrefs' study of 15,000 long-tail prompts, published in August 2025, only 12% of the links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, on average, appeared in Google's top 10 for the same prompt. A buyer can ask ChatGPT who to hire, get a confident answer that cites other businesses, and never see the page you rank with.
Key points
- Many pages ranking for "ChatGPT SEO" teach you to use ChatGPT as a writing tool. Getting your business cited in ChatGPT's answers is a separate job.
- Google rankings still help, though Ahrefs found they help "not necessarily for the queries you might assume."
- Three things change: the crawler you allow (OAI-SearchBot), the questions you write pages for, and what you track.
What does "ChatGPT SEO" mean?
ChatGPT SEO has two meanings. Many of the articles ranking for the term use it for prompting ChatGPT to do SEO tasks, like drafting meta descriptions or brainstorming keywords. The meaning that brings in customers is the other one. It means making your pages easy for ChatGPT to find, cite and name when a buyer asks it a question about your service.
This article covers the second meaning, with one section on the first. Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode can cite different sources for the same question, so test each one separately.
Does ranking on Google get you cited in ChatGPT?
Sometimes, and less often than a good ranking suggests. In Ahrefs' overlap study, the 12% figure is an average across ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, measured against Google's top 10 for the original prompt. Perplexity was the outlier, with nearly one in three of its citations pointing to pages in the top 10 for the target query. Ahrefs notes it collected the data in early July, so results may have changed.
The reason is how these engines search. Ahrefs explains that they tend to retrieve pages based on multiple variations of the buyer's query, a technique called query fan-out, and that they may never search for the exact prompt the user typed. So the page you rank with for "furnace repair" may never be retrieved when a buyer asks a narrower question such as which company can fix a furnace that won't ignite.
Ahrefs' own conclusion: "ranking well does help, but not necessarily for the queries you might assume you'd need to rank well for." So keep your Google work, and add pages or sections that answer the narrow follow-up questions buyers actually ask.
What carries over from Google SEO, and what changes?
| Google SEO habit | Does it carry over to ChatGPT? | What to do for ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Letting Googlebot crawl your site | Partly. ChatGPT search has its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot | Allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and in your firewall |
| Blocking AI training crawlers | It's a separate setting | GPTBot covers model training, and OpenAI says each setting is independent, so you can block GPTBot and still allow OAI-SearchBot |
| One main keyword per page | Partly | Answer the narrow variations a buyer's question breaks into, each in a page or headed section |
| Tracking your Google position | No | Track whether ChatGPT names you and cites your page across repeated runs of the same question |
| Ranking on Google | Yes, for different queries than you'd guess | Find out which follow-up questions your rankings actually cover |
| Specific, accurate pages | Yes | Write down your service area, what's included and how to book, so there's something on your page to cite |
Check the first row before anything else, because OpenAI states its effect plainly. OpenAI's crawler documentation says "Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers," though they can still appear as navigational links. If you fix a block, OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours from a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust for search results. The full access check, including the firewall, is in our five-check teardown.
Should you use ChatGPT to write your SEO content?
You can, within Google's rules. Google Search Central's guidance on generative AI content says "Generative AI can be particularly useful when researching a topic, and to add structure to original content." The same page warns that using these tools to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate Google's spam policy on scaled content abuse, and tells site owners to focus on accuracy, quality and relevance. That review covers metadata too, including title elements and meta descriptions.
In practice, let ChatGPT draft and outline, then check every fact and price against your own records before it goes live, so you don't publish a wrong detail an engine later repeats. Our sister site lists what to fact-check in AI-written content under Google's guidelines.
How do you check where you stand in ChatGPT today?
When you finish, you'll have one sheet that shows, for each buyer question, whether ChatGPT named you, whether it linked your page, and which pages it cited instead.
- Open your robots.txt and confirm OAI-SearchBot isn't blocked.
- Write the questions buyers ask before they hire you, plus the narrow follow-ups about cost, timing and what's included.
- Ask each question in a fresh chat, more than once, and log every run.
- Open the pages ChatGPT cited and read them next to your own.
- Change one thing on your page, then rerun the same questions the same way.
Hypothetical example: a heating and cooling company ranks on Google's first page for "furnace repair" in its town. The owner asks ChatGPT which company to call for a furnace that won't ignite, in 10 fresh chats. ChatGPT names the company in 2 of them and cites a directory and two competitors' pages in the rest. Both competitor pages answer the no-ignition question in their first paragraph, and the owner's page doesn't mention it. The change to test is a headed section that answers that question in its first sentence, followed by the same 10 runs.
The step-by-step logging method is in how to test what ChatGPT cites.
Is ChatGPT SEO worth it for a local business?
If your buyers research before they call, it's worth checking. ChatGPT had been adopted by around 10% of the world's adult population by July 2025, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. The same paper found "Practical Guidance," "Seeking Information" and "Writing" were the three most common topics, together accounting for nearly 80% of all conversations.
The likely objections have plain answers. Cost: the check above needs a ChatGPT account, a spreadsheet and your time. Risk: no one outside OpenAI controls which page ChatGPT cites, so treat any promise of placement as a warning sign. Fit: if your buyers rarely compare options before they call, start with the robots.txt check alone, and run the full test once you hear buyers say they asked ChatGPT.
Before you rewrite a page or pay anyone, read Vector Index's guide to ranking in ChatGPT. It shows the mix of sources ChatGPT drew on for a sample of local buying questions, from a city government page to the Better Business Bureau, and explains why that set changes with every question, so your ChatGPT SEO starts from a measured baseline instead of a guess.
FAQ
Is ChatGPT SEO different from regular SEO?
It builds on it. Crawlable, accurate pages still matter. What changes is the crawler you allow, the narrower questions you write for, and what you track.
Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing results?
Ahrefs notes that ChatGPT's built-in search provider is Bing, yet in its August 2025 study it wasn't seeing much difference in how ChatGPT surfaces Google and Bing results. Ranking on either one doesn't guarantee a citation.
Will Google penalize content I write with ChatGPT?
Google says generative AI can help with research and structure. Its warning is about generating many pages without adding value for users, which may violate its scaled content abuse policy. Check every fact before you publish.
How long until a robots.txt fix reaches ChatGPT search?
OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours from a robots.txt update for its systems to adjust for search results. Wait at least that long before you rerun your ChatGPT SEO test questions.