A client of yours searches Google for "best accounting software for freelancers." They see ten results, click three, compare features, and eventually make a decision.
Another client asks SearchGPT the same question. They get one answer. Three tools recommended, with explanations of why each fits different needs. Source links at the bottom. Decision made in under a minute.
Both clients had the same question. But the second one never visited a single website to form their opinion. The AI did it for them.
What SearchGPT is (and isn't)
SearchGPT is OpenAI's dedicated search product. It's different from ChatGPT's browsing feature, which was more of an add-on. SearchGPT is built from the ground up to compete with Google as a search engine.
The experience is conversational. You type a query, get a synthesized answer with inline citations, and can ask follow-up questions to refine the results. It's not a chatbot that happens to search. It's a search engine that happens to use AI.
The distinction matters because it signals OpenAI's intent. They're not just building a better chatbot. They're building an alternative to Google search itself. And with ChatGPT's massive user base as a distribution channel, adoption has been faster than most people expected.
For content creators and businesses, this creates a new discovery surface. People who would have searched Google are now searching SearchGPT. Your content either shows up in those answers or it doesn't.
How SearchGPT selects and cites sources
SearchGPT crawls the web in real time for each query. Unlike ChatGPT's training data, which has a knowledge cutoff, SearchGPT accesses current information and cites its sources directly.
The citation model is actually more transparent than Google's in some ways. Each claim in the response links to a specific source. Users can see where the information came from and click through if they want more depth. This is different from Google AI Overviews, which sometimes synthesize without clear attribution.
What gets selected? The patterns are emerging.
Authoritative, specific content ranks well. If you've published a detailed comparison of accounting software with real pricing data and honest pros/cons, SearchGPT is more likely to cite you than a generic "top 10" listicle that just scrapes features from product pages.
Recent content gets priority for time-sensitive queries. SearchGPT is pulling live results, so it naturally favors fresh information. That article you updated last week has a better chance than the one you published two years ago and forgot about.
Domain authority still matters, but differently. SearchGPT doesn't use Google's PageRank algorithm, but it does evaluate source credibility. Sites that are frequently cited by other sources, have established expertise in their field, and maintain consistent, high-quality content get preferential treatment.
Structured, extractable content helps. When your content is organized with clear headings, specific data points, and unambiguous claims, the AI can easily pull relevant information and cite it accurately.
What this means for traditional SEO
Traditional SEO isn't dead. Google still processes billions of queries daily, and most of them still return traditional results. But the mix is shifting.
The queries most at risk are informational and comparison queries. "What is X?" "What's the best Y?" "How do I choose between A and B?" These are the queries SearchGPT handles well, and they're the queries where users are most likely to try an AI search instead of Google.
Transactional queries are more resilient. "Buy Nike Air Max size 10" will still go to Google (or directly to retailers) because the user knows exactly what they want. AI search is most disruptive for the messy middle of the funnel, where people are researching and comparing.
This means the content you've built for the consideration stage of the buyer's journey is the content most affected. Your comparison pages, your buying guides, your "best of" lists. These are being replaced by AI-generated answers that may or may not cite your content.
The citation economy
Here's the positive angle: when SearchGPT does cite you, the traffic is often higher quality.
Users who click a SearchGPT citation are actively choosing to go deeper on a topic the AI already summarized. They're not casually browsing. They want specifics, details, the full picture. This means they're further along in their decision process and more likely to convert.
Early data suggests that click-through rates from AI search citations are lower in volume but higher in conversion rate compared to traditional organic search. Fewer visitors, but better ones.
The question becomes: how do you consistently earn those citations?
Practical implications for your content
First, stop writing content that just aggregates information available everywhere else. SearchGPT can do that aggregation itself. What it can't do is generate original insights, proprietary data, or experience-based recommendations. That's where your content needs to live.
Second, be specific and quotable. Vague statements like "email marketing is important for businesses" give the AI nothing to cite. Specific claims like "our survey of 200 freelancers found that automated email sequences generated 40% of their revenue" give the AI something concrete and citable.
Third, maintain clear topical focus. Sites that try to cover everything tend to get cited less than sites with deep expertise in a specific area. If SearchGPT is looking for the best source on freelancer accounting, it's going to favor a site dedicated to freelancer finances over a generic business blog that covered the topic once.
Fourth, update your content regularly. SearchGPT pulls real-time results. Content with 2024 data will lose to content with 2026 data, even if the older content was more comprehensive when it was published.
The multi-platform reality
SearchGPT isn't the only AI platform answering these queries. Perplexity, Google's AI features, Claude, and Gemini are all doing variations of the same thing. Your potential customers are spreading across these platforms based on preference, habit, and context.
Optimizing for SearchGPT alone doesn't make sense. The good news is that the fundamentals, original content, clear positioning, third-party credibility, and specificity, work across all AI platforms. What makes you citable in SearchGPT also makes you recommendable in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the rest.
Tracking your visibility across these platforms is the first step. Tools like Mentionable let you see whether AI platforms are recommending you for the queries that matter to your business, so you know where you stand and where to focus.
What to do this week
Pick five queries your ideal client would ask when looking for a solution like yours. Run them through SearchGPT. See what comes up. Note which competitors are being cited and what kind of content earns those citations.
Then look at your own content through that lens. Is it specific enough? Original enough? Well-structured enough for an AI to extract and cite?
The answers will tell you exactly where to focus your energy. SearchGPT is growing fast, and the businesses that adapt their content strategy now will be in a much stronger position than those who wait for the traffic drop to force the issue.
