What Is SearchGPT, and How Does It Affect Your Business?

What is SearchGPT? SearchGPT is an AI-powered search engine developed by OpenAI to give users an interactive search experience with the web.

SearchGPT has given users an alternative to using traditional search engines like Google and Bing. While the traditional options allow the user to be explorative and provide links to the user, SearchGPT will give the answer, immediately.

Jump to a question you might have:

• What does SearchGPT do?
• How to use SearchGPT?
• What’s the difference between Google and SearchGPT?
• What are the alternatives to SearchGPT?
• How does SearchGPT affect my rankings?

At this stage, there are also no ads, no subscription, no fuss. Just a straightforward answer from an AI-powered answer engine.

What does SearchGPT do?

AI search provides users with concise, clean summaries for their searches. Users can find out what sites are cited by clicking or using follow-up questions.

Features of SearchGPT include the following:

• Conversational interface: Users can engage one-on-one with the AI search. You can ask for follow-ups without having to remind it what you were talking about.
• AI-powered summaries: SearchGPT uses its ChatGPT-4 models to get concise, direct answers.
• Real-time responses: Traditional search engines rely on bots to scan the web, while SearchGPT scans it immediately, giving users up-to-date information.
• Visual results: SearchGPT can pull up images and videos, or integrate them into the summaries of questions asked by the user.

How to use SearchGPT

SearchGPT starts off very similar to any other search engine —you type your query into a search input box. From there, the answer engine will scan the web looking for the answer and then this is where things get unique.

Instead of arriving back to you with a page full of links, SearchGPT will either conversationally answer your questions, or pull through the information with the answer in it. On left will be a tab that you can access with more sources, if you want more information.  Alternatively, you can ask a follow-up question, to build off your previous search.

Currently, SearchGPT is on a limited prototype phase, with no official announcement to public release, but will probably only be in 2025. The tool is being tested with a small group of users and publishers who are giving feedback to OpenAI, the developers.

Once the features and systems are all refined, OpenAI will open it to the public. Like other answer engines, like Perplexity, SearchGPT is expected to offer AI search engine advertising.

Google search vs. SearchGPT comparison

Let’s take a closer look at the major differences between traditional search engines like Google and Bing, and compare it to answer search engines like SearchGPT.

Is SearchGPT better than Google?

Yes and no. These are two very different ways to search the web.

Google and traditional search engines give users results for their inquiries. Users can then explore the web for the answer they are looking for. SearchGPT is an answer search engine, which means it doesn’t give links, but a concise answer.

Google is incorporating elements of answer search engines into their home page as well, with Snippets. The Snippet box pulls text from websites into the box that relates to the inquiry. However, it does not retype or format the question into a conversation or give a summary of the source as SearchGPT does.

Alternatives to SearchGPT

Several AI search engines are popping up all over the place as AI technology advances and integrates more into our daily lives. However, much of the technology is still in the developmental phase, and we will only see it rolled out in the next few years.

Here are the current alternatives to SearchGPT:

Perplexity AI

Perplexity AI is a conversational AI-driven search engine similar to SearchGPT. It is designed to answer user queries with quick, relevant responses. The results include inline citations and links to give the user transparency and reliability in their answers.

However, the quality of information depends heavily on the sources it pulls from, and, like most AI models, it may occasionally provide incorrect or incomplete answers.

ChatGPT by OpenAI

ChatpGPT is owned by the same company as SearchGPT and will share many of its features as time goes on. As the technology evolves, it will grow to include more extensive web-browsing capabilities in some subscription versions, but it will still keep its conversational focus.

ChatGPT also has a broader output, as it is capable of generative writing, coding support, and educational content. It can do so much more than deliver web results.

AI Overviews

Google’s AI Overviews is part of the Search Generative Experience (SGE), which enhances its traditional search results, similar to their Snippets. It gives users a concise answer by pulling from multiple sources and presenting it at the top of the search page.

Currently, Google doesn’t offer this feature worldwide but is testing the concept of creating a hybrid between traditional and AI-powered search results. It is a more static and less interactive result compared to other Answer Search options, but it does have Google’s well-established search algorithms behind it.

Do SearchGPT and answer engines affect my rankings and online presence?

SearchGPT and answer engines focus on giving users structured, clear, authoritative answers to user queries. Websites must start incorporating high-quality content that directly answers these long-tail keyword-type questions.

With websites now being considered experts or citations, it is important to build trust so that your site is considered reliable and knowledgeable within your industry.

Since AI search will give answers directly to users, more in-depth content or interactive tools should be created, so the user has to go to the site.

Alternatively, the content should offer additional value beyond the simple answer.

Get creative with your content

The world and the way we interact with it are changing, including your audience’s journey online. Users will have options to search the web, and your traffic will come from a multitude of sources, but only if your content is optimized for it, otherwise your website presence will sink to the bottom of the ranks.

Get your site optimized for all different channels by partnering up with WebFX.

Contact us at 888-601-5359, or contact us online today, to make sure you stay ranked, tomorrow!

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