What Does SearchGPT Mean for the Future of SEO?

Fair warning: This is not a walkthrough of SearchGPT, what it is, or how to adjust your marketing strategy for it.?

If you want to know more about this, check out this article I just posted on V9 Digital , which breaks it down a bit more.?

This is, instead, my take on what the heck is going on and why OpenAI is working to launch something called SearchGPT, especially when these darn AI overviews in Google Search seem to be a bit of a flop.

With over 90% of traditional Search Market Share , Google is the undisputed behemoth of traditional search and arguably isn’t going to lose ground to Bing, Yahoo! or Baidu any time soon.?

HOWEVER…?

Instead of traditional search engines like Bing gaining ground, we see searchers looking for solutions in other ways.??

For Example:

• Over 2 in 5 Americans use TikTok as a search engine - link
• ?YouTube has 2.49 billion monthly logged-in users, making it the second-biggest search engine globally - link
• Perplexity has had a 50% increase in users in just 2 months and is now up to 15 million active users - link
• Reddit has more than 267.5 million weekly active users - link
• 50% of product searches start on Amazon, not Google - link?

What Does This Mean??

IMO, a traditional, keyword-based search into a list of results isn’t always the best way for searchers to get the information they need. However, Google is a little stuck here because this model is more or less their main money maker.?

So, while Google will continue to invest in and build a moat around the best experience for typing in a keyword and getting relevant results, I predict that we will continue to see search fracture more and more, as users realize that other “search engines” are a more efficient starting place than a standard Google SERP.?

Does this mean SEO is dying??

I can’t imagine we’ll ever live in a world where SEO dies - consumers are always going to have questions they need answered and information they need to find.?

However, I do believe that SEO in general, is shifting & great SEO strategies have to look beyond traditional keyword optimization for Google rankings.?

I’ll actually steal a line I remember years ago that a colleague of mine, David Yarian said when a client asked about link building, and he said focus on where your customer would find you if Google didn’t exist.?

Great SEO strategies going forward will depend, more than ever, on understanding your target audience, where they go to find information, and the best way to optimize your brand and content to connect with them based on what they are looking for.?

That means capturing searchers in social channels like TikTok & Instagram, newer search engines like Perplexity or SearchGPT, forums like Reddit, or bigger focused marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, or Instacart.?

Neil Patel had a webinar today, and he said we’re moving to “Search Everywhere Optimization,” and I think that captures it pretty darn well.?

This was the graphic he showed in his presentation, and I think it's on point:

Also, final thoughts: If you are wondering what the heck to expect from SearchGPT and haven’t played around with Perplexity, this is my strong endorsement to go do that. :) Perplexity is the search engine I always wished I had, and I can 100% see why OpenAI is jumping on this before Perplexity gets any stronger of a foothold.?