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Many people are curious about SearchGPT. What effect does it have on SEO? What influence does it have on marketing? ChatGPT Search is going to change things.
Can we already predict how SearchGPT will work? No, the engineers behind it may decide to change things. Based on what we have seen so far, we can draw a few conclusions.
What we discuss here may still differ from the actual end result.
Algorithms change, just as they do at Google.Â
SearchGPT is OpenAI's answer to existing search engines. This new platform aims to give users a more intuitive and comprehensive search experience.
Unlike other search engines that rely heavily on keyword matching and link-based results, SearchGPT uses other techniques to understand context. We looked into this.
Rediscovering search with SearchGPT
Imagine AI that not only gives you answers, but predicts questions, uncovers needs and shares personalised experiences in real time.
It is still out of reach.
What is more, you will not see this from SearchGPT straight away. They do aim to make it happen in the long term. Think of The Lord of the Rings, or the friendlier world of Peter Pan. Fantasy worlds like these are still far from reality.
Eventually these worlds will become more and more real as time goes on:Â
To understand the potential impact of SearchGPT, it helps to compare it with existing search engines such as Google, Bing and emerging tools such as Perplexity.
I use these tools myself too.
Google remains the undisputed leader in search with almost 90% market share worldwide, and SearchGPT offers a fresh approach:
Compared with tools such as Perplexity, SearchGPT aims to offer the following:Â
The tool offers exciting possibilities and also faces several challenges:
Like other AI models, SearchGPT can occasionally produce inaccurate information or "hallucinate" facts.
For example, a well-known international marketing agency asked search engines which speakers would be at the upcoming Dreamforce conference.
Google gave links, so you could find out for yourself. SearchGPT gave the names of several speakers, but only those from the previous year. Perplexity gave the right answer, though briefly and without much depth.
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‍In another test. How recent is the information from the search engines? The question was: what is the newest robot from a certain brand?
Google found the answer straight away. Perplexity knew about the video, but picked the wrong one. SearchGPT could not find the video at all.
Up-to-date results may still be a work in progress for the SearchGPT search engine.
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SearchGPT and Perplexity gave a list, so you could dig into it yourself.Â
If you have a question you need an answer to, then an AI search engine tool seems to be your best option. You ask your question and you get an answer that is more or less correct.
As soon as you need specific information or a website where you can find that information, Google is still the best choice.
If you want information about something that happened only recently, chances are you will find it on Google before any other AI search engine.
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After all, Google has a gigantic infrastructure.Â
The solutions these search engines offer are still a long way from the search quality people are used to. The reason I say this is that you will not be happy when the search results miss the mark even a fraction of the time. It becomes too much of a burden to keep using them. People expect the answer to be 100% correct.
To give an example, people are not used to booking a travel ticket only to find out it was booked for the wrong date.
That is how you frustrate people. You cannot justify inaccuracies like these.
That is why Google scaled the AI Overviews (formerly SGE) back to a minimum for many search results.
The same goes for the whole hype around the arrival of new search engines. People are shouting from the rooftops that Google is becoming redundant and search is dead. Meanwhile the truth speaks volumes, as people gradually migrate back to what they are used to.
Until these platforms know how to actually deliver a perfect result. That may take a while yet.Â
Right, let us zoom in on one of the bigger questions that has occupied many people for quite some time. Is Google's monopoly, which a court effectively labelled as such, about to collapse?
That sounds rather dramatic, and we will discuss why it will be hard to knock them off the throne.
Google continues to dominate the market with almost 90% share, as the chart below shows. In August 2024, a US judge ruled that Google had engaged in anticompetitive practices to maintain its leading position in search. In theory, this could open the door to more competition.
For businesses, this means it is a crucial moment to rethink strategies.
As Google comes under more scrutiny for regulatory changes and internal pressure to launch new competing AI products, it is unlikely to keep that high market share over the coming decade.
Expect bigger changes only after 3 to 5 years.Â
There are three key pillars that make it hard to knock Google off the throne:
Some large publishers, such as The New York Times, block OpenAI from crawling their content. This can limit the performance of these search tools when they cannot access that content.
The craziest part is that people scrape The New York Times website and the bots still get access to the content, because it is published on another website.
So let every bot crawl your website. In the longer term it works in your favour.
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The road to a purchase no longer always starts at Google. Consumers gather information through various channels, including social media and communities such as Reddit.
At the same time, SEO plays a part in all the other channels where sales happen.Â
We are moving from pure search engine optimisation to what we call "Search Everywhere Optimization". It is no longer just about ranking on Google, but about optimising for every platform where people search, from AI chatbots to social media and beyond.
People will always search for information and businesses will always need to optimise content to create stability.
Search is here to stay.Â
How do we write good content with all these new tools? The answer is simpler than you think:Â
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Look, SearchGPT is more than just the next step in search.
Ultimately, if you look 3-4 years ahead, I truly believe it is going to be a great product. You cannot judge it on what you see today, just like when ChatGPT first came out.
It was not bad, but it was nowhere near as good as what we see today.
It simply takes time to build these great products. Google has been around for more than 20 years. It is not as if people snap their fingers and suddenly everything is great.
It takes time to build great companies.
The first thing I want to talk about is engagement-driven ranking. You are going to see many other factors, like on social networks.
More attention goes to factors such as: how long do you watch a video? How many comments did that post get? How many social shares? How long do people stay on the platform? Search is moving towards this dynamic engagement model and it really looks at interactions.
And it is not just SearchGPT, it is all search engines. The reason I say that is, if you look at Google, you often see videos in the top part of a page, in other words above the fold.
When a video sits above the fold, it is the most clicked element. It gets more clicks than paid ads.
It gets more clicks than any other organic listing.Â
Search is not only changing into "we show AI results". Search is changing into "we take content of all different types" seriously.Â
Search is “Search Everywhere Optimization” and you will see more and more of this, with these platforms trying to organise information that does not live only on the web.
They try to gather information everywhere, including the information in your head. Then they tailor that experience to you and adjust the results to what they know you want to see.
You also have AI-enhanced multimodal search, where not everything will be based on text alone.Â
You will get visual, you will get audio. The list goes on. This really matters because people underestimate the power of voice search. But yes, lots of people are starting to use it.
I am not just talking about Siri.
I am talking about speaking to your phone, or driving your car and getting the answer. I am talking about speaking to your phone and it simply running the search for you.
These are all examples of search, but people overlook that it is all search underneath. You are going to see far more visual and audio search.
Start optimising for different input types. That way you get the output type you want, and that output type will hopefully include your business, your products and your services.
So here is what follows for marketers: value the advantage of having the last move.
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This means marketers and business owners need to realise that this interpretation suggests the last interaction or impression a customer has with a brand or product can have a lasting impact on their perception and decisions.
The most important conclusion: one, adaptability.
You have to adapt when something gains traction. You have to optimise to be everywhere, not just on one channel. This is why we now call SEO “Search Everywhere Optimization” instead of just search engine optimisation for Google.Â
SearchGPT aims for high accuracy and is still being refined. Early tests show promising results, but occasional inaccuracies or "hallucinations" can occur, just as with other AI models.
No, it is unlikely to replace Google in the near future, given Google's established infrastructure and user base. SearchGPT could win a good share of the market as AI-driven searches grow in popularity.
‍Focus on creating comprehensive, high-quality content that addresses user intent, integrates different media formats and demonstrates expertise and authority in your field.
When we wrote this article, it was still called SearchGPT. That separate search feature has since simply become part of ChatGPT. You ask a question, ChatGPT searches the web live and adds citations. The big question from this piece, whether Google would collapse, we can answer in 2026 with a clear 'no'. More than 95% of people who use ChatGPT still open Google in the same month. AI search is an addition, not a replacement.
What did change is how you get found. Since 8 October 2025, Google has also shown its AI Mode in the Netherlands, and by the end of 2025 AI Overviews already appeared for more than a quarter of searches. At the same time, ChatGPT shows only a small share of the pages it reads, and it prefers authoritative, trusted sources over your own sales talk. So visibility is no longer about ten blue links, but about being cited. You get there with real expertise, clear answers and a strong brand, the core of what we call Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
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About the author
Dominic Pietersz
Your dedicated point of contact
Dominic helps SMEs grow through Google and other channels. With his international experience, he turns challenges into concrete growth.
Follow Dominic on LinkedInInspiration · When SearchGPT was announced, I kept digging into it late into the evening. That evening became this piece on preparing for new search engines.
