SearchGPT vs. SEO: The New Battleground for Content Visibility

Search engines are crucial to many content marketing strategies. If you want people to find your business and content online, you must optimize web pages and articles to rank—competing with millions of other websites doing exactly the same thing!

Understanding Search and SEO

Search is fundamentally retrieving data from a server. 

When you enter a search term, a search engine queries its servers to get a list of relevant web pages. You must comb through these results to find an answer to your question.

Sometimes, you find the answer quickly, while other times, you must visit multiple web pages or try several search variations to find what you're looking for.

It's a content team's job to identify keywords (what people are searching for) relevant to their brand and product to create and optimize content and web pages so they rank as close to the top of page one as possible—search engine optimization.

Removing Search Activities

What happens when you remove the act of searching? Users no longer browse several search results to find an answer and discover your website in the process.

LLMs or AI models like ChatGPT will significantly impact search. We don't know how yet, but change is coming.

Instead of combing through search results, you can ask an LLM like ChatGPT. Sometimes, these models will provide the answer and a citation, but most often, they don't. And when they do, how many people click the citation?

The GPT decides on your behalf which query is the most valuable. You will no longer need to scroll, click, read, return to the results, click again, repeat. An LLM gives you the exact answer and will reply to follow-up questions to get a personalized answer in minutes.

Ranking on the first page is no longer relevant for a keyword; it is only the top spot, or is it? We don't know how LLMs choose their answers.

And how do search engines rank web pages if there is no traffic? 

Search algorithms rely on user interactions (bounce rates, time on page, engagement, etc.) and backlinks to rank websites and pages. These algorithms constantly test content to determine the most valuable and relevant information.

How will your content rank if those data points no longer exist because everyone uses LLMs and chatbots to query? How will customers find your website?

LLMs Are Changing How We Retrieve Information

A February 2024 study demonstrates the integration of LLMs in information retrieval marks a significant shift from link-centric to answer-centric systems (LLMs and AI chatbots). These answer-centric systems improve search efficiency, relevance, and user experience.

The study also highlights that the biggest challenges with answer-centric systems like LLMs include accuracy, biases, and ethical AI use in information access—problems I'm sure engineers will overcome in the not-too-distant future.

The above paper doesn't claim that LLMs will eliminate search engines and search activity. Instead, it predicts a hybrid combining the strengths of LLMs and traditional search engines.

What will this new query method look like?

The SearchGPT Prototype: Move over Search Engines

In late July 2024, OpenAI announced another blow to traditional search: SearchGPT, which combines AI capabilities with real-time web information to provide quick and accurate search results.

SearchGPT could significantly alter the landscape for traditional search engines by delivering direct, conversational answers with sources, eliminating the need for multiple search attempts or browsing results.

Great news for users querying data, not so much for businesses who rely on organic traffic.

These multiple search attempts are vital for businesses utilizing SEO-driven content marketing strategies because web browsing is how many people typically discover their websites and products.

Remove web browsing, and SEO becomes irrelevant for many content strategies. Google Ads also changes—no more search results to bid for.

It's still the early days of AI. While we cannot predict what will happen or how the search landscape will change, we can be certain of change itself.

Switching to a more strategic content strategy will help protect your content investments when change finally arrives. If you have all your eggs in the SEO basket, good luck.

Diversify to Mitigate Risk

Like investing in stocks, content diversification mitigates risk.

If you put all your money in one Fortune 500 company, your chances of being right over the long term are slim. However, if you purchase an S&P 500 index fund, you spread the risk and are more likely to enjoy long-term growth.

You must approach long-form content with the same diversification mindset. Our Distributed Content Strategy (DCS) outlines how to publish long-form content across multiple platforms, including your blog.

Publishing across multiple channels enables you to build audiences aligned with your ideal customers and funnel those prospects into offers.

You also expose your content and brand to new audiences, generating a higher, more immediate return on investment than only publishing to your blog and waiting for search engines to rank it—months or years later.

Ditch The Keywords: Changing The Content Mindset

Following this distributed strategy forces a different content creation approach. Instead of optimizing for keywords and algorithms, you focus on what people want to read.

A human-focused content strategy must deliver value. Give people your knowledge, experience, hacks, and strategies for succeeding within a domain. For example, we present the Distributed Content Strategy, giving everything away for free.

People can take this strategy and implement it themselves. Many will succeed, I'm sure. But, like anything, implementation and consistent execution are time-consuming. The strategy is only one piece of the puzzle—there are other problems to solve. It's cheaper and more efficient to hire us.

Problem-Solution Cycle

Expert marketer and millionaire entrepreneur Alex Hormozi calls this the Problem-Solution Cycle. 

"Every problem has a solution. Every solution reveals more problems. This is a never-ending cycle of business (and life)." Alex Hormozi, $100 Million Leads.

Your content must solve problems. You must offer unique takes and perspectives. Most brands and individuals have a knowledge base to draw from. Share this information to help educate and empower your audience.

Creating this type of content means you no longer compete with millions of websites for keywords. They can't compete because what you're sharing cannot be found elsewhere.

Don't write for machines; write for people.

Learn how to future-proof your content marketing strategy in the age of AI and algorithms—download the free Distributed Content Strategy.