Summary
I spent a lot of time looking at 528 search results to figure out how Search GPT SEO works. Here are four main things you need to focus on to do better than your competition.
First, you need to pay attention to keyword placement. In the top search results, 94% had the exact or partial keyword match in the title tag. Make sure your main keyword is in the URL, title, meta description, and H1 tag.
Second, cover the whole topic in your content. Search GPT likes pages that match what the searcher is looking for, with enough details on the topic. Use tools to see what your competitors include in their content, and then add your own special ideas or stories to stand out.
Third, consider using keyword-rich domain names. These can be very effective, with 27% of top results using them. However, they can be limiting if you want to expand your focus.
Fourth, build your website authority. The top results had a median authority score of 38 and 74,000 backlinks. To increase backlinks, use tools to find where your competitors get theirs, and try to get similar ones for your site.
Remember, it's important to make sure your website can be found and indexed by Bing and Google by using tools like Bing Webmaster.
Search GPT doesn't prioritize user-generated content sites like Reddit as much as Google does, so focus on ranking well in regular search results to get more citations.
Content freshness is important, with most top results being newer than a couple of years.
The way we search is changing. Search GPT gives a consolidated answer with citations, which lets you dig deeper without needing to open many tabs like we used to with Google.
- While things are changing, backlinks are still super important for ranking well. Keep building relationships and getting those quality links!
Video
How To Take Action
I would suggest focusing first on keyword placement. Make sure your main keyword is in your website’s URL, title tag, meta description, and H1 tag. This small step can greatly help your page rank higher.
A good way of doing content creation is by covering the entire topic. Use tools to see what your competitors are discussing, and then add your own special touch with unique ideas or stories. This makes your content stand out.
Considering a keyword-rich domain name might be helpful, but keep in mind this can limit your focus if you plan to expand. It's effective if you want to target one main topic closely.
To boost your website authority, start building backlinks. Use competitor analysis tools to see where their backlinks come from. Then, try to get similar links. This will help improve your domain’s trust and authority.
Remember to check that your site is crawlable and indexable by using Bing and Google Webmaster tools. This makes sure search engines can find your content.
Keep your content fresh and up to date. Most top search results have content that’s less than a couple of years old, which indicates freshness is important.
Also, think about the new way people search with Search GPT. You don’t need to open many tabs anymore, and backlinks are still crucial for ranking well. Keep building those relationships for high-quality links!
Quotes by Author
"Focus on omnipresent SEO across multiple traditional and non-traditional search engines"
"The better you cover your topic, the better you'll perform in search engines"
"Exact match or keyword-rich domains are effective for single use cases"
"Domain age isn't likely a ranking factor, but the longer you've been around, the more backlinks you'll likely accumulate"
"Content freshness seems to play a big role because on average most results are less than a couple of years old"
Full Transcript
so how does search GPT SEO work well I spent countless hours studying 528 search results to find out and in this video I'll reveal the top four search GPT ranking factors so you can get ahead of your competition and start maximizing this new search engine my name is Nathan gotch and over the past decade I've LED hundreds of successful SEO campaigns founded gotch SEO Academy and rank ability and authored the SEO entrepreneur so let's dive into search GPT ranking Factor number one which is keyword placement so 94% of the top search results had an exact or partial match keyword in the title tag for example look at the results for AC repair Coral Springs Florida 100% of the results have Coral Springs and some HVAC or air conditioning as a variation in the title what I want you to look at are the top ranking results at number one you have Angie and I'll explain why they're dominating later in this video and at number two you have Quality Air conditioning company and they have a perfectly optimized title tag that includes the core service air conditioner repair and the Target location Coral Springs on top of it they also have a perfectly optimized URL structure now here's the good news about search GPT its algorithms use ranking factors very similar to those of Google and you've probably seen some stuff floating around that search GPT just uses being to fuel its results and this is a logical conclusion because of open ai's partnership with Microsoft which owns Bing however based on my small study I haven't found this to be 100% accurate I analyzed the search GPT search results and compared them to being and Google to see if there was a significant variance I found that 50% of search GPT search results match Bings and Google now here's the interesting part 76% of search gbt search results match duck ducko and no duck ducko is not a replica of Bing it does use Bing but it also uses over 400 different sources and an in-house crawler for its search results but here's the point focus on omnipresent SEO across multiple traditional and non-traditional search engines like YouTube Amazon and even Etsy and at a bare minimum ensure your website is crawlable and indexable on both Bing and Google just just go to Bings Web Master tools import your website from Google search console then go to sitemaps and make sure that you have a current sitap so to review the first search GPT ranking factor is on page SEO 101 which means you need to include your target keyword phrase in the URL title meta description and H1 at a bare minimum now moving on to search GPT ranking Factor number two which is topic coverage so like Google's algorithm search GPT prefers pages that perfectly match the search intent and provide the SE Searcher with sufficient information about the topic in short the better you cover your topic the better you'll perform in search engines like search GPT and you don't have to guess your way through this process simply enter your keyword into a tool like rank abilities content Optimizer and you'll get access to the exact topics your competitors cover in their content then just copy these topics go to chat gbt and use this prompt to create a comprehensive outline then just paste this back into rankability and you'll see how well this outline covers the topic if it hits the optimal score the next step is to differentiate your page from the competitors so if it's a commercial keyword like AC repair Coral Springs Florida add unique ideas about your brand such as your unique selling propositions stories results case studies buyer guides or even FAQs and what I'm describing is 100% focused on covering just one topic to the fullest extent but to drive maximum visibility in search GPT or other search engines you must establish your website as an authority on your topic for example gacha seo.com and searchengine journal.com rank well for best SEO books if you do a simple site colon search like this you'll find that both websites have hundreds of pages related to the broader topic of SEO now more is not necessarily better but you must create new assets to build topic Authority and one trick you can use is looking at the relevant NLP suggestions early in the video in my example for best SEO books I see many topics for which I could create supporting assets such as art of SEO content marketing or even onpage SEO so now it's time for search GPT ranking Factor number three which are keyword Rich domains so 27% of the ranking results had either an exact or partial match domain and what this means is if your target keyword is St Louis SEO your domain name would include that phrase and when used corre corly keyword Rich domains are incredibly effective in Google and this also seems to be the case in search GPT for example Amish baskets.com is dominating for Amish baskets mortgagecalculator.org and usmortgage calculator.org both rank well for mortgage calculator and to No Surprise selly house fast and austin.com is dominating for selly house fast Austin that said exact match or keyword Rich domains are effective for single use cases but extremely restrictive if you plan to expand your topic Focus or geographical area however an exact match domain is a really good option if you want to be surgical on one really important topic now for search GPT ranking Factor number four which is website Authority so the top ranking results in our study had a median Authority score via sem Rush of 38 and had 74,000 backlinks this makes sense because the average domain age for the top ranking results was 15 years now domain age isn't likely a ranking Factor but the longer you've been around the more back links you'll likely accumulate and remember that the quantity of back links you'll need will depend on the niche and the target market for example the median Authority score for local search results is only 25 in other words you won't need as many backlinks compared to national keywords like backlinks where the median Authority score is 63 so the question is how do you get more highquality backlinks well start by ethically stealing your competitor's backlinks go to sem Rush's backlink Gap tool and enter your top organic competitors you'll see all of the links that your competitors have but you don't now it's your job to narrow this Gap and then I recommend trying the similar content strategy and this method only works if you have a unique angle for a keyword don't expect to get a link from aggitated content for example if I wanted more backlinks for best CMS for SEO I'd send the following Outreach email to every page that writes about this topic and then after that you should use digital PR so you can sign up for tools like connectively and respond to journalist requests or you can use a service like search intelligence to save time and they use a unique strategy that doesn't require creating assets instead you can contribute expert insights to other websites they pitch a huge list of journalists and you score powerful backlinks to your homepage and the backlink equity and Trust will Flo other pages on on your site if it's structured well so I'll have a link below the video where you can learn more about search intelligence another go-to link building technique I love is leveraging existing backlink Authority so backlinks move the ship but internal links take your results to the next level so go to cush's backlink Analytics tool and click on indexed pages then you'll see the most powerful pages on your website then just look for opportunities to add internal links on these pages in a natural way so since you've made it this far I want to show you some bonus material about search GPT number one search GPT doesn't prioritize ugc driven websites like Reddit Kora or even forums Google loves ugc driven websites especially Reddit because they have a business deal number two over 90% of the citations in search GPT are pulled from the top search results so if you want more citations you must rank well in the traditional search results number three the same domain can occupy two or sometimes even three spots for the same keyword for example backlinko decom owns three positions for the keyword on page SEO checklist and lipcon decom owns three spots for Houston Maritime attorney number four any keyword with moderate complexity or Nuance is safe for example look at the generic output for SEO for dentists most users will need to explore the sources to understand this topic fully so quality blog content in this context still still matters number five content freshness seems to play a big role because on average most results are less than a couple of years old number six you must disconnect from the old way of thinking about search this isn't just another search engine it's a complete paradigm shift in how we search back in the day you'd go to Google Search your keyword open up 10 different results and tabs and try to find your answer sometimes you were successful but other times you'd have to go back to Google to search again and if you didn't know what to search for you were essentially out of luck those days are long gone the new search experience is interactive look at the search GPT output for rankability you get one Consolidated answer with citations to explore at a deeper level and you could follow up on the query with more questions and each new search builds upon the previous one and this is why you can't just think about SEO for your website you also need to consider how to get citations which is really just a fancy word for backlinks on other websites and the craziest part about these llm driven surch engines is that backlinks remain the most powerful Factor so what's old is new again even though it never left
