5 November 2024
ChatGPT Gets Search — and Google Should Be Nervous
5 November 2024
OpenAI has switched on web search inside ChatGPT. Paying users can now get answers drawn from live web results, complete with links to sources, without ever visiting a search engine. A wider rollout to free users is expected in the coming weeks.
Why this matters for your marketing
For twenty years, "being found online" has meant one thing: ranking on Google. That assumption just developed a crack.
When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best accountant for a small charity?" or "which CRM suits a five-person firm?", they get a conversational answer with a handful of cited sources — not ten blue links. If your business isn't among the sources the AI trusts and cites, you're invisible in that conversation.
What to do about it (calmly)
- Keep your website factually clear. Plain statements of what you do, where you do it, and for whom are what these systems quote.
- Earn mentions elsewhere. Reviews, directories, trade press and genuine articles about your business all feed the machines.
- Don't abandon Google. It still carries the overwhelming majority of searches. This is an "and", not an "instead".
Search isn't dying — it's multiplying. The businesses that adapt earliest will be quoted; the rest will be wondering where the phone calls went.