Is OpenAI and ChatGPT replacing SEO? Not Yet.
An Opinion Piece on OpenAI
OpenAI and ChatGPT is a topic I am extremely passionate about, and I’m excited to take you in a deep dive about it. As you may have noticed, I’ve been writing a lot about SEO lately. I broke down what technical SEO is, how to fix your website with it, how to manipulate it (ethically, of course), how to read it, and what it all means. But now, I’m about to flip all of that on its head and talk to you about OpenAI, GEO, ChatGPT how to rank for it, what’s happening, and what this means for the future of SEO as we know it.
Alright, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and creatives—let’s dive in.
A Brief History of ChatGPT and OpenAI
To understand where we’re headed, we need to jump back to the beginning—specifically, 2015—when OpenAI was founded by some pretty well-known tech heads. Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, and Greg Brockman started OpenAI as a non-profit with the goal of “advancing digital intelligence in a way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole.” The idea was to create AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) in a safe and ethical way, leveraging the best researchers in the field. (Palihapitiya, C. 2023).
Fast forward through years of funding and experimentation to 2020-2022, when OpenAI introduced LLMs (Large Language Models). These are the backbone of AI tools like ChatGPT, allowing you and me to speak, write, and text with AI as if it were a human. Like a toddler, the model grew as more people interacted with it—asking questions like “How do I do X?”, “Do you recommend Y?”, or “Can you create a business plan for Z?” I won’t dive into Open Source, why it matters, and why tech nerds get really passionate about it—but just know that because of widespread interest and community involvement, LLMs exploded in growth.
By 2023, ChatGPT-4 hit the public market. I don’t know about you, but I remember the day my brother-in-law announced this was real and about to change the world. At the time, people fell into two camps: those who couldn’t wait to get their hands on it, and those who were absolutely terrified. I was in the latter camp.
Overnight, ChatGPT became the buzzword in every industry—tech, education, government, agriculture, e-commerce—you name it.
OpenAI and Your Data
Now, 82% of the world uses AI or is actively exploring it. (Cardillo, 2025). You may be wondering, What about my data?
As a consumer myself, I get it—this is a big question. And frankly, the answers are coming way too slowly. Governments and companies alike are still trying to figure it out. Governments, in particular, tend to move at the speed of a snail on vacation when it comes to policy.
The best answer right now? Be extremely cautious with what you enter into AI tools. Be your own advocate. As both a business owner and a consumer, you have a responsibility to be mindful of what you ask AI, what files you upload, and what details you share.
Using AI for your business or for yourself requires a level of trust between the business and the consumer—so read the data policy on the website you’re using. If you don’t like how your data is handled, don’t use the tool. You can also reach out to the company and ask how they use AI. If their answer is unclear (or worse, sketchy), you’re allowed to walk away.
Please note: I am not a lawyer. If you have deeper concerns, consult someone who specializes in data protection and security. My goal here is simply to remind you—small business owner to small business owner—that you have a duty to be open and honest about how you use AI.
OpenAI and Your Digital Marketing Strategy
The Consumer Perspective
Now that we’ve covered OpenAI’s origins and the importance of data, let’s talk about how this all impacts your business.
When used responsibly, AI is a fantastic tool. As stated in my own privacy policy, I use it to help write social media posts, brainstorm content ideas, and develop user personas for my Squarespace templates. I also use it to research software recommendations—which saves me hours of trial-and-error.
How Consumers Searched Prior to OpenAI
Prior to 2023, my consumer journey, like many others, looked like this.
I would go to Google (my search engine of choice) and type “Top 5 Social Media Marketing scheduler tools for small businesses.” I would immediately ignore the paid ads and sponsored links. I’d sift through two pages of search results, read a few blogs from sources who felt like they were similar to me. I’d then pick my top 3 and head to YouTube to watch reviews on these products (each between 20-45 minutes long). By then, I narrowed it down to two options and sign up for free trials. After spending a day or so testing, I realize I hate them both and start over.
Total time wasted: 5+ hours.
How Consumers Search After OpenAI
Now, I simply open ChatGPT and ask:
“I’m developing a digital marketing campaign for my Spring Cleaning Checklist. I use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, and I have no budget. Can you recommend five free scheduling tools and tell me why I should use them?”
Within seconds, ChatGPT provides a bulleted list—complete with pricing, platform compatibility, and even limitations I hadn’t considered. I choose one, sign up, and within minutes, I’m up and running.
Total time wasted: 15 minutes.
From the Small Business Perspective
I am one of 400 million people using ChatGPT each week. (Duarte, 2025). That’s 400 million users who, like me, are turning to ChatGPT instead of their favorite search engine.
So now the big question:
How can I (a small business owner) get my product or service to appear in ChatGPT and other AI tools?
I’m happy to report—I don’t have all the answers. But I do have a solid starting point: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
Now, you’re probably thinking, “Great. Another SEO thing I need to worry about.”
But here’s the good news: GEO isn’t an extra burden—it’s a shift.
SEO was all about writing for search engines. GEO, on the other hand, rewards human-readable content. Instead of stuffing keywords into your copy, you can write naturally—with keywords peppered in.
Think of SEO and GEO as two balancing scales, prior to AI, marketers were encouraged to write and create with SEO and readability in mind, but more so for SEO. This helps with ranking on search engines, getting your site crawled, all the technical garbley goop we have all been preaching about for years. GEO is now putting more weight on actual authentic human readable content. So instead of writing for keywords, you get to write as you naturally would, with keywords peppered in. The scales are now balanced. If we go back to how AI functions, this makes complete sense. AI is an LLM which is built on human interaction and readability. AI’s mission is to spit back human interaction and readability.
At the moment, this technology is so new, it’s not 100% spitting back human readable content. Sometimes it makes mistakes or even sounds choppy. AI also is notorious for “stealing” actual passages from books, songs, or art which creates a whole slough of legal issues and plagiarism. Just do a quick google search and you can go down a very deep rabbit hole on this. The reason AI is gravitating towards those specific content pieces is because, you guessed it, it’s human readable. This article from Author’s Digest goes into this problem in great detail, so check it out.
How to Rank for OpenAI
If you’re reading this in March of 2025, you’re ahead of the curve. Most businesses haven’t optimized for AI yet. That’s why I urge you to get started early—before major corporations catch on.
And guess what? Our secret weapon is…
Bing.
I know. As a Mac user, I worry that simply mentioning Bing and Internet Explorer might void my AppleCare. But here’s the thing, according to Returnonnow.com—ChatGPT pulls data directly from Bing, meaning Bing is helping answer your consumer’s questions. Since Microsoft owns Bing and has a partnership with OpenAI, it makes sense that OpenAI would prioritize their partners over other search engines such as Google.
Bing’s ranking structure is very similar to Google with two exceptions:
- Bing values content written in an FAQ or conversational format
- Exact keyword matches in meta-descriptions, title tags, and headers (Bing cares way more about this than Google does)
Since you are already optimizing your website for SEO, adjusting for GEO should be easy.
Double check your keywords are in your meta-descriptions, title tags, and headers on ALL of your pages. Do not skip this.
The other is read your content and do so from the perspective of a consumer.
Role playing as you read or content or having a friend do it for you who does not know much about your product or service, is so incredibly valuable. Ask questions like:
- What do they think?
- Do they understand what you do?
- What questions do they have about the product or service?
- What are some nice-to-haves?
After a 10-15min conversation, you now have frequently asked questions to include on your website.
Next week, I’ll cover how to set up your site in Bing and ensure it’s indexing correctly. I’ll also share my favorite tools to analyze how AI perceives your website.
For now, start making these tweaks. Like SEO, GEO is a long game—so take your time and do it right. See you next week for the next steps!
Ready to optimize your website for OpenAI?
We can help you get your website where it should be so ChatGPT recommends your website to consumers. Get in touch today to get started.
Sources & Citations
Cardillo, A. (2025, March 4). How many companies use AI? (New data). Exploding Topics. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/companies-using-ai
Duarte, F. (2025, March 25). Number of ChatGPT users (March 2025). Exploding Topics. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/chatgpt-users
Palihapitiya, C. (2023, November 20). Quick essay: A Short History of OpenAI. Chamath Palihapitiya. https://chamath.substack.com/p/a-short-history-of-openai
Other Resources:
Bing Webmaster Tools – Kinsta
Bing v. Google
https://www.seorankmonitor.com/top-25-bing-ranking-factors/
PC Mag – Ranking on Bing