ChatGPT is a growing trend, but SEO is essential to your website, regardless.
As a business owner, you’ve likely been relying on SEO to draw in customers.
With the emergence and increasing popularity of ChatGPT, you’d be right to wonder if that is the new way of doing a search online. Many businesses rely on SEO to gain traffic and relevance. Simply, SEO is essential to your website and always will be.
Why SEO Is Still Essential to Your Website
For millions of businesses the world over, SEO has been an essential tool in attracting consumers who are constantly being bombarded with online content designed to draw their custom.
It has long been the way for a business to thrive and survive.
Search vs. Chat: What is the difference?
A classic search on any search engine will bring back multiple answers, ordered according to what a search algorithm thinks is relevant to your query. With a conventional search, there will be pages of results. A Chatbot however, will return only one answer on most occasions, with no source.
Both models may be preferable to the consumer. A person wanting to decide between several options will need the classic search. However, a person who doesn’t want to spend timing sifting through results, will enjoy getting that one answer to their search.
That being said, it’s human nature to want choices. A classic search provides the consumer sense of control over what they choose. ChatGPT somewhat removes the opportunity to decide for themselves.
SEO guidelines are much clearer
SEO has clearly defined guidelines (backlinks, appropriate content, well-formed pages etc). Businesses have been following these guidelines to get their pages ranked higher on searches of specific keywords.
ChatGPT still does not have clear guidelines and rules – so what will you have to do to make your page be that one returned result?
A change of strategy would be required
If your strategy is to hire professionals like Web Marketing Angels to create pages that show up on search hits to bring people to your site, think about what will happen if a chat interface answers questions on its own.
Anecdotal evidence indicates that chatbots get their information from massive storerooms of information, so if you’re known in many online spaces, it may help them recognise your company/brand.
It may seem like ChatGPT is becoming increasingly popular, but in many ways, it doesn’t seem a viable search option for the majority of consumers who want to make their own choices.
SEO is essential and is very much still the best way for your business to thrive.