Your readers don’t type all their questions into Google anymore. A growing share goes straight to ChatGPT, and ChatGPT often answers by citing 2 or 3 sites. You want to be one of those sites, without giving up Google, which is still your biggest traffic channel. Here’s how.

TL;DR

  • Keep a solid classic SEO base: Google is still the biggest traffic source.
  • Allow the right crawlers: Googlebot for Google, OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, and make a deliberate call on GPTBot (training) and ChatGPT-User (on-demand browsing).
  • Write “citable” content: short definition, steps, tables, FAQ, sources.
  • Measure Google with Search Console. On the ChatGPT side, there’s no equivalent yet: filter the chatgpt.com referer in your analytics and run your target queries by hand.
  • A single well-built article can be indexed by Google and cited by ChatGPT, but the levers aren’t exactly the same.

Google and ChatGPT: two engines, two logics

The two tools don’t read the web the same way. The table below shows where they diverge.

CriterionGoogle (Search + AI Overviews)ChatGPT (search + browsing)
Main indexGoogle index (Googlebot)ChatGPT index (OAI-SearchBot), augmented by Bing
On-demand fetchingNot really, everything goes through the indexChatGPT-User when the user triggers browsing
Training dataIndependent of rankingGPTBot collects for future models
Visible citationsBlue links, AI Overviews with sourcesClickable “Sources” cards in the answer
Number of citationsSeveral links per queryOften 2 to 5 synthesized sources
FreshnessNear real-timeReal-time via browsing, otherwise depends on the index
Official measurement toolGoogle Search ConsoleNone for now, analytics + manual tests

You can’t steer ChatGPT the way you steer Google. The classic SEO foundation (useful content, fast pages, authority) still works for both, but the details diverge as soon as we talk crawlers and measurement.

How Google finds and cites pages in 2026

The full breakdown is in the dedicated article on Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. In short:

  • Googlebot crawls your site, indexes it, and the algorithms decide the classic ranking.
  • For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google picks pages “that support a passage of the answer” through a query fan-out technique (several related searches to build a response).
  • No magic optimization. SEO fundamentals are still the foundation.

If those fundamentals aren’t solid, start there: the 10 key points of SEO.

How ChatGPT finds and cites sources

ChatGPT search relies on three complementary mechanisms.

1. Its own index: OAI-SearchBot

OpenAI runs its own web index, fed by a dedicated crawler called OAI-SearchBot. When a user asks ChatGPT a question with search enabled, that index is queried first.

2. The Bing index as backup

ChatGPT also leans on the Bing index for what its own crawler hasn’t seen. So yes, Bing Webmaster Tools is relevant again in 2026. It’s free, quick to set up, and probably the most underrated SEO reflex of the moment.

3. Real-time browsing: ChatGPT-User

When a user (or a custom GPT) asks ChatGPT to fetch a specific page, the ChatGPT-User bot opens the URL. You can publish an article at 2pm and see it summarized by ChatGPT at 2:15pm if someone hands it the link.

And GPTBot in all this?

GPTBot is a separate crawler: it collects public pages to train future GPT models. It doesn’t feed ChatGPT search answers today. It’s a longer-term concern: what it ingests in 2026 can shape what GPT-5 or 6 knows in 2027 or 2028.

robots.txt: who to allow, who to block

This is where a lot of sites shot themselves in the foot. In 2023-2024, the reflex was to block GPTBot “so as not to feed the AI.” Except GPTBot isn’t the bot that feeds ChatGPT search. Result: they protected their content from training (fair enough) but also became invisible in ChatGPT (not what they wanted).

Here’s a sensible baseline when you want to be found on both channels:

User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /

User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

Quick read:

  • Googlebot and Bingbot: non-negotiable, they feed Google and (indirectly) ChatGPT.
  • OAI-SearchBot: allow it if you want to show up in ChatGPT search.
  • ChatGPT-User: allow it if you want your content to be readable when a user asks ChatGPT to analyze your URL.
  • GPTBot: your call. Blocking it prevents future-model training but doesn’t block your visibility in ChatGPT search. It’s a content-rights decision, not an SEO one.

If on the contrary you want to allow everything including training, replace the GPTBot block with Allow: /.

Then check your robots.txt in production at https://your-site.com/robots.txt and test it with the Bing Webmaster Tools tester.

The shared foundation: what works for both

The good surprise when you compare the two engines is that what Google AI likes, ChatGPT likes too. You don’t do two SEOs, you do one slightly more demanding SEO.

The “answer-first” format

A clear definition at the top of the page, then 3 to 7 points (steps, criteria, checklist), then the detail. AIs grab that intro block to build their synthetic answer. If you bury your answer in paragraph 8, it won’t be picked up.

Content that actually brings something

Models avoid generic pages. Bring what the AI can’t guess: real tests with screenshots, numbers from your own experience, homegrown comparisons, anonymized client cases, decisions explained with the “why.” That’s what sets you apart from a Wikipedia page or a corporate blog.

An identifiable author

Short bio, visible update date, methodology spelled out, sources cited when you quote a number. That’s the E-E-A-T minimum, and it reassures both Google and ChatGPT.

A technically clean page

Indexable, fast, readable on mobile, no aggressive interstitials. If your page has bad CLS or a catastrophic LCP, fix that before anything else: optimize CLS and Core Web Vitals.

Clear internal linking

A pillar page, two or three support pages pointing to it, and back. Both engines understand your expertise better when your pages link to each other cleanly.

Where Google and ChatGPT diverge

A few details make the difference once you get into fine-grained tactics.

ChatGPT cites few sources

Where Google AI Overviews can display 6 to 8 sources, ChatGPT tends to synthesize 2 to 5. Fewer slots means stiffer competition for each one.

Preferred formats

ChatGPT has a soft spot for clean comparison tables, numbered step lists, short pages that answer one question precisely, and recent articles. Google AI accepts longer, more narrative formats as long as they’re well structured.

Language

If your audience is English-speaking, write in English. ChatGPT answers in the language of the question and pulls sources from that language first. An excellent French article will be ignored for an English question that already has solid English sources.

Freshness

ChatGPT looks at lastmod and publication date. In practice, that means updating an old article with 2026 data often pays off more than writing a new mediocre one.

Measuring what you do

Google side

Head to Google Search Console, Performance report, Web type. AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in overall web traffic, with no separate report (as of today). If you see impressions climb while your CTR collapses, the classic hypothesis is that Google is answering directly in the SERP. If the drop sticks, look at the SEO vs SEA tradeoff for 2026.

ChatGPT side

No official tool. You work it out with three complementary methods.

The first is analytics with a referer filter. In Plausible, Matomo or GA4, filter visits whose referer contains chatgpt.com or chat.openai.com. The volume is still modest but it’s growing fast, especially on very specific queries.

The second is the old-school manual test. Take 5 to 10 target queries, ask them to ChatGPT, check whether your site shows up in the “Sources” cards. Repeat every 15 days. It takes 10 minutes and gives you more info than a $50/month dashboard.

The third is your server logs. A grep on OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User tells you which pages are actually being crawled or read. If you see ChatGPT-User hitting a URL, someone is reading it inside ChatGPT right now.

One-week action plan

Day 1: audit your robots.txt. Make sure you allow Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User. For GPTBot, decide deliberately.

Day 2: pick a pillar page (a flagship article that already ranks well) and 2 or 3 support pages. That’s your testing ground.

Day 3: rewrite the pillar page’s intro in “answer-first” format. 5 to 8 lines, a list of steps, a clear promise right under the H1.

Day 4: add a “proof” block: screenshots, numbers, official sources, your methodology. That’s what sets you apart from a generic page.

Day 5: prep the text for extraction. Explicit H2s, numbered lists, a comparison table, a FAQ that actually answers reader questions (not a FAQ for show).

Day 6: create or wake up a Bing Webmaster Tools account, submit your sitemap. Free, 15 minutes, and it directly benefits ChatGPT.

Day 7: you measure. Note your 5 to 10 target queries, check your position in GSC and your presence in ChatGPT sources. Review every 2 weeks.

FAQ

Should I block GPTBot to protect my content?

It’s a content-rights question, not an SEO one. Blocking GPTBot stops future GPT models from training on your content, but doesn’t affect your visibility in ChatGPT search (which goes through OAI-SearchBot, a separate bot). Many publishers block one and allow the other. That’s coherent.

How do I know if ChatGPT cites my site?

No official tool. Ask your target queries directly to ChatGPT and watch the “Sources” cards. Complement that with a chatgpt.com referer filter in your analytics for the visits that follow.

Are Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT search the same thing?

No. AI Overviews is the AI summary that shows up inside the Google SERP, fed by the Google index. ChatGPT search is built into ChatGPT and relies on the OpenAI index plus Bing. Two infrastructures, two audiences, two citation behaviors.

My site is on Wix or Shopify, can I still optimize?

Yes. Content (titles, structure, quality, freshness) matters more than the platform. Just make sure you can edit your robots.txt and submit your sitemap to Bing.

Do I need schema.org JSON-LD for ChatGPT?

Not required to be cited, but it doesn’t hurt. The Article, FAQPage or HowTo markups help structure meaning and also benefit Google. Avoid over-markup that doesn’t bring anything: it’s wasted time and sometimes muddies the signals.

Conclusion

Ranking on Google and ChatGPT is basically the same work with a few details that change: your robots.txt, your presence on Bing, and how you measure a channel that doesn’t (yet) have its Search Console equivalent.

The mistake I see most often is going all-in on ChatGPT, assuming Google is dead. It isn’t. Google still delivers the vast majority of organic traffic in most markets. ChatGPT comes on top of that, with often very qualified traffic (ChatGPT users click less but more deliberately), and it doesn’t ask you to rewrite everything if your base SEO is solid.

Start by auditing your robots.txt, optimize one pillar page, and see what happens in 30 days. It’s probably the best time/effect ratio on the table right now.

Official sources