Will ChatGPT Overtake SEO in 2023?

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been around for decades now. And it has helped businesses of all sizes have their websites found by potential customers through organic search. However, in what seems like an annual rite of SEO passage, there have been claims from all corners of the internet that, alas, SEO is finally, finally, really truly dead now.

Why are these claims about the premature death of SEO still being made in 2023? Some people believe that the rise of generative AI and ChatGPT has made SEO completely obsolete. These technologies can, allegedly, be used to create high-quality content that is optimized for search engines, without the need for much human intervention. More worrying, people are increasingly turning to these platforms to ask research questions rather than relying on traditional search engines like Google and Bing.

Others believe that the constant changes to Google's algorithm have made it too difficult to rank well in the search results pages. Or that top SEO competitors have all but a monopoly on the top positions for important keywords. Are the critics right? Is SEO finally dead in 2023?

He is wrong, though.

SEO Is Not Dead Yet

Despite these legitimate concerns and critiques, I am here to happily inform you that the announcement of the death of SEO is still, like it has been every year for the last decade, premature. In fact, you could even argue SEO is more important than ever before.

SEO is not dead in 2023 because:

• Search engines are still the primary way that people find information online. According to a recent study from BrightEdge, 68% of all trackable website traffic is sourced from either organic or paid search. This means that if your website is not ranking well in the search results pages and you aren’t running ads on Google, you are missing out on a lot of potential traffic.
  

• Organic search alone, according to BrightEdge, accounts for 53.3% of all web traffic.
  

• SEO is still a highly cost-effective way to market your business.

  • According to data from Ahrefs, most businesses paying a monthly retainer for SEO will pay between $500 to $1,500 per month (or $75 to $100 per hour) for their SEO services.
    

  • This may sound like a lot, but consider: according to Wordstream, the average small business using Google AdWords spends between $9,000 and $10,000 per month on ad spend. That’s excluding spend on creating or managing ads, or tools.
    

• SEO is constantly evolving. Yes, competition is increasing. But so is the innovation and effectiveness of great SEOs. As search engines get more sophisticated, SEO professionals are constantly adapting their strategies to be most effective in the current search environment. This means if you aren’t employing a strong SEO strategy with tactics that work in 2023, you won’t get very far.

Won’t Generative AI and ChatGPT Replace Search?

Maybe! But, we aren’t there yet. Google and its competitors aren’t going away in 2023. And they may still have years in them before ChatGPT or other generative AI chat platforms (like Bard and Bing) replace search engines completely. It’s still possible that search engines never fully go away.

We just do not know yet. Hard to predict, the future is.

ChatGPT and generative AI can now be used to answer everyday questions like the best place to get lunch or how to build a bookshelf. These are questions that a user could traditionally ask search engines and get a (hopefully) accurate set of answers to.

On the other hand, it is important to be aware that generative AI models are not always accurate or reliable. They can sometimes provide incorrect or misleading information.

No.

The Pros and Cons of Generative AI

Here are some of the pros and cons of using ChatGPT and generative AI to answer everyday questions:

Pros:

• They can be a quick and easy way to get information.

• They can be used to explore different possibilities and to get a variety of perspectives on a question.

Cons:

• They can be inaccurate or unreliable.

• They can be biased or misleading.

• They can be difficult to interpret.

Overall, ChatGPT and generative AI can be helpful tools for answering everyday questions, but they should be used with some caution. It is important to be aware of their limitations and to use them in conjunction with other sources of information - like search engines!

If you are not sure about the accuracy of the information that is provided by ChatGPT or generative AI, it is always best to conduct a Google search and see if you can verify the information. Hence, one reason you always need to keep your SEO efforts up to date.

How Much Are People Using Generative AI vs. Search Engines in 2023?

But, are people already using ChatGPT more than Google or Bing search? The answer, as of now, is a resounding no. In fact, Google’s dominance is still astounding. According to New Vision, Google has around 1 billion active users and receives about 3.5 billion searches per day.

On the other hand, ChatGPT currently has about 100 million active users and about 60 million visits per day to its website. While not too shabby at all, it’s still a long way off from overtaking Google. Especially as the frenzy to register for ChatGPT has cooled off since its release.

Is it possible that ChatGPT could become more popular in the future as it continues to develop? Of course! However, it is far less likely that it will completely replace Google and Bing search anytime soon.

Just stop.

Search Engines and Everyday Queries

Search engines are often better at answering everyday questions than ChatGPT and generative AI. This is because search engines have been trained on a massive dataset of text and code. And they have been optimized to return the most relevant and accurate information from many sources for a given search query.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT and generative AI are still under development. And they are not yet as accurate or reliable as search engines. However, they are improving all the time. And they may eventually be able to answer everyday questions as well as search engines.

Plus unlike ChatGPT, which lacks sources and data inputs from the last few years, search engines like Google are constantly being updated with new information. This means that they are always up-to-date on the latest news and trends.

Overall, search engines are still the best way to get accurate and reliable information for everyday questions. However, ChatGPT and generative AI are improving all the time, and they may eventually be able to compete with search engines. Then, will SEO truly be dead? Only the future knows…

SEE ALSO: 5 Questions to Ask an SEO Consultant (Before You Hire Them)