ChatGPT Plus is secretly pulling from Google's index, while 80% of AI citations completely bypass traditional rankings.
This week's seismic shifts from Monday.com's traffic warning to ChatGPT's workspace connectors reveal why your SEO playbook needs urgent revision.
The disconnect between search rankings and AI visibility has never been clearer.
Here's what GEO practitioners need to know before competitors claim the AI-first advantage.
Also read: Stop Losing Clicks to AI: Learn How to Start Winning Citations
1. AI Platform Updates That Changed the Game This Week
Major platforms rolled out features that fundamentally alter how brands appear in AI responses. From ChatGPT's workspace connectors to Google's keyboard shortcuts, the pace of change accelerated. Let's take a closer look.
- OpenAI / ChatGPT — Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and more connectors go live with new data controls; Plus/Pro chat connectors blocked in EEA/UK. OpenAI.
- Google / AI Overviews — Keyboard shortcuts appear in testing, hinting at faster follow-ups inside AIO. Search Engine Roundtable.
- Overlap is thin: ChatGPT results overlap 12% with Google and 26% with Bing, so classic rank does not guarantee LLM visibility. (seomator.com)
- Semrush — Launches Site Intelligence and highlights AI Mode tracking in Position Tracking. (Semrush)
- Format matters: Comparative listicles account for 32.5% of AI citations—far more than blogs, news, or videos. (seomator.com)
- OpenAI / Connectors — Plus and Pro gain Box, Dropbox, SharePoint, Teams, Notion connectors in chat; rollout began Aug 11. (OpenAI Help Center)
- Backlinko — ChatGPT Plus pulled an answer from a page only Google has only indexed. (Backlinko)
- LinkedIn — Monday.com told investors that Google’s AI changes cut activity and traffic. (LinkedIn)
- Backlinko — Test design allowed Googlebot and blocked other crawlers; ChatGPT still summarized it. (Backlinko)
Also read: Ranking Rules Changed (Again): Is Your Site Structured to Win?
2. Critical Discoveries Reshaping GEO Strategy
The news this week shows that the gap between traditional SEO and AI optimization is getting bigger.
ChatGPT's Google indexing, Monday.com's drop in traffic, and new tracking tools all show that visibility is changing in a big way. Let's look at it more closely.
ChatGPT Connectors Change Brand Recall
ChatGPT now connects to Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and more with workspace-level data controls.
Teams can seed fresh, attributable facts that surface in answers. EEA/UK Plus/Pro chat connectors are blocked, so rollouts differ by region. Plan content and governance together. (OpenAI)
ChatGPT Plus Appears To Use Google Indexing
Backlinko tested whether ChatGPT Plus pulls from Google by inventing “NexorbalOptimization,” allowing only Googlebot to crawl the page via robots.txt, and blocking other crawlers.
ChatGPT summarized the page correctly. The result indicates ChatGPT Plus uses Google Search data in addition to Bing.
For GEO, fast Google indexing, clean entities, and dated facts become prerequisites to appear in complex ChatGPT answers. (Backlinko)
Monday.com Says Google’s AI Changes Hurt Activity
A LinkedIn post highlights Monday.com’s Q2 remarks that Google’s AI changes reduced activity and traffic from search.
The stock fell despite revenue growth. For GEO teams, this is a warning to track conversions from AI answers and branded queries, not rank alone.
Shift budgets toward pages that win citations inside AI summaries and follow-ups, and measure revenue impact carefully. (linkedin.com)
Google AIO Gets Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts inside AI Overviews speed up the next question. Faster loops compress journeys and narrow which entities get shown.
Add tight follow-ups to your pages and mirror user phrasings you see inside AIO. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Measure Conversions From AI Search, Not Rank
Microsoft’s Fabrice Canel says search engines have limited visibility after the click from AI answers. He urges SEOs to study clicks-to-conversions, since improved answer quality produces fewer but better clicks.
Treat CTR as directional only. Tag AI surfaces, track assisted conversions, and compare revenue with and without AI overlays. Build reports that prove value beyond rank. (seroundtable.com)
Semrush Adds AI Mode Tracking and Site Intelligence
Position Tracking includes AI Mode, and Site Intelligence stresses AI-crawler readiness. Semrush notes AI crawlers may not render JavaScript or retry, so discoverability breaks fast.
Use this to separate classic rank shifts from AI-surface visibility and to fix rendering gaps that block citations. (Semrush Newsroom.)
Also read: When Answer Boxes Rule, How Will You Stay Seen?
3. Numbers That Prove AI Search Is Its Own Beast
Fresh data confirms what practitioners suspected: AI citations follow completely different rules than search rankings. With only 12% overlap between AI and SERPs, these stats rewrite the optimization playbook. Let's take a closer look.
- Opinion Blog Citation Rate: 9.91% of all AI citations across platforms (Seomator)
- AI Citations vs Blue Links Overlap: 12% of AI assistant citations overlap with top-10 blue links; Perplexity achieves 28.6% (Ahrefs)
- GPT-5 Thinking Context Limit: 196k tokens maximum; Plus users capped at 3,000 messages/week. (OpenAI Help Center)
- GPT-4.5 Access Restriction: Remains Pro-only in model picker due to GPU constraints (OpenAI Help Center)
- Average AI-Search Citation Overlap: 11% between all AI assistants and Google/Bing's top 10. (Ahrefs)
- AI Citations in Google's Top 10: 12% average across all AI platforms. (Ahrefs)
- AI Citations Not Ranking in Google: 80% don't rank anywhere for the original query. (Ahrefs)
- AI Citations in Bing's Top 10: 10% average across all AI platforms. (Ahrefs)
- Long-tail Queries Analyzed: 15,000 queries tested. (Ahrefs)
- AI Assistants Tested: 4 platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity). (Ahrefs)
- AI Overviews vs AI Assistants: 76% of AI Overviews cite top 10 pages vs 12% for AI assistants. (Ahrefs)
- Perplexity-Google Alignment: 28.6% of Perplexity citations rank in Google's top 10 (highest among AI assistants). (Ahrefs)
- Copilot-Bing Alignment: 16.6% of Copilot citations rank in Bing's top 10 (highest among AI assistants). (Ahrefs)
- ChatGPT reaches 700M weekly active users (4X growth from 2024). (CNBC)
- ChatGPT Google Overlap: 8% for in-text citations, 6.1% for references. (Ahrefs)
- Gemini Google Overlap: 8.6% of citations rank in Google's top 10. (Ahrefs)
- Query Fan-Out Impact: 80%+ of AI citations come from pages ranking for query variations, not the original prompt. (Ahrefs)
Also read: What Are the 5 Breakthrough Trends Reshaping How Brands Get Found
4. Winner of the Week: Algomizer's GEO Dominance
Algomizer dominates the GEO services market
What changed? Named #1 GEO company on August 14 (announced August 13) with 500+ enterprise clients.
Evidence: Clients achieve 87% AI visibility increases within one quarter; tripled ROI in under six months; proprietary LLM optimization and visibility tracking tools. (OpenPR)
Takeaway for marketers: Specialized GEO expertise delivers measurable results faster than in-house attempts.
Also read: 10 GEO Trends That Will Supercharge Your AI Visibility Faster
5. Tactic of the Week
Use ChatGPT connectors to seed trustworthy facts.
Connect a workspace folder with your press kit, spec sheets, and dated FAQs. Keep claims short, sourced, and versioned. Test prompts that ask the assistant to cite your files first, then the web. Monitor which snippets get quoted and update monthly. Teams in the EEA/UK should plan alternates while Plus/Pro chat connectors are blocked there. (OpenAI Help Center)
Also read: See Where Brands Go Missing And How To Fix It
6. Your GEO Checklist for Next Week
Time-sensitive opportunities require immediate action. These specific tasks, based on this week's developments, can improve your AI visibility before competitors catch up. Let's take a closer look.
- Test model paths: Run the same prompts across Auto, Fast, and Thinking, then compare citation order and answer depth. Log differences by query class. (OpenAI Help Center)
- Ship AI-ready facts: Publish a one-page, dated press kit and a product facts hub. Track appearances in Perplexity and AI Mode. (Semrush, The Verge)
- Measure beyond CTR: Add UTM standards and server-side events for AI surfaces. Report conversions from AI answers separately from classic SERP clicks. (Search Engine Roundtable)
- Audit crawler access: Check if AI crawlers can access your key pages—test with both Googlebot and GPTBot user agents after Backlinko's findings.
- Create query variations: Map 10-15 variations of your main queries since 80% of citations come from pages ranking for variations, not original prompts.
- Set up Semrush AI Mode tracking: Configure Position Tracking for AI Mode visibility to separate classic rank from AI surface performance.
- Document entity relationships: Build clear entity connections in your content since AI Overviews favor pages with strong topical authority.
In short, search rank no longer predicts AI visibility. Treat ChatGPT as a separate channel. Publish dated facts, add Q and A, track citations, measure conversions, and act before rivals cement gains.
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