On February 5th, ChatGPT introduced its latest update: ChatGPT Search. Since then, this feature has been accessible to all users in supported regions—no signup required.
This is a significant development.
Why?
Because now, everyone can use ChatGPT’s web search, and at OtterlyAI, we’re able to track web links and citations referenced in ChatGPT Search.
How does ChatGPT Search work?
ChatGPT can now search the web in a much better way than before. You can get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for. This blends the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more.
Here’s how it works:
You can manually enable web search by clicking the web search icon in ChatGPT. However, even if you don’t activate it, ChatGPT may still perform a web search, depending on your query.
For example, in the screenshot below, I didn’t manually enable web search when asking:
“What’s the weather in Vienna?”
ChatGPT recognized that a web search would yield more accurate results than relying solely on the LLM. As a result, it conducted a search and provided me with real-time weather information for Vienna.
In short, there are two decisions at play here: one made by the user—whether to enable ChatGPT search or not—and one made by ChatGPT, determining whether a query requires a web search?).
Rapid Growth of Referral Traffic: The Impact of ChatGPT Search on Marketing
ChatGPT is evolving into a powerful search engine, and for marketers, this is an exciting development. Its ability to drive traffic to websites aligns perfectly with its original goal—becoming a true search engine.
By combining a conversational interface with real-time search capabilities, ChatGPT is positioning itself as a strong competitor to Google.
Chances are, your web analytics already reflect referral traffic coming from ChatGPT.
Semrush has released an insightful study on ChatGPT, analyzing 80 million clickstream records. Their findings highlight a significant increase in referral traffic originating from ChatGPT.
From July to December 2024, the number of unique domains receiving traffic from ChatGPT surged by 300%, with traffic spikes reported even before the official launch of SearchGPT on October 31, 2024. – source
However, ChatGPT’s CTR is lower than Google’s
Exciting times, right? Many of us are noticing steady month-over-month growth in referral traffic from ChatGPT in our web analytics. But before we get carried away, let’s keep things in perspective. Unlike Google, which is designed to drive traffic through (blue) links, ChatGPT functions as an answer engine—delivering direct responses to users rather than directing them elsewhere.
Now, can you guess which platform has the higher click-through rate?
How to Track Web Links on ChatGPT with OtterlyAI
As a marketing and brand team, keeping an eye on your traffic and expanding your presence on ChatGPT—both for your brand and website—is essential.
That’s where OtterlyAI comes in.
Our platform allows you to automatically monitor your brand’s positioning, mentions, and link placement on ChatGPT.
How It Works
Once you’ve added your first search prompts to your OtterlyAI account, you’ll be able to see whether ChatGPT includes web links in its AI-generated responses.
In the Search Prompt Monitoring view, you can easily track the number of web links provided by ChatGPT.
When I select a specific search prompt, I can view all the link tracking details:
- Link Position: Identifies the placement of a particular URL within the ChatGPT response.
- Link URL & Domain: Displays the exact URL and domain being referenced.
- Weekly Link Tracking: Monitors changes in link positions and appearances over time.
With Link Tracking for ChatGPT now available, you can start analyzing how your domain appears in citations. Visit the Analytics Dashboard in your OtterlyAI account to view the total number of link citations on ChatGPT and compare them to AI Overviews and Perplexity.
Interested in exploring link analytics further? Visit Link Analytics to see how frequently specific URLs are mentioned on ChatGPT.
With just four tracked search prompts, OtterlyAI helped me uncover 26 unique links across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AIO.
Link Tracking for ChatGPT Search – Fully Automated
OtterlyAI automatically tracks your website’s performance every week, eliminating the need for manual link tracking. Our Link Tracking for ChatGPT feature is designed to help you answer key questions, such as:
- How visible is my website on ChatGPT?
- How does my website compare to my competitors?
- What content gaps should I prioritize?
Getting started is easy! Sign up for Otterly for free or log in to your existing account here.
Frequently Asked Questions
We are updating the FAQ section on the ChatGPT Search Monitoring feature here. If you have additional questions, please write us at hello@otterly.ai or via live chat.
Why don’t I see links for some of my prompts in my OtterlyAI account?
This happens because ChatGPT sometimes determines that it can provide a better response using its LLM rather than performing a web search. Not every query you enter in ChatGPT results in a web search.
Is ChatGPT Search & Web Links Available via OpenAI’s API?
No, ChatGPT does not currently provide search functionality or web links through its API. While this may change in the future, for now, web links are only accessible within the ChatGPT user interface. However, OtterlyAI has developed a solution to integrate links into our AI Search monitoring tool.
Why Might an AI Response Differ from OtterlyAI’s Monitoring?
There are several reasons why an AI-generated response for an individual user may not match the results from OtterlyAI’s monitoring. One key factor is that OtterlyAI does not track logged-in user states. This means that any personalization—such as ChatGPT’s Memory RAG feature—is not reflected in OtterlyAI’s results. However, we believe that OtterlyAI provides a more objective and neutral perspective compared to other monitoring solutions or manual user searches.
Key Differences Between a Pure LLM Answer and a ChatGPT Search Answer?
A ChatGPT Search answer leverages OpenAI’s web search capability, allowing it to retrieve real-time information from the internet. In contrast, traditional LLMs operate solely based on their training data and do not have live internet access. As a result, they are limited by knowledge cutoff dates, which vary depending on the specific LLM model.