SEO Experts Observe ChatGPT Performing site: Searches for Major Brands via Google
SEO professionals have identified thousands of impressions for site: searches targeting major brands in Google Search Console data, with nearly zero clicks. The pattern appears to be increasing over time, and multiple observers suspect ChatGPT is generating these queries as part of its web search process.
What was observed
Lily Ray, an SEO professional and head of research at Amsive Digital, posted on August 12 that she examined site: searches for several major brands and found thousands of impressions but almost no clicks. The volume is generally increasing over time, she wrote.
Ray noted that the same obscure site: search query can generate thousands of impressions in a single day. She speculated that if ChatGPT is using Google for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), at least partially, some of those searches should appear in GSC query reporting.
Quentin Aisbett, an SEO consultant, replied that he is seeing the same pattern. He reported increased site: search impressions starting in late January 2026, with another jump at the start of April.
What this suggests
The observation points to a possible mechanism in how AI search systems verify information about brands and websites. If ChatGPT is performing site: searches through Google to check what pages exist on a domain before fetching or citing them, those queries would appear in GSC exactly as Ray described: high impressions, zero clicks, because the bot reads the results without clicking through.
OpenAI's web search documentation describes three types of search available to its models: non-reasoning web search for quick lookups, agentic search where reasoning models actively manage the search process and can perform multiple searches as part of their chain of thought, and deep research for extended investigations. The documentation does not specify which search provider powers these tools or whether site: operators are used.
What has not been confirmed
OpenAI has not publicly confirmed that ChatGPT performs site: searches via Google or any other search engine. The company's documentation does not disclose the underlying search provider for its web search tool.
Google has not commented on the observation. It is not clear whether the site: searches originate from ChatGPT's consumer product, its API, or another OpenAI service. The observation is based on GSC data from a small number of SEO professionals, not from Google's official reporting.
The pattern could have alternative explanations. Other AI systems or automated tools might perform site: searches. Google's own systems might generate these queries for indexing or quality purposes. The observers did not rule out these possibilities.
Sources
- Lily Ray's public post on X (August 12, 2026)
- OpenAI Web Search Documentation
