SE Rating analyzed 129,000 distinctive domains throughout 216,524 pages in 20 niches to determine which elements correlate with ChatGPT citations.
The variety of referring domains ranked as the only strongest predictor of quotation chance.
What The Information Says
Backlinks And Belief Indicators
Hyperlink variety confirmed the clearest correlation with citations. Websites with as much as 2,500 referring domains averaged 1.6 to 1.8 citations. These with over 350,000 referring domains averaged 8.4 citations.
The researchers recognized a threshold impact at 32,000 referring domains. At that time, citations almost doubled from 2.9 to five.6.
Area Belief scores adopted the same sample. Websites with Area Belief beneath 43 averaged 1.6 citations. The advantages accelerated considerably on the prime finish: websites scoring 91–96 averaged 6 citations, whereas these scoring 97–100 averaged 8.4.
Web page Belief mattered lower than domain-level alerts. Any web page with a Web page Belief rating of 28 or above acquired roughly the identical quotation charge (8.3 common), suggesting ChatGPT weighs total area authority extra closely than particular person web page metrics .
One notable discovering: .gov and .edu domains didn’t routinely outperform industrial websites. Authorities and academic domains averaged 3.2 citations, in comparison with 4.0 for websites with out trusted zone designations.
The authors wrote:
“What finally issues just isn’t the area title itself, however the high quality of the content material and the worth it gives.”
Visitors & Google Rankings
Area visitors ranked because the second most vital issue, although the correlation solely appeared at excessive visitors ranges.
Websites beneath 190,000 month-to-month guests averaged 2 to 2.9 citations no matter actual visitors quantity. A web site receiving 20 natural guests carried out equally to at least one receiving 20,000.
Solely after crossing 190,000 month-to-month guests did visitors correlate with elevated citations. Domains with over 10 million guests averaged 8.5 citations.
Homepage visitors particularly mattered. Websites with no less than 7,900 natural guests to their foremost web page confirmed the best quotation charges.
Common Google rating place additionally tracked with ChatGPT citations. Pages rating between positions 1 and 45 averaged 5 citations. These rating 64 to 75 averaged 3.1.
The authors famous:
“Whereas this doesn’t show that ChatGPT depends on Google’s index, it suggests each techniques consider authority and content material high quality equally.”
Content material Depth & Construction
Content material size confirmed constant correlation. Articles beneath 800 phrases averaged 3.2 citations. These over 2,900 phrases averaged 5.1.
Construction mattered past uncooked phrase rely. Pages with part lengths of 120 to 180 phrases between headings carried out greatest, averaging 4.6 citations. Extraordinarily quick sections beneath 50 phrases averaged 2.7 citations.
Pages with skilled quotes averaged 4.1 citations versus 2.4 for these with out. Content material with 19 or extra statistical information factors averaged 5.4 citations, in comparison with 2.8 for pages with minimal information.
Content material freshness produced one of many clearer findings. Pages up to date inside three months averaged 6 citations. Outdated content material averaged 3.6.
Surprisingly, the uncooked information confirmed that pages with FAQ sections truly acquired fewer citations (3.8) than these with out (4.1). Nevertheless, the researchers famous that their predictive mannequin considered the absence of an FAQ part as a detrimental sign. They recommend this discrepancy exists as a result of FAQs typically seem on easier assist pages that naturally earn fewer citations.
The report additionally discovered that utilizing question-style headings (e.g., as H1s or H2s) underperformed simple headings, incomes 3.4 citations versus 4.3. This contradicts customary voice search optimization recommendation, suggesting AI fashions might favor direct topical labeling over query codecs.
Social Indicators & Overview Platforms
Model mentions on dialogue platforms confirmed robust correlation with citations.
Domains with minimal Quora presence (as much as 33 mentions) averaged 1.7 citations. Heavy Quora presence (6.6 million mentions) corresponded to 7.0 citations.
Reddit confirmed comparable patterns. Domains with over 10 million mentions averaged 7 citations, in comparison with 1.8 for these with minimal exercise.
The authors positioned this as notably related for smaller websites:
“For smaller, less-established web sites, partaking on Quora and Reddit presents a technique to construct authority and earn belief from ChatGPT, just like what bigger domains obtain by means of backlinks and excessive visitors.”
Presence on assessment platforms like Trustpilot, G2, Capterra, Sitejabber, and Yelp additionally correlated with elevated citations. Domains listed on a number of assessment platforms earned 4.6 to six.3 citations on common. These absent from such platforms averaged 1.8.
Technical Efficiency
Web page velocity metrics correlated with quotation chance.
Pages with First Contentful Paint beneath 0.4 seconds averaged 6.7 citations. Slower pages (over 1.13 seconds) averaged 2.1.
Pace Index confirmed comparable patterns. Websites with indices beneath 1.14 seconds carried out reliably properly. These above 2.2 seconds skilled steep decline.
One counterintuitive discovering: pages with the quickest Interplay to Subsequent Paint scores (beneath 0.4 seconds) truly acquired fewer citations (1.6 common) than these with reasonable INP scores (0.8 to 1.0 seconds, averaging 4.5 citations). The researchers instructed very simple or static pages might not sign the depth ChatGPT appears for in authoritative sources.
URL & Title Optimization
The report discovered that broad, topic-describing URLs outperformed keyword-optimized ones.
Pages with low semantic relevance between URL and goal key phrase (0.00 to 0.57 vary) averaged 6.4 citations. These with highest semantic relevance (0.84 to 1.00) averaged solely 2.7 citations.
Titles adopted the identical sample. Titles with low key phrase matching averaged 5.9 citations. Extremely keyword-optimized titles averaged 2.8.
The researchers concluded: “ChatGPT prefers URLs that clearly describe the general subject fairly than these strictly optimized for a single key phrase.”
Components That Underperformed
A number of generally advisable AI optimization techniques confirmed minimal or detrimental correlation with citations.
FAQ schema markup underperformed. Pages with FAQ schema averaged 3.6 citations. Pages with out averaged 4.2.
LLMs.txt information confirmed negligible influence. Outbound hyperlinks to high-authority websites additionally confirmed minimal impact on quotation chance.
Why This Issues
The findings recommend your present search engine marketing technique might already serve AI visibility objectives. In case you’re constructing referring domains, incomes visitors, sustaining quick pages, and preserving content material up to date, you’re addressing the elements this report recognized as most predictive.
For smaller websites with out in depth backlink profiles, the analysis factors to group engagement on Reddit and Quora as a viable path to constructing authority alerts The info additionally suggests specializing in content material depth over key phrase density.
The researchers observe that elements are interdependent. Optimizing one sign whereas ignoring others reduces total effectiveness.
Wanting Forward
SE Rating analyzed ChatGPT particularly. Different AI techniques might weight elements otherwise.
SE Rating doesn’t specify which ChatGPT model or timeframe the information represents, so these patterns needs to be handled as directional correlations fairly than proof of how ChatGPT’s rating algorithm works.
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