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TL;DR: ChatGPT doesn’t pull from Google—it pulls from Bing. That means your years of Google SEO might not translate to AI visibility. Bing’s algorithm values different signals, and because ChatGPT’s search results and product summaries are powered by Bing’s index, most e-commerce brands are invisible where today's shoppers are making buying decisions: inside ChatGPT Search.
Curious where your brand stands In AI Search? Get your score today!
The Quiet Shift No One’s Talking About
When OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT Search, most marketers assumed it just layered AI on top of Google results. But that’s not what is happening.
ChatGPT’s browsing and “Search” features run entirely on Microsoft’s Bing, not Google. Microsoft isn’t just a partner; it’s OpenAI’s infrastructure backbone. The Bing Index fuels what ChatGPT can see, cite, and summarize across the web.
And that subtle detail—Bing instead of Google—completely changes who wins in AI Search.
Why That Matters for E-commerce
For the past decade, every optimization playbook has been written for Google. Your team knows the drill: backlinks, web vitals, mobile-first design, content depth, and authority building.
But ChatGPT doesn’t care about your Google rank. It doesn’t even “see” your site the same way.
Bing’s algorithm—the one feeding ChatGPT—looks for different signals:
Exact-match keywords instead of semantic guesswork
Complete structured data, not just clever copy
Rich visuals with alt text and captions
Fresh content and social engagement over long-term domain clout
So while you’ve been tuning for Google’s nuance and E-E-A-T scoring, Bing is quietly rewarding older, cleaner, more data-driven pages. And now, ChatGPT is using that to decide what products appear in AI answers.
Steps You Can Take Today
Nobody is abandoning Google any time soon, but forward-thinking e-commerce teams are pivoting, and expanding their presence into Bing to increase their AI Search visibility.
Here's where you can start:
Measure your AI Visibility with AISearchScore. Start with a baseline.
Verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools. Establish your brand with Bing asap.
Upgrade your structured data. Use full Product, Offer, and Review schema with every attribute filled.
Rewrite for AI readability. Go long-form. Add FAQs, context, and story—the kind of text an AI can quote.
Ensure crawlability for MSNBot. JavaScript-heavy sites need prerendering or server-side rendering.
Leverage visuals and social signals. Bing still reads engagement and multimedia cues as trust indicators.
The Bigger Picture
ChatGPT’s Bing connection is more than a technical detail—it’s the beginning of a new ranking era.
The old funnel of ad → click → browse → buy is being surpassed by the simplicity of prompt → purchase. And the winners will be the brands that understand AI visibility isn’t earned through design polish or ad spend, but through structured, readable, and accessible product data.
If you’re still optimizing for Google alone, you’re not optimizing for your customers. It’s time to meet them where they’re already shopping—inside AI.
Curious where your brand stands? Get your AISearchScore today!
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