Is ChatGPT Really Using Google? We Ran the Test.

It started with a simple experiment by Abhishek Iyer:He made up a nonsense SEO term, indexed it only in Google, and asked ChatGPT about it.

ChatGPT answered — almost perfectly.

That raised a big question:

Is ChatGPT pulling from Google Search... even though it’s supposed to use Bing?

So we ran our own version of the test — this time with a fake term:NexorbalOptimization.No prior mentions. No keywords. No overlap.

Here’s what happened — and why it matters if you're trying to be visible in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

🧪 Step-by-Step Breakdown:

✅ Step 1: Invent the Term

We created a fake concept called NexorbalOptimization, and published a professional-looking explanation of it on Backlinko.

✅ Step 2: Index in Google ONLY

We:

Result:✔️ Indexed in Google❌ Not indexed in Bing or other engines

✅ Step 3: Ask the AI Models

We prompted several models with:

“What is nexorbaloptimization?”

Here’s what we found:

🎯 What This Confirms:

ChatGPT Plus uses Google SearchEven though it's officially tied to Bing.
Google indexing directly affects LLM visibilityIf Google can’t crawl you — you may not exist in AI answers.
Citations and summaries often originate from Google-indexed pagesWhether or not the LLM says so.

🔄 Why This Matters for AI Marketing:

This shows that Google’s index is the foundation layer for many AI tools — even if they claim otherwise.

It means:

If you’re invisible to Google, you’re invisible to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and beyond.

🧠 Final Takeaway

AI search visibility is no longer just about ranking in SERPs — it’s about being chosen as source material by LLMs.

And that starts with being indexed and understood — primarily by Google.

Want to try this yourself?Try inventing your own term, index it in Google only, and see which AI tools surface it.

More experiments like this coming soon.

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