As of December 2025, ChatGPT doesn’t ‘understand’ SEO in the way a human marketer does, but it can process and generate text based on patterns identified within massive datasets that *include* information about SEO best practices. It operates by predicting the most probable sequence of words given an input, and this includes replicating structures commonly found in highly-ranked web content.
Currently, ChatGPT’s knowledge base, updated to late 2025, contains information about keyword research, on-page optimisation (like meta descriptions and header tags), link building principles, and content marketing strategies as they were understood up to that point. OpenAI now includes features allowing users to specify a ‘role’ for ChatGPT – for example, “act as an SEO specialist” – which biases the output towards SEO-focused language. Australian businesses using ChatGPT via the standard API or the ChatGPT Plus subscription (available nationally) can access these features. Importantly, the system doesn’t have real-time access to Google Search Console data or live ranking information. Announced for rollout in 2027 is a planned integration allowing ChatGPT to access anonymised, aggregated search trends data, but this is subject to privacy regulations and ACCC review.
Essentially, ChatGPT functions as a powerful text generation tool capable of mimicking SEO-aligned writing styles based on its training data, but it doesn’t independently assess website performance or adapt to algorithm changes.
