How ChatGPT Searches: 15 Million Fan-Out Queries and What Brands Should Do
This piece was written and published by Ahrefs, a company that sells SEO and search analytics software. It is included here for its practical insight. Its inclusion does not mean that Healthcare Growth Strategies, its founder, or his employer endorses, recommends, or has a position on Ahrefs or its products. Figures drawn from the vendor’s own customer or platform data have not been independently verified.
ChatGPT increasingly goes to official sources when it searches. Ahrefs analyzed 66.6 million free, logged-out ChatGPT responses and their 15 million fan-out queries from August and September 2026. Only 14.4% of responses ran fan-out searches, averaging about 1.6 queries each, so a page has to match one of very few searches to be seen. Of those fan-outs, 6.8% used a site: operator to search one website, and three in four of the most common site: searches targeted a brand’s own site. The word “official” appeared in 13.1% of English fan-outs in September, up from 10.1% in August. In a separate Ahrefs test, 84.4% of factual questions about pricing, features or company details cited at least one official source.
For practices, the takeaway is to put the facts patients ask about (services, insurance, pricing ranges, hours, locations) on your own site in plain text. AI assistants appear to check the brand’s site first for factual questions.
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How often does ChatGPT search the web when answering?
In Ahrefs’ sample of 66.6 million logged-out ChatGPT responses, 14.4% contained fan-out searches, with about 1.6 searches per response on average.
Does ChatGPT search brands’ own websites?
Yes. Ahrefs found 6.8% of fan-out queries used a site: operator to search one website, and about three in four of the most common site: searches targeted a brand’s own site.
What should a healthcare practice do with this?
Make sure factual details such as services, accepted insurance, pricing ranges, hours and locations are clearly stated in plain text on your own website, since AI assistants lean on official sources for factual questions.