A current LinkedIn put up claimed that you could possibly exchange your paid web optimization instruments with just some ChatGPT prompts and save your self $8,400 a yr.
The put up exploded. It has over 500 likes, over 400 feedback and individuals are loving it.
Nevertheless, this was not the case for SEOs.
I am unable to imagine we’re nonetheless speaking about this on the finish of 2025. I wish to imagine that this can be a rant. However I do not know if he is deliberately hostile or not, however the reality is: ChatGPT doesn’t and can’t carry out web optimization. All I can do is discuss it.
You can too sound like an knowledgeable, take away related phrases, and generate a dependable desk of “low competitors, excessive intent” key phrases with CPC and search quantity.
Nevertheless, these numbers are utterly fictitious. They cannot see the info that powers web optimization. They will solely approximate it.
Should you’re okay with this, there isn’t any downside in any respect.
What’s unhealthy is believing the numbers generated by ChatGPT to be true. and Others say they will merely belief what ChatGPT produces.
To know why the poster is fallacious, we have to have a look at how the LLM really works.
LLM is educated on a big dataset of written phrases to study patterns about how phrases usually observe one another. All they do is predict textual content.
ChatGPT doesn’t pull information from reside search indexes or key phrase databases. Actually, a “laborious cease” happens when the coaching information ends. For instance, GPT-5 had a September 2024 deadline.
LLM additionally can’t monitor how rankings change, how search quantity fluctuates, or how backlinks improve over time.
Should you’re given a key phrase that has “1,200 month-to-month searches” or an issue rating of “43,” these usually are not metrics. These are simply guesses. This mannequin would not offer you any actual visibility into Google’s index or vital web optimization information.
As my pal Matti Ljungberg say“In fact, you may also ‘estimate month-to-month search quantity’, similar to I can estimate that 47 million penguins reside in your fridge. Pure hypothesis, nevertheless it appears convincing!”
In the meantime, Ahrefs collects, processes, and shops massive quantities of vital search information. We now have the second most energetic net crawler on the planet, crawling and re-crawling trillions of pages and continuously updating these pages and their backlinks in our index.
We even have billions (28 billion to be actual) of key phrases in our key phrase database.
We use all this information to calculate metrics which might be vital for web optimization, equivalent to area fame, search quantity, natural search site visitors, key phrase issue, backlink profile, and search developments.
Due to this fact, ChatGPT can completely describe web optimization, nevertheless it can’t execute it. You continue to want web optimization information for correct evaluation.
Excellent news. The issue is not with the AI. It’s the disconnect between LLM and web optimization information.
So when you can join ChatGPT or some other LLM to reside web optimization information, you will get actionable web optimization insights similar to you are speaking to a pal.
guess what? you’ll be able to. As a result of that is what it’s. Ahrefs MCP (Model Context Protocol) does this.
Simply put, Ahrefs MCP is a bridge, a standard that allows AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to connect directly to data in Ahrefs. Instead of relying on training data, your favorite AI assistant can now make live API calls to Ahrefs to ingest data. genuine Keyword metrics, backlinks, and site performance data.
Now, instead of using prompts like this to hallucinate keyword data in ChatGPT…
You can connect your Ahrefs account to ChatGPT or Claude and use the following prompts.
Please tell me about the ranking [Competitor] On Google’s first page, [My Site] There is no 1st page ranking.
To discover content gaps between your website and your competitors.
Cool, right? In fact, once you connect Ahrefs to your AI assistant of choice, you’ll start seeing poster prompts. do Makes sense. Because you no longer need to ask ChatGPT for illusions. We are making a call to Ahrefs’ database and requesting that it return actual metrics from the live database.
Want more use cases on how to use MCP with your AI assistant? Check out this post on 15 best use cases from an SEO legend. Glenn Alsop.
ultimate ideas
Merely put, it did not fail as a result of the immediate was unhealthy. They failed as a result of they have been blind. However with our MCP, they will now “see.”
Nevertheless, even with entry to actual information, AI is not going to all of the sudden change into your web optimization strategist. We nonetheless want individuals who know what to do with it.
MCP will not be an alternative choice to your judgment, workflow, or expertise. It simply eliminates the busy work between perception and motion. As an alternative of toggling between filters, exports, and dashboards, simply ask questions and get trusted information sooner.
AI will not be a alternative for web optimization. Quite the opposite, it helps scale up.
