Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how product discovery works, what drives visibility in ChatGPT, and how background assets impact Core Web Vitals.
OpenAI launched shopping research in ChatGPT, SE Ranking published the largest study yet on ChatGPT citation factors, and Google’s John Mueller clarified that background video loading won’t hurt SEO if content loads first.
Here’s what matters for you and your work.
ChatGPT Launches Shopping Research For All Users
OpenAI rolled out shopping research in ChatGPT on November 24, making personalized buyer’s guides available to all logged-in users across Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans.
The feature works differently from standard ChatGPT responses. Users describe what they need, answer clarifying questions about budget and preferences, and receive a detailed buyer’s guide after a few minutes of research.
Key Facts: Powered by GPT-5 mini. Nearly unlimited usage through the holidays. Merchants can request inclusion through OpenAI’s allowlisting process.
Why SEOs Should Pay Attention
Shopping research pulls more of the product comparison journey inside ChatGPT before users click through to merchant sites. This changes where product discovery happens in the funnel.
Traditional search sent users to comparison sites, retailer pages, and review platforms to build their own shortlist. Shopping research does that work inside the chat interface, asking clarifying questions and surfacing product recommendations based on constraints like budget, features, and intended use.
Crystal Carter, Head of AI Search & SEO Communications at Wix, highlighted the personalization implications in a LinkedIn post:
Make sure your brand affinities, and communities are clearly stated on YOUR website, in your support documentations, FAQs, and make moves to get it cited on other websites, because for some customers, these considerations are make or break, and they will build it into their models.
Her testing showed ChatGPT delivering different restaurant recommendations to users with different profile preferences, pulling from Google Business Profiles and other sources to match stated affinities.
For retailers and affiliate publishers, visibility now depends partly on how products and pages appear in OpenAI’s shopping system. The allowlisting process means merchants need to opt in rather than relying solely on organic crawling.
Read our full coverage: ChatGPT Adds Shopping Research For Product Discovery
Study Reveals Top 20 Factors Driving ChatGPT Citations
SE Ranking analyzed 129,000 unique domains across 216,524 pages in 20 niches to identify which factors correlate with ChatGPT citations.
Referring domains ranked as the single strongest predictor. Sites with up to 2,500 referring domains averaged 1.6 to 1.8 citations, while those with over 350,000 referring domains averaged 8.4 citations.
Key Facts: Domain traffic matters only above 190,000 monthly visitors. Content over 2,900 words averaged 5.1 citations versus 3.2 for articles under 800 words. Pages with 19 or more data points averaged 5.4 citations.
Why SEOs Should Pay Attention
The study suggests that traditional SEO fundamentals still align with AI citation likelihood, but the thresholds matter more than gradual improvements. A site with 20,000 monthly visitors performs similarly to one with 200 monthly visitors, but crossing 190,000 visitors doubles citation rates.
This creates different optimization priorities than traditional search. Building from zero to moderate traffic won’t improve ChatGPT visibility, but scaling from moderate to high traffic will. The same pattern holds for referring domains, where the jump happens at 32,000 domains.
Manidurga BLL, an IT student analyzing the research, broke down the implications in a LinkedIn post with video:
The AI revolution isn’t just changing how we search. It’s rewriting the entire playbook for digital authority. For us tech students and future developers, this means rethinking content strategy from day one. Building domain authority isn’t just about Google anymore. It’s about teaching AI systems to trust and cite your work.
The post includes a detailed video walkthrough of the study findings, highlighting that heavy Quora and Reddit presence correlates with 7 to 8 citations, while review platform listings average 4 to 6 citations.
The research also found that .gov and .edu domains don’t automatically outperform commercial sites despite common assumptions. What matters is content quality and domain authority, not domain extension.
Read our full coverage: New Data Reveals The Top 20 Factors Influencing ChatGPT Citations
Mueller: Background Video Loading Unlikely To Affect SEO
Google Search Advocate John Mueller says large video files loading in the background are unlikely to have a noticeable SEO impact if page content loads first.
A site owner on Reddit asked whether a 100MB video would hurt SEO if the page prioritizes loading a hero image and content before the video continues loading in the background. Mueller responded that he doesn’t expect a noticeable SEO effect.
Key Facts: Using preload=”none” on video elements prevents browsers from downloading video data until needed. Core Web Vitals metrics should verify implementation meets performance thresholds.
Why SEOs Should Pay Attention
The question addresses a common concern for sites using large hero videos or animated backgrounds. Site owners have avoided background video because of performance worries, but Mueller’s guidance clarifies that proper implementation won’t create SEO problems.
The key is load sequencing. If a page shows its hero image, text, and navigation immediately while a 100MB video loads in the background, users get a fast experience and search engines see content quickly.
The Reddit thread included debate about the guidance, with one commenter noting Mueller’s response contradicts concerns about network contention competing with critical resources. WebLinkr, an r/SEO moderator, defended Mueller’s position and noted web developers sometimes overstretch the impact of page speed factors on SEO.
This changes the calculation for sites considering background video. The decision now focuses on user experience and bandwidth costs rather than SEO penalties.
Technical implementation still matters. Using preload=”none” on video elements prevents the browser from downloading video data speculatively, saving bandwidth for users who never play the video.
Read our full coverage: Mueller: Background Video Loading Unlikely To Affect SEO
Theme Of The Week: Discovery Moves Upstream
Each story this week shows discovery happening earlier in the journey.
ChatGPT shopping research handles product comparison before users reach merchant sites. The SE Ranking study reveals what builds citation authority at scale rather than incremental gains. Mueller’s video guidance removes a technical barrier that kept sites from using rich media.
Taken together, this week is about where decisions really form, before anyone ever types a query into Google.
Top Stories Of The Week:
- ChatGPT Adds Shopping Research For Product Discovery
- New Data Reveals The Top 20 Factors Influencing ChatGPT Citations
- Mueller: Background Video Loading Unlikely To Affect SEO
More Resources:
- ChatGPT Vs. Gemini Vs. Claude: What Are The Differences?
- How People Use ChatGPT & What It Means For The C-Suite
- Google’s Old Search Era Is Over – Here’s What 2026 SEO Will Really Look Like
Featured Image: Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock
