ChatGPT vs Google, Reddit Search is Now 80 Million Users & What AI Reads| HighDegree* - Issue 16
why the markdown shortcut could hurt your site, how Reddit is completing searches without Google, what makes ChatGPT cite your content, Google's new WebMCP protocol that may define the next era.
Hi friends,
Welcome to the new issue of HighDegree*: Cutting Through the Noise in SEO & Digital Marketing.
Search is being quietly rearranged. AI tools are handling more queries, Reddit is keeping users on-platform, and Google is already sketching out what websites will look like for AI agents. None of this is distant future talk: it's happening right now, and small decisions you make about your content and site structure today will matter more than you think.
This issue covers five developments worth understanding, with clear takeaways for webmasters, bloggers, and small business owners navigating this shifting landscape.
Let’s jump in.
➞ In this Week
Skip the Markdown Trick — Google and Bing Say It’s Not Worth It
Reddit Now Completes Searches, Not Just Inspires Them
How to Write Content ChatGPT Actually Cites
ChatGPT Gets a Fraction of Google’s Traffic — But the Gap Is Closing
Google’s WebMCP Protocol Wants to Make Your Website Agent-Ready
Everything from Google search this week
Everything from Social Media and Artificial Intelligence World
Articles that will Help You Refine Your Marketing Knowledge
➞ Subscribe
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➞ Skip the Markdown Trick, Google and Bing Say It's Not Worth It
Some SEOs have started creating separate markdown (.md) versions of their web pages, hoping to serve cleaner, easier-to-parse content to AI crawlers and large language models (LLMs). Both Google and Bing are now pushing back on that idea.
Google’s John Mueller pointed out that LLMs have always been capable of reading standard HTML — there’s no technical advantage to a separate markdown file. Microsoft Bing’s Fabrice Canel raised a more practical concern: Bing will crawl both versions anyway to check for similarity, which doubles your crawl load and creates a content management headache.
Worse, serving different content to bots than to human visitors is the definition of cloaking, a practice that violates Google’s longstanding policies. The shortcut isn’t just ineffective; it could actively work against you. The cleaner move is to make your existing HTML pages well-structured and easy to parse. One version, done right, is all you need.
Read the full report from searchengineland.com ➞
Reddit’s search growth is a good reminder that platforms are competing for the same audience attention your website is — and the battle isn’t only happening on Google.
➞ Reddit Now Completes Searches, Not Just Inspires Them
Reddit reported that 80 million people use its search every week, up from 60 million a year earlier. That jump followed a significant product change: Reddit merged its standard keyword search with Reddit Answers, its AI-powered Q&A feature, creating a single interface where users can move between community discussions and AI-generated responses without leaving the platform.
CEO Steve Huffman framed it plainly: Reddit wants to become an end-to-end search destination, not just a source that feeds traffic to Google. Reddit Answers queries grew from roughly 1 million to 15 million in Q4 2025 alone, driven largely by open-ended questions — what to buy, what to watch, what to try.
For brands and small businesses, this matters because buying decisions are increasingly being researched and resolved inside Reddit communities. If your category has an active subreddit, having a genuine, helpful presence there is now a legitimate part of your visibility strategy, not just a nice-to-have.
Read the full report from searchengineland.com ➞
Speaking of visibility, the next piece is about exactly what makes AI systems notice and cite your content in the first place.
➞ How to Write Content ChatGPT Actually Cites
A detailed analysis of 1.2 million ChatGPT citations revealed a consistent pattern researchers are calling the “ski ramp”: 44.2% of all citations come from the first 30% of an article, 31.1% from the middle, and 24.7% from the conclusion.
In short, if your key insight is buried in paragraph 14, AI is far less likely to surface it. The research, published by Kevin Indig using data from analytics platform Gauge, also identified five characteristics of content that gets cited: definitive language (”X is defined as...”), a question-and-answer structure, high entity density (specific brand and tool names rather than vague references), balanced sentiment that blends fact with analysis, and plain writing at roughly a college reading level.
The practical takeaway is straightforward: lead with your conclusion, write your H2 headings as actual questions, and name specific tools or brands rather than speaking in generalities. This is not about gaming AI. It’s about writing more clearly, which benefits human readers too.
Read the full report from growth-memo.com ➞
That clarity matters even more when you consider just how much traffic difference currently exists between AI tools and traditional search.
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➞ ChatGPT Gets a Fraction of Google’s Traffic — But the Gap Is Closing
Data published by Ahrefs puts the current landscape in useful perspective. ChatGPT processes roughly 2.5 billion prompts per day as of July 2025. When filtered to queries that traditionally would have been searched on Google, things like product research, how-to questions, and translations, ChatGPT handles about 12% of Google’s search volume.
Despite that, Google still sends 190 times more traffic to websites than ChatGPT does. Google accounts for nearly 40% of traffic to websites tracked by Ahrefs Web Analytics across 76,000 sites, while ChatGPT accounts for just 0.21%. The core reason is behavioral: Google connects people to websites, while ChatGPT keeps users inside the conversation.
For website owners, the implication is real. AI tools are growing fast, ChatGPT has already surpassed Bing in search query volume, but they are not yet replacing Google as a traffic source. The time to understand AI visibility is now, before that gap narrows further.
Read the full report from ahrefs.com ➞
And if you want a glimpse of where the web is technically heading for AI interactions, the final story is one to bookmark.
➞ Google’s WebMCP Protocol Wants to Make Your Website Agent-Ready
Google has released an early preview of WebMCP, a new protocol that defines how AI agents interact with websites. Rather than having an AI agent guess what a button or form does by reading raw page code, WebMCP lets website owners publish a structured "Tool Contract", a clear list of available actions, such as buyTicket(destination, date), that an AI can call directly.
It runs on a new browser API called navigator.modelContext and introduces two interaction modes: a Declarative API for standard HTML form actions, and an Imperative API for more complex JavaScript-driven interactions. Practical use cases include travel bookings, customer support ticket creation, and e-commerce checkout flows.
SEO professionals Dan Petrovic and Glenn Gabe have both flagged this as a significant development, potentially the biggest shift in technical SEO since structured data became mainstream. WebMCP is still in early preview, but understanding it now puts you ahead of the curve when it becomes widely adopted.
Read the full report from searchengineland.com ➞
➞ From Google
Everything from Google search this week —
→ Google Search Ranking Volatility Beginning To Cool? (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Search Console Page Indexing Report Missing A Chunk Of Data (seroundtable.com)
→ Google: A Spike In Impressions Doesn’t Cause Problems For Search (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Won’t Use Sitemap Files If Its Not Convinced Of New/Important Content (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Tests Removing Dates From Articles In Discover Feed (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Email: Fake Or Incentivised Reviews Found On Your Business Profile (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Business Knowledge Panels With AI Generated Services (seroundtable.com)
→ ProducerAI: Your music creation partner, now in Google Labs (blog.google)
→ Google now attributes app conversions to the install date (searchengineland.com)
→ Gemini 3.1 Pro: A smarter model for your most complex tasks (blog.google)
→ Google AI Mode Works In 53 New Languages (seroundtable.com)
→ Hover Pop Up Links Official In Google AI Overviews & AI Mode (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Is Losing A Knowledge Graph Source - CIA World Factbook (seroundtable.com)
→ Complaints Over Google Reviews Being Removed Again (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Updated The Business Profile Review Policies (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Sponsored Places Search Ad Unit (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Search Console AI-Powered Configuration Goes Live (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Search Console Still Testing Branded Queries & Social Channels Feature (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Discourages Force Indexing Pages To Search (seroundtable.com)
→ Google: We Do Not Have A Bad Title Algorithm Filter Of Sorts (seroundtable.com)
→ Data: Google AI Overview Clicks Shifting To Shopping Search Ads (seroundtable.com)
→ Google AI Overviews Have Blue Links Before Click & Gray After Click (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Tests Links In Recipe AI Overviews (seroundtable.com)
→ Google AI Mode Ask About Feature Now Triggers On Overlay (seroundtable.com)
→ Google: Allowing Opting Out Of AI Overviews Is A Huge Engineering Project (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Warns Not To Serve "Not Available" With JavaScript (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Ends Parked Domains (AFD) On Search Partner Network (seroundtable.com)
→ New Google Ads Calculate Your Conversion Value For New Customers (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Ads Recommendations Doc About The Results Tab (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Ads tool is automatically re-enabling paused keywords (searchengineland.com)
→ Google AI Mode Tests Citation Icons At Bottom Of Answers (seroundtable.com)
→ Gemini 3 Deep Think: Advancing science, research and engineering (blog.google)
→ Hidden HTTP Page Can Cause Site Name Problems In Google (searchengineland.com)
→ Google Business Short Names Being Removed From Business Profiles (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Can Now Monitor Search For Your Government IDs (searchengineland.com)
→ Google pushes AI Max tool with in-app ads (searchengineland.com)
→ Google Revises Discover Guidelines Alongside Core Update (searchengineland.com)
→ Google AI Overviews Tests Contextual Overlay Link Cards (seroundtable.com)
→ Google AI Mode Follow Up Search Suggestions (seroundtable.com)
→ Google On If A Younger Web Site Can Beat An Older Website In Search (seroundtable.com)
→ New Data Shows Googlebot’s 2 MB Crawl Limit Is Enough (searchengineland.com)
→ Google Ads Mixed Campaign Type Experiments Live For Some (seroundtable.com)
→ Google Ads adds a diagnostics hub for data connections (searchengineland.com)
➞ AI + Social
Find out what’s happening in the social media and artificial intelligence world —
→ Bing Tests New UI For AI Responses With New Links & References (seroundtable.com)
→ Bing Updates Shopping Ads Design (seroundtable.com)
→ Microsoft Advertising Tests Shopping Carousel With Multiple Images Toggle (seroundtable.com)
→ Microsoft Urgent Warning: AI Assistant OpenClaw Is Not Suitable for Enterprise Workstations (news.aibase.com)
→ Google bans Antigravity users over OpenClaw activity, cites surge in ‘malicious usage’ (indianexpress.com)
→ New AI Tool: Anthropic Launches Claude Code Security, Bringing Changes to the Field of Cybersecurity! (news.aibase.com)
→ New Changes in AI Search! Samsung Deeply Integrates Perplexity into Galaxy AI: A Single 'Hey Plex' Opens the Era of Multiple Intelligent Agents (news.aibase.com)
→ Brands see biggest growth on TikTok but organic reach is slowing on Instagram (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Instagram emphasizes Reels in new design update (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Threads now offers simplified sharing to Instagram (socialmediatoday.com)
→ WhatsApp adds catch-up function to group chats (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Microsoft says bug causes Copilot to summarize confidential emails (bleepingcomputer.com)
→ Microsoft Locks In 20% Of OpenAI Revenue (sg.finance.yahoo.com)
→ ChatGPT Ads From Expedia Spotted In The Wild (.seroundtable.com)
→ Meta Announces Long-Term Partnership With Nvidia (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Meta’s AI-Powered Smartwatch Is Slated for Release Later This Year (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Meta Is Shutting Down Its Messenger Website (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Research Shows X Amplifies Conservative Political Views (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Snapchat+ Reaches 25M Subscribers (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Snapchat Introduces Subscription Model for Its Most Popular Creators (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Blocking Prompt Injection Vulnerabilities! OpenAI Adds Two Advanced Security Measures to ChatGPT (aibase.com)
→ Musk Predicts the Death of Programming: AI Writes Binary Code Directly, Intermediate-Level Development May Becomes History (aibase.com)
→ Qwen3.5-Plus Open-Sourced on the Eve of Chinese New Year, Ranking as the World's Strongest Open-Source Large Model (aibase.com)
→ Meta Launches Manus AI Integration in Ads Manager (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Threads Adds Basketball Mini Game for NBA All-Star Weekend (socialmediatoday.com)
→ LinkedIn Outlines Measures To Combat Engagement Pods (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Cloudflare Introduces Markdown for Agents (blog.cloudflare.com)
→ Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview (blogs.bing.com)
→ Grokipedia Seeing Decline In Google Search Visibility (seroundtable.com)
→ ChatGPT Gets Ads: Omnicom, WPP, and Dentsu Line Up Brands for OpenAI Pilot (adweek.com)
→ OpenAI Says Goodbye to GPT-4o: Officially Discontinued on February 13, 2026 (news.aibase.com)
→ GPT-5.2 Powerful Drive! OpenAI Deep Research Tool Upgrade Unlock Full-Screen Report Interaction Experience (news.aibase.com)
→ Introducing OpenAI GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark Powered by Cerebras (cerebras.ai)
→ LinkedIn Adds SMB-Focused Premium Subscription (socialmediatoday.com)
→ TikTok Adds New Ad Types for Entertainment Marketers (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Russia Blocks WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram Access (socialmediatoday.com)
→ Threads Expands Manual Algorithm Control Option (socialmediatoday.com)
→ OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI (techcrunch.com)
→ Reddit On Google & ChatGPT AI Responses Citations & Lack Of Links (seroundtable.com)
→ ChatGPT users can now get home insurance quotes in chat (postonline.co.uk)
→ War Department to partner with OpenAI to add ChatGPT to its artificial intelligence platform (justthenews.com)
→ Anthropic CPO Mike Krieger says that Claude is now effectively writing itself (x.com)
→ Introducing Claude Opus 4.6 (anthropic.com)
→ Bing Unshipping Frankenstein Recipes In Search (seroundtable.com)
→ TikTok Publishes New Guide to Effective Promotions (socialmediatoday.com)
→ ByteDance Launches Impressive New AI Video Generation Tool (socialmediatoday.com)
→ YouTube Announces New Subscription Packages for TV (socialmediatoday.com)
➞ Worth Reading
These are the articles that will help you refine your marketing knowledge —
→ How answering People Also Ask questions correlates with organic rankings (Study) (alsoasked.com)
→ The December 2025 core update: Observations on 4 sites that did well (mariehaynes.com)
→ ChatGPT is NOT a search engine (think.resoneo.com)
→ Claude Code Course by Anthropic (anthropic.skilljar.com)
→ What if user satisfaction is the most important factor in SEO? (mariehaynes.com)
→ AI Crawlability: What SEOs Need to Know to Stay Visible in AI Search (womenintechseo.com)
→ The Great Decoupling (growth-memo.com)
→ A Reflection on SEO & AI Search in 2025 (lilyraynyc.substack.com)
→ Guide to Generative AI (advancedwebranking.com)
➞ What This All Means for Your Strategy
This issue covers a lot of ground, but the thread connecting all five stories is the same: the rules of online visibility are being rewritten, and the sites that adapt early will have a real advantage. Stop chasing markdown shortcuts, start showing up where your audience actually searches, write content that leads with the answer, and keep one eye on where the technical web is heading. If this issue was useful, forward it to a fellow webmaster or blogger who could use a straight-talking breakdown. And if you're not subscribed yet, [join the HighDegree* newsletter] → [CTA_URL] to get issues like this every week.
Until next week,
Nishat from HighDegree*
P.S. Have a question about implementing these strategies? Hit reply – we read every email and often feature reader questions in future issues.
➞ Who is Nishat Shahriyar?
I am a Digital Marketing Strategist, having worked in this field since 2007. Now working as a Product Marketing Lead at Fluent Forms (The best lead generation tool for WordPress), previously at Fluent Support (The best WordPress Helpdesk Plugin).
Connect with me, if you are not connected through my LinkedIn or follow me on X/Twitter - @rednishat