ERIC KIM

ChatGPT search

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ERIC — here’s the reality check + the power move.

Can ChatGPT show you “how many people searched me” or “how many times it mentioned me”?

Not in the way you’re imagining.

There’s no public “leaderboard,” and there isn’t a personal dashboard that tells you “X strangers asked about Eric” or “ChatGPT referenced Eric Y times.” That would basically expose other people’s private queries and behavior, so it’s not something OpenAI surfaces to individual creators.

But… you can track the parts that touch the open web, and that’s where the whole game becomes measurable.

What you 

can

 measure today (the real analytics)

1) Track clicks from ChatGPT → your site

If your website shows up in ChatGPT’s web search results, you can measure how much traffic it sends you.

OpenAI’s publisher FAQ says ChatGPT includes a UTM parameter (utm_source=chatgpt.com) in referral URLs, so analytics tools (Google Analytics, etc.) can cleanly attribute inbound traffic from ChatGPT search. 

That’s the closest thing to a “how often did ChatGPT surface me?” counter that normal creators can actually use (because clicks are the hard currency).

What to do (GA4 quick hit):

  • Create a report / exploration filtered by:
    • Session source contains chatgpt.com
    • or Session campaign / Session source platform depending on your setup
  • Then watch:
    • sessions
    • engaged sessions
    • conversions
    • pages per session

2) Make sure you’re even eligible to appear (crawl control)

ChatGPT search visibility is tied to an OpenAI crawler called OAI-SearchBot.

OpenAI documents that:

  • OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in ChatGPT search results.
  • If a site opts out of OAI-SearchBot, it won’t be shown in ChatGPT search answers (though it might still appear as a navigational link). 
    And the publisher FAQ explicitly says: if you want your content included in summaries/snippets, don’t block OAI-SearchBot.  

This is huge: “AI discoverability” isn’t magic — it’s crawl permissions + relevance + authority.

3) Watch bot activity in your server logs (signal, not glory)

OpenAI also documents other user agents:

  • GPTBot = crawler used for training data collection (separate from search).  
  • ChatGPT-User = user-initiated browsing (not automatic crawling) and it doesn’t determine search inclusion.  

So you can grep your logs for:

  • OAI-SearchBot
  • GPTBot
  • ChatGPT-User

That tells you you’re being visited, but the money metric is still referrals + conversions.

4) If you publish a GPT, you 

do

 get a usage counter

This is the “I want a scoreboard” option.

OpenAI’s GPT creation docs say that in the “My GPTs” view you can see usage stats: the Chats column shows how many chats were initiated with your GPT (in ranges like 10+, 100+). 

And the publishing doc notes you can “view usage analytics” from the My GPTs dashboard. 

So if your goal is “how many humans interacted with my AI presence,” publishing a GPT is one of the cleanest built-in counters you’ll get.

The bigger idea: the new game isn’t followers — it’s retrievability

You’re basically pointing at something real:

Chat-based search is becoming a default discovery layer, and ChatGPT search is explicitly designed to give web answers with links to sources. 

So the play is: make your work the easiest, cleanest, most citable source for the questions you want to own.

Hardcore “AI-first discoverability” playbook (practical, not mystical)

Step 1: Build a “canonical truth” page about you

One page that is the definitive reference. Not vibes. Facts.

Include:

  • short bio
  • what you’re known for
  • key topics you want associated with your name
  • links to your main properties (site, newsletter, socials)
  • “best of” links (the pages you want models + humans to land on)

Bonus: add structured data so machines can unambiguously connect identity → content.

Drop-in JSON-LD (template):

<script type=”application/ld+json”>

{

  “@context”: “https://schema.org”,

  “@type”: “Person”,

  “name”: “Eric Kim”,

  “url”: “https://YOURDOMAIN.COM/”,

  “sameAs”: [

    “https://instagram.com/YOURHANDLE”,

    “https://x.com/YOURHANDLE”,

    “https://youtube.com/@YOURHANDLE”

  ],

  “jobTitle”: “Photographer”,

  “knowsAbout”: [“street photography”, “photography blogging”, “visual education”]

}

</script>

Step 2: Make crawling frictionless (don’t accidentally lock the door)

If you want to show up in ChatGPT search answers, you generally want OAI-SearchBot allowed. 

Robots.txt template (simple):

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot

Allow: /

# Optional: if you’re also okay with training crawl

User-agent: GPTBot

Allow: /

Sitemap: https://YOURDOMAIN.COM/sitemap.xml

Key nuance:

  • Letting OAI-SearchBot in helps search visibility.  
  • GPTBot is about training, not search.  
  • You can allow one and not the other (they’re independent).  

Step 3: Write “answer-shaped” pages that are ridiculously easy to cite

LLMs love content that:

  • defines terms clearly
  • answers questions directly
  • uses headings that match real queries
  • has a strong “source-of-truth” feel (dates, revisions, references)

So instead of only “blog as diary,” also build:

  • “What is street photography?” (clean definition + examples)
  • “Best beginner camera settings for street”
  • “How to approach strangers ethically”
  • “Minimal gear philosophy” (etc.)

Make each page:

  • one clear topic
  • updated date visible
  • fast + readable on mobile

Step 4: Become reference-worthy outside your own site

This is the unsexy truth: models + search systems trust networks of corroboration.

So chase:

  • interviews
  • podcasts
  • guest essays
  • citations by other writers
  • reputable directories / profiles where appropriate

Not for ego — for “this person exists and is widely referenced.”

Step 5: Launch a GPT as your “AI front door”

If you want the cleanest internal discoverability inside ChatGPT, publish a GPT with:

  • your voice / philosophy
  • your curated knowledge (your best posts as files, summaries, or links)
  • clear positioning (“Street photo coach,” “Minimalist visual thinker,” etc.)

Then you get a Chats metric in your GPT list. 

That’s not “how many times the whole world searched you,” but it is a real counter of how many people actively entered your ecosystem.

Step 6: Track the only numbers that matter

Build a mini dashboard with:

  • ChatGPT referral sessions (utm_source=chatgpt.com)  
  • conversions from that traffic (email signups, product clicks, etc.)
  • top landing pages from chatgpt.com
  • mentions on the broader web (Google Alerts / Ahrefs / etc.)
  • (optional) OAI-SearchBot crawl hits (server logs)  

About the “be #1 for 1000 years” claim

The spirit is right — the outcome is… not guaranteed.

ChatGPT search pulls from the live web and includes source links, and it can choose to search based on the question. 

That means rankings and citations can shift with:

  • new pages
  • new sources
  • new models
  • new search partners

So the durable strategy isn’t “win once.”

It’s compound: canonical page + crawl access + answer pages + external citations.

That’s how you become the default reference instead of a passing mention.

If you want to go full beast mode, paste:

  1. your main domain, and
  2. the 5–10 “questions you want to own” (like “street photography mindset,” “minimal gear,” etc.)

…and I’ll sketch a site structure + exact page titles + schema + robots.txt tuned for maximum AI retrievability and clean tracking.

.

Not really — at least not globally or “across all of ChatGPT.”

What you 

can’t

 do (the thing you’re imagining)

  • There’s no public dashboard that tells you how many other people asked ChatGPT about you (typed your name, “searched you,” etc.).
  • There’s also no counter that tells you how many times ChatGPT has mentioned you across everyone’s chats.
  • That kind of cross-user visibility would be a privacy nightmare, so it’s not exposed to regular users.

The closest “yes” options (depending on what you actually want)

1) If you make a public GPT about yourself, you can track 

that GPT’s

 usage

If you create a GPT (like “ERIC KIM Assistant” / “About [Your Name]”), ChatGPT gives you usage analytics for your GPT.

  • In your My GPTs dashboard, you can see how much it’s been used.
  • The “Chats” metric shows the total number of chats started with that GPT (often shown in ranges like 10+ meaning between 10–20, 100+ meaning 100–200).  
  • Important: even if people use your GPT, you can’t see their individual conversations with it.  

So you get a popularity signal, but not the private details.

2) If you’re in an organization (Enterprise/Edu), admins can see 

workspace-level

 usage

ChatGPT Enterprise/Edu has a User Analytics dashboard that shows high-level usage and GPT usage for that organization’s workspace (not the whole world). 

This is for workspace owners/admins, not for tracking a random person’s name across ChatGPT.

3) If you run your own app with the OpenAI API, you can track usage in 

your

 app

If you build your own chatbot/app powered by OpenAI and you control the backend, you can log:

  • how often users search a term,
  • how often your app outputs your name,
  • etc.

But that only tracks your users inside your product, not “everyone using ChatGPT.”

4) If what you really want is “how often the internet searches for me”

That’s not a ChatGPT feature, but you can track it with:

  • Google Trends (public interest),
  • Google Search Console (if you control a site),
  • Bing Webmaster Tools,
  • mention monitoring (Google Alerts / brand monitoring tools).

Bottom line

If you want global “how often people ask ChatGPT about me” stats: nope — not available.

If you want a legit counter you can actually see: publish a GPT about you and watch the Chats metric climb. 

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