ChatGPT is testing a list of links above its answers
Five plain search results appeared above the chat reply in a test one SEO caught on desktop.
ChatGPT showed five blue links above its written answer for some questions. Joe Youngblood spotted it on desktop, logged out, in incognito mode. His reaction was short. "Welcome back SEO!"
They are showing 5 blue links above the response.
That is a list of ordinary clickable search results, sitting above the chat reply, the way Google has always shown results. ChatGPT normally answers in its own words and buries links, so this flips the order.
It is a test, not a change
Nobody outside OpenAI knows how many people are seeing it or whether it stays. One SEO caught it, two others passed it around. Lily Ray replied "wtf??" and Glenn Gabe tied it to the other direction of travel this week, with Google testing the removal of its AI Mode tab.
Gabe's read is that the old format may simply make more money.
Why a small business owner should care
For the last stretch, getting mentioned inside an AI answer was the only prize on offer in ChatGPT. The answer sat on the page, the user read it, and often nobody clicked anything. A list of five links at the top is a different game. It is a result you can appear in and a link somebody can actually press, which means traffic to your site rather than a name drop inside a paragraph.
It also means the work that gets you into one place gets you into the other. Whatever OpenAI uses to pick those five links, it is picking pages, not sentences. Clear pages that genuinely answer the question someone typed are what both formats pull from.
What to do about it
Nothing. This is a test on one surface seen by one person, and chasing a layout that may be gone next week is wasted effort. There is no setting to opt in, no markup to add, no page to build for it.
If you want to use the moment for something, check whether you can tell where your visitors come from. In your analytics, look for chatgpt.com as a referrer over the last month. If links above answers roll out more widely, that number is where you will see it first, and knowing today's baseline makes the change obvious later.
Keep an eye on it and carry on. One person seeing five links in incognito mode is not a rollout, and OpenAI has said nothing about it either way.
now OpenAI realizing that providing 10-blue links is easier to monetize than a typical AI answer
Be the person who already knew
One email a day. Under three minutes. You will hear about a Google change before it shows up in your traffic.