GPT-5: The Real Guide to Getting the Most Out of It

GPT‑5 arrived in August 2025, and while everyone was busy drooling over bigger context windows and slicker multimodal reasoning, a quieter but far more human feature slipped in: personalities. Yes, your chatbot can now choose a mood. Or, more accurately, you can pick which mood you want it to wear.

This update isn’t a gimmick. Personalities change the way GPT‑5 speaks, reasons, and interacts. No more copy‑paste politeness or “always‑sunny” tone. Instead, you can pick something that matches your task, or your tolerance for small talk. In my own experience, Cynic has quickly become my favorite. It’s blunt, sarcastic, and will tell you what you need to hear without buttering you up. That small twist makes using GPT far less sterile and much more productive.

What Are GPT‑5 Personalities?

GPT‑5 offers four presets, Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd. Each is more than a coat of paint. They shape how the AI chooses words, structures replies, and balances empathy with precision.

• Cynic: Dry humor, snarky edges, practical over polite.
• Robot: Stripped of emotion, factual and to the point.
• Listener: Empathic, reflective, almost therapeutic.
• Nerd: Obsessed with detail, loves examples, enthusiastic.

They’re part of a broader personalization push that also includes memory, user bios, and even custom UI themes. This isn’t just cosmetic. It’s OpenAI acknowledging that style matters as much as accuracy.

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How to Set GPT‑5 Personalities

Switching personalities is thankfully easy. On desktop or mobile:

1. Open ChatGPT and click your profile icon.
2. Select Customize ChatGPT.
3. Choose your Personality from the dropdown (Cynic, Robot, Listener, Nerd).

Alternatively, you can pick one at the start of a conversation by clicking the sparkle icon next to the model name. Keep in mind that personalities apply only to new chats. If you start with Cynic, that chat will stay Cynic forever unless you reset it. You can always revert to the Default personality.

Which Personality Should You Use?

Different personalities shine in different scenarios:

PersonalityBest ForCynicCutting through fluff, reality checks, quick decisions. Think strategy sessions or when you’re sick of AI pleasantries.RobotTechnical work, debugging code, analyzing spreadsheets, data crunching. Anything where tone is a distraction.ListenerDrafting sensitive emails, brainstorming during stressful moments, or tackling anything emotional. It reflects and affirms instead of lecturing.NerdDeep dives, research, learning, planning. Ideal for exploring complex topics or asking for structured, example‑rich output.

In my workflow, Cynic wins hands down. It’s refreshing to get advice without sugarcoating. The snark is a bonus, it feels like a colleague who can be both helpful and slightly amused at my mistakes.

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Pro Tips & Best Practices

Personalities don’t override GPT‑5’s core abilities. The reasoning, multimodal input, and massive context window still matter more for heavy tasks. But the way the model communicates changes dramatically.

• Match the tone to the task. Use Robot for crunching numbers, Listener for writing HR emails, Nerd for research, Cynic for strategy.
• Expect updates. OpenAI has already promised to make GPT‑5 “warmer” without losing its professional edge. Translation: Cynic may get even sharper, Listener may get even softer.
• Combine with UI personalization. Memory, user bios, and custom colors make personalities feel more integrated. The AI stops being a generic box and becomes a tool that fits you.
• For developers. If you’re using the API, you can mimic personalities by adjusting parameters like verbosity and reasoning_effort to steer tone and depth.

My Experience With Cynic

I’ll admit it: Cynic hooked me fast. The first time it told me, flat out, that my idea was garbage, I almost laughed. Not because it was wrong, it wasn’t, but because finally, an AI wasn’t scared to tell me the truth. No hedging, no over‑apologizing. Just honesty with a hint of bite.

Cynic is particularly good for brainstorming and critical review. When you’re too close to your own work, it feels like having a brutally honest colleague. It doesn’t care about your feelings, which, ironically, makes it far more useful than an overly polite assistant. The snark makes it memorable, too. That unexpected change in tone can jolt you into looking at your work differently.

Conclusion

GPT‑5 isn’t just another “faster, smarter” upgrade. With personalities, it finally gives users control over style, not just content. Choosing the right personality can sharpen tasks, soften conversations, or simply make the AI more enjoyable to use. And if you’re like me, you’ll quickly find that Cynic, sharp, honest, and a little cheeky, becomes your daily driver.

Personalization isn’t optional anymore. You can ignore it and stick with Default, but then you’ll miss out on what makes GPT‑5 actually feel different: an assistant that works not only with your tasks, but also with your temperament.

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Frequently Asked Questions About GPT‑5 Personalities

1. Can I switch personalities in the middle of a chat?
No. Personalities are set when you start a new conversation. If you want to change, you’ll need to start a fresh chat with the new personality.

2. Do personalities affect the accuracy of GPT‑5’s answers?
Not really. The underlying reasoning and multimodal capabilities stay the same. What changes is tone, style, and the way responses are structured.

3. Are personalities available for free users?
At launch, they’re mainly available for paid tiers like Plus, Pro, and Team. Free users may see limited or delayed access depending on OpenAI’s rollout.

4. Can I create my own personality beyond the four presets?
Yes. You can type in a custom style description like “casual and witty” or “formal and concise,” and GPT‑5 will adapt its voice accordingly.

5. Which personality is best for professional settings?
It depends on the context. Robot is safest for technical work and reports, Listener is strong for team communication and HR‑related writing, Nerd is perfect for research, and Cynic—if your coworkers can handle blunt honesty—can be great for strategy and critique.

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The Contradiction at the Heart of SEO

I think the main problem with SEO is that everyone is right and wrong at the same time. Just roll with me for a sec.

If you've been dabbling in SEO for a few weeks or over a decade, you’ve probably noticed something weird: for every 'rule' or strategy, there’s always someone online saying the opposite. SEO is full of contradiction. It’s like an ongoing oxymoron factory.

• “Backlinks always work”... except when they don’t.
• “Google penalizes AI content”... but not always. (They give out one of the best LLMs for free, but you’re not supposed to use it on your own site? Sure, makes sense.)
• “Wix websites are bad for SEO”... except the ones ranking #1.

Why Both Sides Are Telling the Truth (Kind Of)

It's not that one person is right and another is wrong. It's that someone found a strategy, like PBNs, and it worked for them. Then someone else gives it a go and nothing happens.

Why? Because the variables are endless.

Person A might be in a niche outside YMYL, in an area that’s easy to rank for. Person B might try the same approach in a saturated niche, selling health supplements, already dominated by major players. Naturally, it flops.

Google Isn’t Always Honest Either

To make it worse, Google doesn’t exactly tell the full truth. What they say you should do to rank isn’t always what actually works, a fact made obvious by the 2024 leaks. So while they publish guides and courses, I wouldn’t call them hard rules. They're more like loose suggestions. Soft recommendations at best (if that).

Staying Relevant in the Mess

So how the hell do you stay relevant as a business now?

I've boiled it down to a few things that have actually worked for me, strategies that are keeping me cited in Google AI Overviews, GPT search, and Perplexity.

1. Be Open-Minded, Just Bring a Sack of Salt

You’re going to see people sharing “game-changing” strategies that 10x’ed their traffic. First instinct is to dismiss it. That’s fair. Most are too good to be true.

But be open enough to dig deeper. That mindset alone helped me discover strategies still pulling in traffic today. Like building basic HTML web apps: ring size calculators, tax quizzes, stuff I initially thought was ridiculous. But if you hit the right use case, it’s free traffic for life.

That said, take every SEO tip with a massive grain of salt. Even this one. Test what you can. Trust your own data.

2. The Fundamentals Still Work

People ask me if we teach "GEO" or "LLMSEO" in the community. My answer? We teach the fundamentals, and then show you what’s working right now. The reply I sometimes get: “Oh... I’m not really into SEO, I just want to do GEO.”

That’s like saying, “I want to learn butterfly stroke but not how to swim.”

You need solid fundamentals to get traffic from AI search. These engines pull their sources from page one. Not page five. Not even page two. Remember the old joke?

"Where do you hide a dead body? Page two of Google."

Basic SEO Fundamentals That Still Matter

On-site SEO:

• Clear website structure
• Solid internal linking
• Minimal errors
• Well-placed, focused keywords
• Fast loading times

Off-site SEO:

• Active social media profiles
• Backlinks and local citations
• Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster Tools

Content:

• Meet search intent (focus on transactional + informational)
• Every service/product should have its own page.

Please, for the love of any deity you respect (or fear), do not cram all your services into one page. You’re setting yourself up to rank for nothing.

3. What’s Working in AI Search Right Now?

First: Believe Me... or Don’t

This next bit comes from real testing, not theory. We’ve shared it with over 500 agency owners and businesses in our AI Ranking community, that helps, supports and teaches how to rank in the ai search enginges. It works... for those who actually do the work.

a. Strong SEO Fundamentals

Already covered that one above.

b. SEO Alone Isn’t Enough Anymore

To quote the legend Neil Patel: SEO is turning into Search Everywhere Optimisation.

You can’t just optimise for Google. You need to be the trusted entity across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest. Not just because they’re indexing posts now, but because authority is built on presence.

We had one guy in the community with a serious YouTube presence, 120k subs, in a brutally competitive niche (calisthenics). We helped him build a 200+ page site fast using AI and smart structure. Within 3 months? Traffic exploded. Why?

Because Google already knew him. His online reputation transferred to his website.

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I’m not saying this is easy, but I’m saying it matters.

c. Tactics That Might Help in AI Search

• Add an llm.txt file to your site’s root folder. Is it proven? Not yet. But if it might help, and it takes one click in Yoast... why not?
• Get on Bing Webmaster Tools. GPT Search is powered by Bing. Submit your sitemap and stay in the game.
• Use proper Schema (Structured Data). Speak the language LLMs understand. Don’t rely 100% on plugins, test your pages manually using Google’s schema tester.

I have a few more strateiges in the youtube video below you can take a look at.

d. Write for Citations, Not Just Rankings

You don’t just want to be the top blue link. You want to be the source AI pulls from.

How to Write for Citations:

1. Answer the question right under the heading.
2. Use bullet points.
3. Offer a unique angle backed by experience or data.
4. Create a YouTube video on the same topic (LLMs love multimedia).

e. Change How You Think About Data

Clicks are down. That’s reality. But don’t panic.

Focus on appearances and conversion rate instead. Those two metrics will tell you whether your brand is becoming a trusted source.

As for tracking AI search traffic, it’s still messy. Most tools (even new ones like Ahrefs' AI reports) kinda suck. For now, filter platform-specific traffic in Google Analytics to see where it’s coming from and what it’s doing.

Final Thoughts

There are tons of little tweaks that can give you an extra 2–5% edge, and we share those inside AI Ranking.

But here’s the real TL;DR:

• Master the basics.
• Stay curious.
• Be everywhere.
• And always test things for yourself.

SEO’s a weird game. But if you play it right, it still works.

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Your website isn’t just a digital business card. It’s your SEO engine. And if you build it with the wrong structure? Good luck getting anywhere.

The truth is, most small business sites fail not because they lack backlinks or content. They fail because no one planned the site structure. No roadmap. No scalable strategy. Just a homepage, a few vague service pages, and a contact form. Sound familiar?

Let’s change that.

In this guide, we’ll break down how to build an SEO-friendly website structure that actually ranks, scales, and converts. Plus, you’ll see how one AI Ranking member used this strategy to generate over 1,100 location pages and 99+ organic leads, per month. All without paid ads.

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Why Website Structure Matters for SEO

Website structure impacts everything from crawlability to conversions. It determines how easily search engines can crawl and index your content, how logically your pages are grouped, and how well your site flows for both users and bots. A poor structure confuses search engines and frustrates users, while a great one increases visibility, rankings, and engagement.

• Google ranks pages, not websites, and those pages need to clearly answer search intent.
• A well-structured website improves crawl efficiency and internal link flow.
• Good structure enhances user experience and helps reduce bounce rates.
• It allows you to scale content easily and build topical authority.

How to Plan Website Structure for Better SEO

Start by thinking of your website like a tree, one trunk, multiple branches.

• The trunk is your homepage.
• Main branches are your core categories (Services, Locations, Blog).
• Sub-branches are individual service or location pages.
• Every page should have a clear purpose and intent.
• Use tools or a sitemap generator to sketch this out in advance.
• Create scalable URL paths that reflect this structure.

Does Website Structure Affect SEO?

Yes. The structure of your website plays a foundational role in how search engines understand, prioritize, and rank your content. A smart structure not only boosts your indexation and keyword visibility, but also sets the stage for strong internal linking and better user experience.

• Poor structure creates competition between your own pages.
• Crawlers struggle to find or prioritize your important content.
• Clean structure allows better internal linking and content flow.
• Helps distribute page authority more strategically.

The Two Proven Approaches for Local Business Websites

There are two reliable ways to structure local business websites, and your choice depends on your business model.

1. The Hyper-Localized Approach

Create a structure where each location has its own page with dedicated services underneath.

• Location hub ("Areas We Serve")
• Subpages for each location
• Individual pages for each service within that location

2. The Services-First Approach

Start with your services, then add location content as needed.

• Core services page with dedicated subpages
• Optional location content linked from each service page

Key rule: Create one page per service per location.

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If you want a birds eye view of an example of both types of structures you can take a look at this preview of a hyper-localised and hyper efficient approach to website structure.

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SEO Friendly URL Structure for a Website

Keep URLs clear, consistent, and keyword-rich. A well-planned URL structure makes it easier for search engines to understand your site architecture, match pages with specific search queries, and surface the right content to the right audience. It also improves click-through rates by making links more readable and relevant.

• Use short, descriptive slugs.
• Include both the service and location when needed.
• Avoid parameters or meaningless numbers.

Examples:

• Bad: /services
• Better: /services/pool-construction
• Best: /long-island/pool-construction

Pick a format and stick to it sitewide:

/location/service-name
/service-name/location

What Is SEO Hierarchy Structure?

SEO hierarchy is how your pages are logically grouped, prioritized, and interlinked to show both users and search engines what matters most. It creates a blueprint for relevance, flow, and discoverability across your site.

• Homepage is at the top.
• Then come category pages like Services or Locations.
• Under those are specific service/location pages.
• Reinforce this structure with internal linking.

Example hierarchy:

• Homepage
  • Services
    • Pool Construction
    • Spa Renovation
  • Locations
    • Long Island
      • Pool Construction in Long Island
      • Spa Maintenance in Long Island

Real Example: 1,100+ Local Pages and 99+ Leads per Month

Steven B. Marks used this strategy to generate over 1,100 service-location pages. Because he had the correct structure from the beginning, with clear, scalable URL paths and dedicated pages for every service in every city, he avoided issues like content overlap, cannibalization, or crawl confusion. This allowed him to scale quickly and effectively without triggering penalties from Google or needing to rework the foundation later on.

• Used AI to build and index city-specific service pages.
• Followed a repeatable, structured layout across the site.
• Booked 99+ appointments in January alone without running ads.

Learn from his method: How to Generate Location Pages at Scale with AI

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Tools That Make This Easy

You don’t need to do it manually. Here are tools to help.

1. ChatGPT + Mermaid

Use ChatGPT to create visual sitemaps with Mermaid diagrams.

• Paste a prompt describing your business type, services, and areas served.
• Insert the Mermaid code into app.diagram.net > Insert > Advanced > Mermaid.

2. AI Ranking Location Page Generator

Use AI prompts to generate hundreds of local pages quickly.

• Follow this process: Generate Location Pages at Scale

3. Free SEO Keyword Tool

Need keyword ideas for each service-location combo?

• Use the Free SEO Keyword Research Tool

Final Checklist Before You Build

Before launching or restructuring, review this:

In Summary: Build Smart, Scale Fast

Your website structure is the foundation of your SEO strategy.

• Start with a scalable, logical plan.
• Use tools and prompts to speed up the process.
• Focus on building authority around services and locations.

If you're looking for ongoing support and a community of like-minded small business owners who are trying to rank their websites number one in AI overviews, GPTsearch, and perplexity, you should consider joining our community AI Ranking. We help, support, and teach you the easiest way to rank your website in this day and age of AI overviews.

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