{"title":"Query Fan-Out: What You Can Actually Observe","url":"https://outwrite.ai/research/query-fan-out-evidence","type":"Research review","modified":"2026-11-08T14:07:48.842Z","methodology":"Seven primary sources were inspected on November 8, 2026. Documentation, a historical announcement and one vendor observational study are distinguished in the source notes. Unverified discovery leads were excluded. Editorial proposals are not evidence of citation lift. No customer data or private query logs were used.","disclosure":"outwrite.ai publishes this research review and sells content and search-visibility software. The proposed workflow and hypothetical example are original editorial analysis, not tested performance claims. We did not run the cited vendor study or a new optimization experiment.","sources":[{"id":"1","title":"AI features and your website","publisher":"Google Search Central","url":"https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features","published":"Publication date not stated","period":"Documentation inspected November 8, 2026","sample":"Documentation, not an experiment.","finding":"Conditional expansion; ordinary SEO still applies.","limitation":"Google-specific guidance, not a complete query log.","verified":true,"checked":"2026-11-08"},{"id":"2","title":"AI in Search: Going beyond information to intelligence","publisher":"Google","url":"https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/google-search-ai-mode-update/","published":"2025-05-20","period":"May 20, 2025","sample":"Product announcement, not an experiment","finding":"Historical explanation of AI Mode decomposition.","limitation":"No fixed query count or current rollout claim.","verified":true,"checked":"2026-11-08"},{"id":"3","title":"Web search","publisher":"OpenAI","url":"https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/tools-web-search","published":"Publication date not stated","period":"Documentation inspected November 8, 2026","sample":"Documentation, not an experiment.","finding":"Queries, consulted sources and citations are distinct API records.","limitation":"Queries are not always returned; consumer sessions may differ.","verified":true,"checked":"2026-11-08"},{"id":"4","title":"Agent API","publisher":"Perplexity","url":"https://docs.perplexity.ai/docs/agent-api/quickstart","published":"Publication date not stated","period":"Documentation inspected November 8, 2026","sample":"Documentation, not an experiment.","finding":"Examples show queries/results separately from cited answers.","limitation":"Developer examples, not consumer measurements.","verified":true,"checked":"2026-11-08"},{"id":"5","title":"How ChatGPT Does Query Fan-Out (15 Million Queries Studied)","publisher":"Ahrefs","url":"https://ahrefs.com/blog/query-fan-out-chatgpt/","published":"2026-10-12","period":"Published October 12, 2026; sampled August and September 2026","sample":"66.6 million free logged-out GPT-5.6 Luna responses and 15 million fan-out queries, as reported by Ahrefs","finding":"14.4% contained fan-out queries; wording corrected in October.","limitation":"Vendor sample, not universal search frequency or causal evidence.","verified":true,"checked":"2026-11-08"},{"id":"6","title":"Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content","publisher":"Google Search Central","url":"https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content","published":"Publication date not stated","period":"Documentation inspected November 8, 2026","sample":"Documentation, not an experiment.","finding":"Audience usefulness and original value; no preferred word count.","limitation":"No citation formula established.","verified":true,"checked":"2026-11-08"},{"id":"7","title":"Spam policies for Google web search","publisher":"Google Search Central","url":"https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies","published":"Publication date not stated","period":"Documentation inspected November 8, 2026","sample":"Documentation, not an experiment.","finding":"Policies address manipulative scale and doorway abuse.","limitation":"Separate useful pages are not automatically violations.","verified":true,"checked":"2026-11-08"}],"chart":null}