Deep Dive: User strategies and insights from real ChatGPT conversations

If you're wondering how to get the most out of ChatGPT and incorporate it into your own workflows and strategies, you're not alone.

Curious to find answers, Semrush analyzed 5,054 conversations to get a closer look at how people interact with ChatGPT. For the study, we collected publicly shared links of real ChatGPT conversations from May and June 2023, leveraging data provided by Datos - a global provider of users behavior data.

Below, we'll share insights about how people craft prompts and how ChatGPT (and other generative AI tools like it) are helping them work smarter, not harder.

There's no 'right' type of conversation

According to Semrush analysis, the median number of messages in a ChatGPT conversation is three, meaning that more than half (59%) of users had conversations that involved three messages or less. However, when looking at the average number of messages in a conversation, this number increased to eight messages, indicating the presence of longer interactions, especially in cases where users ask for further clarification or examples about the same topic. The longest conversation in our sample contained 692 messages - all of which related to one topic: understanding a financial risk management method for calculating potential losses.

The length of each message also varies. Although most conversations tend to be short, some users are writing longer requests. The median message length was 15 words, while the average came to 86 words.

Surprising ways people use ChatGPT

While AI-assisted content generation has been a hot topic in headlines everywhere, Semrush research shows that people are turning to ChatGPT for help for many different types of tasks. Here are the top three requested actions in conversations:

· Writing code

· Creating tables

· Providing examples

Unexpectedly, these actions were requested more often than tasks like writing articles or emails.

The word clouds below show the action words and nouns most frequently mentioned when starting a ChatGPT conversation - the bigger the word, the more often it was used.

We also matched the most popular actions and nouns to find out what people ask for help with the most. To expand the scope of your own ChatGPT prompts, try some of the following pairs:

word pair	frequency (in user requests only)
write code	66
create table	47
provide example	42
write article	39
write email	26
create data	24
provide insight	21
provide information	21
create content	20
provide feedback	19

Programming was the dominant topic of conversation in our sample. Some 64% of conversations related to programming topics, such as showing examples of code or debugging code. The next most popular topic area was social media at 23%, followed by queries about finding information, business management ideas, and AI and machine learning.

The majority of topics related to enhancing work routines rather than daily activities. However, the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools at some companies is relatively limited, so we expect to see changes as the technology matures.

'Expert' and 'lead' take top spots for job roles to play

One of the most widely-shared prompt tips for AI chatbots is to ask them to act like a specific profession or assume an identity to help get better responses. We examined sentences that started with the phrases "act like a ____" or "you are a ____" to find what roles are taking center stage on ChatGPT.

The word cloud below shows the most frequently mentioned roles:

The top roles people asked ChatGPT to act like were "lead" and "expert," followed by "engineer," "director," and "writer." Giving ChatGPT one of these roles to play can help guide the tool to give answers that are more closely aligned to your expectations and goals.

Plugins extend ChatGPT capabilities

Semrush found that around 16% of all ChatGPT conversations contain links to files or a webpage. However, the basic free version can't read data from links without ChatGPT plugins, which add other capabilities such as search and third-party integrations. Unfortunately, these are only available with a paid ChatGPT Plus account and there's a waiting list to enable them - just 6% of all conversations we analyzed have plugins enabled.

There's plenty of AI-generated content tools if your main goal is delivering unique, engaging content faster. Semrush content writing tool ContentShake uses AI technology to suggest personalized topic ideas, generate detailed article outlines, and rewrite, expand, or optimize copy in just a few clicks.