GEO Series 2: Is Ranking Well on Google Still Relevant?

In our previous GEO insight series article, we talked about some of the traditional SEO practices that work for GEO. But if you (or your SEO agency) think that these AI-powered models mirror Google, think again.

Page Preference on Google and ChatGPT Is Polar Opposite

Research has found that the overlaps and correlations are startlingly low and sometimes inverted between ChatGPT results and Google search results.

For instance, for the question “Best men's running shoes?”, only ~8% of URLs matched between ChatGPT and Google. More surprisingly, page rankings on ChatGPT and Google have a -0.98 correlation, meaning the more ChatGPT liked a URL, the less likely Google was to rank it. The main difference is that Google prefers brand pages and direct purchase links, whereas ChatGPT cites editorial deep-dives and expert reviews from specialised sites.

Key findings from research data:

• The low overlapping rates between Google and ChatGPT confirms that they run on different signals. So if you dominate Google, do not assume you will do as well on ChatGPT.
• Commercial queries (vs. knowledge queries) about what to buy have almost opposite ranking results on Google vs. ChatGPT.
• As mentioned in our previous GEO insight series article, authoritative and relevant content still matter in the age of AI search. Keyword stuffing not so much.

LLMs Contribute More and More Referral Traffic to Websites

Google used to be the single largest third-party source of online traffic to most websites. But increasingly, outbound links from large language models (LLMs) are becoming prominent. In the past one year, the number of unique domains receiving referral traffic from ChatGPT has tripled.

What does this mean?

• With 400 million weekly users on ChatGPT and many more on other AI models, if your content does not show up in AI citations, you are not preparing for the future.
• Your #1 Google search results can quickly become irrelevant.
• Newcomers are given a golden opportunity to outshine bigger names, thanks to AI models’ preference for well-structured, thoroughly-explained, and in-depth content.

Apple announced that AI-native search engines like Perplexity and Claude will be built into Safari. Google’s monopoly in search is in question. A new paradigm is emerging. When it comes to search, many people’s first instinct is no longer to “Google it”, but rather “ask my best friend ChatGPT” or any of the language models integrated phones, applications and browsers.

Chat with us if you’re curious to learn more

We’ve been talking to our clients about the AI age. Some are already adapting; many are guessing. As we’ve been doing in the past 18 years, Adhesion is staying at the forefront of digital marketing, and we’re here to make sure you do too.

GEO is still a black box; just like every new technology (e.g. Google in the early 00s). We’ll keep watching the space and share our learnings with you. Stay tuned for our next edition.

References:

https://a16z.com/geo-over-seo/

https://www.tryprofound.com/guides/the-surprising-gap-between-chatgpt-and-google