For years, Google has been the default place people go when they need an answer, a product, a service or a local business.
Then ChatGPT changed the conversation.
Instead of typing a few keywords into Google and clicking through several results, users can now ask a detailed question and get a direct, conversational answer. For business owners, this raises an obvious question:
Is ChatGPT replacing Google and what does that mean for SEO?
The answer is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Google is still the dominant search platform by a huge margin, but ChatGPT and other AI tools are changing how people research, compare and make decisions online.
That means businesses should not abandon SEO, they should expand it.
Google is still dominant, but search behaviour is changing
Traditional search market share still heavily favours Google. StatCounter reported Google at 90.02% of worldwide search engine market share in April 2026, with Bing at 5.14%. In the UK, Google’s share was even higher at 91.42% in the same month.
On the surface, that sounds like business as usual.
But market share depends on what you are measuring. First Page Sage’s 2026 report estimates that, when looking at total digital query volume rather than only traditional search engines, Google holds 77.9% and ChatGPT holds 17.6%.
That gap between datasets matters, a “search engine market share” chart and a “digital query” model are not measuring exactly the same thing. Google still dominates classic search behaviour, while ChatGPT is capturing a growing share of tasks that used to start with a search box: research, planning, writing, comparison and decision support.
So the question is not whether Google or ChatGPT wins.
The better question is: where are your customers asking questions now?
ChatGPT is becoming a research assistant, not just a chatbot
ChatGPT is no longer a niche tool used mainly by early adopters. OpenAI says ChatGPT now has more than 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million consumer subscribers.
Its use cases are also broadening, OpenAI’s own research found that most consumer ChatGPT conversations focus on everyday tasks such as practical guidance, seeking information and writing. Around half of messages are ‘asking’ style prompts, where users want advice, explanation or clarification rather than a finished output.
That is where the SEO opportunity starts to shift.
People are not only searching:
‘best accountant near me’
They are asking:
‘What should I look for when choosing an accountant for a small business in Middlesbrough?’
Or:
‘Compare hiring an in-house marketer vs using a digital marketing agency for a growing ecommerce brand.’
These are longer, more specific and more conversational searches. They are often earlier in the buyer journey, but they can shape which brands users trust before they ever visit a website.
Google is becoming more like ChatGPT too
It would be a mistake to think of Google and ChatGPT as two completely separate worlds.
Google is actively adding generative AI into Search. At Google I/O 2026, Google said AI Mode had surpassed one billion monthly users, with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. Google also said Search queries reached an all-time high in the previous quarter.
This means Google is not simply being replaced by AI, Google itself is becoming more AI-led.
AI Overviews, AI Mode and conversational follow-up searches are changing how results appear. Instead of ten blue links, users may see an AI-generated answer with supporting sources, product details, local results, images, videos or follow-up prompts.
For businesses, that creates two visibility battles:
- First, you still need to rank in traditional organic search.
- Second, you need to be the kind of trusted, well-structured source that AI systems can understand, cite and summarise.
What does this mean for SEO?
The biggest mistake businesses can make is treating AI search as a reason to stop investing in SEO.
Google’s own guidance says the opposite, its Search Central documentation says SEO best practices continue to apply because Google’s generative AI features are rooted in its core Search ranking and quality systems. Google also states that generative AI search uses techniques such as retrieval-augmented generation and query fan-out to retrieve relevant, up-to-date pages from its Search index.
In plain English: AI SEO still needs good source material.
That source material is your website, your content, your product data, your local business information, your reviews, your expertise and your brand mentions.
So SEO is not dead, thin, generic SEO is.
The new SEO goal: be the best answer, not just another result
Old SEO was often about targeting keywords and ranking pages.
Modern SEO still includes keywords, but it now needs to answer more complex questions:
- Can Google understand what your business does?
- Can AI tools identify your expertise?
- Does your content say anything genuinely useful, or does it repeat what every competitor says?
- Do your pages answer the questions real buyers ask before they enquire?
- Can your products, services, locations, reviews and pricing signals be crawled and interpreted clearly?
Google’s AI search guidance specifically recommends creating unique, valuable, people-first content rather than recycled, generic content. It also warns against chasing gimmicks such as unnecessary AI-specific files, forced ‘chunking’ or rewriting content purely for AI systems.
That aligns closely with what we already see working: clear site structure, genuinely helpful content, strong topical authority, expert insight, local relevance and technically sound pages.
Where ChatGPT is more likely to affect your traffic
ChatGPT will not affect every query equally.
Google remains particularly strong for local, navigational and transactional searches. If someone wants opening hours, directions, a specific brand, a product page or a nearby service, Google still has a major advantage because it connects search intent with maps, websites, reviews, shopping results and ads.
ChatGPT is more disruptive for research-heavy searches.
That includes queries such as:
‘What is the best CRM for a small sales team?’
‘How much should SEO cost?’
‘What are the pros and cons of Shopify vs WooCommerce?’
‘How do I choose a solicitor for a lease dispute?’
‘What questions should I ask before hiring a marketing agency?’
These are valuable moments, the user may not be ready to buy immediately, but they are forming preferences. If your brand is not present in that research phase, competitors can build trust before you enter the conversation.
What businesses should do now
The priority is not to choose between Google SEO and AI visibility. The priority is to build a search strategy that works across both.
Start by strengthening the foundations, your website still needs crawlable pages, fast load times, clear internal linking, optimised service pages, useful metadata, structured content and a strong Google Business Profile where relevant.
Then build content around real buyer questions. Not just ‘SEO agency Middlesbrough’, but ‘how to choose an SEO agency’, ‘how long does SEO take’, ‘why has my organic traffic dropped’, and ‘what should be included in an SEO audit’.
Add expert insight wherever possible, AI tools can summarise generic advice easily. What they cannot replace as easily is experience: original examples, client scenarios, process explanations, pricing context, mistakes to avoid and opinions based on real work.
Finally, track more than rankings, look at organic traffic, assisted conversions, branded search growth, visibility in AI Overviews, referral traffic from AI platforms and how often your brand is being mentioned in AI-generated answers.
The Outrank view
Google is not going away, it still controls the majority of search activity, especially in the UK. But search is no longer limited to a search results page.
Your customers are now discovering information through Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews, social platforms, YouTube, Reddit and review sites.
That means the winning brands will be the ones that are easy to find, easy to trust and easy for both humans and AI systems to understand.
SEO in 2026 is not about gaming one algorithm, it is about building a strong digital footprint around your expertise.
Google still matters.
ChatGPT now matters too.
The businesses that adapt early will have the advantage.
Ready to strengthen your visibility across Google and AI search?
Search is changing, but the goal stays the same: your business needs to appear where your customers look for answers. Google still drives huge demand, while ChatGPT and AI search tools now shape how people research, compare and choose brands.
At Outrank, we help you build a search strategy that works across both, with clear content, strong technical SEO and a digital presence that earns trust. If you want your business to stay visible as search evolves, speak to Outrank today.