A meaningful percentage of the questions people used to type into Google are now going somewhere else entirely, into ChatGPT, into Perplexity, into whatever AI assistant happens to be built into their phone or browser. This isn’t a hypothetical shift anymore. It’s already happening, it’s measurable, and it’s changing what “ranking well” actually means for a lot of the searches that used to drive traffic to blog content specifically.
That said, the reaction to this shift has swung too far in both directions, some people are declaring SEO dead, others are pretending nothing has changed at all. Neither is accurate. What’s actually happening is more specific and more useful to understand than either extreme.
What’s Genuinely Different About How People Search Now
For years, “search behavior” meant typing a few words into Google and clicking through a list of blue links. That’s still true for a huge share of searches, anything with local intent, anything transactional, anything where the person wants to actually visit a website or contact a business. But a specific category of search has genuinely shifted: purely informational questions where the person just wants an answer, not a destination.
Someone who used to search “what is domain authority” and click through to a blog post explaining it can now just ask ChatGPT or Perplexity directly and get a synthesized answer immediately, often good enough that they never click through to a source at all. Google itself has leaned into this shift with AI Overviews, AI-generated summaries that now appear above traditional search results for a large percentage of informational queries, answering the question directly on the results page before a single blue link even appears.
This matters enormously for anyone whose SEO strategy was built primarily around capturing this kind of pure informational traffic. The traffic that used to reliably click through to a “what is X” blog post is measurably declining for a lot of these queries, because the answer is now sitting right there before anyone needs to click anything.
The ChatGPT Effect Specifically
ChatGPT changed search behavior in a way that’s a little different from how Google’s AI Overviews did, because it’s a separate destination people go to instead of Google entirely, rather than a feature sitting on top of a Google search someone was already doing.
A meaningful and growing share of people, particularly younger users, now default to asking ChatGPT certain kinds of questions instead of opening Google at all. Research questions, comparison questions, “explain this to me” questions, and increasingly even some purchase-consideration questions that used to reliably start with a Google search.
This creates a genuinely new category of visibility that didn’t exist a few years ago: whether ChatGPT and similar tools mention or reference your business at all when someone asks a relevant question. This isn’t the same thing as ranking on Google, and it isn’t measured or optimized for in the same way but it’s becoming a real, distinct channel of its own, sometimes referred to as answer engine optimization or generative engine optimization, depending on who’s naming it.
What actually influences whether an AI tool mentions a business is still being figured out collectively across the industry, but the patterns that have emerged so far track closely with genuine authority signals, being mentioned across the web frequently and in credible contexts, having a clear, well-structured web presence that’s easy for these tools to reference confidently, and generally being the kind of business that would also rank well in traditional search. It’s not a completely separate game requiring an entirely different strategy, it rewards a lot of the same underlying signals, applied slightly differently.
Google vs AI Search
It’s worth being precise about something that gets blurred constantly in this conversation: Google is not simply losing to AI search the way one search engine has historically lost market share to a competitor. Google itself is one of the biggest players in AI search, through AI Overviews and through Gemini integration across its products. The comparison isn’t really “Google vs AI”, it’s closer to “traditional blue-link search vs AI-generated answers,” and Google is actively present on both sides of that comparison simultaneously.
Where genuine competition exists is between Google’s ecosystem and standalone AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, which are pulling some search behavior away from Google entirely rather than just changing how Google itself displays results.
For most local and service-based businesses, the practical reality right now is that Google still handles the overwhelming majority of the searches that actually matter for lead generation, “plumber near me,” “personal injury lawyer Phoenix,” “best dentist in Chandler.” These are transactional and local searches, and they haven’t shifted to AI tools nearly as much as purely informational research questions have. Someone deciding who to call isn’t typically asking ChatGPT to pick a plumber for them, they’re searching Google, looking at the map results, checking reviews, and calling someone.
This distinction matters enormously for how worried a given business should actually be. A business whose customers primarily find them through local, transactional Google searches has seen relatively little disruption so far. A business or publisher whose traffic came heavily from broad informational content has seen much more significant impact.
What This Actually Means for SEO Strategy Going Forward
The practical shift isn’t “stop doing SEO.” It’s “be more deliberate about which kind of content is worth investing in, and start paying attention to a second channel that barely existed a few years ago.”
Purely informational content aimed at generic, broad questions is losing some of its traffic value, specifically because AI tools and AI Overviews increasingly answer these questions directly without requiring a click. This doesn’t mean informational content is worthless, it still matters for building topical authority and it still captures some traffic but it shouldn’t be the primary bet for a business relying on content to generate leads.
Commercial and transactional content is largely unaffected, and may even be relatively more valuable now. Someone searching “SEO agency Phoenix” or “how much does a divorce cost in Arizona” wants a real business or a specific, actionable answer tied to taking action, not a general AI summary. This kind of high-intent search behavior hasn’t meaningfully shifted away from traditional search, and content built around it remains just as valuable as it’s always been, arguably more so as competition for pure informational traffic gets split across additional channels.
Local search remains largely its own world, mostly untouched by this shift so far. Google Business Profile, the local map pack, and location-based searches haven’t been meaningfully disrupted by AI tools yet, because the mechanics of local search, proximity, reviews, verified business information, aren’t things ChatGPT or Perplexity are positioned to replace directly.
Being genuinely citable to AI tools is becoming a real, distinct consideration. This means having clear, well-structured, factually accurate content that AI tools can confidently reference and attribute – which, encouragingly, largely overlaps with the same fundamentals that make content good for traditional SEO and genuinely good for human readers. Clear writing, genuine expertise, accurate information, and a well-organized site structure serve both goals simultaneously rather than requiring two completely separate strategies running in parallel.
Where This Is Actually Heading
Nobody can predict this with certainty, but the trajectory that’s visible right now suggests a few reasonably confident directions worth planning around.
AI-generated answers will likely continue capturing a growing share of purely informational search behavior, meaning content built exclusively around broad “what is” and “how does” questions will likely see continued, gradual traffic decline over time, independent of anything done wrong on the content or SEO side specifically.
Transactional and local search will likely remain more resistant to this shift for longer, because the underlying behavior – wanting to actually contact or visit a specific business – doesn’t map cleanly onto what AI chat tools are currently built to do well.
Being referenced and cited by AI tools will likely keep growing in importance as a distinct visibility channel worth deliberately investing in, running alongside traditional SEO rather than replacing it, similar to how having a strong Google Business Profile presence sits alongside, rather than instead of, general website SEO.
The businesses likely to come out ahead through this transition are the ones that don’t overreact in either direction, not abandoning proven SEO fundamentals because of AI hype, and not ignoring the genuine shift happening in how a real, growing share of research-stage searches now get answered.
If you want an SEO strategy that accounts for how search is actually changing, without abandoning what still reliably works, Ranqeo builds this consideration directly into every content and SEO strategy we build.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is SEO becoming less important because of AI search?
Not becoming less important overall, becoming more specific about which kind of SEO matters most. Broad informational content is losing some value as AI tools answer those questions directly. Local, transactional, and commercial-intent SEO remains largely as valuable as it’s always been, and arguably more so relatively speaking.
Should I stop writing blog content because of ChatGPT and AI Overviews?
No, but it’s worth being more deliberate about what kind of blog content you prioritize. Content built around genuine commercial and transactional intent, and content that supports topical authority for your core services, remains valuable. Purely broad informational content aimed at generic questions is where the traffic impact is showing up most.
How do I optimize for being mentioned by ChatGPT or other AI tools?
The clearest current guidance is that the same fundamentals driving traditional SEO like genuine authority, being mentioned credibly across the web, clear and well-structured content, also seem to drive AI visibility. There isn’t yet a separate, distinct playbook required; strong traditional SEO and AI visibility currently overlap significantly.
Is Google losing to AI search tools like ChatGPT?
Not straightforwardly, Google is itself heavily invested in AI search through AI Overviews and Gemini, so it’s competing on both sides of this shift simultaneously. The more accurate framing is that standalone AI tools are pulling some specific categories of search behavior, mainly informational research questions, away from traditional search generally.
Will local SEO be affected by AI search the same way informational content has been?
Not to the same degree so far. Local search depends on mechanics that AI chat tools aren’t currently positioned to replace directly. Local and transactional search behavior has remained comparatively stable through this shift compared to purely informational search.