Almost everyone using ChatGPT is still using Google. According to Similarweb's September 2026 data, 93.7% of primary ChatGPT visitors also visited Google that month.
That number should end a lot of arguments. It won't, because arguing is more fun than reading data. But it should.
For the last year, our industry has been running a very loud debate. One side says SEO is dead and you need to pivot your whole budget to GEO. The other side says AI search is a rounding error and you should ignore it. Both sides have charts. Both sides have conference talks. Both sides are selling something.
Your customers, meanwhile, didn't pick a side. They're in both places. Often in the same afternoon.
Nobody is leaving Google
ChatGPT users still use Google. Google users mostly don't use ChatGPT. Here's the September 2026 Similarweb data, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable:
- 93.7% of primary ChatGPT visitors also visited Google.
- 14.1% of primary Google visitors also visited ChatGPT.
Read that again. ChatGPT's audience lives inside Google's audience. Google's audience barely overlaps with ChatGPT's.
This isn't a one-month fluke, either. Similarweb had the overlap at 95% back in September 2025, and it held at 95% through May 2026. That same year, visits to generative AI platforms grew 70%. So AI usage kept climbing and Google usage didn't go anywhere. People added a tool. They didn't swap one.
If you've spent the last year wondering whether to bet on Google or AI, the data says your buyers already answered for you: both.
Still using Google doesn't mean still clicking
The overlap is real, but it doesn't mean SEO is fine and nothing changed. Plenty changed. People are still on Google. They just click out less.
A few numbers worth sitting with:
- AI Overviews now show on more than 80% of Google searches, up from about 50% a year earlier (Search Engine Roundtable, Oct 26, 2026).
- AI Mode cut clicks to outside websites by 18.8 percentage points in a one-week field experiment with 1,100 Chrome users (via SEJ).
- Traditional search queries dropped about 9.4% for U.S. desktop households after they started using ChatGPT, hitting 17% after 20 weeks, according to a Bocconi working paper (same SEJ piece). Google's household reach held steady at about 49% the whole time.
So here's the real picture. Your buyer uses Google and ChatGPT. Both are answering more questions without sending anyone to a website. Some of your visibility now shows up as clicks, and some shows up as being named in an answer that never sends a visit.
That sounds like bad news for link builders. It's the opposite.
One link, two currencies
At Page One Power, we think about this as two currencies. A good editorial link pays you twice: once in rankings, and once in AI citations.
The first currency is old news. Links are still one of the strongest signals Google has for deciding who deserves to rank. Ranking gets you the clicks that are left after the AI Overview takes its cut.
The second currency is newer, but it runs on the same thing. AI systems don't decide who to cite by vibes. They lean on sources the rest of the web already treats as credible. A recent Searchable study of 244,725 AI citations found that ChatGPT pulled 81.3% of its answers to local questions from council and government sources, and just 0.9% from local news sites (Press Gazette, Oct 22, 2026). AI goes to the source everyone else already points to.
Which is exactly what a link is. It's another site pointing at you and saying: this is the source.
So the "SEO or GEO" question is a false choice. Your buyer is in both places, and the same input gets you into both. You don't need two strategies. You need one strategy that pays in two currencies.
What to do about it
None of this needs a brand new playbook. It mostly needs you to stop splitting a budget that should be pointed at one thing: earned authority.
- Earn links from sites that are actually the source. Industry publications, real news outlets, trusted resource pages, the sites people in your space already cite. Those links move rankings and they're the kind of sources AI pulls from. A thousand junk links pay in neither currency.
- Become the primary source yourself. Original data, a survey, a study nobody else has. That's what journalists link to and what AI cites. It's the whole idea behind our Media Blitz campaigns: create something worth covering, and the coverage pays out in both places.
- Measure both currencies. Keep tracking rankings and organic traffic. Then add a simple check of whether you're named in AI answers for the questions your buyers ask. If you only watch one, you'll undervalue the work.
- Ignore anyone selling one currency as the whole economy. "SEO is dead" and "AI doesn't matter" are both sales pitches. The data says your buyers use both, so you should too.
The bottom line
94% of ChatGPT users still Google it. Your buyers didn't pick a side in the SEO vs GEO fight, and you don't have to either.
Be the brand the rest of the web points to. That's what a link is, it's what Google rewards, and it's what AI cites. One link, two currencies.
Want to see what that looks like for your brand? Talk to Page One Power.
Sources
- Daily Search Forum Recap: October 26, 2026, Search Engine Roundtable (Similarweb September 2026 overlap data)
- Over 80% Of Google Searches Have AI Overviews & Growing, Search Engine Roundtable, Oct 26, 2026
- People Aren't Leaving Google For AI. They're Using Both., Search Engine Journal, Sep 4, 2026
- AI answer engines bypass local news outlets going straight to official sources, Press Gazette, Oct 22, 2026
