Sean Walsh
Sean is a Director at Intelligency heading up our digital marketing and client services operations. Sean has 15+ years experiencing working both in-house and agency with brands including Lloyds, Alstom, Hitachi, Lufthansa, Viaplay, DFDS Seaways and Mercedes-Benz.
There’s no denying the explosive rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. But the latest audience data from Similarweb shows that Google remains firmly in control of search behaviour.
In August 2025:
- 95.3% of ChatGPT users also visited Google
- Only 14.3% of Google users visited ChatGPT
So even as ChatGPT grows, people are still heading back to Google. The scale is even more striking when you compare traffic: ChatGPT had 5.8 billion visits in August, while Google had 83.8 billion.
In fact, there are early signs that ChatGPT referral traffic is dipping for some sites. Bing, surprisingly, is often proving to be a stronger driver of visits. That doesn’t mean you should ignore AI search, but it does mean it’s worth focusing time and resources where you can make the biggest impact.
How to best rank in ChatGPT
Optimising for ChatGPT and other AI-driven search tools is still new territory, but some best practices are already emerging:
- Focus on authority: AI models favour trusted, expert-led sources. Having clear author profiles and credentials helps.
- Be clear and structured: Content that directly answers questions in plain English is more likely to be surfaced.
- Cover topics in depth: Comprehensive content tends to be pulled into AI responses more often than thin pages.
- Build visibility across the web: AI doesn’t just read your site, it learns from the wider internet. Strong mentions in news, blogs, and forums all help.
- Keep content fresh: Regular updates signal relevance and improve your chances of being used in answers.
The takeaway
- Keep Google front and centre: It remains the heavyweight for driving traffic.
- Experiment, don’t overcommit: AI tools are growing fast, but their role is still evolving.
- Check your own data: Performance varies by industry and audience, so rely on your analytics, not just the hype.
AI isn’t killing search, it’s expanding it. For marketers, that means balancing curiosity about new tools with a clear focus on what’s already working.
