The short answer is “No.” Google controls 90% of global search traffic, including 94.7% of mobile searches and 82.26% of desktop searches. Second place isn’t even close. Bing accounts for only 4% of the global search traffic market share.
And AI?
ChatGPT accounts for less than 1% of global search traffic.
Since 2023, Google’s search volume has grown 373 times larger than ChatGPT’s.
If the competition for global search is one-sided in favor of Google, why are industry analysts and digital ad agencies sounding the alarm?
The percentages might not show it, but there’s a palpable shift in the search market.
- A growing number of businesses are increasingly using AI to compete for consumers’ attention and spending.
- AI has leveled the playing field for small businesses that cannot compete with larger companies, which have substantial budgets for purchasing keywords and investing in paid advertising.
Despite these developments, SEO remains the most effective approach for getting discovered online.
However, there is no doubt that AI technology is transforming the online landscape. It is challenging Google’s dominance in the search market.
Google’s response?
When confronted with a challenge, the response is either fight, flight, or freeze.
Google’s doing neither. Instead, the search engine giant’s response is to embrace AI and integrate the technology.
And that’s a good thing for everyone!
The Numbers Behind AI’s Growth In The Search Market
The search engine giant is aware of the growing influence of AI technology among businesses and consumers.
- In 2024, 15 million Americans reported that AI-generated search was their preferred tool for conducting online searches. Statista projects this number will increase to 36 million by 2028.
- Research firm Gartner predicts that search engine volume will decrease by 25% in 2026 due to shifts in search preferences toward AI technology.
- SEO agency Morningscore has been monitoring the growth of AI-powered search and predicts it will increase by 35% annually starting in 2025, eventually representing 14% of the total search market share by 2028.
- While testifying in an antitrust suit against Google, Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue revealed that search volume in its Safari browser had declined for the first time in 22 years.
Cue attributed the decline to the emergence of AI search.
Assuming the projections from Statista, Gartner, and Morningscore are accurate, and AI’s share of the search market continues to grow over the next three years, Google will remain in the pole position with an 86% market share.
Likewise, Google denied Cue’s claim in its blog page, “The Keyword,” and asserts that the company has seen an increase in search traffic across Safari and other Apple devices.
The U.S. Government Vs. GoogleIn 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google for allegedly engaging in practices that violated provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act. One of these practices involved arranging long-term engagements with companies that discouraged fair competition. In 2021, Google entered into a long-term agreement with Apple to make it the default search engine for the company’s Safari browser and other platforms, for a whopping $20 billion per year. In 2024, Judge Amit Metha found Google guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. The proposed remedies prevent Google from entering into onerous agreements and require the company to support initiatives that ensure fair competition. |
How AI Is Changing The Search Landscape
Small businesses face challenges when competing with larger corporations that have deeper pockets and can afford to invest in long-term strategies to achieve high rankings in organic search results and produce significant outcomes from paid ads.
AI’s emergence as an online search tool has its greatest impact on small business enterprises, which account for 99% of businesses registered worldwide.
AI has provided small businesses with innovative ways to gain online visibility without needing to invest the majority of their scarce resources in deciphering Google’s complex algorithm or excessively spending on paid ads.
1. Google’s Response: AI Overviews
On May 24, 2024, Google launched AI Overviews, a generative AI model that’s integrated into Google Search and produces AI-generated summaries.
AI-generated summaries make it easier for users to find information.
For example, a user who’s considering getting a painful tooth extracted instead of a root canal will launch a Google query: “Is tooth extraction better than root canal?”
AI Overviews will create a structured summary of relevant information based on search intent. The user will have the option of reading the summary…
… or review the search results and click on a link.
According to a study by Bain & Company, 80% of users reference AI results for 40% of their organic search activity.
The finding isn’t surprising because the AI-generated summary appears above the SERP and is immediately accessible to users.
AI also categorizes the information under relevant headers that help the user acquire a better understanding of the subject matter.
As the summary includes links to the cited websites, it saves the user time from selecting a link from the SERP that might potentially contain information that’s inadequate, inferior, or outdated.
If you own a dental clinic, you’d want your website referenced by AI.
A user who wants to learn more about the advantages of tooth extraction over a root canal might click on your link and book an appointment.
The question is: “How can I get my dental clinic cited by AI Overviews?”
The answer is by creating content that’s optimized for Artificial Intelligence: GEO.
💡Key Takeaway: By incorporating AI technology into its search engine, Google has provided small businesses with an additional pathway to be discovered online, one that complements the SERP.
Google has also simplified the process for users to find the information they need.
2. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the process of optimizing content for search engines with AI search capabilities, powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) that analyze queries and produce conversational responses.
To get a better understanding of how GEO works, let’s compare it with its more popular counterpart, SEO.
SEO is the process of optimizing content and enhancing its online presence by integrating high-ranking keywords, incorporating external and internal links, and improving overall user experience.
A Google search is conducted in three stages:
- Crawling: Automated bots called spiders or crawlers browse the Internet, looking for web pages with information that’s relevant to the search query.
- Indexing: Once the crawlers find relevant web pages, Google will store and index the information to make it easier to produce the SERP.
- Serving: When a user makes a query, Google will explore its index and retrieve the appropriate pages, and using its algorithm, rank them according to quality and relevance.
With GEO, AI technology also crawls and indexes relevant pages. However, instead of keywords, the AI uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities to understand the search query.
Then, the AI’s algorithm analyzes user interactions, processes the information, and creates the summary.
An AI search is conducted in five stages:
- Analyze natural language/conversational queries.
- Reformulate queries by analyzing personal data sets and conversation history.
- Search the internet for multiple web pages that provide relevant information.
- Process, analyze, and organize findings into a comprehensive summary.
- Include cited links for verification.
While SEO ranks web pages in the SERP according to keyword-based results, GEO prioritizes natural language/conversational queries from multiple web pages that offer relevant and authoritative information.
To be clear, SEO and GEO share four cornerstone principles:
- Focus on creating content that effectively addresses user/search intent.
- Google’s guideline for creating high-quality content, E-E-A-T or Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, remains a priority.
- Incorporating relevant keywords helps build context.
- Optimizing your website by ensuring mobile responsiveness, fast download speed, navigability, crawlability, and functionality will support SEO and GEO strategies.
The difference is that with GEO, the greater focus is on producing high-quality content that’s organized, scannable, authoritative, and written in an easy-to-understand and conversational manner.
A good example of a GEO-rich content is this article.
Our 7 Strategies For Enhancing Visibility To AI Overview:
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💡Key Takeaway: The rise of AI has further emphasized the importance of creating high-quality content. In fact, it will discourage content creators from implementing strategies designed to game Google’s search algorithm, such as keyword stuffing and using irrelevant links.
3. Cleaner, Better Quality Search Results
Earlier, we referenced a study by Bain & Company that showed 80% of users reference AI-based results for 40% of their organic search activity.
The change in online search behavior has led to a phenomenon known as Zero-Click search.
Zero-click search means users no longer click on a website link because the answers to their search queries can be found on the AI search result.
A 2025 study by Pew Research confirmed the causality of zero-search clicks: Only 8% of users clicked on a link included in an AI-search result compared to 15% who clicked on results produced by a SERP.
So is this bad news?
No.
Software developer Soax did a 2023 study that revealed bad bot traffic has been steadily increasing its share of online traffic since 2015.
Bad bots are software programs that were developed with malicious intent. These bots engage in nefarious online activities such as data theft, scraping, fraud, and DDoS.
In 2023, bad bots accounted for 49.6% of online traffic, reducing the market share of human traffic by 4.18% or 50.4%.
Your time, money, and effort in SEO could be sending these bad bots to your website.
AI’s emphasis on citing reliable and authoritative content encourages businesses to prioritize creating high-quality content that provides significant value to users.
Being recognized by AI serves as validation that your website provides high-quality content.
💡Key Takeaway: The percentage of users who click on a link suggested by AI may be low, but you can be more confident that those who do are qualified buyers or prospects. Fewer clicks can help create a cleaner search environment that provides businesses with better quality results.
How Did Google Adapt To AI’s Growing Popularity?
Google launched its AI program, Bard, in March 2023. The AI is integrated into Google Search to function as a chatbot and virtual assistant.
Bard was designed to compete with ChatGPT. Its features included providing users with real-time information, content generation services, integration with multiple apps, including Google Lens, and multilingual support.
To close the gap with ChatGPT, Google rolled out Gemini on February 8, 2024. Gemini incorporated the features of Bard, and another AI program, Duet AI, and added the following capabilities:
- Multimodal Understanding: To process and analyze text, images, and audio files.
- Advanced Reasoning: To improve problem-solving capabilities.
- Enhanced Integration: To integrate with other Google Workspace apps.
- Support Real-time Collaboration: To enable users to run the services live while working with co-workers and partners.
- Customized Responses: To allow users to tailor-fit specific responses.
- Improved Safety: To fortify network security and enhance content moderation capabilities.
Since the launch of Gemini, Google has released multiple updates, with Gemini 2.5 being the latest.
Gemini 2.5 now features enhanced capabilities for solving complex problems, managing creative tasks, processing and analyzing video files, and offers a faster response time while better understanding context.
Conclusion
News of Google’s demise due to the emergence of AI has been greatly exaggerated.
Google isn’t dying. The growing presence of AI has rejuvenated Google, which has responded by incorporating the technology into its search program.
Google’s advancements in AI technology will enhance users’ search experience and offer businesses greater opportunities to be discovered online by implementing GEO strategies that improve visibility through AI
Small businesses are no longer confined to SEO strategies and paid advertisements, where competition increasingly favors larger businesses with substantial financial resources.
They can realign their digital marketing budgets and dedicate more resources to crafting content that aligns with the principles of GEO.
The focus on producing high-quality content will level the playing field for global search, potentially reducing the prevalence of malicious bots and enhancing the quality of web traffic.
In a future article, we’ll show you how to create effective GEO content. If you’re interested in getting GEO-rich content on your website right now, contact us and we’ll get you started.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Will AI replace Google Search?
No, AI technology will not replace Google Search. Instead, Google introduced three AI projects to further improve the search experience of its users. The three AI projects are Bard, Duet AI, and Gemini.
2. Is Gemini incorporated in Google Search?
Yes, the multimodal Gemini AI is incorporated into Google Search. With Gemini, users are assured of faster and more accurate responses to complex questions. Gemini can run its search function on images, videos, text, and audio-based content.
4. How does GEO differ from SEO?
GEO differs from SEO in that it emphasizes citing websites that provide users with well-structured, well-researched, authoritative, and trustworthy content linked to reputable sources, ideally the original source.
Keywords remain an essential component to get found, but GEO prioritizes content that’s written in easy-to-understand and natural-flowing language.
GEO can prevent marketers from utilizing unethical practices that are designed to game the search algorithm, such as keyword stuffing and externally linking to multiple irrelevant web pages.
5. Will my website get fewer visitors because of AI?
Yes, but the benefit is that the visitors your website gets are those with the highest potential to buy your products or services.
Studies have shown that nearly 50% of online traffic comes from bad bots with malicious intent. AI’s emphasis on high-quality content hopes to weed out the bad bots and increase the search market share of online traffic from humans.
6. How has Google enhanced its AI technology?
Google’s latest version of Gemini, which is Gemini 2.5, has enhanced capabilities in problem-solving, search, integration, and security. You can also conduct live collaboration with co-workers or business partners using Gemini 2.5.
