You have probably heard the question already: should you keep investing in Google, or shift your efforts to ChatGPT?
It usually comes with a sense of urgency. The next big customer acquisition channel is taking shape, and every month spent working on the previous one feels like a month lost. For a business owner, the problem is practical: your budget stays the same, so does your team, and sales enquiries need to keep coming while you prepare for what comes next.
So where should you put your next effort?
The contest has changed
Our answer: Google, for now. Google with its AI answers and its traditional search results.
Key point: Keep Google as the primary acquisition channel, include its AI answers in that work, and develop ChatGPT according to the qualified enquiries and sales it produces.
If your customer acquisition already relies on Google, strengthen that presence by including its AI answers in your strategy. You can build on your existing acquisition while preparing for new search journeys.
The debate often pits Google's links against ChatGPT's answers. Google now offers both. AI Overviews provides a summary for some searches. AI Mode offers deeper exploration, with answers, links and follow-up questions. These are distinct experiences, as Google's documentation explains.
AI search is already part of Google Search.
To prepare your presence in those answers, see our guide to AI Overviews and your business visibility.
For your business, that changes the work involved. Your position in search results still matters. The way an answer presents your offer now deserves the same attention.
First, volume: who sends the visitors?
Market shares become more useful when you look at visits actually sent to websites. Statcounter measures those visits across its website network, rather than the number of questions asked of search engines or assistants.
Worldwide in September 2026, Google accounts for 89.94% of visits from search engines, Bing 5.29%, and other engines 4.77%. In its separate comparison limited to visits from Google and ChatGPT, Statcounter reports 99.61% for Google and 0.39% for ChatGPT. Each view keeps its own scope. Search engine shares, Google and ChatGPT, Statcounter methodology.
AI Overviews, Google's AI-generated summaries, are included in Google Search. Google explains that their traffic joins overall search traffic in its reports. The Google stream in the diagram groups these experiences together; their internal split remains to be measured. Source: Google.
For your business, the priority is to strengthen the channel supplying today's volume, then develop new journeys according to their commercial contribution.
Your prospect can read about you before visiting your website
The study Ahrefs published on 2 October illustrates this shift. In its US desktop Google observations, 73.3% of branded keywords triggered an AI Overview on average in September 2026. This figure describes the results observed in that US panel.
In a separate sample of one hundred exact names of major brands, the study also observes answers citing external sources, including Wikipedia, YouTube and LinkedIn. Someone already searching for you can therefore encounter a description of your business assembled from several sources. Source: Ahrefs.
The practical consequence is simple. Search for your name, then your name alongside a service, a price or a question about reviews. When an AI answer appears, read it as your next customer might.
Does it describe your business accurately? Are the terms current? Do the cited sources discuss your offer as it stands today?
Work on both your search position and the accuracy of your presentation before the click. Identify information that needs updating and where it comes from. You can then clarify the pages you control, or request a correction from the relevant source.
Then, conversion: what happens to those visits?
Google remains the priority; ChatGPT deserves your attention right now.
The Shero Commerce study published on 28 September provides an interesting signal. Across 73 online stores supported by the agency, ChatGPT supplies 88.1% of visits attributed to AI assistants in 2026, through 26 September. All assistants combined account for 0.21% of sessions at those stores. The two percentages measure different things: ChatGPT's share among assistants, then the assistants' share of total traffic. Source: Shero Commerce.
ChatGPT scores a point on conversion. A 180 Marketing study, published on 23 February 2026 and covering 94 online stores in 2025, reports a 31% higher conversion rate for visits from ChatGPT: 1.81% versus 1.39% for non-branded organic search. This means searches for products or categories rather than the retailer's name. The agency excludes organic visits landing on homepages and blog posts to focus the comparison on commercial journeys. Source: 180 Marketing.
To visualise the rates, start with 10,000 visits per channel: 181 orders at the ChatGPT rate, versus 139 at the non-branded organic search rate. This equal-visit illustration is calculated from the published rates. It compares the commercial effectiveness of visits, while the first diagram shows the weight of the channels.
For a retailer, the benefit is concrete: for the same number of visits, traffic from ChatGPT generates more orders in this sample. In the second half of 2025, the study also reports 10.3% higher revenue per visit, alongside smaller average orders. The commercial value of those visits deserves your attention.
Non-branded organic search nevertheless brings 70 times as many visits across 2025 in the same study. Google retains the strength of volume; ChatGPT gains points on conversion. For your own business, track the sales and qualified enquiries each channel brings.
Strengthen Google and develop ChatGPT
For a business already receiving enquiries from Google, the first step is to maintain that acquisition and examine its presence in AI answers.
Alongside this, devote time to ChatGPT. Start with the questions your buyers ask before contacting you. Look at which businesses are suggested, how your offer is described and which sources support the answer.
You can then choose which pages to clarify and which information to complete, based on concrete observations in your market. Our AI search strategy guide explains how to connect buyer questions, your evidence and your commercial pages.
Take a hypothetical example: an IT support company whose offer includes assistance during daytime hours. If an answer presents it as available around the clock, the prospect may arrive expecting a different service. Find the source of that information and make the hours explicit. An accurate description helps the buyer understand your offer before contacting you.
Work that serves both journeys
Your commercial pages should help readers understand what you sell, who it is for, under what conditions and with what evidence. That work serves your buyer first. It also gives clearer information to systems that consult your pages.
For Google, have indexing and snippet eligibility checked. Google describes these as necessary conditions for appearing as a source link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Use the search optimisation practices described in its documentation.
For ChatGPT, examine realistic questions for your market. Save answers with their date and context, then look at the sources. Clarify the pages you control and follow how the answers evolve over time.
The verdict belongs in your sales results
Track citations, visits and qualified enquiries separately. Each indicator describes a stage in the journey; connecting them helps you understand what leads to a sale.
Assess enquiries over a period suited to your sales cycle. Their relevance, the cost of handling them and the sales achieved will help you allocate your budget more than a flattering screenshot of an AI answer.
Google therefore wins, for now, in the priority we recommend. With AI Overviews, that priority now includes AI answers. ChatGPT also deserves serious work, developed according to your business results.
Stay present where customers find you today, while building your place where they may look for you tomorrow.
Before shifting your budget, check how your offer appears in Google and ChatGPT. Then look at the qualified enquiries those journeys bring you.
Which journeys could bring your next customers?
Review your presence in Google and AI answers with Revolead, the pages to strengthen and the commercial indicators to track.
Discuss your Google and AI customer acquisition
For a concrete example of our work, see the Institut Arnault Tzanck case study.