The companies winning in ChatGPT aren't always the ones winning on Google. Why?
Traditional SEO is easy to follow.
You can see who's ranking above you. You can look at their backlinks, their content, and their website.
AI search feels different.
When someone asks ChatGPT, "What's the best tool for X?", it isn't searching Google in real time. It's answering based on what it has already learned.
That means a company with less traffic can still get recommended more than you if it's easier for the AI to understand and remember.
The hard part is you probably won't see it in your SEO tools.
You'll just notice little things.
Maybe conversions start to slow down.
Maybe more people say, "I heard about the other company first."
Maybe growth feels harder than it used to.
I'm not saying SEO is dead.
I just think there's another game starting, and most of us aren't playing it yet.
What do you think?
Are you doing anything to help AI tools recommend your product, or is it not something you're thinking about yet?
Posted Jul 13, 2026, 4:33 PM UTC