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AI search will not kill your Google traffic in 2025, but the antitrust ruling against Google might, and the SEO game has already shifted so far toward brands that a standalone blog started today has almost no chance of ranking. In this solo episode of the My Wife Quit Her Job podcast, I walk through the actual numbers on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, then explain what the Google monopoly ruling could realistically do to your search traffic.
The short version is that ChatGPT and Perplexity combined still get a rounding-error percentage of Google’s daily queries, and Google’s own AI Overviews have actually increased clicks to cited sites. The real risk is Google losing its default-search deals with Apple and Samsung, which could chop its market share overnight and force you to rank on multiple engines at once.
Below is what the data actually says, what to do about it, and why building a brand (rather than a nameless niche site) is now the only SEO strategy worth running.
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Table of Contents
Key takeaways
- ChatGPT gets roughly 1 billion queries per day; Google gets 8.5 billion. That is 11.7 percent, and much of ChatGPT usage is coding, writing, and translation, not search.
- Perplexity serves about 100 million searches per week, or 14.28 million per day. That is 0.16 percent of Google’s daily search volume.
- Google AI Overviews appeared on roughly 7 percent of queries and 17 percent of ecommerce queries at the time of this episode, down from 25 percent earlier in 2024. Siege Media measured a 4.43 percent increase in search clicks and a 3.2 percent lift for ecommerce sites after AI Overviews rolled out.
- A federal judge ruled on August 5, 2024 that Google acted illegally to maintain its search monopoly, including paying Apple $20 billion in 2022 alone to be Safari’s default. Remedies could delay to 2027 or later.
- Global search volume is still growing. Google reported 1.2 trillion searches in 2019 and 3.1 trillion by 2024. The pie is expanding, not shrinking.
- Standalone affiliate blogs are effectively dead in search. The only sites still ranking are tied to a real brand with authors who show expertise, authority, and trust.
Is AI search stealing traffic from Google in 2025?
AI search is not meaningfully stealing traffic from Google yet, based on public query volumes from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Google’s traditional search share still sits near 90.4 percent according to StatCounter, and the AI tools have not moved the needle on that number in any measurable way.
Two things would have to happen for AI to gut Google traffic. People would need to stop using Google entirely and switch to ChatGPT, Cloud.ai, or Perplexity. Or Google’s own AI Overviews would need to keep answers on the results page and stop sending clicks out.
Neither is happening at scale right now, but the trend is worth watching quarter by quarter.
How many searches does ChatGPT get compared to Google?
ChatGPT gets about 1 billion queries per day compared to Google’s roughly 8.5 billion, or 11.7 percent of Google’s volume. OpenAI reported 300 million weekly active users and 1 billion daily queries at the time of this episode, with Sam Altman claiming 50 percent growth in the previous three months.
The catch is that ChatGPT is used for far more than search. Coding help, writing assistance, translation, and general Q&A all count in that 1 billion number, so the real “search substitution” is significantly lower.
SearchGPT, which launched on October 31, 2024, is the piece to watch. It answers the query directly and prominently links out to its sources.
How much traffic does Perplexity actually send?
Perplexity serves about 100 million search queries per week, according to TechCrunch, which works out to roughly 14.28 million searches per day. That is 0.16 percent of Google’s 8.5 billion daily queries.
As of June 2024, Perplexity had over 75 million monthly visitors across desktop and web and was growing about 20 percent month over month. It links to source sites, though the citations are less prominent than SearchGPT’s right-hand panel.
For now, Perplexity is not a real threat to Google search share.
Are Google AI Overviews reducing clicks to websites?
Google AI Overviews are not reducing clicks. Siege Media measured a 4.43 percent overall increase in search clicks after AI Overviews rolled out, and a 3.2 percent lift specifically for ecommerce sites. AI Overviews appeared on roughly 7 percent of all queries and 17 percent of ecommerce queries at the time of this episode, down from 25 percent earlier in 2024.
The reason clicks went up is that people do not trust AI answers by default. When I researched this episode inside SearchGPT, I clicked on about a third of the source links on the right-hand panel just to verify what the AI had told me.
For website owners, that behavior is the whole ballgame. As long as AI engines keep hallucinating and users keep verifying, cited sites will keep getting traffic.
What happens if Google loses the antitrust case?
If Google loses the antitrust remedies phase, it could lose 50 percent of its search market share overnight. On August 5, 2024 a federal judge ruled Google acted illegally to maintain its search monopoly, in part by paying billions to third-party platforms to be the default search engine. In 2022 alone, Google paid Apple $20 billion to be Safari’s default.
The ruling has no penalties attached yet. Some analysts think remedies will not land until 2027, and Google’s appeals could push consequences to the end of the decade.
The two remedies being discussed are a break-up of Google’s business units (Chrome and Android) and a ban on paying third parties for default placement. Either one would immediately push Bing, Perplexity, or SearchGPT in front of hundreds of millions of users who currently default to Google without thinking about it.
Will overall search traffic shrink if Google’s share drops?
Overall search traffic will not shrink even if Google’s share drops sharply, because the total search pie is still growing every year. Google reported 1.2 trillion global searches in 2019 and 3.1 trillion by 2024. That is more than double in five years.
Whether Google keeps 90 percent of that or drops to 45 percent, the searches themselves are still happening. Someone is going to answer them.
The practical impact for website owners is that ranking will get harder in the sense that you have to think about multiple engines at once. So far the citations I see in SearchGPT are frequently the same URLs that rank on the front page of Google, which suggests AI engines are piggybacking on Google’s ranking algorithms as their retrieval foundation.
SearchGPT vs Perplexity vs Google AI Overviews: quick comparison
| Engine | Daily search volume | Vs Google | Cites sources? | Threat level today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search | ~8.5 billion | Baseline | Yes (blue links) | N/A |
| ChatGPT / SearchGPT | ~1 billion (all uses) | ~11.7% | Yes, prominent right panel | Growing fast, not devastating yet |
| Perplexity | ~14.28 million | ~0.16% | Yes, less prominent | Low |
| Google AI Overviews | 7% of Google queries, 17% ecommerce | Inside Google | Yes, drives more clicks | Net positive for cited sites |
What should a website owner do right now to protect search traffic?
The single most important thing to do right now is stop trying to rank a standalone site with no brand behind it, because Google’s spam updates have crushed anything that is not tied to a real business or a strong author. Standalone affiliate sites started from scratch today will effectively never rank.
The sites still getting traffic are the ones that check three boxes: authors who demonstrate expertise, authority, and trust; a tie to a legitimate ecommerce store or service business; and off-site signals like social media following and reviews.
Do not try to be a nameless niche site in 2025.
How do Google business reviews and Google customer reviews affect search rankings?
Google business reviews and Google customer reviews are two different programs, and both influence how your business shows up in search results. Google business reviews are the reviews customers leave on your Google Business Profile, and they show up on Google Search and Google Maps when people look up a business. They affect local rankings, reputation, and click-through rate.
Google customer reviews are collected after a purchase from your website and rate the shopping experience. They feed into your Google Shopping and Google Ads seller rating, and they can show up in organic results for product-related queries.
If you sell online, run both. If you have a physical location or a service business, the Google Business Profile is the higher-priority one to fix first.
How to diversify your traffic beyond Google
Ranking on Google is no longer enough on its own. Every serious SEO strategy in 2025 has to include a plan for social media presence, brand mentions on the sites AI engines lean on, and a real author identity behind the content.
- Build a social following on the platforms that fit your niche (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn) so your brand shows up outside search results.
- Get mentioned by name on reputable industry sites, roundups, and podcasts. AI engines cite entities they recognize, and unlinked mentions still help.
- Show up on Reddit and Quora with helpful answers in your niche. Those are two of the most-cited sources across ChatGPT and Perplexity.
- Publish original data, surveys, or first-hand test results. Anything unique gets both links and AI citations, because it exists nowhere else.
- Set up author bios, publish and update dates, and structured data so AI crawlers can identify who wrote what and when.
Frequently asked questions
Will ChatGPT replace Google search?
ChatGPT is unlikely to replace Google search in the near term. At current volumes, ChatGPT gets about 11.7 percent of Google’s daily query load, and much of that usage is not search-adjacent. Growth is fast, but ChatGPT would need to more than triple its query volume and take share from Google’s core search behavior to become a real replacement.
How many people use Perplexity vs Google in 2025?
Perplexity had 75 million monthly visitors as of June 2024 and served about 100 million search queries per week. Google handles roughly 8.5 billion queries per day, so Perplexity’s daily volume of about 14.28 million works out to 0.16 percent of Google’s search share.
Do Google AI Overviews send traffic to websites?
Yes. According to Siege Media, Google AI Overviews correlated with a 4.43 percent overall increase in search clicks and a 3.2 percent lift for ecommerce sites after they rolled out. Users click on cited sources because they want to verify AI answers.
When will Google face penalties from the antitrust ruling?
The August 5, 2024 ruling did not include remedies. Analyst estimates put the remedies phase at 2025 to 2027, and Google’s appeals could push actual penalties to the end of the decade. In the meantime, Google’s default-search deals with Apple, Samsung, and Firefox are still in place.
Can you still start a blog and rank on Google in 2025?
You can, but only if the blog is attached to a real brand with a named expert author, links from legitimate industry sites, and a presence outside search. Standalone niche and affiliate sites started from zero today almost never rank because of Google’s post-AI spam updates.
What is the difference between Google business reviews and Google customer reviews?
Google business reviews are customer reviews of a business collected on your Google Business Profile and shown on Google Search and Google Maps. Google customer reviews are collected after a purchase from your website and feed into Google Ads, Google Shopping seller ratings, and sometimes organic search. They are separate programs and both matter.
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