ChatGPT vs Ahrefs: How to win in the new era of AI search and SEO

For years, the online playbook was simple: if you wanted people to find your website, you had to show up on Google. SEO was the entire game, and we all learned the rules. But things are changing, and it's happening fast.

AI assistants like ChatGPT are creating a completely new way for people to find information. This isn't just a passing trend. Back in April 2025, global search interest for ChatGPT actually shot past giants like YouTube and Facebook.

This isn't about picking a winner in a "ChatGPT vs Ahrefs" matchup. It’s about understanding how these two powerful tools work together in a new digital world. This post will break down how ChatGPT is becoming a key traffic source and why a tool like Ahrefs is crucial for measuring and optimizing for this new reality. To keep up, you'll need a new approach to content that masters both traditional SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).

What is ChatGPT in the ChatGPT vs Ahrefs discussion?

ChatGPT is much more than a fun chatbot. It’s an “answer engine,” and it's quickly becoming a real source of referral traffic for websites.

The data speaks for itself. Ahrefs found that ChatGPT already has a 0.24% share of total search traffic and is growing by 14.1% every month. At the same time, Google’s traffic is dipping by 3.2% monthly. This shift is important for marketers to watch.

Here’s the interesting part: when ChatGPT cites your website in an answer, it can send you highly qualified visitors. These are people who may be closer to making a purchase or signing up. For example, Ahrefs found that while AI search traffic was only about 0.5% of their total visits, it was responsible for ~12.1% of their sign-ups. This indicates that visitors from AI sources can have a high conversion potential.

What is Ahrefs in the ChatGPT vs Ahrefs discussion?

If you've worked in marketing or SEO, you've probably come across Ahrefs. It’s a complete SEO platform that helps you get seen in search engines, and it is also adapting to this new AI-driven search landscape.

Ahrefs is releasing tools to help users handle this change. Here are a few features that are especially relevant right now:

• Brand Radar: This Ahrefs tool was created to monitor a brand’s visibility across AI answers, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. It helps you track your "AI Share of Voice" so you know where you stand.
• Site Explorer & Web Analytics: These classic Ahrefs tools now allow you to track referral traffic from AI sources. This lets you see which of your pages are getting cited and measure the real impact of your AEO work.
• AI Content Helper: Ahrefs is also integrating AI into its content creation tools. Their features can help you find and fill content gaps, which is key for building the topical authority needed to get noticed by both Google and AI.

The core ChatGPT vs Ahrefs comparison: Understanding the new search dynamic

It's not about which tool is better, but about using Ahrefs to see what’s happening on ChatGPT and understanding why old SEO strategies may not be enough anymore.

How ChatGPT creates a new discovery channel

User behavior is changing. Instead of scanning a page of blue links, more people are asking ChatGPT for a direct, summarized answer.

In this new world, "citations" are the new "backlinks." Getting cited by ChatGPT doesn't just drive high-quality referral traffic; it also builds your brand's authority. When an AI trusts you as a source, it can signal to users that you’re a credible expert.

It's also important to know that these AI assistants aren't just copying Google. They use what Ahrefs researchers call a "hybrid approach," pulling information from multiple places and then running it through their own re-ranking algorithm. This means that what works for Google might not work for ChatGPT.

What Ahrefs data reveals about the new dynamic

The key insight is a significant gap between what ranks on Google and what gets cited by AI.

Ahrefs took a close look and found that, on average, only 12% of the links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot also appear in Google’s top 10 results for the same search.

Ranking high on Google does not guarantee a citation by an AI assistant. You're working with two different discovery platforms, and each one requires its own optimization strategy.

Why this disconnect matters for your strategy

The message is that a current SEO strategy may not be sufficient in the age of AI search. A specific approach for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is needed.

While Ahrefs is a tool for measuring SEO performance and tracking AI citations with Brand Radar, a question remains: how do you create content that performs well on both platforms? This is a challenge that may call for a new kind of content workflow.

How to optimize for the new search era

Why a hybrid strategy is essential

The main challenge for businesses is twofold. You need to create content that can still rank in traditional search results to get clicks and drive sales. At the same time, that content needs to be authoritative, well-structured, and clear enough to be cited by AI answer engines to build brand visibility.

This requires focusing on depth, expertise, and structuring content in a direct, answer-first format, which can be a challenge for standard content creation processes.

Using the eesel AI blog writer for hybrid content

The eesel AI blog writer is a tool designed to address this challenge. It automates the creation of hybrid content that’s ready to perform on multiple platforms.

This AI content generation platform was used to grow our site from 700 to 750,000 daily impressions in just three months by publishing over 1,000 optimized posts, demonstrating a method for creating dually-optimized content at scale.

Key features for hybrid content creation

The eesel AI blog writer is about delivering a complete, publish-ready blog post that’s built to succeed in this new environment.

Feature	Benefit for Hybrid Content
AEO & SEO Optimization	It structures content with an "answer-first" approach that AI assistants prefer, while still including the depth and keywords needed to rank on Google.
Deep Research & Citations	It avoids generic AI content by performing deep, context-aware research and including citations. This builds the authority needed for both search engines and AI to trust you.
Automatic Assets	It automatically generates tables, infographics, and embeds relevant YouTube videos to create a complete resource that improves user engagement.
Social Proof Integration	It finds and includes real quotes from Reddit, adding the human "Experience" factor that is important for Google's E-E-A-T framework.

This approach allows you to create a publish-ready asset designed for the modern search world. You can create content optimized for citation on ChatGPT and use Ahrefs to measure the resulting impact.

To see how these strategies play out in a real-world scenario, the video below from Ahrefs pits a human marketing expert against ChatGPT, offering valuable insights into where AI excels and where human expertise is still irreplaceable.

A video from Ahrefs exploring the capabilities of AI in marketing, relevant to the ChatGPT vs Ahrefs topic.

Your next steps in the AI-powered search era

The search landscape has split. We are now working in a dual world of traditional search engines and AI answer engines.

Success today means understanding this new dynamic, using tools like Ahrefs Brand Radar to measure your visibility. It is also important to have a content strategy that serves both channels. For most teams, creating high-quality, dually-optimized content at scale is a significant hurdle.

Generate your first blog post for free and see how it prepares your content for the future of search.