More and more people are asking ChatGPT what they used to ask Google. But they are not the same, and understanding the difference matters — especially if you want your business to appear when a potential customer asks about your services.
How each one works
Google crawls the web, indexes it, and returns links ordered by relevance and authority. It is the best option when a user wants to compare options, see prices, find a local business, or reach a specific site.
ChatGPT (and similar assistants) generates a written answer from what it learned and, when web browsing is active, from sources it consults in real time. It is better for explaining concepts, summarizing, drafting, and solving complex questions in natural language.
Where each one wins
- Google wins at: local searches ("web design agency in Bogotá"), comparing prices, recent news, finding businesses.
- ChatGPT wins at: understanding a topic, getting a conversational recommendation, writing, synthesizing multiple sources into one answer.
What changed for your business
It used to be enough to rank on Google. Today, some of your potential customers ask an AI directly: "what company do you recommend for digitalizing my business in Colombia?" If the AI does not know your brand, you do not exist in that conversation.
This means you now need visibility on two fronts: traditional search (SEO) and AI assistants (what we call GEO). It is not about choosing one: it is about being in both.
How to achieve it
The good news is that the foundation is the same: clear and useful content, brand authority, structured data, and presence on sites that AIs read. See the practical guide on how to appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
Want your business to be visible on both Google and AI tools? Let's talk.