Why This Question Matters for Your Next Enquiry
No. Google does not use ChatGPT, ChatGPT's rankings, or any OpenAI system to decide its search results. Google Search results, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, are generated entirely by Google's own systems. ChatGPT is a separate product from a competitor, with its own view of the web. The two do not share ranking signals and neither consults the other before answering a user.
If that is all you needed, you already have the key fact. But this confusion is costing service-led businesses real enquiries. Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT now feel almost identical to use, which makes it very easy to assume they are joined-up behind the scenes. If you then optimise for the wrong thing, you risk slipping behind competitors who are simply easier to find, easier to trust and easier to choose. At Recommendable, we see AI search optimisation as an extra layer on top of traditional SEO, not a replacement for it.
Why Google and ChatGPT Look Similar but Work Separately
From a user's perspective, Google and ChatGPT now look strikingly alike. You type a question and see:
- An AI-written paragraph that feels conversational
- Source links you can click to read more
- A quick, confident answer that hides the hard work behind it
- Follow-up questions that keep you in the conversation
Because the experience is so similar, many people assume the systems are connected. In reality, they are built on different technologies. Google's AI features are powered by its Gemini models and its own search index. ChatGPT is powered by OpenAI's models, its own crawler and separate retrieval tools.
Think of it like two rival airlines flying the same route. You might sit in a similar seat, drink similar coffee and land at the same airport, but the planes, pilots and companies are completely separate. The problem is that AI assistants themselves do not always explain this well, which makes the situation murkier for time-poor business owners trying to make sensible marketing decisions.
What Actually Powers Google's AI Overviews and Search Results
Under the surface, Google still works in a way that is quite straightforward to describe. Googlebot crawls the web and stores what it finds in a huge index, a bit like a library catalogue of pages. When someone searches, Google's ranking systems decide which pages should appear and in what order, based on relevance, quality and many other signals.
Gemini, Google's AI model family, then sits on top of that. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini:
- Pulls information from Google's existing index
- Uses that to write a short, readable answer
- Cites pages that Google already considers trustworthy
At no point does ChatGPT, its outputs or any kind of ChatGPT "ranking" enter that pipeline. Google does not ask a competitor who should appear in its own results. For your business, the commercial story is familiar: Google still rewards clear, relevant content, strong business information, genuine reviews and decent page experience. Those are the same ingredients that make you easier to find and easier to choose in classic search as well as in AI Overviews.
What Actually Powers ChatGPT's Answers and Recommendations
ChatGPT works differently. It has two main ingredients when it answers a question:
- Training data, which is the frozen knowledge it learned during training up to a certain point in time
- Live retrieval, where it sends a query to the web using OpenAI's own crawler and index, historically leaning on Bing's infrastructure
ChatGPT does not read Google's live rankings and does not pull real-time result pages from Google Search. It has its own view of the web, with its own gaps and its own strengths.
For your business, that means:
- ChatGPT may recommend you for relevant queries, or it may miss you entirely
- It might get your details right, or repeat outdated or inconsistent information
- Its answers depend heavily on how clearly your business is described across the wider web, not just on your Google rankings
This is where AI search optimisation comes in. It is the work that helps AI tools correctly understand what you do, where you are, who you serve and why you are a safe recommendation. It sits alongside, not instead of, traditional SEO.
The One Real Connection: Your Information Across the Web
Here is the key connection that causes most of the confusion. Google and ChatGPT do not talk to each other, but they both drink from the same well: the open web. They are both reading:
- Your website and blog content
- Your Google Business Profile and local listings
- Directories, review platforms and sector comparison sites
- Social profiles and third-party mentions
If you are strong in these places, you often appear both in Google results and in AI answers, which makes it feel like one is feeding the other. In reality, both systems are just rewarding the same consistent, credible information.
Take two simple examples many UK service businesses will recognise:
- A local accountant with a clear website, consistent name, address and phone number, well-written service pages and a good spread of recent reviews is much easier to trust. That kind of presence often performs well across Google and AI assistants.
- A specialist consultant with patchy profiles, outdated details and vague service descriptions is much harder to recommend confidently, even if their work is excellent offline.
The encouraging part is that small, practical improvements to how your business is described and structured online can lift your search visibility and AI search visibility together.
A Practical Plan for AI Search Optimisation and Visibility
The real challenge is not to optimise for "Google plus ChatGPT" as if they were one system. It is to build an online presence that multiple independent systems can all understand, trust and recommend to potential customers before the first enquiry arrives.
A clear action plan in plain English might look like this:
- Fix the basics: make sure your website explains what you do, where you work, who you help, price signals, FAQs and clear contact options, so you are easier to choose the first time someone finds you.
- Strengthen your entity signals: keep your business name, address, phone number and short description consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, key directories and social pages.
- Build trust signals: encourage reviews, publish case studies and testimonials in simple language, and make third-party coverage easy to understand for both people and machines.
- Make content extractable: use straightforward headings, answer common questions directly and structure information so that AI tools can confidently summarise your services.
At Recommendable, as a UK-based SEO and visibility consultancy, we think of this as practical SEO support for the world of AI search. The goal is simple: to join the dots between Google, local search visibility and AI search visibility, so your business becomes easier to find, easier to trust and easier to recommend, wherever your next enquiry starts.
Turn Curious Visitors Into Lasting Customers With Smarter Search
If you are ready to make it easier for the right people to find and choose your brand, our AI search optimisation health check is the ideal first step. We will analyse how your content is currently performing across search and highlight the practical fixes that can lift your visibility. To discuss what this could look like for your organisation, simply contact us and we will come back to you with clear next steps from Recommendable.
