The myth of "If I rank, I am visible" has just collapsed.
For years, the promise of SEO was simple: climb into the Top 3 of Google, and you will capture the demand. But in 2025, a silent fracture has occurred. While users are migrating to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for their purchasing decisions, brands continue to optimize for an algorithm that is losing its monopoly.
At LUCID, we wanted to quantify this risk. We conducted a massive analysis on 10,000 commercial and informational queries, comparing Google (SEO) results with responses generated by major AI engines (GEO).
The result is unequivocal: There is only a 12% overlap between the Google Top 10 and sources cited by ChatGPT.
In other words: for nearly 9 out of 10 queries, AI ignores the SEO leader to recommend someone else.
Here is why this happens, and how our Overlap Radar is the only tool capable of getting you out of this zone of invisibility.
The "Great Decoupling": Data Analysis
Our study reveals a brutal divergence between what Google values and what AIs look for. We call this phenomenon the "Citation Gap".
Key figures of the study:
- ChatGPT (GPT-4o): Only 12% match with the Google Top 10. AI favors sources with high "Fact Density" rather than those with the biggest backlink profile.
- Google Gemini: The most surprising. Despite its access to the Google index, Gemini only cites Top 10 results in 6% of cases, preferring to synthesize answers from encyclopedic sources or forums.
- Perplexity: The good student. It is the only engine that closely follows classic SEO logic, with an overlap of 28% to 43%. This is your current "safety net".
The conclusion is terrifying for marketing directors: Your current SEO investments absolutely do not protect you against AI disruption. You can be #1 on Google and invisible on the interface that matters most to your future clients.
Why does AI snub your SEO pages?
Why is an optimized, technically perfect page full of backlinks rejected by ChatGPT? The analysis of our Overlap Radar identified three major culprits present in 80% of "SEO-Only" content.
1. The "Fluff" Syndrome (Diluted Content)
Traditional SEO taught you to write 2000 words to cover a topic. Result: endless introductions and filler. AI hates that. It pays for its calculations by the "token" (computing cost). It seeks the densest possible answer. If your answer to "CRM software price" is drowned in the middle of a 300-word paragraph on the history of customer management, AI zaps you.
2. The Absence of "Answer Capsules"
Winning pages in GEO (those that enter the 12% of chosen ones) share a common structure: they use Answer Capsules. These are blocks of 40-60 words, placed just after a title, which give a direct and factual answer. Without this semantic tag, you are invisible to the AI parser.
3. The Entity Authority Deficit
Google ranks pages. AI recommends entities. If your brand is not cited by third parties (press, comparisons, Reddit) in association with your keywords, AI does not "trust" you, even if your own site says you are the best.
Visualize your risk with the Overlap Radar™
It is to navigate this chaos that we developed the Overlap Radar within the LUCID platform.
It interprets not just giving you a ranking. It crosses your Google performance (X Axis) and your AI performance (Y Axis) to place each of your strategic keywords in one of the 4 tactical zones:
🔴 Zone 1: SEO_ONLY (The Danger Zone)
The profile: You are Top 3 on Google, but AI never cites you.
The risk: This is where you will lose traffic massively in the next 12 months. It is the blind spot of your current strategy.
The LUCID action: Use our Fact Injector to restructure these pages urgently. Add stats, answer capsules, and schema to "translate" your content for AI.
🟡 Zone 2: GEO_ONLY (The Hidden Opportunity)
The profile: You are poorly ranked on Google (page 2 or 3), but AI loves you and cites you.
The analysis: Your content is excellent (dense, factual), but your domain lacks classic SEO power.
The LUCID action: This is your goldmine. Capitalize on it without spending a euro on backlinks.
🟢 Zone 3: WINNERS (The Fortress)
The profile: Visible everywhere.
The action: Watch these positions carefully. This is what your competitors will attack first.
Don't be in the 80%
The era when one could "guess" their SEO is over. The gap between Google and AI is now too great to be ignored.
Brands that continue to pilot their visibility solely with Search Console are flying blind. Those who use LUCID and its Overlap Radar see the reality of the market as it is: hybrid, complex, but full of opportunities for those who speak the language of models.
Discover where you really stand.
GEO is your next opportunity
Don't let AI decide your visibility. Take control with LUCID.