Is AI citation the new "page one" — or is traditional SEO still king?

[megri]

Recent data suggests the overlap between Google's top results and AI citations is shrinking fast, with some studies showing it's dropped below 30% for certain query types. That raises real questions about where to put optimization effort in 2026.

Open questions for the community:

1. Have you seen AI referral traffic become a meaningful channel for your site, or is it still negligible compared to Google?
2. Which AI engine cites you most consistently — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews? Any theories on why?
3. Do you treat AI optimization as a separate workflow, or have you folded it into your existing SEO process?
4. What single change made the biggest difference in your AI citation count?

Full breakdown of the 35+ AI Citation ranking factors we've identified here: https://www.megrisoft.com/blog/artif...anking-factors

Curious to hear what's working (and what isn't) for others.

Tag: SEO / AI Search / Content Strategy

[Russell]

I’m seeing AI citations grow, but Google still drives the bulk of traffic. The biggest shift for us was creating clearer entity-based content with strong author signals and original data. ChatGPT and Perplexity seem to reward concise, well-structured answers more than traditional keyword-heavy SEO.