Do Rankings Still Matter with AI Search?

Search is changing fast — but the question on every marketing leader's mind isn't just how AI is evolving. It's whether the fundamentals they've built their organic strategy around still hold. Do Google rankings still matter now that ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Mode are reshaping how people search? The short answer is yes — but the full picture is more nuanced, and understanding it could change how you invest in SEO, set your KPIs, and report to your board. Dale Davies (Head of Marketing at Exposure Ninja) and Charlie Marchant (CEO of Exposure Ninja) break down everything they know: ⭐ Why Google is still around 210 times bigger than ChatGPT — and what this means for where your organic budget should sit right now ⭐ The Ahrefs data showing a clear correlation between page one rankings and your likelihood of appearing in AI Overviews — with position one carrying roughly a 50% chance of citation ⭐ Why a study of 20,000 websites found a 53% drop in click-through rates driven by AI Overviews — and why rankings are still worth pursuing despite it ⭐ How ChatGPT and other LLMs actually pull from Google's results, and the 62% overlap between Google page one and ChatGPT answers (ChatOptic) ⭐ How AI Mode and conversational search are compressing the buyer journey — moving users from awareness to brand comparison without ever visiting your site ⭐ The metrics shift every marketing leader needs to make: from traffic volume to answer visibility and conversion quality ⭐ Why attribution is getting murkier, what "dark traffic" means for your reporting, and how self-reported data can bridge the gap ⭐ How agentic AI search will behave differently from human search — and why positional ranking will matter far less to AI agents than authority and context "SEO's future is owning answers, not chasing clicks. We're going to see a huge shift in the metrics we expect from SEO — far less focus on traffic quantity and much more interest in the quality of that traffic." If you're trying to justify your organic strategy to stakeholders, reset your KPIs for the AI era, or simply get clarity on where rankings fit in a world of AI Overviews and ChatGPT — this episode gives you the honest, practical breakdown you need. Follow Charlie Marchant on LinkedIn for the latest in AI Search Optimisation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliemarchant/ Request a free marketing review: https://exposureninja.com/review Try Semrush for FREE: https://thankyouninjas.com Get the show notes: https://exposureninja.com/podcast/dojo-66/ Listen to this episode on your favourite podcast app instead: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/do-rankings-still-matter-with-ai-search/id1161818237?i=1000762027605 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TQBsfZL0yxivfSkUHKJPX?si=M8tNHccST-2nyRZA92cANw Listen to these episodes next: How to Rank in Perplexity AI https://exposureninja.com/podcast/349/ How AI Is Changing SEO Forever https://exposureninja.com/podcast/348/ Traditional SEO in the Age of AI Search https://exposureninja.com/podcast/346/