- 10%of new Vercel sign-ups now referred by ChatGPT (around)
- 4.8%the month before
- 1%six months earlier
The shift
Vercel's post starts from a simple observation: AI tools now answer many questions directly, often without a single click. Even so, ChatGPT went from referring 1% of Vercel's new sign-ups to around 10% in six months. The post also cites research suggesting Google's AI Overviews may cut clicks by as much as 34.5% compared with similar searches without one.
“Search isn't just about ranking anymore. It's about being surfaced in new places, under new rules.”
How Vercel adapted
Vercel kept doing traditional search work and added to it. Its advice is to be the clearest, deepest explanation of a topic, with original data and examples others cannot easily copy. Pages should have a clean heading structure and structured data, and should not depend on JavaScript, because most AI crawlers fetch pages but do not run it.
It also recommends earning genuine mentions in communities, avoiding paid links, and reviewing content at 30, 90 and 180 days so it stays accurate. To track results, it suggests watching citations in AI answers and visits from sites such as chat.openai.com and perplexity.ai.
What other stores can take from this
- Make sure pages work without JavaScript. Vercel notes most AI crawlers read pages but do not run JavaScript.
- Be the clearest answer. Vercel says AI tools favour the clearest, most complete explanation, not the page that repeats a keyword most.
- Keep content fresh. Vercel reviews pages at 30, 90 and 180 days, because stale pages get used less.
Worth knowing: Vercel is a software company, and the figure is for sign-ups, not sales.
Vercel is not a GEO customer. This page is our summary of the Vercel blog's reporting. The figures and quotes are theirs.
