The Weekly Drilldown: Google’s Organic Clicks Hit a 15-Month High, ChatGPT Ads Lag Behind Google Ads, and Redirects Get Explained

Every week, the MSP team breaks down the dental marketing news that actually matters, from Google updates and AI search changes to social media trends, SEO shifts, and reputation management surprises.

• Google organic click share reaches a 15-month high, per Semrush
• Is ChatGPT really handling 1 trillion searches a year?
• ChatGPT ad visits earn far less than Google paid search visits, new study finds
• OpenAI is testing business tools to track performance within ChatGPT
• Google explains how redirects affect ranking signals
• Google says technical SEO remains key for AI SEO
• Quick hit: Google Search Console is showing some huge spikes in clicks
• Quick hit: YouTube description updates linked to a 359% rise in AI retrievals
• Quick hit: Reddit tests ads in search results

What happened: Two new sets of numbers landed this week, and together they give a more balanced picture of where search is headed than most headlines do.

First, Semrush’s State of Search report for Q3 found that the share of Google desktop searches leading to a click on an outside website rose from 39.74% in July to 46.11% in September in the U.S. That is the highest share in the 15 months of the study. Searches that ended with no click at all fell from 24.97% to 22.99%, the lowest since March, and clicks that stayed on Google’s own properties dropped too. AI tools made up 1.29% of U.S. desktop activity in September, up 79% from a year earlier, while traditional search slipped from 10.29% to 9.47%. Google still accounted for 92.43% of U.S. desktop searches. Google AI Mode more than doubled its share during the quarter, from 0.15% to 0.31%, and very long searches (more than 15 words) grew from 1.67% to 2.58%. One catch: the report covers desktop only, not mobile.

Second, OpenAI said ChatGPT now handles roughly 20% as many search-like queries as Google. OpenAI did not share a total, did not say how it counts multiple questions in one conversation, and that 20% is about query volume, not market share. Applying it to the 5 trillion searches a year Google last disclosed would put ChatGPT above 1 trillion, but the two companies haven’t shown they count the same way. An enterprise platform called SEOClarity estimates closer to 7.5% of Google’s volume, which would be about 375 billion queries a year. Separately, ChatGPT reportedly grew from 1 billion to 1.2 billion weekly users in about 60 days.

Why dentists should care: Both things can be true at once. People are using AI tools more, and Google is still sending a big chunk of searches to real websites. Search is changing shape, but it’s not disappearing. The longer searches are a fun clue too. Patients are asking Google detailed, conversational questions, like “I’m nervous about getting a crown, what should I expect?” The practices with clear, specific, human-sounding answers on their dental websites are best positioned for those.

What to do next:

• Keep investing in your website and Google Business Profile, since Google is still the main show for most local searches
• Add plain-English pages and FAQs that answer the longer, more detailed questions patients actually ask
• Do not ignore ChatGPT either. Check how your practice shows up there when you ask about dentists in your area
• Take any single “ChatGPT is X% of Google” number with a grain of salt until the counting methods are clear

What happened: A new working paper (still under review) looked at e-commerce data and found that a visit from a ChatGPT ad earned an average of $0.89 in revenue, compared with $2.45 for a visit from a Google paid search ad. ChatGPT ad visits also converted at 0.37% versus 1.17% for paid search. Of 87 advertisers buying both, 84 earned less per ChatGPT visit. The authors estimate a ChatGPT ad click is worth about $0.26 at paid search’s rate of return, though the range is wide (0.05 to $0.57), while the largest publicly known account paid $1.72 per click and OpenAI’s own guidance suggests starting at maximum bids of $3 to $5. They also found unpaid ChatGPT referrals fell an estimated 6% to 8% after ads launched, though the margin of error is large enough to include no change at all.

The study used last-click attribution, left out profit margins and later purchases, ends in August, and may have counted some ad-review crawler visits as paid traffic. OpenAI has since expanded ads to 89 countries, and other reported results (including one from OpenAI) look more favorable, using different measurements. It’s also e-commerce data, not dental.

On the flip side, OpenAI is reportedly building business tools that would let companies see how often they are mentioned in ChatGPT, with daily charts of impressions and clicks. According to a post by e-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukenas, it’s part of a larger Business Hub and would be available only to businesses that have verified their ownership. It would not show the prompts people typed, user data, or competitor rankings. It isn’t live yet, but there is a banner suggesting launch is close.

Why dentists should care: We mentioned a while back that ChatGPT shows ads on healthcare prompts far more often than Google’s AI Mode does. This study is a good reality check on whether those ads pay off, at least for now. For a practice with a limited ad budget, Google paid search has the stronger track record, and ChatGPT ads are best treated as an experiment you size accordingly. The business tools are the more interesting long-term story, because first-party data from OpenAI about how often your practice appears would beat guessing.

What to do next:

• If anyone pitches ChatGPT ads, ask for results from comparable local practices, not e-commerce averages
• Compare channels using your own numbers: calls, forms, and booked patients per dollar, not just clicks
• Keep your core budget on channels that are already working
• Keep your business information consistent online, so you’re ready to claim and manage your presence if OpenAI’s tools launch

What happened: Two pieces of guidance from Google landed this week, and both are refreshingly practical.

First, Google’s Gary Illyes and Cherry Prommawin explained how redirects work. A permanent redirect (called a 301) tells Google a page has moved for good, and Google passes the old page’s ranking signals to the new one. A temporary redirect (a 302) tells Google the move is temporary, so it keeps showing the old address and largely ignores the new one. The choice mostly affects which address shows in results, not whether the page gets indexed. They also recommended redirects set up on the server over ones done with JavaScript or a refresh tag, since the latter are slower and rely on the browser running code first.

Second, Google’s John Mueller said that traditional technical SEO remains important for AI search, since AI systems build on SEO. He noted AI tools may crawl a little differently, but called that another flavor of technical SEO, not a sign SEO is dead. He also said that sites focused on quality tend to hold up better than those leaning on short-term tactics, that listicles are not automatically spam but must add real value, and that businesses should understand what outside SEOs are doing and not accept claims at face value.

Why dentists should care: Redirects come up every time a practice redesigns its website, changes its domain, merges with another practice, or renames a service page. Using the wrong type can quietly cost you the ranking credit your old pages earned. And Mueller’s point about vetting SEO vendors is gold. If someone promises quick AI wins with a trick, ask what they’re actually doing.

What to do next:

• If you’re planning a redesign or any URL change, make sure permanent moves use 301 redirects, one page to its closest replacement
• Avoid pointing every old page to the homepage
• Ask your web team to confirm redirects are set up on the server and not through JavaScript
• Ask your SEO provider to explain, in plain English, what they’re doing and why
• Keep the basics healthy: pages that load, can be crawled, and are easy to understand

Several SEO professionals noticed huge spikes in clicks in Google Search Console’s performance report, and Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz thinks it may be a bug. The spikes show up in the API for some sites and not in the regular web interface, and not every site is affected. Google had not responded when the story ran. If your Search Console suddenly shows a surprising jump, check it against your website analytics, phone calls, and form submissions before celebrating (or telling anyone it was your doing).

Peec AI, an AI search analytics company, updated the descriptions on 15 of about 60 YouTube videos and added manual timestamps. Afterward, those videos saw a 359% increase in daily AI retrievals, compared with 17% for videos they left alone and 25% for YouTube overall. Google AI Overviews retrievals rose 293% and AI Mode retrievals rose 129% for the updated videos. The study couldn’t isolate the effect of the description changes, and it was small, so treat it as a promising hint, not proof. Still, it costs nothing to try. YouTube allows up to 5,000 characters in a description, and many videos use only a sliver. A practice video about, say, Invisalign can include a clear summary, your location, and timestamps for each topic.

Reddit has begun testing ads on its search results pages with a select group of advertisers, showing ads based on the context of what someone searches. The backdrop is a rough quarter. Global daily users were flat at 130.3 million, U.S. daily users fell from 53.2 million to 50.7 million, and Reddit warned that U.S. users could drop further. It is also moving some content behind a login, starting outside the U.S. Nothing to do here for most practices, but it’s a reminder that Reddit is an evolving platform. We mentioned a few weeks back how much patient research happens there, so it’s worth watching how that shifts.

If you read this week as one story, it should be that the loud numbers about AI and search keep changing, but the boring fundamentals keep paying off. Google still sends clicks, ChatGPT is real but smaller than the headlines, ChatGPT ads have a lot to prove, and Google itself says technical basics like redirects still matter. The best move is to make sure your website is clear, your redirects are right, your videos are well described, and your results are measured by calls and booked patients. Everything else is a bonus.

• Google organic click share reaches 15-month high: Report – Search Engine Land
• Is ChatGPT really handling 1 trillion searches a year? – Search Engine Land
• Google Search vs ChatGPT ad revenue per visit – Search Engine Journal
• OpenAI testing business tools to track performance within ChatGPT – Search Engine Land
• Google explains how redirects affect ranking signals – Search Engine Journal
• Google says technical SEO remains key for AI SEO – Search Engine Journal
• Google Search Console is showing some huge spikes in clicks in the performance report – Search Engine Land
• YouTube description updates linked to 359% rise in AI retrievals – Search Engine Land
• Reddit tests ads in search results as traffic declines and growth concerns mount – TechCrunch

Adrian Lefler is the CEO and Co-Founder of My Social Practice and a recognized dental marketing expert with nearly two decades of experience. He is a trusted voice in dental marketing, AI in dentistry, and emerging technology, and he hosts BYTE SIZED, a podcast focused on dental AI, innovation, and technology.