_0.jpg)
What Share of Voice Really Means for Search in 2026
There has never been a more important time to understand your true share of voice in search.
Share of voice has always been one of marketing's most critical metrics—whether you're measuring GRPs in TV, impression share in paid media, or brand mentions in social. The principle is simple: what percentage of the conversation do you participate versus your competitors?
As the industry and innovation leader, BrightEdge was the first company to define and patent Share of Voice capabilities for organic search. Search had become the most critical channel for brand discovery, and marketers needed the same competitive visibility they had in every other channel.
Share of voice used to mean measuring your brand's presence in Google results — because that's where most searches happened. Simple enough.
But AI has changed the landscape in two important ways. First, AI Overviews now appear across millions of queries, and brand presence there might be a mention buried in the middle of a summary rather than a blue link you own. Second, new discovery channels like ChatGPT and Perplexity have emerged — and people are using them to research brands and products.
The good news? This doesn't have to be complicated. Share of voice isn't broken by AI — it's extended by it. The core question is still the same: where does your brand show up versus competitors, and what do you do about it? You just need visibility across more surfaces now.
It All Runs on Search — Including AI
Organic search remains as important as ever.
BrightEdge AI Market Pulse data shows Google still commands over 90% of all search traffic. AI search platforms combined account for less than 1% of total referrals. And organic search consistently outperforms every other channel on conversions.
But the role organic plays in your customer's journey is evolving. AI is now part of how people research before they convert. Our research also shows AI search functions primarily as a discovery channel—users ask questions, gather information, then convert through organic search or direct.
AI isn't replacing the purchase journey. It's adding a layer to the top of it. That means you need visibility into both—not to choose between them, but to understand how they work together. For share of voice, that means understanding where your brand shows up when customers are researching and being recommended by AI—and whether you're there in organic search when they're ready to visit or buy.
We Saw This Play Out Over the Holidays
The holiday season gave us a preview of what the competitive landscape looks like when organic and AI search work side by side.
Google AI Overviews acted as the trusted advisor—only 4% of citations went to direct retailers. The rest went to editorial sources, helping users research before buying. ChatGPT took the opposite approach, linking directly to retailers at 9x the rate of Google.
The result? Google maintained dominance because consumers still want help with the research phase. They're not ready to delegate purchase decisions to AI.
What does this mean for share of voice? You need visibility in both places. Your organic rankings get you in front of buyers ready to convert. Your AI presence gets you into the research phase where decisions are shaped.
Expanding How We Think About Share of Voice
You've always been able to see where you stand on the SERP. The question now is: can you see where you stand across the full discovery journey?
Think about how your customers actually search today. They might start in ChatGPT or Perplexity to explore options. They might see your brand—or your competitor—recommended in a Google AI Overview before they ever see a blue link. They're getting answers, recommendations, and comparisons from AI before they decide what to click.
This is where share of voice needs to extend. Not just your rankings on the SERP, but whether ChatGPT is recommending you when someone asks for options in your category. Whether Perplexity is citing your content or your competitor's. Whether you're appearing in AI Overviews for the queries that matter to your business.
It's not a replacement for organic visibility—it's an extension of where competitive intelligence needs to reach. The brands that understand their position across this full landscape will make better decisions about where to invest and how to win.
This Is Why Platform Matters
This is what share of voice looks like in 2026: your competitive position across organic search and AI discovery, connected in one place. When you can see both, you can optimize once and win everywhere. That's the power of an integrated platform.
It's not about tracking more dashboards or stitching together point solutions. It's about having a connected view of your true share of voice—one that shows how organic performance and AI visibility work together to drive business outcomes.
With BrightEdge, this happens without adding new views or extra manual work. It's all connected.
Share of Voice gives you the competitive landscape on the SERP—who's outranking you, how their content is structured, where you can win back real estate. It's the foundation.
AI Catalyst extends that visibility into AI search—tracking your brand across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, showing where you're being cited versus competitors. It's the emerging layer.
StoryBuilder brings it together—dashboards that are ready to use out of the box but adaptable to your specific business needs, combining organic rankings, AI visibility, and business outcomes in one unified view.
When these pieces connect, you're not just seeing data. You're seeing the full competitive picture—and that's what lets you optimize once and win everywhere.
Looking Ahead
The brands that win in 2026 will be the ones that understand the role each channel plays in their customer's discovery path. Organic search. AI Overviews. AI-first engines. They're not competing priorities—they're connected surfaces that require connected measurement. And this is only going to matter more. Emerging capabilities like Instant Checkout and Google's Universal Commerce Protocol could collapse the entire journey from research to purchase into a single AI-driven experience. Understanding your share of voice across that full journey isn't a nice-to-have — it's how you stay visible when the path to conversion gets shorter.
Here's to making 2026 the year your brand wins across the full search landscape! We're excited to keep building alongside you!
If you want to see what your Share of Voice looks like across AI + organic in one view, let's connect!