60% of Perplexity citations overlap with top 10 Google organic results
With Perplexity referrals growing 40% month-over-month, new research looks at how SGE and Perplexity differ.
Sixty percent of citations on AI search engine Perplexity overlap with the top 10 Google organic search results, according to a new analysis.
- Healthcare had the highest result overlap – 82%. Both Perplexity and Google cite authoritative sites like the Mayo Clinic and the National Institutes of Health.
- Restaurants had the lowest overlap – 27%.
Why we care. This finding may seem a bit surprising considering an analysis that found 94% of Google Search Generative Experience links are different from its own organic results. But it’s also good news that if you’ve prioritized SEO for Google and have focused on building a notable brand, you should be off to a good start on optimizing for Perplexity.
Where they differ. BrightEdge compared SGE and Perplexity to see where they differed. Of note:
- Reddit was a citation in seven of the nine industries analyzed, the two exceptions being in Healthcare and Finance.
- In Ecommerce, Perplexity and Google cited Wikipedia and Amazon. But after that, Google cited Quora and Consumer Reports while Perplexity cited Reddit.
Why they differ. It’s all about data. Google has collected a lot of this data.
- Google has a treasure trove of data from reviews, ratings, location information, and business hours. Perplexity cites Yelp for this type of data.
- Google has Google Finance. Perplexity cites Yahoo, MarketWatch and Barrons.
Perplexity growing. Perplexity has grown to 15 million monthly active users. With this growth, referrals have also increased 40% month-over-month from Perplexity to brand sites since January, according to enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge and its Generative Parser.
- Perplexity’s organic share rate is growing at 39% per month, according to BrightEdge.
Citations. Perplexity provides 5.28 citations, on average, per response. Also of note: Perplexity shows “drastically” more citations in Restaurant and Travel responses.
- “In a post-generative AI world, citations are the new rankings. For brands to win, they need to be the cited source,” said Jim Yu, founder and Executive Chairman of BrightEdge.
The report. BrightEdge published its research as part of its resource, The Ultimate Guide to Perplexity.
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About the author
Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.