How SEO performs against LLM (Large Language Models)

In episode #2880, Eric Siu and Neil Patel discuss the nuances of LLM optimization versus SEO results, highlighting the overlap between Perplexity results and Google rankings. They discuss the potential acquisition of Perplexity by Google and the shifting dynamics in social media usage among marketers. Don’t forget to help us grow by subscribing and liking on YouTube! Check out more of Eric’s content (Leveling UP YT) and Neil’s videos (Neil Patel YT) TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: (00:00) Understanding LLM Optimization and SEO Results (03:00) The Future of Perplexity and Google (05:23) That’s it for today! Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe! Go to https://www.marketingschool.io to learn more! Leave Some Feedback: What should we talk about next? Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with Us: Single Grain << Eric’s ad agency NP Digital << Neil’s ad agency X @neilpatel X @ericosiu

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:41Speaker 00

  If you pull up like a perplexity result, how much do you think is coming from Google?

• 0:46Speaker 01

  If I had to guess, more than 80%.

• 0:50Speaker 00

  Forty-six percent perplexity results overlap with Google Top 10 organic rankings, but only 32% with Bing. ChatGPT 4.0 with RAG. Results overlap 69% with Bing Top 10 organic results and still 48%.

• 1:02Speaker 01

  Wait, 69% with Bing?

• 1:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, which makes sense. I mean-

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Because they pull from Bing as well for SearchGPT.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, Microsoft owns what, 49%?

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Something like that.

• 1:10Speaker 00

  Whatever, right? Interestingly enough, the top Google ranking appears in 72% of perplexity results, which is kind of close to what you said with the 80%, which means top rankings in Google can result in top rankings in perplexity. The same top rankings from Google only appear in 22% cases in ChatGPT.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  But 72% perplexity is what you said?

• 1:28Speaker 00

  Yes, which is 80% close to what you said. And lastly, there's a visible correlation of the same Google sources appearing in perplexity. Means the better you rank in Google, the higher chance you show up in perplexity. It almost feels as if perplexity would use Google rankings to train their model.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  If Trump becomes more flexible and Europe becomes more flexible next year, I believe Google would make a play to just try to buy perplexity.

• 1:49Speaker 00

  I think so too. I mean, they're not that... I mean, what's their valuation?

• 1:53Speaker 01

  Google's?

• 1:54Speaker 00

  Perplexity.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  It's not that high compared to Google's. Google's like 2 trillion, I think.

• 1:58Speaker 00

  Google should just do it. The M and A climate's going to thaw, and that's going to open up- Opportunities for people to buy.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Perplexity is valued at nine billion dollars.

• 2:07Speaker 00

  Okay, yeah, it's still.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  They could pay 20 billion.

• 2:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:09Speaker 01

  Call it a day.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Dude, I was looking up some marketers, I won't mention their name. There's a lot of marketers who actually don't use X anymore.

• 2:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  And they say, find them on thread and they post that in their bio.

• 2:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  It doesn't matter whether you like Elon or not, or you like Mark Zuckerberg.

• 2:25Speaker 00

  I just think that's virtue signaling. Like, a younger me would have done that. I just think at this point, you're virtue signaling, saying, oh, I'm leaving X, I'm doing this. Like, first of all, nobody gives a damn where you're going. Nobody cares, dude. It's like, nobody cares what you ate for dinner, too. You don't need to announce that stuff.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  And if you don't want to do it, your competition's gonna take the traffic and then you're like, oh, they're bigger than us. Why are they bigger than us?

• 2:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Well, they're leveraging the channels you're not willing to leverage.

• 2:48Speaker 00

  Like, enough, guys, just enough.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. It, it, it, it's, a lot of this is more black and white than people want to admit. You gotta take out the emotions, business is business. If someone's breaking the law, all right, that's different. If you don't agree with them politically or whatnot, if you're running a business and you have investors and your goal is to optimize valuation for your employees and everyone else, then you gotta do, you know, what's best for the business.

• 3:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  And here's a funny story. I was talking to someone the other day. They had an offer from a Middle East country for a lot of money. And a few of their employees said, you can't take money from this.

• 3:31Speaker 00

  Oh, here we go.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  This country. And I'm not one to say you should take money or not. I like being self-funded. I don't like answering to anyone. Yeah, Eric knows me really well on that aspect. I don't do well having to report to.

• 3:44Speaker 00

  With the boss.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  So I don't blame people when they say they don't want money from a certain, from anyone, really. And I've raised money before and I had good investors, but I just like doing my own thing. And he had the opportunity to take a lot of money. And, you know, before he had the opportunity, his employees were really pissed and they said, you can't do this, this isn't right, you know, we don't like you because you're doing this and we don't believe in this and we don't like this country. And then when he got a term sheet and he said, oh yeah, I'm gonna end up paying out a lot of my employees because we have an option pool. All of a sudden, their tune changed and be like, oh yeah, this is great. How much will we be making?

• 4:30Speaker 01

  And he decided not to do it because he didn't want to end up raising money and it was for a majority transaction and he didn't want to end up relinquishing majority of his corporation. When I say majority, I'm not talking like 51%, I'm talking like 70 plus percent. And they wanted his company for their region and they wanted to make it a part of everything that they're doing. I believe it's more healthcare related than anything else and they really wanted whatever new healthcare technology that they end up having. But when you look at it from that perspective, a lot of the employees were really pissed that they did not sell the majority.

• 5:08Speaker 00

  If you're an agency owner and you want to grow faster, check out the Agency Owners Association. That's hosted by my podcast co-host Neil Patel and myself. And we have other agency owners that are doing eight figures a year. They were doing nine figures a year. They sold their business for hundreds of millions of dollars and they're going to share their experiences with you. There's a whole host of other benefits and the cool thing is that there's a seven day free trial and you should check it out now because we're going to take the prices up. So just go to marketing school.io slash agency to learn more and we'll see you inside. Yeah. By the way, it's funny how they change their tune so quickly when it has directly affects their livelihood, like everything else goes out the window, right? What people care about is their livelihood at the end of the day, right? Everything else is like, you can add the extra stuff if you want.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  And some of those employees, he was telling me would have made more than a half a million bucks. That's a crap load of money. That's life changing.

• 5:56Speaker 00

  All right, guys, so that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, view, subscribe, go to marketing school.io slash agency. I think the price right now is 199 or so. It's seven day free trial. We're bumping it up to 399. So depending on when you listen to this, the price may already be at 399. So that being said, goodbye.