The 60% Problem — How AI Search Is Draining Your Traffic

Forbes

14-04-2025

The online marketing landscape is undergoing its largest change in nearly three decades since the inception of Google. As AI-powered search assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Search Generative Experience by Google are gaining popularity at lightning speed, businesses are witnessing unprecedented dips in organic traffic – but things aren't quite as straightforward as the data makes them out to be.
Recent research has shown that AI Overviews can cause a whopping 15-64% decline in organic traffic, based on industry and search type. This radical change is causing marketers to reconsider their whole strategy regarding digital visibility.
Roughly 60% of searches now yield no clicks at all, as AI-generated answers satisfy them directly on the search results page. In addition, Google's AI Overviews have displaced top-ranked links by as much as 1,500 pixels – which is about two full screen scrolls on a desktop and three full screen scrolls on a mobile device – significantly lowering click-through rates even for highly ranked pages.
"Using search engines like Google is like walking into a library and getting a list of book titles that might help. You then have to go pull the books off the shelves, skim through them, and try to piece together the answer on your own," explains Erik Wikander, Co-founder and CEO of Wilgot.ai, a company specializing in AI-powered SEO strategies.
"AI search flips that on its head," Wikander continued in an email response. "It's like having a super smart librarian who reads every book for you and then explains the answer, in your language, tailored to your context. And if you don't quite get it? You just ask another question, and they clarify. It's fluid, interactive and helpful in a way that traditional search simply isn't."
If you're not sure what AI Overviews are – you've probably seen them without knowing what they were or how they work.
If you ask Google a question such as 'What's the significance of Passover' or 'Who attended the Last Supper' – the first entry at the top of the screen will be a Google AI Overview, which is a curated summarized response with footnotes. For 6-out-of-10 viewers of the response, the summary details are all they need so they don't click any other link from the search screen to another website.
While that's fine for Google and other AI search engines, the websites on the other end are seeing a significant decrease of click through rates to their sites. So their keyword advertising, onsite marketing content and search engine optimization activities are going to waste if they're not one of the handful of web pages captured in the AI Overview.
According to Winkander, resources based on informational content like guides and how-to tutorials are hit hardest. With AI Overviews providing in-depth answers within search results, the need to click through to these resources has significantly declined. This shift is particularly damaging for content marketers who have built strategies on top-of-funnel informational content to create awareness.
And the race for prominence has also gotten fiercer, with AI Summaries usually coming from a few of the highest-ranked websites – usually positions 1-2 or above. This is a case of winner-takes-all, with smaller firms and newer websites having very little to no chance of prominence.
In spite of these obstacles, there is a silver lining for companies that are able to move quickly. Wikander continues that even though the total traffic drops, the quality of the visitors that do click through is far greater.
'While AI search engines may drive less traffic overall, the value of that traffic is significantly higher than traditional search. Visitors arriving via AI search are often much further along in their buyer journey — ready to take action. This is especially evident in high-consideration categories like software, where customers typically do extensive research before converting. In fact, many of the companies we speak with report that up to 10% of their conversions now come from AI-driven search,' he wrote.
For businesses struggling with these changes, Wikander recommends a complete overhaul of how we go about search engine optimization.
"The first step is to reframe SEO as a content-first strategy. The technical SEO playbook still matters, but it's no longer the primary driver of visibility," he advised. "To stand out in AI search, the content needs to answer real questions, not just repeat popular keywords. It should anticipate follow-up questions, be written in a natural, conversational tone, and offer something truly useful, whether that's an expert opinion, proprietary data or unique context."
This involves going beyond the conventional keyword optimization, which Wikander describes as "not dead, but no longer the winning move on its own." Rather, businesses must focus on developing content that reads naturally, is rich and delivers concrete value to the reader.
As AI transforms the search landscape, companies need to evolve or risk not being seen. The old SEO playbook — built on keywords, backlinks and technical adjustments—is quickly becoming irrelevant. Instead, a new playbook built on quality, relevance and authority is taking its place.
"Content is becoming the new performance marketing," Wikander emphasizes. "As paid channels get more expensive and traditional search fragments, your best lever for growth is content. Not just any content, but content that AI sees as helpful, credible and worth including."
For marketers who are ready to adapt to this new reality, the dividends are significant. By producing excellent, authoritative content that AI software identifies as worthy, brands can position themselves as trusted sources of information — and secure their place in the AI-driven search future.
"Success today means becoming the best answer — in every language, every market and every moment that matters," Wikander concludes.