"One of the most important ways marketers measure success is by the number of people landing on their websites. But that traffic is dropping at double-digit rates, and the trend shows no sign of slowing. HubSpot-the long-time gold standard for B2B SEO-has seen its blog traffic collapse by around 70-75%. The pain is being felt across industries: According to Pew Research, users are half as likely to click on any link when an AI Overview appears in the search results."
"Instead of clicking through links from the search results page, users now go straight to ChatGPT and other AI platforms, or get direct answers from AI overviews. Around 60% of online searches now end with zero clicks. And that's because AI offers a superior experience to traditional browsing: it's faster, cleaner, and free from the clutter of pop-ups, autoplay videos, and keyword-stuffed paragraphs. Consumers aren't looking back."
"Many marketers want to believe that AI is just another distribution channel, something to slot in alongside SEO, paid ads, and influencer campaigns. But it's not. People aren't using AI as a stepping stone to your website, as they did with search-they're posing questions, comparing options, and making a decision all without switching tabs."
Website referral traffic has fallen sharply, with some publishers experiencing 70-75% declines. AI overviews and chat platforms attract users who previously clicked search links, causing about 60% of online searches to end with zero clicks. AI provides faster, cleaner answers without intrusive ads, pop-ups, or keyword-stuffed paragraphs, changing user preference. Brands must now worry about AI bots crawling content to decide citation inclusion. AI usage bypasses websites, collapsing the traditional marketing funnel into conversational decision-making. Marketers can no longer treat AI as a simple distribution channel; core site conversion mechanics lose effectiveness as users receive final answers without visiting sites.
Read at Miami Herald
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