"For decades, companies treated search like a spigot attached to a marketing funnel. The formula was simple: attract visitors at the top, guide them through consideration and convert a percentage at the bottom. That mental model worked when search results were dominated by 10 blue links and customers reliably flowed from Google to websites. Traffic was cheap, abundant and predictable. Leakage didn't matter because the opening was so wide."
"Today, the funnel has effectively flipped upside down. AI answers, SERP features and other zero-click features mean far fewer people leave the results page. The entry point has narrowed while leakage remains. Businesses are still pouring resources into a structure designed for a different era. The result feels like failure at the channel level. But the channel hasn't disappeared. The assumptions underneath it have."
Search behavior and platforms have evolved, eroding the effectiveness of traditional SEO funnels. AI-generated answers, SERP features, and zero-click results keep more users within search interfaces, reducing clicks to external websites. Historical SEO succeeded because generic informational content retained economic value, Google regularly directed traffic to sites, and that traffic could be converted later. AI commoditizes informational content, Google prioritizes retaining users in its ecosystem, and conversion opportunities have weakened. Businesses continue to allocate resources to a funnel model designed for broader entry points, causing perceived channel failure despite growing overall search volume.
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