"On October 31, millions of people will put up decorations, dress up in costumes, and buy buckets of candy in anticipation of children visiting their homes for Halloween. But what if kids decided to skip all that and simply have the candy-of their choice, with none of that icky candy corn, thank you-delivered directly to them? That's similar to what's happening to many business websites, thanks to AI-powered search results and AI chatbots-and it's upending how businesses make people aware of their companies and products."
"In addition to search results, Google displays and answers questions that are related to the searcher's initial query. As a result, searchers often don't need to visit the sites that Google returned; they can (and do) just click on a question to get an answer. Today, AI-generated summaries are the default answers for most Google queries, and for now, these include links."
AI-powered search results and chatbots replace traditional multi-site browsing by providing summarized product information, comparisons, prices, and reviews directly within the search or chat response. This behavior amplifies a decade-long zero-click trend that began with features like Google's People Also Ask, where users obtain answers without visiting source sites. AI-generated summaries are becoming default for many queries and may evolve toward linkless answers, further reducing website traffic. The shift diminishes companies' ability to influence buying decisions through owned content and forces marketers to rethink discovery, attribution, and strategies for visibility and customer acquisition.
Read at Forbes
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