"Once, search traffic was a dependable faucet. Now, AI-powered zero-click summaries have rerouted that stream. Organic visits can drop 34% to 79% when AI previews appear in search. In one striking report, news publisher visits plunged from 2.3 billion to 1.7 billion - a 25% loss. More broadly, zero-click search accounted for nearly 69% of news queries as of May 2025, up from 56% in May 2024, as user behavior continues to shift."
"To stay relevant, publishers need to build experiences that make people want to stay and come back tomorrow. This means knowing their audience, tracking their behavior, refining their user experience relentlessly and designing for loyalty with clean user interface, fast load times, contextual visuals and story formats that feel alive, not interchangeable. It's not just about clicks. It's about asking: What reason does a reader have to come back tomorrow? Why would someone spend 30 minutes on this site instead of 90 seconds?"
Publishers confront continuous structural shifts including algorithm changes, SEO upheavals, Google cookie deprecation, made-for-advertising sites, and ad-tech commoditization. AI-powered zero-click search is diverting organic traffic, producing steep drops in visits and contributing to measurable revenue decline. Zero-click search rose to nearly 69% of news queries by May 2025, amplifying the risk to traditional traffic funnels. Surviving requires treating publishing as product development: understand audiences, track behavior, iterate UX, and design for loyalty with clean interfaces, fast load times, contextual visuals and engaging formats. Smart packaging—short-form video, visual explainers, user-generated content and contextual recommendations—builds habit and time spent per visit.
Read at Digiday
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]