Thanks to AI, Google Search is losing its ability to drive traffic to websites
Google Search's AI Overview feature and other AI search tools are reducing traffic to big name websites.
There is no overstating how important Google Search is when it comes to drawing traffic to websites. 20% of online traffic visiting top internet sites starts the journey with a Google Search response according to analytics firm Semrush. And for some online destinations, search is even more important. It makes up 63% of visits to Wikipedia worldwide and 58% of the visitors to Tripadvisor come from a search result.
AI search has replaced 10% of the referrals lost by more traditional search tools
Times have changed and the folks at Similarweb say that AI search engines are now replacing 10% of the referrals that traditional search engines have lost. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and ironically, Google's own Gemini are now being used instead of Google Search and other search tools. This is happening on both mobile devices and the desktop. Apple has made it easy for users to create iPhone links to ChatGPT through the Action Button, and widgets. Google is replacing Google Assistant with Gemini on Android.
Google Search's AI Overview is reducing traffic to websites. | Image credit-PhoneArena
Google is trying to add some AI features to Google Search with its AI Overview which appears at the top of certain search results. Instead of answering a query with a link to websites that can answer your question, AI Overview provides a generative AI-created summary that answers your question. The downside here is that by responding with a summary instead of a link, this feature also drives down traffic to certain websites.
In March, Similarweb data shows that searches with AI Overview ended with a click to a website only 23% of the time. For searches without the overview, the click rate was higher, at 36%. Research firm Ahrefs found that Google Search results showing an AI Overview have more than doubled from March 12 to May 6. Google Search is no longer a tried and true way to get traffic to your site.
"Looking at search results that do show an AI answer, comparing that with search results that do not show an answer, we found a crazy drop-off. This is a click killer.
-Kevin Indig, SEO, consultant, and author of the Growth Memo blog
For example, Barron's reports that Business Insider, a business and financial news website, cut its staff by 21% in May citing drops in traffic "outside of its control." Aptly named Business Insider CEO Barbara Pen told employees in a note, "Business models are under pressure, distribution is unstable, and competition for attention is fiercer than ever." Traffic to securities firm Schwab.com declined in May for the first time in two years. Even visits to Netflix declined 23% last month.
Chegg, a publicly traded company, offers an app that helps students with their homework. Valued at $15.1 billion in early 2021 with the stock trading at $113.51, the shares are now valued at $144 million and trade at $1.35. Traffic declines are forcing the company to consider a sale of the firm.
Chegg CEO Nathan Schultz blames Google's AI Overviews for much of his company's problems. Schultz told investors: "We would not need to review strategic alternatives if Google hadn’t launched AI Overviews, retaining traffic that historically had come to Chegg, materially impacting our acquisitions, revenue, and employees." Chegg is suing Google alleging that the company used its dominance in search to force publishers like Chegg to "supply content that Google republishes without permission in AI-generated answers that unfairly compete for the attention of users on the internet."
AI is much more useful than the public realizes
Much of the public has no idea how useful AI is yet. They either see it as a threat to humanity, or at least their jobs, or use it to create messages in the style of Shakespeare as a joke. However, the realization that AI can be a useful tool is slowly gaining speed. Between December and March, the number of ChatGPT's weekly active users soared 67% from 300 million to 500 million. Some of these users pay $20 a month for the service.
Google Search is going to look a lot different in a few years-if it survives. This is why Google is working hard on making Gemini a popular AI brand. At risk is the quarterly revenue of $90 billion that Google Search generated during Q1 of 2025, the last financial report released by Alphabet.
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