59% of People Won't Click Through to Your Website Anymore. Here's How to Deal With It
Search is undergoing its biggest change in 20 years. How to keep your website visible and relevant to customers?
Hey marketer! 👋🏻
You've probably noticed some interesting developments in the search world lately. Google has rolled out AI Overviews in multiple languages, ChatGPT continues gaining users, and new ways of finding information keep emerging. What does this mean for your website and marketing? Let's explore what's changing and what remains constant.
What Do Google's AI Overviews Bring?
AI Overviews are automatically generated summaries that Google displays above traditional search results. Similar to featured snippets, they extract information from websites ranking on the front pages of Google, and AI creates content designed to solve the user's query before they need to leave Google.
If your content gets featured in an AI Overview, it can mean two scenarios. The worse one is that users read the answer directly on Google and no longer need to visit your website. The better scenario is that you become a trusted source and attract quality visitors who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
According to studies, click-throughs from AI Overviews seem to have decent quality - people who arrive this way spend more time on websites and convert more frequently. This makes sense - if someone clicks through despite already getting a basic answer, they probably have genuine strong interest in the topic. However, we must account for the fact that a large portion of searches now end without any website click-through - currently it's already 59% of all Google searches. 🤯 Users find their answer directly in the results and leave. With the expansion of AI Overviews, this trend will likely deepen.
Competition for Google Is Growing
Google hasn't been the only player for a while now. ChatGPT, Perplexity, MS Copilot, and other AI tools offer alternative search methods. While Google still holds the majority market share, we're starting to see changes in user behavior - especially among younger generations who use AI tools increasingly often.
For you, this means it's no longer enough to optimize just for Google. It's becoming important that your content is accessible to AI crawlers from various tools. Paradoxically, we're returning to some older technical principles - for example, ensuring websites work without JavaScript, since many AI crawlers can't process it yet.
What Stays the Same (And Will Continue to Be Key)
Technical SEO Is the Foundation Even as search methods change, technical fundamentals remain the same. Your website must be fast, secure, accessible to search engines, and user-friendly. Core Web Vitals, proper structured data, sitemaps, internal linking - all of this remains important. Even more so now, because you need to think not just about Google, but also various AI crawlers.
Quality Content Wins E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) remains crucial. In a world where AI tools can quickly generate average content, it's even more important to differentiate yourself with real experience, expertise, and added value. The unique insights that only you have will become your competitive advantage.
User Is King No matter how search methods change, content must still be created for people. If you can answer your customers' questions better than the competition, you'll succeed in any search engine.
What's New and How to Prepare
More Comprehensive Topic Coverage It's no longer enough to write an article focused on one keyword. You need to cover topics comprehensively - answer all related questions users might have. AI tools look for content that can serve as a source for comprehensive answers.
Collaboration with Experts The more AI-generated content appears online, the more valuable real expert insights become. Investment in collaboration with experts from your field will pay off - their know-how and experience are something AI won't easily replace.
New Success Metrics We might need to stop looking only at search rankings and traffic. The more queries get answered directly in AI Overviews, the more quality of incoming traffic and conversions will matter. It's better to have 100 quality visitors than 1000 uninterested ones.
AI Tools at Work If you want to stay competitive, it's time to start using AI for data analysis, content creation (as an assistant, not replacement), automation of repetitive tasks, and more efficient work with keywords and topics.
Practical Steps You Can Take Right Now
Check your website's technical fundamentals - speed, mobile-friendliness, structured data. Focus on comprehensive topic coverage instead of individual keywords. Collaborate with experts from your field to create unique content (or create it yourself). Monitor how your users' behavior changes and adapt your strategy accordingly. Try different AI tools and find ways they can help in your work.
In Conclusion
SEO isn't ending - it's evolving. Basic principles of quality, usefulness, and technical correctness remain the same, but the ways users search for information are changing. Your task is to prepare content that's useful regardless of whether people find it through Google, ChatGPT, or any other tool that comes tomorrow.
The key is not to focus only on search engine algorithms, but on the real needs of your customers. If you can be the best source of information in your field for them, you'll succeed in any future search world.
☕ Enjoying the content? Support the project!
Help me keep creating practical marketing content by buying me a coffee. Every cup fuels more articles, tips, and resources for fellow entrepreneurs like you!
Looking forward to the next article!
Jan Barborik
P.S.: If you enjoyed this article, forward it to a friend.
If you're that sexy friend, subscribe here.