If you are trying to figure out why your website traffic is declining for past few months you are not alone. This is today a global trend, a chain reaction that been started by AI .
AI has successfully disrupted the process traditional businesses used to work. For past 20 years everybody on internet knew how to launch a business, today no one knows for sure.
People are no longer looking for answers, they are no longer “Googling” it, they are getting the answers right at the place. For the first time in many years, Google’s search market share below 90% and Google itself plans for a major shift in how it presents search results and Apple inventing its own search engine right in Safari would further decrease this. The Google search clicks to the first organic result has declined to 1/6th of what used to be pre-AI era.
This has majorly impacted small businesses and start-ups as they do not have the brand visibility big companies have. AI does not recommend them, so people are slowly losing faith in opening new businesses. This eventually leads to lesser sales and thus less conversion.
Zero Click searches have increased to 60% or maybe more.
So, What Does This Mean for Your Website?
- Organic SEO is no longer a guarantee.
Even if you rank #1, there’s no assurance people will click. AI summaries and “zero-click searches” are swallowing traffic. - Niche authority matters more.
If your brand is not perceived as a go-to name within a specific niche, AI might never cite you, and users might never see you. - Content must evolve beyond “answers.”
Users are now seeking insights, perspectives, experiences, and community—not just information. Content that feels generic or SEO-crafted won’t survive. - You need to be where your audience actually is.
That might be YouTube, Discord, Reddit, TikTok, Substack, or even within AI tools themselves. Waiting for traffic to come to you via search is a losing game.
What Can You Do About It?
- Reposition your content strategy. Focus less on keywords and more on usefulness, originality, and relatability.
- Invest in your brand. When people search for your name, not your niche, you’re winning.
- Build direct channels. Email newsletters, private communities, apps, and subscriptions are now more reliable than SEO traffic.
- Get cited by AI. Figure out what sources your audience’s preferred AI tools rely on—and find ways to be referenced by them.
Final thoughts
The internet isn’t shrinking—but the middleman layer of websites built purely for SEO arbitrage is. AI is not just disrupting search—it’s reshaping how we find and trust information.
Traffic isn’t down because you did something wrong. It’s down because the game changed—and now it’s time to adapt, or be left behind. The pie is getting smaller.