Here's what marketers need to know.
The data confirms traffic declines are real
The evidence of AI's impact on web traffic is mounting rapidly. Multiple studies show concerning trends for publishers and brands.
"I think there's less clicking than [the studies are] even seeing, and you can see that in the amount of site traffic that has declined to so many different websites," says Neisser.
The core issue is how AI search functions compared to traditional search. While browsers present multiple options, AI provides a single, synthesized answer—dramatically reducing opportunities for discovery.
"These options are pushing people out of search really quickly and that changes everything for brands and for publishers," says our analyst Grace Harmon. "In addition to AI overview, you have Perplexity's AI search, all of these different engines that are creating content, but ending discovery."
Trust remains a critical factor
Despite these changes, AI search faces significant trust challenges. This creates a paradox similar to social media news consumption—people use AI search despite not fully trusting it, largely due to convenience.
"There's a contradiction there in terms of how much people trust AI versus how much work they're willing to do," says Harmon.
What marketers can do now
For brands and publishers navigating this new landscape, several strategies are emerging, including focusing on AI optimization, prioritizing quality content, and exploring other discovery channels.
Shifting traditional SEO to finding ways to attract the attention of LLMs has become a growing strategy.
"When your organic search traffic goes down, you start to think... how the heck do you get your brand to show up on an LLM?" says Neisser. While no perfect strategy exists yet, some brands are already seeing inbound traffic from LLM referrals.
"Websites might want to add things like FAQ pages, really specific product specs," says Harmon. "Adding summaries is the big thing for what those engines can scrape and regurgitate later."
As AI-generated content proliferates, trusted sources become more valuable.
"The incentive to create high quality content is more important than ever because that's the only way you'll be able to cut through the slop," says Neisser emphasizes.
This may lead to a bifurcation where premium, trusted content commands subscription revenue while free content struggles to maintain visibility and monetization.
With Google's dominance potentially weakening (recently dropping below 90% search market share), marketers should also explore alternative discovery platforms. Reddit has suddenly become more important as an LLM source, and niche communities may gain prominence.
"I think it also might spark more of a slow web revival, so niche communities online, newsletters... Substack, Zines, things like that," says Harmon.
While these solutions face implementation challenges, they represent attempts to rebalance the relationship between content creators and AI systems.
"We are dealing probably with the biggest transformation in marketing certainly in my lifetime," says Neisser, leading to a reappraisal of basic tenents. "What's my staff look like today and tomorrow? When am I going to have agents on my org chart?... And then finally, if SEO doesn't work anymore, then how do you get discovered?"
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