A mid-sized Australian B2B client of ours watched their organic traffic fall close to 50% year on year. On paper, it looked like a disaster.

But their sales were holding up and their conversion rate from Google had actually risen. So, what was happening here?

It turns out that the traffic they lost was informational – people searching “how does X work” or “what is Y.” But the visitors who were still arriving were closer to a purchase decision and ready to act.

The traffic they lost was never going to become a client. The traffic that mattered was still arriving. That distinction is a bit part of what is happening in search right now.

 

What Has Changed in Search?

For most of the last decade, the deal was simple. You created useful content, Google ranked it, people clicked through to your site.

That deal has now changed.

Google now answers many queries directly on the results page – through what it calls AI Overviews. Instead of ten links and a choice, Google summarises the answer itself. The user gets what they came for without clicking through to anyone’s website.

The traffic impact is measurable. Ahrefs found AI Overviews reduced clicks to organic results by 58% on the queries where they appear.

But that number doesn’t tell you the full story.

The Damage Looks Worse Than It Is

A 58% drop in clicks sounds catastrophic. But those are clicks on AI-affected queries – a subset of all search.

Research across 40,000 major websites found overall organic traffic is down about 2.5% year on year globally. Google said publicly in 2025 that total click volume from Search to websites had remained “relatively stable.”

So, why are so many businesses seeing dramatic drops? Because the content losing clicks is almost always the same type – it was content that was never going to bring in a client anyway.

Which Web Traffic Actually Matters?

This comes down to search intent – the reason behind a query and the buyer stage it represents. AI matches meaning, not just keywords, which is why it handles different searches very differently.

AI Overviews mostly appear on informational searches. The “what should I look for in a financial adviser” and “how does a commercial lease work” traffic – people at the very start of their research, not ready to hire anyone or purchase anything.

Google just answers those questions directly now – that traffic is gone.

What’s holding firm is a different kind of visitor. Someone searching “accounting firm Sydney” or “branding agency Melbourne” isn’t looking for a definition. They’re close to making a call. And AI Overviews don’t always appear on those queries.

We’ve seen this pattern repeat across client accounts consistently. Their blog traffic falls, but enquiry volume and revenue holds.

Simple rule: if your traffic drop is concentrated in blog and guide pages, that’s the industry-wide pattern – not a sign your marketing has failed.

Why This Actually Levels the Playing Field

Here’s where it gets interesting – particularly for firms that aren’t the biggest name in their market.

AI search has reshuffled who gets cited in answers. Ahrefs found that only 38% of the sources Google’s AI cites actually rank on page one organically. The majority of citations come from elsewhere.

In the past, if you weren’t on page one of results, most potential clients never found you. That’s no longer necessarily the case. 

A well-structured, credible website with clear expertise can now appear in AI answers ahead of firms that have dominated search rankings for years. Not through SEO tricks – but because AI systems are looking for something slightly different from what traditional Google rankings rewarded.

For smaller and mid-sized firms, this is a genuine opportunity to compete against bigger players.

 

What is AI Actually Looking For?

Being cited in an AI answer is now a goal in its own right – separate from where you rank. Seer Interactive found that brands cited in AI Overviews earn significantly more clicks than competitors on the same page who aren’t. But the path there is less complicated than it sounds.

 At Google’s Search Central Live in Sydney this year, Gary Illyes was clear that SEO isn’t dead – and that strong SEO fundamentals are the right foundation for AI visibility too.The same principles that determine whether Google ranks your content – credibility, relevance, quality – determine whether AI cites it.

(Our GM was there and wrote up her key takeaways – worth a read!).

That said, it’s not a complete overlap. For Google’s AI Overviews, solid SEO gets you most of the way there. For ChatGPT and Perplexity, which pull from different sources (Bing, Reddit, Wikipedia, reviews, brand mentions) there are additional considerations. 

But the fundamentals are still the starting point. Businesses showing up in AI answers are doing these well.

Two things to keep in mind for AEO:

1. Answer the question directly. AI grabs the first passage that resolves a query. If your answer is buried in paragraph five, you won’t be quoted. Lead with it.
2. Be verifiably credible. Consistent business information across your site, Google Business Profile and directories. Named team members. Mentions in recognisable publications. These signals matter more than most people realise.

Google calls this E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It’s the framework Google’s quality raters use to assess content, and it’s increasingly what AI systems use to decide whose content is worth citing. The signals that demonstrate E-E-A-T are reputational: who wrote this, what do they know and can it be verified?

What Should You Measure Now?

If your analytics show a drop in organic traffic and your first instinct is to panic, the most useful thing to do first is look at which traffic dropped.

The number that matters most isn’t total organic sessions. It’s how many of the right people are finding you and getting in touch.

Check these separately:

• Blog and informational pages down? That’s the industry-wide pattern. Not a crisis.
• Service pages and enquiry volume down? That’s worth investigating carefully.

Don’t let one distort your read on the other.

And one more check worth doing right now: open ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity and ask each one to describe your business or brand – or ask who they’d recommend for your service in your market. That’s the first impression a growing number of buyers are getting. If the answer is wrong, incomplete or you don’t appear at all, that’s worth knowing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SEO still worth investing in?

Yes, but the goal has shifted. It’s about showing up when someone asks an AI tool who to call, not just ranking for every informational search. The good news: if you’re already doing good SEO, you’re likely headed in the right direction.

Why is my competitor appearing in AI answers and I’m not?

Usually it comes down to how clearly their website communicates what they do, whether their content answers questions directly, and how consistently their business information appears across the web. Fundamentals, done well.

How quickly can this be turned around?

Faster than traditional SEO. AI systems update their citations more frequently than Google updates rankings. We’ve seen clients go from invisible to regularly cited within a few months of making targeted changes.

The Bottom Line

If your organic traffic is down, you’re in good company. Almost every business is seeing some version of this.

The real question is what’s driving it. For most firms, the traffic that disappeared was never going to pick up the phone and purchase. The traffic that matters – people who are ready to engage – is more resilient than the headline numbers suggest.

What’s changed is where buyers go first when they’re researching, and what it takes to show up there. Understanding that distinction is the difference between making smart decisions and making expensive ones based on the wrong metric.

At One Egg, we work with Australian firms navigating exactly this shift – figuring out what’s actually happening in their traffic and where the real opportunities are. If you’d like us to look at what’s actually driving your traffic numbers, get in touch.

 

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