How will generative AI impact website rankings and traffic?

• Understand the impact of Google’s AI Overviews on website traffic, as well as the obstacles and possibilities for online exposure.
• Let’s start by transporting you back in time.
• Wilbur Wright informed his brother Orville in 1901 that humans would not be able to fly for another 50 years.
• Two years later, in 1903, the brothers created the first aircraft.
• The next step in search technology is here. But we still need to know when it will be ready to fly.
• Google currently claims that AI Overviews have a higher click-through rate than standard internet search results.
• We know that Google’s AI Overviews now appear in 15% of all inquiries, down from 84% previously.
• Generative AI is already influencing website rankings and traffic.

But how is generative AI impacting website traffic?

Let’s go over what we know currently regarding how generative AI affects website rankings and traffic.

It’s worth noting that Google and other search engines are expected to increase their efforts to develop their AI products in the future. Furthermore, Google’s AI Overviews are only viewable to logged-in users who have turned off Incognito in Chrome, so the current implications may need to be changed.

Organic, direct, referral, and affiliate traffic will decline

•  So, while searches will grow, websites will suffer and earn less organic traffic overall.
• Here is a ballpark estimate:
• AI leads to six times as many searches each day.
• AI causes a 60% fall in average CTR.
• This might result in a 30% decline in organic traffic.
• Every single website will feel the pain.
• Gilad David Maayan, CEO and Founder of Agile SEO, examined traffic losses for 23 websites following Google’s AI Overviews debut.
• He discovered that once Google’s AI Overviews was introduced, organic traffic dropped by 18-64%.

With Google’s AI Overview, the winner takes all

This suggests that just a few link cards have questions. This might cause a larger brand to outrank the small firm in search results.

These link cards may eventually replace highlighted snippets, but Google has confirmed that featured snippets will remain – for the time being!

Google has been testing highlighted snippets for some years, so this should come as no surprise.

You may have seen swings in your highlighted snippets ranks during the last few months.

A reduced crawl budget means that fewer content will be indexed

•  Google has an infrastructural dilemma.
• Google has a vast volume of material to crawl, render, and index, and that number is expanding with AI-written content.
• Google’s data centers cannot manage it.
• As a result, Google is resorting to shortcuts such as lowering crawl budgets for websites with higher content velocity relative to their trust rating.
• This implies that if your material is weak, useless, or generic, Google will most likely not index it.
• Think about it. Creators are asking the same questions and incorporating AI-generated material into their online content, resulting in massive volumes of spam and duplicate content.
• When a search engine identifies the similarity of material across several websites, it classifies it as unoriginal.
• Today, the greatest method to have your content viewed by Google is to write about your experiences and opinions. AI cannot write from experience.
• I utilize Ziptie to look for AI-written material.

CTRs targeting informational queries will continue to decrease —-

• CTR for informational inquiries has been falling for some years.
• Unsurprisingly, this pattern has persisted, but the rate of fall has been unlike anything I have observed previously.
• Here’s an example of a significant reduction in informative requests.
• From December 2023 to April 2024, this website’s informative query ranking decreased by 71%.
• Listicles, category pages, glossaries, and educational content at the top of the funnel were all affected.
• Google is cannibalizing top-of-funnel inquiries, therefore I’m focusing more on transactional and navigational content.

Searches will increase and so will ranking volatility

•  Remember in 2016 when Google announced mobile-first indexing?
• It sparked outrage in the SEO industry, with some anticipating that searches would decline and people would no longer use computers.
• In the actual world, smartphone searches have grown.
• The problem is identical with artificial intelligence.
• Behavior varies across time. As humans learn and adapt to AI, their search habits will shift.
• The emergence of artificial intelligence will increase the number of searches. When searches grow, ranking volatility rises.
• The top ten organic search results no longer matter.
• Google has also experimented with increasing and decreasing the size of the AI Overviews in the search results.
• I’ve seen the number one ranking position pushed down by 640 pixels, although it’s fluctuated between 200 and 2,000 pixels depending on Google’s trials.

More ad inventory means lower CPC

•  Searchers will encounter Google Ads above the Google AI Overview, increasing Google’s income.
• Google’s ad income declined by about 4%. Google’s primary source of revenue is advertising. It’s hardly surprising that Google’s AI Overviews will attempt to increase ad income.
• This might lead to decreased CPC over time.
• SEO experts should continue to collaborate with their PPC colleagues to capitalize on possibilities that may arise when organic traffic diminishes.

Prepare your sales staff for higher-quality leads but possibly lower number of leads

•  While visits to your website may decrease, you will begin to get higher-quality search traffic. Google suggests, “Let Google do the searching for you.”
• This means that Google will ask more questions to provide the best relevant search results for that query.
• Google’s AI Overviews are designed to improve search and make it easier for people to locate what they’re looking for.
• It may take longer for a user to locate your website, but if your material is relevant and useful, the searcher who comes on your site is more likely to be a quality lead.

People will stay on Google more and explore other ways of searching

• With the emergence of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing, we may expect a shift in the expansion of alternative search methods.
• Google’s AI Overviews have also offered a new method of search. And it’s gaining speed.
• The paradigm change implies that individuals will spend more time on Google or use alternative search engines.
• Make sure you’ve configured cross-network tracking pixels to collect more comprehensive data sets.  Focus on creating content clusters to address more in-depth offshoot questions.

Product review sites are at risk

• Google’s AI Overviews have had a significant impact on product reviews.
• Google provides human-like product suggestions to keep searchers on Google.
• After it provides a product recommendation, Google will connect consumers to the shop, where they may make direct purchases.
• This means that product review sites will lose a significant amount of affiliate link traffic.
• If you run a product review website, now is the time to examine your strategy. I do not see this going away anytime soon.
• The purpose of AI Overviews is to improve the searcher experience. Before getting to the goods, product review websites serve as a middleman.

Intent labels need to match intent queries to improve content personalization

•  By categorizing the purpose of your search queries (e.g., “solutions,” “blogs,” etc.), you may begin to teach AI to identify trends in search queries relevant to your datasets.
• This is a learnt intent.
• Using AI’s learnt intent capabilities allows you to tailor content to meet the requirements of your users, resulting in more engaging conversations.
• Generative AI affects your website traffic, for better or ill.
• The emergence of AI is going to shake up your website’s traffic and rankings. There are fewer search results, more fluctuation in ranking, and less education.
• The unfortunate truth is that generative AI is here to stay.
• To win, you must use critical thinking skills. It is no longer necessary to adopt “best practices.” Continue exploring, testing, and pushing the boundaries to find what works.
• Basic information is increasingly viewed as a commodity.

FAQ

What is generative AI?

Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that may generate new material, such as writing, graphics, or music, using the data on which they were taught.

How does generative AI impact webpage rankings?

Generative AI can have an influence on website rankings by producing high-quality, relevant material that increases user engagement and satisfies search engine algorithms, perhaps leading to higher results.

Can AI-generated content increase online traffic?

Yes, AI-generated content may boost website traffic by creating new, interesting, and optimized material that attracts more visitors and improves user experience.

What are the SEO advantages of employing generative AI?

Generative AI may help with keyword research, content production, and optimization, ensuring that the material adheres to SEO best practices and increases the chances of higher search engine ranks.

Is there any danger involved with employing generative AI for SEO?

Yes, dangers include search engine penalties for low-quality or spammy material, as well as the chance of creating content that lacks originality or fails to match user intent.