Businesses scramble to adapt as AI search slashes website traffic
TL;DR: AI-powered search is rapidly eroding traditional website traffic, with HubSpot reporting a loss of 140 million visits in a single year. Click-through rates for searches featuring AI overviews have dropped 60-70%, according to HubSpot’s chief marketing officer. A new discipline — answer engine optimisation (AEO) — is emerging as businesses try to ensure their content appears in AI-generated responses rather than traditional search links.
The shift is being driven by two converging forces: users increasingly turning to AI tools like ChatGPT instead of search engines, and search engines themselves placing AI-generated summaries at the top of results pages. The combination means many users get their questions answered without ever clicking through to a website.
The rise of answer engine optimisation
HubSpot’s Kipp Bodnar told the BBC that the change in how people find information has been “very, very different” from the traditional search model. For companies that built their digital presence around search engine optimisation, the ground has shifted beneath them.
Answer engine optimisation — sometimes called generative engine optimisation (GEO) — is the emerging response. The discipline focuses on structuring content so it ranks well in AI-generated answers, whether from Google’s AI overviews, ChatGPT, or other conversational tools. Unlike traditional SEO, which optimised for link placement, AEO requires content to be authoritative, clearly structured, and directly useful to AI systems parsing it for answers.
Search engine algorithm changes have compounded the problem. Platforms have adjusted their ranking systems to combat AI-generated low-quality content, making it harder for websites that lack deep subject-matter credibility to maintain visibility.
Looking forward
For UK businesses reliant on organic search traffic, the message is urgent: the rules of digital visibility are being rewritten in real time. Companies that delay adapting their content strategies for AI-mediated search risk a progressive loss of the web traffic that underpins lead generation, brand awareness, and revenue. The shift from SEO to AEO may prove to be one of the most consequential marketing transitions of the decade.