Google's AI Just Tanked Your Website Traffic 61%—Here's What Business Owners Need to Know

Published:

Your website could be ranking #1 right now and still losing 61% of the clicks it got two years ago. This isn’t a theory. Seer Interactive just analyzed 25.1 million organic impressions across 42 organizations and found that organic click-through rates on queries with Google AI Overviews have crashed from 1.76% to 0.61%—a 65% collapse since mid-2024. In the next 10 minutes, you’ll discover why traditional SEO is partially broken, which businesses are getting crushed hardest, and the exact three-step system winning companies are using to not just survive, but dominate this new landscape.

Your Ranking Position Doesn’t Matter Anymore—But Your Visibility Does

You’ve probably heard this before: “Get to page one and you’ll get traffic.” That advice is becoming obsolete.

Here’s what’s happening right now: A plumbing contractor ranks #1 for “how to fix a leaky faucet.” Two years ago, that ranking brought 47 clicks per month. Today, it brings 8.

His ranking didn’t change. The search results did. Google now shows an AI-generated answer at the top that explains how to fix a faucet without ever sending users to his website. Users read the answer and leave. No click. No inquiry. No business.

This is happening to thousands of businesses right now, and most of them don’t even know it’s happening.

The Math That Proves This Is Real (And Devastating)

The Seer Interactive study analyzed 3,119 keywords across 42 organizations, tracking 25.1 million organic impressions from June 2024 through September 2025. The data is undeniable:

Even worse? Paid search got hit even harder. Paid CTR on AI Overview queries dropped 68% during the same period.

This means your budget for SEO isn’t just delivering fewer results—it’s delivering fewer results while your costs stay the same. Your cost per customer acquisition is rising invisibly, and you might not notice until your revenue starts sliding.

Here’s The Hidden Advantage Most Businesses Miss

Within this bleak picture is one crucial finding that changes everything: If your website is cited inside the AI Overview, you actually recover 35% of your lost traffic.

Websites cited in AI Overviews achieve 0.70% CTR compared to 0.52% for non-cited sites. In paid search, the advantage is even more dramatic—91% higher CTR for cited websites.

Translation: The problem isn’t AI Overviews. The problem is whether you’re winning inside them.

This completely reframes the challenge. You’re not fighting against Google. You’re fighting for position within Google’s answers. And that requires a fundamentally different optimization strategy than traditional SEO.

Why This Isn’t Like Previous Algorithm Updates

In the past, Google algorithm updates shifted rankings. Some sites went down, others went up, but the basic mechanic stayed the same: ranking position correlated with clicks.

This is different. Google isn’t shuffling rankings. Google is fundamentally changing whether clicks happen at all.

Featured snippets (which came before AI Overviews) still drove clicks to the source. Users read a snippet, got curious, and visited the website. AI Overviews often don’t. They extract the answer and serve it directly. Your expertise becomes Google’s content.

This is a permanent shift, not a temporary update. The question isn’t whether it will affect you. It’s whether you’ll adapt before your budget is completely wasted.

Step 1: Audit Your Real Visibility (Not Just Rankings)

Stop measuring success by “page one rankings.” That metric is becoming meaningless.

Here’s what to measure instead:

  1. Open Google Search Console
  2. Filter for your keywords in positions 1-3
  3. Search each keyword in Google and look for a gray box at the top with an AI-generated answer
  4. If you see that box, click “View sources” and check: Are you cited?

That’s your real metric now. Not ranking position. Citation status.

A local HVAC contractor did this audit and discovered he was ranking #2 for “best HVAC system for allergies” but wasn’t cited in the AI Overview. His competitor at #5 was cited. Result: His competitor got 3x more traffic despite lower ranking.

Tools to Measure AI Citations

To automate and scale this audit, use these tools:

These tools help identify which keywords get AI citations without manual searches, saving time for business owners.

Step 2: Restructure Your Most Valuable Content for AI Citation

AI systems prefer specific formats. If you write like you’re writing for humans (which you are), you’ll miss citation opportunities.

AI prefers:

Before (traditional SEO): “There are many ways to improve website speed. One important factor is page speed optimization. Optimized pages load faster and rank better…”

After (AI-optimized): “Three concrete ways to improve website speed: 1) Compress images to 40KB or smaller (we reduced image sizes 60% and cut load time 2.3 seconds). 2) Use a CDN to serve content from servers closer to users (typically saves 1-2 seconds). 3) Remove unused JavaScript and CSS files.”

A digital marketing agency restructured their “SEO Fundamentals” page using this format. They added specific credentials to the author section. Within 3 weeks, they appeared in AI Overview citations and traffic increased 42% despite their ranking position staying the same.

Step 3: Build Authority Across Multiple Platforms

Google isn’t your only customer anymore. ChatGPT is growing 165x faster than traditional search. Perplexity is preferred by some users. LinkedIn is where B2B professionals research. YouTube is where people learn.

You can’t be everywhere. But you need to be where your customers actually research.

Quick audit: Where do your actual customers find information? LinkedIn? YouTube? Google? Reddit? Local directories?

Get visible there. Not perfectly. Just visible with accurate, consistent information.

A medical practice had a doctor who appeared in ChatGPT results because her credentials were cited in high-authority articles. ChatGPT users saw her name and expertise. Result: 18% traffic increase, not from ChatGPT clicks, but from people searching for her by name afterward.

The Objection You’re Probably Having Right Now

“I’m ranked #1. Why should I change anything?”

Because rank position is becoming meaningless. A site ranking #3 that’s cited in AI Overviews now gets more traffic than a site ranking #1 that isn’t. You’re optimizing for the wrong metric.

Start measuring citations, visibility, and actual customer inquiries—not rankings.

The businesses that survive the next two years won’t be the ones with the highest rankings. They’ll be the ones that adapted to measuring and optimizing for what actually matters: visibility, authority, and being chosen by AI systems as credible sources.

What Winning Looks Like (Real Case Study)

One marketing agency in the Seer Interactive study saw organic traffic drop 47% overall. They panicked. Then they restructured content for AI citation, improved author credentials visibility, and began tracking which queries had AI Overviews.

After three months:

They didn’t reverse the entire decline. But they proved that adaptation works. The gap between adapted businesses and non-adapted businesses is widening every month.

Your 90-Day Action Plan

Week 1-2: Audit which of your top 20 keywords have AI Overviews. Check if you’re cited in them. Accept the reality of what you’re seeing.

Week 3-4: Rewrite your top 5 money keywords with AI-preferred formatting. Add author credentials. Add real data and examples. Remove generic advice.

Week 5-8: Monitor which pages start getting AI citations. Double down on what works. Monitor CTR and traffic changes.

Week 9-12: Expand the AI-optimized format to your next 10 keywords. Begin building visibility on secondary platforms (LinkedIn, YouTube, local directories).

In 90 days, you’ll have a baseline understanding of what’s working and what isn’t in your specific market. You’ll have concrete data to make decisions about where to invest next.

The Real Opportunity Hidden In This Crisis

Most business owners don’t know any of this is happening. They’re still doing 2020s SEO while watching their traffic decline. They don’t understand why. They blame their SEO provider or they give up on SEO entirely.

This creates an enormous opportunity for business owners who adapt first.

While competitors are confused, you can be cited in AI Overviews. While competitors are losing clicks, you can be recovering 35% of yours. While competitors are panicking, you can be building authority across multiple platforms.

The search landscape has changed. Permanently. The businesses that recognize this, that understand what’s happening, and that act on it will dominate their markets. Everyone else will be slowly wondering why their budget isn’t working anymore.

What You Know Now That You Didn’t Know 10 Minutes Ago

✓ Rankings are becoming less important than citations
✓ 61% of your organic traffic could be at risk from AI Overviews
✓ Websites cited in AI Overviews recover 35% of lost traffic
✓ You have a specific three-phase adaptation system (audit → restructure → build authority)
✓ This is a permanent shift, not a temporary update
✓ Your competitors are either ahead of this or completely blindsided

The question now isn’t whether AI Overviews will affect your business. It’s whether you’ll adapt before your budget is wasted on strategies that no longer work.

Most business owners won’t adapt. They’ll keep doing what worked in 2023 and blame the algorithm. You now have a choice: Adapt, or fall behind.

The good news? You have 90 days to get ahead of 80% of your competition. That window won’t stay open forever.

Ready to Implement This System?

You now understand the problem and the solution. But implementing these strategies correctly requires expertise in AI citation optimization, content restructuring, and multi-platform authority building.

At YourWebTeam.io, we help businesses adapt to Google’s AI-driven search landscape. We’ll audit your current visibility, restructure your content for AI citations, and build your authority across the platforms where your customers actually research.

Book a free discovery call and we’ll analyze your specific situation, show you exactly where you’re losing traffic to AI Overviews, and outline a custom plan to recover your visibility: yourwebteam.io/discovery-call

Sources