Companies scramble to influence AI responses as search traffic plummets up to 70%

AI Search Transforms Digital Discovery and Website Traffic

The shift from traditional search to AI search has triggered a seismic change in how businesses attract customers online. HubSpot lost 140 million website visits in a single year, a decline in website traffic directly attributed to AI-powered search tools 2

2

. The numbers tell a stark story: click-through rates for searches with AI Overviews drop by 60% to 70%, according to Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot's chief marketing officer 2

2

. This new paradigm for digital discovery means users often get their questions answered without ever clicking through to a website, fundamentally altering how companies must approach online visibility.

AI agents now consume and interpret web content differently than humans do. These systems—including Claude Code, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews—analyze user intent based on persistent memory and context from past sessions, not just keywords 3

3

. Digital discovery driven by AI agents has evolved from "search, scan, click, decide" to "agent retrieves, agent summarizes, human decides," with agents increasingly handling downstream work autonomously 3

3

. The SEO industry faces an existential challenge as traditional optimization tactics become less effective.

Answer Engine Optimization and Generative Engine Optimization Emerge

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) represent adapting marketing strategies for the AI era. Companies deploy these tactics alongside traditional SEO to get noticed by AI search systems and influence AI responses 2

2

. Success now depends on whether content is understood, selected, and cited by LLMs rather than simply ranking high in search results 3

3

. Dustin Engel, founder of Elegant Disruption, describes this shift: "The new default is closer to a citation map: Where the model is pulling from, how often you show up, and how you are described" 3

3

.

Optimizing for LLM-referred traffic delivers tangible results. HubSpot reports that AI now delivers between 7% and 12% of its website visitors most months, with conversion rates and visitor quality improving through Answer Engine Optimization 2

2

. LLM-referred traffic converts at 30-40%, significantly higher than traditional sources, yet most enterprises aren't optimizing for it 3

3

. The opportunity is substantial, but requires understanding how search behavior has changed—users now enter 40 to 60 words in AI search queries compared to four to six words in traditional Google search 2

2

.

Content Strategy Shifts to Structured, Citeable Formats

Successful content strategy now prioritizes structured, easily extractable information that AI agents can quickly process. HubSpot restructured its content from long articles into small chunks that AI can easily extract, ensuring that when someone asks about a specific feature, AI tools can readily find that information 2

2

. Chris Neff, global chief AI officer at Anomaly, notes that brands must optimize their owned digital assets, particularly websites, since roughly 60% to 65% of AI citations derive from the brand's own content 4

4

.

FAQs have gained renewed importance, with clear, factual, one-sentence answers proving most effective at ensuring LLMs don't make incorrect assumptions 4

4

. Companies like Spice Kitchen are building content clusters—dedicated website subsections demonstrating authority and trust on specific topics—to capture AI-generated answers during the research phase 2

2

. Buying guides with clearly listed products and a definitive winner perform particularly well because "AI loves that," according to Nathan Pearson of Lumos Digital 2

2

.

Manipulation Tactics and Quality Concerns Surface

The rush to ensure brand visibility has spawned questionable tactics. Self-serving listicles have proliferated across industries, with companies like Zendesk, Freshworks, and others publishing "best of" comparisons that rank their own products first 1

1

. Google's AI Mode frequently cites these biased sources, though the company states it applies robust protections against manipulation and works to combat low-quality listicles 1

1

. A BBC reporter successfully demonstrated the vulnerability by getting ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews to falsely repeat claims published on his own website 1

1

.

SEO consultant Britney Muller observes that panic drives much of the experimentation: "I think people are so panicked and under so much pressure to try to come up with performance metrics, because that's what SEOs have been judged by over the years" 1

1

. The ambiguity creates openings for spammers and misinformed practitioners, though legitimate brands are taking more measured approaches.

CMOs Prioritize Brand Reputation and Consistent Presence

Leading CMOs emphasize that Generative Engine Optimization ultimately reinforces marketing fundamentals rather than replacing them. Meghan Signalness, global head of media at Philips, notes: "There's a lot of hype around it, but at the same time, it has basically confirmed marketing fundamentals. In some ways it's just SEO sped up" 4

4

. The biggest factor moving the needle is showing up consistently, with LLMs looking at what words are most associated with a brand 4

4

.

Ally Financial CMO Andrea Brimmer describes weekly "scrums" of multidisciplinary teams analyzing how the brand appears in LLMs using tools like Scrunch, then creating new content to correct outdated or incorrect citations 4

4

. She emphasizes that brand reputation matters more than ever: "You better have really damn good customer experience and PR around your products, you better have a strong reputation in the marketplace, you better show up as a good citizen of the world, and you better treat your employees really well because all of those elements of what makes a great brand are more important now than ever before" 4

4

. What executives say on LinkedIn, what customers post on Reddit, and how major publications cover a company all feed into AI-generated answers, making every brand action consequential.