Is This The End of Organic Traffic? How AI Overviews are Changing SEO Forever.
For years many business owners have relied on organic traffic primarily from Google to fuel growth, capture leads and dominate the search engine results pages.
But as we move through 2025 the rules have completely changed as a result of Google‘s AI overviews, and this feature is completely changing how the search engine results pages look and for many website owners is causing a significant and sharp decline in their organic traffic.
If you have recently noticed a traffic graph trending downwards despite no major or significant changes to your SEO strategy the chances are this is because of the AI overviews.
AI overviews, previously known as the search generative experience are the new AI-powered responses that Google now displays at the top of the search engine results pages.
Instead of showing a list of 10 websites Google now sometimes displays what it calls a generative summary powered by Gemini AI.
This overview often answers the user’s query in a few concise paragraphs, pulling the information from multiple websites without the user needing to click from website to website which is why organic traffic to many sites is falling year over year.
It can be argued that this is a better experience for the user but many website owners are concerned about a lack of traffic.
Organic traffic is decreasing for a number of reasons.
Answers are now embedded into the search results which often gives the user the answer they need instantly without needing to visit your website.
Even if your content is the source of the AI answer, users may not scroll far enough to see your website.
AI overviews often take up significant space at the top of the Google search results page which pushes the traditional or organic results further down the page, often ‘below the fold’.
This change to the layout of the Google search results can often reduce the chance of generating an organic click.
And when users do click through their intent has often already been satisfied by the AI overview which leads to a higher bounce rate and a lower session duration.
For example, in many cases, people would need to spend a few minutes on your website previously to find the answer whereas now they have gleaned this in a few seconds from the Google AI overview.
Some industries and business sectors are being impacted more than others,
- for example, health and wellness websites, financial advice platforms, education sites and many others have been significantly impacted.
Local service businesses are impacted less but of course that could change in the future as Google continues to evolve.
The decline of organic traffic does not mean that search engine optimisation is dead but it does mean that you need to think differently to rank for better keywords and to generate more leads.
You should focus on content around searches that still demand human opinions, and that provide more depth where AI often falls short.
Here at Altitude Internet we are finding that whilst organic traffic may have dropped for many website owners, the level of leads has remained constant and the people that do click through to your website are ultimately more intent-driven and often more likely to convert, especially where you are ranking organically for what’s known as longtail keyword.
Ranking on the first page of Google isn’t nice to have. It is a real necessity with over 90% of the clicks from organic still going through those websites ranked on page one.
SEO has surely changed and will continue to change over the coming months and years but there are many things that you can do to rank better organically.
Creating high-quality content is more important than ever, make sure the content is useful, thoroughly researched, well structured and updated frequently.
Where you can include case studies, data, statistics and expert quotes.
Ensure your on-site optimisations are in a healthy state, for example, H1 Tags, Metas and optimise for EEAT.
We have written a few blog articles recently on the benefits of EEAT, so feel free to check those out for more information just here.
You should also make sure that your website is quick to load, has minimal layout shifts, is responsive and easy to navigate.
You should also give more attention now to conversion rate optimisation, making sure your quick contact form is located in the best position possible on the website, checking that the telephone number is clickable and you are providing really clear calls to action.
This means that when you do generate organic traffic, you are much more likely to generate a lead or enquiry.
Ranking on page one of Google has always been competitive and you could argue that now we are in 2025 it is more competitive than ever.
Here at Altitude Internet we can create a tailored strategy to boost the visibility of your website, drive quality traffic and outrank your competitors.
If you are interested in discussing how we could potentially help your business, please click here to schedule a call with a member of our team.
Click here to read some recent case studies and see some of the success stories we have been able to achieve for many of our clients.
Working with a professional SEO agency like us here at Altitude Internet is more important now than ever, it allows you to ‘buy’ the skills of seasoned digital marketers built over a decade, and with expert content writers, link builders and specialists in technical SEO, we have all bases covered!
Looking for even more SEO Case Studies? Click here to see some recent case studies of businesses that we’ve helped to generate more traffic, leads and enquiries using digital marketing services, including paid ads, (Google Ads, Social Media and LinkedIn) and Conversion Rate Optimisation techniques.
Google Ads can help to pick up the lost traffic from AI Overviews, read a recent blog about how ads can help your website too just here.
