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Search Isn’t Dead By A Long Shot, But It Is Getting Crowded
There’s a lot of noise right now about how AI is changing search, and it’s not all wrong.
Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are reshaping how people find answers, trust content, and make decisions online. AI Overviews alone now show up in about 13% of search results (Semrush).
But here’s the nuance that often gets lost: traditional search isn’t going anywhere.
Google still holds about 90% of global search engine market share (StatCounter).
So while things are shifting, it’s not a clean break.
It’s an expansion.
In every training I teach and every podcast I’m invited to, this topic comes up: Do I need to change my strategy for ChatGPT? Is SEO still worth it now that AI Overviews exist?
These are fair questions. But most businesses don’t need a dramatic pivot. What they need is to double down on what already works: brand reputation, clean content structure, natural language, and smart use of schema markup.
I’ve been watching this evolve in real time across my clients’ sites.
Large language models (LLMs, including ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini) and AI Overview traffic is still a small slice, but it’s creeping upward.
And the foundations that support traditional search visibility? They’re also what position you to show up in these newer tools. They’ll improve your discoverability however someone is searching.
This moment isn’t about totally ditching your SEO strategy.
It is about making sure it works across a more complex ecosystem.
Organic visibility today means showing up in multiple systems, not just ranking on Google.
The Three Search Systems That Matter
Modern search operates across three distinct systems that surface content in fundamentally different ways: traditional search, Google AI-overviews, and large language model–based answer tools.
There’s no single way people find content anymore. Depending on the platform and the person search can look very different. But most search-based discovery today falls into one of three buckets:
- Traditional Search (Google rankings): Traditional search is a page-based ranking system where Google evaluates individual pages to determine which content surfaces first. Despite all the AI chatter, it still owns about 90% of global search traffic (StatCounter).
- AI Overviews (Google’s summary layer): AI Overviews are auto-generated summaries that appear at the top of some search results. They are not rankings but curated composites, built by pulling snippets from multiple sources to answer a query directly.
- LLM-based Search Tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini): These tools generate synthesized answers rather than ranking pages or summarizing results. Some pull from live content, others rely on training data, and they’re increasingly used as an alternative way to get explanations rather than search results.
Each system decides what to show based on different signals.
If you want to be found, you need to understand what they’re looking for.
The Elephant in the Room: Are AI Overviews Stealing My Clicks?
Let’s not pretend they’re not. AI Overviews are absolutely changing how users engage with search results and click-through rates are taking a hit.
How much of a hit are we talking?
- Ahrefs analyzed 300,000 keywords and found that when an AI Overview is present, the top-ranking result sees a 34.5% drop in CTR compared to similar queries without one (Ahrefs).
- Mail Online saw their desktop CTR fall from 13% to less than 5%, and mobile CTR drop from 20% to 7%. That’s a 56% and 48% reduction, respectively (Press Gazette).
- Similarweb data suggests a roughly 20% decrease in clicks across the board when AI Overviews show up. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Are some types of searches more affected than others? Yes. AI Overviews mostly appear for informational queries—the “how” and “why” questions. They’re far less common for transactional or commercial searches like “buy hiking boots online.” (Blend B2B)
Semrush confirms that 88.1% of the queries triggering AI Overviews are informational. (Semrush)
So should you panic? No. Adjust? Yes.
There’s emerging evidence that while fewer people are clicking through, the ones who do may be more engaged.
According to Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge:
“We’re definitely seeing that the traffic you do get is more engaged. By the time they’ve done three more interactions with AI and then clicked on my website, they’re much better qualified. So, the engagement metrics, like time on site and conversion rates, are up.” (WIRED)
In other words: yes, clicks are down, but clicks aren’t gone. And the ones that remain may be even more valuable.
What Each System Prioritizes (And How to Show Up)
Each search system—traditional Google rankings, AI Overviews, and LLM tools—uses different logic to decide what to surface. So if you want to show up, you need to understand how each one thinks.
What Google Still Wants: Authority and Structure
Traditional search is the system you’re already familiar with. Google crawls and ranks individual pages based on how well they answer a specific query.
So yes, your SEO basics still matter: clear keywords, solid structure, internal links, and technical health.
But it’s not just about ticking boxes. Brand reputation plays a increasingly big role, too.
Websites that get linked to, talked about, and consistently show up with helpful content are more likely to rank. That’s always been true, but it’s even more important now that Google’s juggling more types of content than ever.
What AI Overviews Want: Clarity and Credibility
AI Overviews prioritize clear, well-structured content from sources Google already considers trustworthy.
Unlike traditional search results, Google isn’t ranking pages here. It’s assembling answers.
Instead of choosing one “best” page, it pulls short passages from multiple sites and combines them into a single summary.
That means you don’t need to win the whole query. You need one clear, well-structured passage that’s easy to extract.
Clear structure helps. Straightforward headings, focused paragraphs, and plain language make it easier for Google to understand what your content is saying and where to pull from.
Credibility still matters as well. Google is far more likely to use content from sites it already recognizes and trusts, especially when those businesses show up consistently beyond their own website (Rich Sanger).
What AI Search Systems Look For: Depth and Natural Language
LLM tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity don’t rank or summarize search results. They generate answers.
They tend to surface content that explains things clearly, in natural language, and with enough context to be useful.
The kind of content that actually answers questions, not just for Google, but for a human reading it. Take the time to research what your audience is searching for, in their own words.
Blog posts tend to do well here, especially when your brand shows up in other places too: backlinks from authoritative websites, podcast mentions, citations.
Generative Engine Optimization, Answer-Engine Optimization, Search Everywhere Optimization: What’s in a name?
You’ll see a lot of different terms used to describe how search is changing right now: generative engine optimization (GEO), answer-engine optimization (AEO), search everywhere optimization, and a few others. They’re all trying to name the same underlying shift.
Search is no longer just about ranking a page and earning a click. It’s about how your business shows up when systems summarize, synthesize, and answer questions directly across search engines and AI tools.
The label matters less than the behavior. Regardless of what you call it, these systems rely on the same foundations: crawlable content, clear relevance, recognizable expertise, and trust signals that exist beyond your website. The mechanics are evolving, but the inputs are familiar.
In practice, this isn’t a brand-new discipline replacing SEO. It’s an expansion of how visibility works when answers are generated, not just listed.
Search Strategy Has to Work Across Multiple Systems
It’s tempting to treat these updates like a checklist: optimize for traditional search here, optimize for AI Overviews there, and throw in some natural language for ChatGPT.
But real-world visibility doesn’t work like that. Your audience isn’t using just one of these tools.
They’re bouncing between Google, AI Overviews, and whatever link a chatbot drops into their group text.
And depending on your industry, your audience might not be engaging with AI tools at all…yet.
The lion’s share of LLM traffic right now is happening in a few specific niches, like finance and tech. For everyone else? Google still dominates.
What actually works is creating content that’s flexible: That is, content that can rank well, be pulled into a summary, and be referenced in a generative response, without you needing to write three different versions of it.
Generative Engine Optimization: How to Optimize for AI search
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of shaping content so it can be understood, pulled from, and reused by AI-driven search systems.
By this point, one thing should be clear: search visibility is no longer just about ranking a page and earning a click.
Your content now has to hold up in environments where answers are summarized, combined, or generated outright. Sometimes that happens in Google. Sometimes it happens in AI Overviews. Sometimes it happens inside tools like ChatGPT.
If you want your content to show up in all of those places, you don’t need a separate strategy for each system. You need content that works across all of them.
That’s what people are referring to when they talk about Generative Engine Optimization.
GEO isn’t a replacement for SEO, and it’s not a new checklist. It’s a way of thinking about content that accounts for how it gets interpreted and reused beyond a traditional results page.
At a high level, that means your content needs to:
- Make its main point clear early
- Be structured so ideas are easy to follow
- Use natural language that reflects how people actually ask questions
- Support understanding and decision-making, not just impressions
This isn’t about chasing new algorithms.
It’s about creating content that can rank, be summarized, and be referenced—without you needing to create different versions for every platform.
That’s the foundation GEO is built on. The tactics come later.
The Future Of SEO Is About Writing Great Content That's Discoverable Across Search Systems
When something new shows up in search, the instinct is to start over.
Rethink the strategy. Rewrite everything. Assume what worked before no longer applies.
But most of the fundamentals haven’t disappeared.
Search still rewards content that answers real questions clearly.
That’s true whether someone is reading a blog post, scanning an AI-generated summary, or asking the same question inside a chatbot.
What’s changed is where those answers can appear.
When systems summarize, combine, or generate responses, weaknesses show up faster.
Content that’s thin, hard to follow, or disconnected from the rest of your presence doesn’t perform well.
But if you’ve been creating useful content, organizing it thoughtfully, and showing up consistently beyond your own website, you’re building on solid ground.
This doesn’t require throwing out your strategy.
It requires being intentional about how your content works across different environments, not just where it ranks.
That’s what makes content durable, even as search continues to evolve.
Want help getting started?
Future-proof your SEO strategy by creating the content your audience is actually searching for.
SEO Simplified will help you identify the words your audience is typing into the search bar, so you can show up with purpose, clarity, and confidence.
References Discussing AI, LLMs and The Future Search
Semrush AI Overviews Study: What 2025 SEO Data Tells Us About Google’s Search Shift
Semrush analyzed over 10 million keywords to assess the impact of AI Overviews on search
AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5%
Google AI Overviews leads to dramatic reduction in clickthroughs for Mail Online
More Studies Show AI Overviews Harm Google Click Through Rates
How will Google AI Overviews impact your website and business?
With AI Mode, Google Search Is About to Get Even Chattier
The Rise of LLM Traffic: An AI SEO Study About the Future of Search
Google AI Overview Study: Link Selection Based on Related Queries
Semrush AI Overviews Study: What 2025 SEO Data Tells Us About Google’s Search Shift
