Why an organic traffic drop is not always bad news

TL;DR: AI Overviews and direct answers are reducing low-intent organic clicks, which can look like a traffic drop but often isn’t a problem. Many of those lost visits were never going to convert. Users who still click after seeing AI summaries are higher intent and further down the funnel, meaning fewer sessions can still drive more leads and revenue. The real measure of success is not traffic volume, but conversion quality, brand visibility in AI answers, and pipeline impact.

AI Overviews and direct answers in search mean you may see fewer organic clicks, even when your brand still shows. In reality, a drop in low-intent visits can mean a cleaner funnel and more of the right people landing on your site.

AI answers are changing what organic traffic means

According to SparkToro, 58.5% of Google searches now result in zero clicks. The user gets their answer immediately and leaves.

The Impact: A recent study by Seer Interactive found that organic click-through rates (CTR) for informational queries drop by 61% when an AI Overview is present.

Search is no longer a simple list of blue links. Users see AI Overviews, featured snippets, “People also ask” boxes and answer-style results across platforms. Simple, factual questions get answered on the results page. Users scroll less and click fewer results, and many of those lost organic visits were low intent or just curious.

If AI can answer “what is X” directly in Google, the user does not always need to visit your site. That looks like an organic traffic drop in your analytics, but you have not lost a ready-to-buy customer (you have lost someone at the very top of the journey who was probably never going to convert anyway).

Less organic traffic, better leads

Think of AI answers as a pre-qualification layer in search. When someone still clicks through after seeing an AI Overview, a rich answer box and several competing summaries, they are making an active choice to learn more from you. That person is further down the funnel, more aware of their problem and more open to a solution or a supplier.

Those visitors are more likely to read deeper content, fill in a form, book a demo or call, and share your content internally. You may see fewer sessions, but if those sessions convert at a higher rate, your pipeline and revenue still grow. The metric to watch is not how many organic visits, but how valuable each visit is. Quality over quantity, as every sensible person has been saying since 2015.

Why visibility in AI answers still matters

Reframing organic traffic does not mean ignoring AI. You still need to be present wherever buying journeys start (AI Overviews in Google, answer panels in Bing and other engines, AI assistants and chat-style search tools, and Q&A surfaces on social platforms and marketplaces).

Even if users do not click right away, seeing your brand in the answer builds familiarity, trust and recall at decision time. Think of it as assisted conversion. A buyer might see your brand mentioned in an AI answer today, then search your name directly next week, or click a remarketing ad next month. The AI impression still played a part. Your job is to feed those systems the best possible evidence that you are a credible, useful source (not just someone who read the same blog post as everyone else).

AEO: Answer Engine Optimisation in practice

Answer engine optimisation focuses on helping AI systems and traditional search features pull clean, accurate responses from your content. Here is how to do it without overthinking things.

Map the real questions your buyers ask

List the questions people ask at each stage. Early: “What is…?”, “How does… work?”, “Pros and cons of…?” Mid: “Best tools for…?”, “[Solution] vs [solution]?”, “How much does… cost?” Late: “Is [solution] right for [industry / size]?”, “Implementation checklist for…?”, “ROI of…?” Turn these into clear H2 or H3 headings and dedicated sections. Use the exact phrasing your buyers would type or say. (No one searches for “Leveraging innovative solutions for digital transformation” so please stop writing like that.)

Answer clearly, fast

For each question, give a direct, one-paragraph answer in the first two to three sentences, then follow with supporting detail, examples and visuals. Avoid long intros and scene-setting. AI systems tend to pull from those first lines, so make them complete and correct without needing extra context. (Also, people appreciate not having to scroll through your brand origin story to find out what a webhook is.)

Use structured data and tidy markup

Help machines understand your content by using FAQ and HowTo schema where relevant, marking up products, articles, events and your organisation, and keeping your HTML clean with logical headings and bullet points. This makes it easier for AI Overviews and other answer features to see which part of a page answers which question.

Show expertise and real proof

AI systems are trained to look for signals of expertise and trust: clear author bios and about pages, case studies, examples and screenshots, up-to-date stats, sources and references, and simple explanations of your process or methodology. You are showing that you actually do the work you talk about, not just rephrasing someone else’s Medium post.

GEO: Generative Engine Optimisation

Generative engines look across many pages and sources to create a blended answer. GEO is about making sure your brand is consistently part of that blend.

Build topic authority, not isolated posts

Instead of one long “ultimate guide” (which is never actually ultimate), create a focused cluster: a core explainer on the main topic, supporting articles for subtopics and use cases, FAQ content for short, specific questions, and internal links that join it all together. This helps models treat your site as a go-to reference on that topic, not a one-off mention.

Bring a clear point of view

Generative systems have plenty of generic content to pull from. What they lack is clear, practitioner insight. Stand out by sharing frameworks you actually use, showing how you approached a real client problem, being transparent about trade-offs and limits, and writing in plain language, not buzzwords. This makes your content more likely to be cited, quoted or paraphrased in AI answers.

Align formats with how people search

Not all questions need a 2,000-word article. Mix formats: short Q&A pages, checklists and decision trees, comparison tables, templates and calculators, and short videos or diagrams embedded on the page. The more accessible your content, the more likely it is to be pulled into different AI and search surfaces.

Showing up across platforms, not just on your site

Your website is still your home base, but discovery often starts elsewhere. AI is training on content from social posts and threads, YouTube and other video platforms, podcasts and transcripts, slide decks and PDFs, and review sites and communities.

You increase your chances of appearing in AI answers when your brand is present and consistent on key platforms, speaking to the same topics with the same expertise, and linking back to strong, well-structured content on your site. Think presence first, click second. You want your name, your language and your frameworks to feel familiar when a buyer is finally ready to engage.

What metrics should I track in addition to organic traffic?

If AI Overviews are eating your simple queries, focus your reporting on conversion rate from organic search, form fills, demo requests, trial signups, qualified leads and pipeline influenced by organic, branded search volume over time, and share of voice for key queries in AI Overviews and rich results.

Where your tools allow it, track the number of times your pages appear in rich results, even without a click. That gives you a sense of your brand’s visibility inside AI-driven interfaces. The story you want to tell is simple: organic search is sending fewer visitors, but more buyers.

Metrics checklist:

☐ Conversion rate from organic search

☐ Form fills / demo requests / leads from organic

☐ Branded search volume trend

☐ Share of voice in AI Overviews

☐ Qualified leads attributed to organic

☐ Pages appearing in rich results (even without clicks)

Old Metric	New Metric (The “Killer” Metric)
Total Organic Traffic	Qualified Leads from Organic
Keyword Rankings	Share of Voice in AI Overviews
Bounce Rate	Engagement Time / Scroll Depth
Impressions	Brand Mentions & AI Citations

Here at Seventh Element, we work with teams to audit where AI Overviews are rewriting their search results, separate lost vanity clicks from real opportunity gaps, reshape content around buyer questions and GEO/AEO best practice, and rebuild reporting around qualified demand, not page views.

The result is a search strategy that matches how people actually research and buy in an AI-shaped landscape.

Author information

With 15 years of hands-on SEO and digital marketing experience, agency director Ash is the driving element behind our digital team. Ashley heads our digital execution team, delivering innovative strategic and tactical marketing initiatives and campaigns; helping propel our clients’ growth and success.