The Decline of Traditional Search
I’ve managed SEO and SEM (including Google Ads) both in-house and for multiple clients across industries. In the past, these channels have been powerful drivers of traffic and high-converting leads. But things are about to change.
The way people find and engage with content online is undergoing a seismic shift. As artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews become more embedded in how users get answers, traditional organic and paid search are seeing real declines.
- Organic CTRs are falling fast: A Search Engine Land analysis found that when an AI Overview appears, the top organic result’s click-through rate drops from 1.41% to just 0.64%, roughly a 55% decline year-over-year.
- Paid CTRs are down, too: Paid ads are attracting fewer clicks regardless of AI Overviews being present, with industry-wide declines reported—15–20% lower CTRs in some cases.
- Search volumes are shrinking: Analysts at Gartner predict that search traffic will fall around 25% by 2026 due to the rise of AI chatbots and answer engines.
These numbers represent a wake-up call. While organic and paid search will continue to provide valuable awareness and drive demand, businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional SEO or PPC tactics. The next wave of visibility isn’t about ranking #1 on Google. It’s about being cited, referenced, or pulled into the answers AI tools generate.
How AI Finds Information: Search Bots vs. AI Retrieval
Traditional search engines and AI systems work differently when it comes to discovering and presenting information.
Search Bots (Google, Bing):
- Crawl websites and index pages based on keywords, backlinks, and technical SEO.
- Display a list of results for users to choose from.
AI Retrieval Models (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity):
- Pull information from massive training data, real-time sources (via plugins/APIs), or curated web indexes.
- Summarize answers and often provide a direct response without showing links. Even when clearly cited, the viewer typically stays within the AI chatbot.
- Favor content that is clear, well-structured, and demonstrates a high degree of informational quality and trustworthiness across multiple sources not just self-published claims.
AI isn’t just scanning for keywords; it’s evaluating tone, trustworthiness, citations, and overall helpfulness. Content that gets surfaced in AI responses tends to:
- Use clear headings and plain language.
- Be published by consistent sources that have strong reputations across the web and are validated through external citations, reviews, or community engagement.
- Include evidence, stats, and citations from reliable, third-party or independently verifiable sources.
- Demonstrate thought leadership that is backed by external validation, such as being cited on review sites, discussed on forums, or linked by other authoritative sources.
Understanding B2C vs. B2B Search Behavior in the AI Era
AI's impact varies across industries and buying cycles, particularly when comparing B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) behaviors.
B2C Search Behavior:
- Examples: "Lawn service near me," "best pizza delivery tonight."
- Nature of Searches: Often transactional and location-based, focused on solving immediate needs.
- AI Adoption Rate: More gradual. AI is likely used as a research tool, but prospective buyers still use traditional searches such as "dog trainer near me" or "SPF 50+ swim shirt" to shop around.
B2B Search Behavior:
- Examples: "How to cut down my shipping costs," "enterprise CRM comparison."
- Nature of Searches: Longer, research-based queries involving complex decision-making and long sales cycles.
- AI Adoption Rate: Rapid. B2B marketers and buyers are using AI to research, analyze, and summarize information more efficiently.
AI as an Evaluation Tool: In addition to research, many B2B companies are now using AI as part of their vendor evaluation process. AI-powered tools can synthesize vendor performance data, customer reviews, and competitor benchmarks identifying strengths and potential red flags early. AI can also be used to score RFP responses, helping procurement teams accelerate decisions and reduce bias.
Increasingly, reviews, testimonials, and user engagement across third-party platforms (like G2, Trustpilot, and Reddit) are also being pulled into AI evaluations. If your business has consistent, authentic, and positive mentions outside your own site, you’re more likely to be surfaced in AI-generated recommendations. That means your reputation across the web—beyond your owned channels—plays a crucial role in how AI perceives your authority and credibility.
In addition to research, many B2B companies are now using AI as part of their vendor evaluation process. AI-powered tools can synthesize vendor performance data, customer reviews, and competitor benchmarks—identifying strengths and potential red flags early. AI can also be used to score RFP responses, helping procurement teams accelerate decisions and reduce bias.
What This Means: B2B marketers should prioritize AI visibility immediately, as buyers are already turning to AI tools for discovery and evaluation. B2C brands, especially local or goods-based ones, may see a slower transition, but preparing content for AI readability will still future-proof their strategy.
How to Get Cited by AI: Short-Term and Long-Term Actions
In my B2B experience, managing marketing teams and now consulting for them, many companies aim to position themselves as thought leaders by publishing insights, reports, or opinion pieces. That strategy is still incredibly valuable, but the game is evolving. B2B marketing leaders need to understand that it's not just about publishing thought leadership anymore. It's about preparing that content to be digested by AI and cited back to the prospects they're trying to reach.
If you want your content to show up in AI-generated answers (not just traditional search results), here’s how to get started:
Short-Term Actions (Next 3 Months)
- Structure Your Content Well: Use H1s, H2s, bullets, and clean formatting. AI tools parse content more effectively when it's well-organized.
- Use Schema Markup: Implement structured data like FAQs, reviews, and articles so your content can be easily classified.
- Answer Specific Questions: Target long-tail, conversational queries in your content. Think: "How much does X cost?" or "What are the risks of Y?"
- Establish Author Profiles: Make your authors visible, credible, and linked to other thought leadership content.
Long-Term Actions (Next 12 Months and Beyond)
- Incorporate PR into Your Strategy: Mentions in third-party or news outlets can carry more weight in AI models than content on your owned blog. A well-placed quote or earned article in a respected media source boosts your perceived authority across the web and increases your chances of being cited in AI-generated answers.
- Build Content Depth or Topic Authority: Create topic clusters and content hubs around areas of expertise so you become the "definitive" source.
- Be Consistently Referenced: Earn backlinks and mentions from other reputable sites to increase perceived authority.
- Publish Research or Insights: AI tools love citing original, data-backed content (surveys, benchmarks, case studies).
- Monitor AI Platforms: Search your brand or core topics in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity to see what content is being pulled in.
Getting Started Building an AI Strategy
Understanding how AI surfaces content is only half the battle. The other half is deciding where, when, and why you want your company to show up during a buyer’s journey and tailoring your strategy accordingly.
Here’s how to get started:
- Map the Buyer Journey Deeply: Start by identifying how your buyers research, compare, and ultimately select a solution. Are they looking for recommendations early on? Or do they rely heavily on formal RFPs?
- Define Where You Want to Show Up: If you shine in direct comparisons or formal evaluations, optimizing for review sites like G2 or TrustRadius may make sense. But if your goal is to influence thinking before an RFP is ever written, focus on educational content that ranks for questions like: “How do I raise my response rate to outbound emails?”(Using a sales engagement tool example.)
- Research the Questions Buyers Might Ask AI: Imagine you're the buyer asking ChatGPT or Perplexity for help. What questions would you ask? What frustrations or goals would you express?
- Identify the Gaps You Can Fill: Look at AI answers in your category. Are they generic? Are they listing competitors you don’t go head-to-head with? This is your opportunity to own niche, high-intent queries that align with your differentiators. For example, if you’re a startup with a growing feature set, you may not want to compete head-on with larger, better-known competitors in broad listicles or rankings. Instead, you might aim to appear in AI answers to: “xyz?” or“xyz?”
By defining what you want AI to say about you—and when in the buyer’s journey it should say it—you can reverse-engineer a content strategy that makes you visible in exactly the right moments.
Companies That Are AI-Visible
Many businesses are using AI to create content but fewer are deliberately optimizing their content to be found and cited by AI platforms. Here are some companies who are winning at that game:
Examples of Top Referenced in AI Content:
- Harvard Business Review (HBR): Cited across multiple AI platforms due to clear, authoritative, and well-organized articles.
- Statista: Frequently pulled into AI responses because of its structured and trusted data presentation.
- HubSpot: Blog content often shows up in AI answers due to SEO best practices, schema markup, and topic authority.
Examples of Companies Creating AI-Optimized Content:
- Zapier: Their explainers and how-to guides are referenced by ChatGPT and Perplexity thanks to their clarity and structured formatting.
- Canva: Frequently cited for design tips and tutorials that are instructional and well-tagged.
- NerdWallet: Known for comparison guides and financial explainers that directly answer user questions in digestible formats.
AI isn’t the enemy of search but it’s changing the rules. Brands that learn how to show up in AI-generated answers will gain long-term authority, not just fleeting traffic.
This isn’t about gaming the system. It’s about being the best, clearest answer with demonstrated trust across multiple sources on the internet so that when an AI is asked, it points to you.