Right, we need to have a word about this AI search hysteria that’s gripping every business owner with a website.
Everyone’s panicking that they’re missing out on massive business opportunities if they don’t appear in AI search results. They’re convinced Google is irrelevant now that AI Overviews are everywhere, and they’re terrified their competitors are getting ahead by optimising for ChatGPT and Perplexity. Meanwhile, the data tells a completely different story.
| 🔵 AI search drives less than 1% of traffic to most websites. 🔵 37% of AI prompts are generative tasks, not commercial searches. 🔵 Good SEO fundamentals already work for AI search visibility. 🔵 AI visitors browse fewer pages and bounce more than search users. 🔵 Google still drives 99% of traffic – don’t abandon it. |
The reality check nobody wants to hear
Digital marketing veteran Glenn Gabe recently set up AI search tracking across multiple websites and found something that should make every panic-merchant shut up and listen: AI search drives less than 1% of traffic to most sites. In many cases, it’s under 0.5%.
Let me repeat that for the people at the back: less than one bloody percent.
Meanwhile, Google Search continues to drive the vast majority of traffic to most websites. We’re talking about businesses throwing their entire SEO strategy out the window to chase a traffic source that’s currently smaller than the margin of error in most analytics.
It’s like renovating your entire house because you heard smart doorbells are the future, while ignoring the fact that your roof’s leaking and your boiler’s knackered.
But everyone says AI search is taking over!
Yeah, and everyone also said Google+ was going to kill Facebook. How’d that work out for them?
The problem is that most of the noise about AI search comes from people who either don’t understand the data or are trying to sell you something. SEO Strategist Josh Blyskal’s recent research into ChatGPT prompts shows exactly why the panic is misplaced.
He found that 37% of AI search prompts are “generative” – people asking AI to write, create, or generate something. These aren’t people who were ever going to visit your website. They’re asking AI to write their shopping list or draft an email. They’re not potential customers looking for your services.
Only 6% of AI search prompts are transactional (actually asking to buy something), compared to traditional search where people are actively seeking businesses like yours. The majority of AI search users aren’t shopping – they’re asking AI to do work for them.
SEO fundamentals still apply
SEO expert Lily Ray recently pointed out that most “AI search optimisation” advice is literally identical to what good SEOs have been recommending for years:
- Well-structured content
- Authoritative writing with original data
- Proper use of FAQs and structured data
- Content that answers follow-up questions
Semrush’s latest study on Google’s AI Mode found that domains ranking well in traditional Google search are far more likely to be cited in AI responses. There’s a direct correlation between good SEO and AI visibility.
In other words, if you’ve been doing SEO properly, you’re already positioned for AI search. If you haven’t, chasing AI-specific tactics while ignoring the fundamentals is like putting racing stripes on a car with no engine.
Stop ignoring Google
Here’s the bit that should terrify anyone who’s decided to abandon traditional SEO for AI search optimisation – Google’s algorithm updates affect everything, including AI Overviews and AI Mode.
If you let your site quality slip while chasing AI search rankings, you risk getting hammered by a core update. And when that happens, you don’t just lose traditional search traffic – you lose AI visibility too, because Google AI search still pulls from Google’s index.
Think about it: why would you ignore the platform that drives 99% of your traffic to focus on the one that drives less than 1%?
And before you come at me saying Perplexity and ChatGPT don’t use Google, remember that alongside their own algorithms, they use Bing, which has pretty much the same SEO requirements as Google.
The AI search intent problem
Let’s talk about those intent categories. Traditional search intent (informational, commercial, transactional, navigational) maps to people with different stages of buying intent.
AI search intent is different. That 37% “generative” category? Those people aren’t looking for businesses – they’re looking for AI to do tasks. Unless that’s the purpose of your website, those people are no good for you anyway.
You want the commercial and transactional intent searches – the ones where people are actually looking to solve problems or buy things. And guess what? Most of those are still happening on Google.
Even when AI traffic does show up, it’s not brilliant
Here’s another reality check: Ahrefs recently analysed nearly 82,000 websites and found that AI traffic behaves quite differently from traditional search traffic. AI visitors look at fewer pages (4 on average vs 5.2 for search visitors), have higher bounce rates (67.8% vs 63.7%), and generally browse less deeply through websites.
This suggests AI users are doing quick validation visits rather than proper exploration. They’re not the engaged, browsing customers most businesses actually want. They pop in, check something specific, and leave.
So not only is AI search traffic tiny, but the visitors who do come from AI platforms aren’t necessarily the high-quality, converting traffic that businesses need to grow.
What you should do about AI search
Stop panicking, for starters. Then:
- Keep doing good SEO. The fundamentals that work for Google work for AI search too. Focus on helpful, well-structured content that genuinely answers user questions.
- Monitor your actual AI search traffic. Set up proper tracking (Glenn Gabe’s tutorial is brilliant for this) and see what percentage of your traffic actually comes from AI search. Spoiler alert: it’ll be tiny.
- Don’t abandon Google. The platform driving 99% of your traffic deserves 99% of your attention, not the other way around.
- Focus on commercial intent. Whether it’s traditional search or AI search, you want people who are actually looking to buy something, not people asking AI to write their shopping list for Tesco.
Get your AI strategy sorted (without losing your mind)
Look, AI search is real, it’s growing, and you shouldn’t completely ignore it. But you also shouldn’t burn down your entire SEO strategy to chase something that currently drives less traffic than most people’s 404 error pages.
If you want to understand how AI search actually affects your specific business – not what some guru on LinkedIn thinks might happen – I can help. I’ve spent 30 years cutting through SEO nonsense, and I’m not about to start believing the hype now.
Book an AI Search 1:1 session – £99 + VAT for an hour where I’ll show you what AI search actually means for your website, what you can safely ignore, and what’s worth your time. No panic, no bullshit, just practical advice based on actual data.
Because while everyone else is losing their minds over AI search, your competitors are probably still getting most of their traffic from Google. And if you stop focusing on what actually brings in customers, you’re going to have bigger problems than AI search optimisation.
The data doesn’t lie, even if the gurus do.
