Looking around, everyone’s still playing the same old SEO game – create loads of educational content at the top of the funnel, attract casual browsers, nurture them through your content, and eventually convert them into customers. Which has worked – up until now.
Because there’s one massive problem with this strategy in 2025 – your carefully crafted top-of-funnel content is now feeding AI systems that never send anyone to your website.
Let’s take a look at what’s happening right now to your “awareness stage” content strategy.
Top-of-Funnel (TOFU) content is in a death spiral
That comprehensive guide you spent weeks writing about “How to Choose the Right Business Software”? The one you optimised perfectly for “business software selection” and all those lovely informational keywords?
Well, congratulations – it’s now training material for Google’s AI systems, ChatGPT, and every other AI search tool. Your expertise, your research, your unique insights are being repackaged and served directly to users who never set foot on your website.
According to a Spark Toro study late 2024, over 58% of searches in the US now end without a click. That means more than half the people finding your content through AI overviews, AI Mode, or ChatGPT responses are consuming your knowledge without you ever knowing they existed.
AI search is changing how search engines work
When someone searches “best project management software,” they’re not getting a list of websites to visit anymore. They’re getting a comprehensive AI-generated response that pulls from your detailed guides, your case studies, your hard-won expertise – and presents it as a neat summary with maybe a tiny citation at the bottom.
The user gets their answer. Google gets to keep them on their platform. The AI gets smarter. You get nothing.
No email signup. No remarketing pixel. No brand recognition. No relationship building. Just your knowledge being strip-mined to feed the machine.
Traditional Funnel thinking is broken
The traditional marketing funnel assumed people would discover you through educational content, then gradually move down the funnel as they learned more about their problem and your solution.
That whole model depended on people actually visiting your website during their research phase.
But AI search has effectively severed the connection between content consumption and website visits. People can now consume all your top-of-funnel content without ever entering your funnel.
And the biggest kicker in all of this?
You can’t track it properly and see what is happening
When someone asks ChatGPT about business process optimisation and gets an answer based on your content, there’s no analytics data. No referral traffic. No way to measure the value of your content investment.
You’re essentially creating free training material for AI systems that compete directly with your website for user attention.
What B2B Service Businesses should do now
Stop feeding the AI machine with top-of-funnel content that never converts. Start focusing on strategies that actually drive business results – and accept that those strategies have changed a little with the introduction of AI.
Focus on Bottom-of-Funnel commercial intent
Instead of “How to Choose Project Management Software,” create content around “Best Project Management Software for UK Manufacturing Companies” or “Project Management Software Implementation Services Manchester.” These are more commercial terms that informational or educational – see more about search intent here.
AI systems are less likely to fully satisfy commercial queries. When someone’s actively looking to buy or hire, they still need to visit actual websites to see pricing, book consultations, or make purchases.
Build for brand searches
Rather than trying to capture generic educational searches, invest in making your brand the obvious choice when people are ready to act. Create content that positions you as the specialist for specific problems or industries.
If you’re a business coach, don’t write generic “productivity tips” content. Create detailed resources about “scaling professional services firms from £500k to £2m revenue” that only make sense coming from someone who’s actually done it.
Create Decision-Stage content
Focus on content that helps people choose between specific solutions rather than understand general concepts. Comparison guides, vendor evaluations, implementation case studies – content that requires human expertise and local knowledge that AI can’t easily replicate.
Use your local advantage
AI responses tend to be generic. Your local knowledge, specific industry experience, and regional expertise are harder for AI to replicate. A generic AI response about “business coaching” can’t compete with your specific knowledge of “helping Northamptonshire manufacturing companies navigate post-Brexit supply chain challenges.”
Your SEO Strategy has to change
The businesses thriving in AI search aren’t the ones trying to educate the entire internet. They’re the ones becoming the obvious choice for specific problems, specific industries, specific locations.
Quality over educational spread
Instead of creating 50 blog posts about general business topics, create 10 comprehensive resources that demonstrate deep expertise in your specific niche. Make it obvious that you’re the person to call when someone needs help, not just information.
Build direct relationships
Since you can’t rely on casual browsers finding your educational content and gradually warming up to your services, you need more direct ways to build relationships. Speaking engagements, partnerships, referral networks, and yes – even direct outreach become more valuable when organic discovery is disrupted.
Track what matters
Stop obsessing over organic traffic numbers for informational content. Start tracking branded searches, direct website visits, consultation bookings, and actual business enquiries. These metrics tell you if people know who you are when they’re ready to buy.
Educational content was good while it lasted
The era of using educational content as a free customer acquisition channel is ending. AI systems are becoming the middlemen between your expertise and potential customers, and they’re not sharing.
You can either keep playing the old game – creating content that feeds AI systems while hoping for scraps of traffic – or you can adapt your strategy for a world where being helpful doesn’t automatically mean being discoverable.
The businesses that understand this shift first will have a significant advantage. The ones still optimising blog posts for “how to” keywords in 2026 will wonder where all their traffic went.
Stop feeding the machine. Start building relationships directly with the people who need your services.
Want to audit your current content strategy and work out what’s actually driving business results? Book a consultation to review how AI search changes are affecting your specific website and what you should focus on instead. Because throwing more content at the problem isn’t the solution anymore.
