Search engine optimization (SEO) is getting harder. Organic search clicks are decreasing for many sites across most industries, and businesses are concerned about the direction their trendlines are headed.
It’s not just your site. On any given day, you’ll see SEO professionals sharing their organic search performance on social media and discussing the negative trends. That’s cold comfort, but at least it’s something to know you’re not alone.
This is an Internet-wide Phenomenon
In my 19 years as an SEO professional, this moment in search feels like a unique sea change. With AI search rolling in, traffic patterns changing, and the most tired things done in SEO’s name rendered increasingly ineffective and increasingly dangerous (for example, link building, crummy “SEO copy,” and content scaling), ethical SEO focused on sustainable, long-term results is more critical now than ever.
But don’t take my word for it that there’s an enormous amount of change happening in organic search across the internet; let’s look at the data.
The Zero-Click Phenomenon
As AI Overviews were in their infancy last year (they launched in May 2024), SparkToro and clickstream data provider Datos released a study showing that only 29.3% of the searches result in an organic search click off of Google’s platforms to websites like yours.
The data is illustrated below: For the 415 searches that ended in a click, if you take 70.5% of that number as the organic search clicks, you end up with 29.3% of the total Google searches clicking on an organic search result.
The other 64% either have their question answered and stop their journey there, perform another search, or click to another Google property like YouTube or Google News.
The Zero-Click Phenomenon is not new, but it is growing. In 2020, a similar SparkToro study found that 33.6% of all worldwide searches clicked on an organic search listing, compared to 29.3% in the U.S. in 2024. I’m waiting with bated breath to see the next iteration of this study, now that AI Overviews have been in the wild for over a year.
The Great Decoupling
The other phenomenon at play here works hand in hand with the zero-click phenomenon: the great decoupling. Traditionally, as impressions increased, assuming your ranking remained stable or improved, you would receive more clicks as a result. With the great decoupling, impressions are rising strongly and “decoupling” from click trendlines: Impressions go up, clicks go down, as shown below.
Decoupling rates seem to be the strongest in May 2024 when AI Overviews launched, as well as in November 2024; though some sites didn’t see a decoupling until February or March of 2025, as shown below.
Sites that drive traffic for more informational search queries, especially those that lean heavily on their blogs, tips, resources, or other informational content, are seeing stronger decouplings. Check your Google Search Console performance report’s 16-month trendline to see if your site is being impacted.
If you’re not seeing a decoupling on your site, it’s likely for one of two reasons:
1. Branded Keyword Traffic
If your organic search traffic is primarily from branded keywords, you’re probably not seeing much decoupling. AI Overviews and other search engine result page (SERP) features are less likely to show on keywords with navigational intent, like branded keywords.
However, if most of your traffic is from branded keywords, that’s a sign that your SEO program is not working. You should be winning branded keywords easily without even trying (unless there’s a critical technical SEO issue) by virtue of your brand name, and also most likely the representation of your brand in your domain name. SEO’s primary goal needs to be driving you non-branded keyword traffic.
2. Business-to-Business Sites
I’m also not seeing much decoupling on heavily B2B sites, especially ecommerce or physical product sites. AI Overviews tend to show on informational queries, as mentioned above, but also on queries that drive larger search volume. B2B queries tend to drive less search volume. That typically means fewer AI Overviews in the SERPs and less decoupling.
But if your B2B focuses on finance or another space that focuses heavily on content with informational intent rather than transactional intent, the decoupling is probably very real for you.
What Is Causing the Click Issue?
Yes, AI Overviews are contributing to the great decoupling, but they’re not the only culprit.
Google’s Ever-Evolving SERPs
The SERPs are designed to keep people engaged on Google’s platforms. Google is a business. They make money when people click on ads, not when someone clicks on an organic listing. The longer searchers stay engaged on Google’s SERPs, the more ads are impressed upon them, and the more likely they are to click on an ad at some point in their search journey.
To keep searchers engaged, Google has filled the SERPs with informational and shopping elements besides the AI Overviews:
- People Also Ask
- Things to Know
- Things to Do
- Popular Products
- In Stores Nearby
- People Also Buy From
- Explore Brands
- And so many more
All of these elements are impressions. In fact, Google has said that Google Search Console’s performance reporting treats every site that is linked to in the AI Overviews as an impression at the number one ranking position. That means that there could be tens of impressions from a single AI Overview, all counted as ranking position number one.
For the other SERP features, some send clicks off of Google’s platform, and some result in new searches; it’s a mixed bag. The ones that keep people on Google, though, are answering questions or fulfilling the need for knowledge directly within the SERP. No need means no reason to click.
The Growing Internet
In addition to Google’s ever-growing SERP, the internet is also growing at an astonishing rate, especially with AI generation making content publishing easier than ever (I have a lot to say on AI-generated content, too).
Rising above the noise can be tricky, especially when Google looks for uniquely helpful content with experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (known more commonly as E-E-A-T) in the pages it ranks the highest. Because the web is so vast and Google’s crawling resources are finite, if you don’t meet that high standard for content quality, Google might decide not to index your content at all.
ChatGPT and Its Brethren?
AI isn’t big enough, yet, to steal market share from traditional search, but the intersection between AI and traditional search is coming. Will it take a year? Three years? Who knows. What I do know is that those who are not already preparing for this change will have a very hard time mastering it when it comes.
What Can You Do About It?
Yes, SEO is harder now than it was 10 years ago, or even five years ago. Yes, clicks are decreasing. But organic search is one of the top channels for most companies. Just giving up is not an option, not when the competition continues to advance their SEO programs and Google continues to shift the playing field.
Double Down on SEO
You might expect this advice from an SEO director, but think about it. Search is no less valuable as a step (more like multiple steps) in your customers’ digital journey. Being visible in search is not optional. You need to be part of the conversation to continue to drive traffic and sales.
SEO is how we maintain and grow that position in terms of rankings and impressions, even if clicks are decreasing. It’s how you stay visible and relevant to your customers.
As people consume the information in AI Overviews, do you want them to see your brand impression or your competitor’s? That’s what I mean by being part of the conversation. A strong SEO program is required to achieve visibility in AI search, in addition to improving your performance in traditional organic search.
Invest in Paid Search
If you’re not already advertising on Google and Microsoft, I recommend trying it. At the very least, there are a multitude of ways that pay-per-click (PPC) and SEO can benefit each other. And it’s an excellent way to increase your footprint on the SERP, strengthening your brand impression by appearing in multiple places at the same time.
Diversify Your Digital Strategies
It was never a good idea to put all of your eggs into one SEO basket. I’ve been telling everyone who would listen the same thing for 19 years. Strong SEO is important, but it can’t be the only arrow in your quiver.
If you don’t want to do PPC, ramp up an organic social program, or run paid social advertising campaigns, bulk up your email list and do email marketing, start an affiliate or influencer marketing program, engage in press relations and digital media outreach… do more than just SEO.
Why? Because it’s important to grow your audience across all of the channels they frequent. Then you can market to them once you capture their data and after they become customers, to grow loyalty and sales.
But also because, from an SEO standpoint, Google loves to rank a brand that people talk positively about. When a brand is mentioned in the media, shared in the social channels Google can track, discussed positively in forums, and talked about in blogs, that’s as good to Google as backlinks have historically been to PageRank.
So, having a diverse digital marketing strategy will not only reduce your dependence on SEO, it will boost your SEO in the long run.
SEO is Dead, Long Live SEO
Easy SEO is over. The days when you could rip out a couple of hundred words filled with keywords, link to the copy from a couple of pages, and watch the rankings roll in are gone. They’ve been growing fainter in the distance for a while now, and good riddance.
Strategically, SEO today is what all of marketing should be about: understanding your audience, connecting with them using the language they use, and providing value-added communications that resonate with them in that moment.
Doing the right things right for SEO and your customers still works. Let’s get it done.
