Back in April, Forbes reported that AI Overviews can cause a 15-64% decline in organic traffic and “roughly 60% of searches now yield no clicks at all, as AI-generated answers satisfy them directly on the search results page.”
What does that mean for you? It may make you wonder if having a website is even worth it. I’m here to tell you it matters more now than ever before.
A couple of weeks ago, I had this conversation with a client when we were talking about their declining traffic. I told them they should expect their website traffic to continue to decline… While still investing in adding content and making it amazing.
Why? If traffic is declining, do you even need a website?
Yes, you still need a website, but it will function differently than they have in the past.
The way people use the internet is changing. They are no longer using Google to serve up pages of links to click on to go to a website.
They are using their favorite LLM (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) to find information, and that LLM is educating them using the content within your website without them ever having to click a link.
What does this mean?
Your website needs to answer all of the potential questions your ideal client is asking an LLM.
This means your website needs more specific and geotargetted information than ever to match all of the potential queries someone could type into an LLM when looking for a product or service you provide.
Under old-school SEO rules around duplicate content, it didn’t make sense to create multiple pages that were almost identical, with only small changes like the city name being swapped out.
But with AI search, it’s different.
Generative models pull from all the content on your site. That means having pages that highlight the same core information while naming the smaller areas you serve can actually help because of the specificity they provide. This specificity matches the way people are searching for solutions using their LLMs.
Those “slight variations” give AI more signals about your expertise and where you work. This makes it more likely your firm shows up in generative search results.
In short, as you start to see fewer clicks because of AI search, don’t take it as a sign to stop investing in your website. Double down. Take every question your potential clients have ever asked you and answer it clearly and thoroughly on your site. But don’t forget to put it in your own words.
Remember, your website isn’t becoming obsolete.
It’s just functioning differently.
The role it plays is shifting from being a destination for clicks to being the trusted source that fuels the answers AI delivers. And the better your content, the more you’ll continue to be found, even if the clicks look different from what they used to.
One last thing, the “high traffic, low conversion” game no longer applies. In today’s world, you should expect “low traffic, and high conversion” opportunities. This is why everything about your website matters more than ever.
P.S. Whether you need a strategy on how to remain relevant in AI search results or just want to focus on a project you keep de-prioritizing, consider booking an Action Accelerator with me. It’s a 90-minute, 1:1 working session where we tackle the initiative that matters most to you right now. You choose the focus. Get the details here.
A LIVE 5-MONTH COHORT WITH LISA LARTER · STARTS AUG 4, 2026