Businesses scramble to get noticed by AI search
Foto: BBC Tech
HubSpot, a B2B industry giant, has lost as many as 140 million visits to its website within a single year, a direct result of the AI revolution in search engines. Traditional search results are giving way to so-called AI overviews—generative summaries that answer user queries directly on the search engine page. The statistics are ruthless: the click-through rate for queries handled by artificial intelligence is 60–70% lower than in the classic model. In the face of these changes, companies are en masse implementing Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) strategies, also known as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). The key is understanding that queries in tools like ChatGPT are, on average, ten times longer and more precise than those entered into Google. Instead of four words, users type between 40 and 60, expecting specific plans or solutions. For content creators, this necessitates abandoning long, generic articles in favor of modular data structures from which LLM models can easily extract specific information. Instead of optimizing only sales pages, brands must build authority through "content clusters"—knowledge bases that attract users as early as the research stage. Adaptation to AEO is ceasing to be an option and is becoming a condition for survival in an ecosystem where website traffic is determined not by link algorithms, but by the precision of the answer provided by a bot.
The era of traditional search engines as we have known them for the past two decades is rapidly coming to an end. Companies around the world are facing a brutal reality: their carefully crafted SEO strategies are no longer sufficient when faced with language models. The scale of the phenomenon is staggering – marketing industry giant HubSpot recorded a loss of 140 million visits to its website in just one year. The cause is not a decline in service quality, but a fundamental shift in how users consume information online.
Instead of browsing through dozens of links, internet users today receive ready-made answers generated by artificial intelligence. This is forcing businesses into a desperate struggle for visibility in the new ecosystem. Traditional Google positioning is giving way to a new discipline: Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), also known as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). The goal is no longer just to be first on the results list, but to become the source from which ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews draw their knowledge.
The death of the click and the birth of the answer era
The statistics cited by Kipp Bodnar, Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot, are ruthless. The click-through rate (CTR) for searches where AI-generated summaries appear is 60% to 70% lower than for traditional results. A user who receives a comprehensive answer directly on the search engine page rarely feels the need to click through to the source website. This phenomenon is forcing brands to completely redefine the structure of their web services.
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A key difference is the nature of the queries. While in traditional Google a user typically types four to six words, in interactions with AI, queries become much more extensive, averaging between 40 and 60 words. People are no longer searching for keywords, but asking for solutions to specific problems – for example, planning a holiday for a family of five in New Zealand, including the possibility of seeing a specific species of animal. For a campervan rental company to be included in such an answer, its website must contain content precisely tailored to such detailed scenarios.
Content architecture dictated by LLM models
In the face of these changes, companies like HubSpot are moving away from long, multi-threaded articles in favor of smaller, easily digestible "knowledge snippets." The new structure of websites is being designed so that LLM (Large Language Models) can instantly extract a specific functionality or piece of information. If a user asks about contact management, the AI must be able to easily isolate that specific module from the website content.
A similar strategy has been adopted by Andy Pickup, Digital Director at MKM Building Supplies. He noticed that customers have stopped visiting company blogs to find out how to lay artificial grass – they get the answer immediately from an AI assistant. In response, MKM implemented a "defensive strategy," creating content that is optimized for readability by bots:
- Using clear summaries at the beginning of each section.
- Breaking down blocks of text into bulleted lists.
- Creating extensive FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sections.
- Implementing advanced sitemaps to facilitate indexing by AI bots.
The results are measurable. At MKM, traffic coming from AI tools has grown from zero to low double-digit percentages and is steadily increasing. Significantly, users coming from AI show a much higher propensity to purchase. The knowledge obtained from the language model builds the confidence they need to finalize a transaction.
Authority more important than keywords
In the world of AEO, simply saturating text with keywords is a relic of the past. Andy Lochtie from the agency Lumos Digital emphasizes that AI algorithms place huge importance on trust and authority indicators. Companies must prove they are experts in their field. An example is the company Spice Kitchen, which instead of focusing solely on selling spice gift sets, is building a compendium of knowledge on the history of the spice trade on its website.
These types of "content clusters" are not directly sales-oriented – they are more like educational courses. Their task is to attract the attention of AI bots at the stage when the user is conducting research, rather than when they are already ready to buy. Ann Lowe, Head of Communications at Spice Kitchen, states bluntly: adapting to these conditions is the only way to survive. Building credibility happens through linking to high-quality external sources, publishing detailed author biographies, and maintaining a transparent editorial policy.
The new landscape of technological dominance
An interesting phenomenon is the shift in user loyalty toward platforms. Andy Pickup points out that despite Google's dominance in the search engine market, ChatGPT is sending more traffic to his service than Google's built-in AI features. Users are making a conscious decision to change tools, which is a "seismic shift" in consumer preferences. AI is not only changing the format of the answer but redefining where the customer journey begins.
Our own analysis of the trend suggests that we are on the threshold of an era where the website will cease to be the destination for the mass audience and instead become a database for AI models. Companies that do not adapt their information architecture to LLM requirements risk "digital invisibility." Although overall traffic may decline, its quality will increase – websites will attract customers who are better informed and more determined to purchase. I predict that in the coming years, AEO will become the foundation of the marketing strategy for every global company, and the ability to "talk" to AI models through the structure of one's own website will be more valuable than traditional sponsored link campaigns.
