So, apparently Google still rules the search world. The following information is from an interesting article I recently read ( https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-seo-statistics/) and is summarized to capture the main points.
Google sends hundreds of times more traffic to sites than AI search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity. But here’s the twist: those AI tools don’t simply recycle Google’s winners.
In fact, most of the sources they cite don’t even show up in Google’s top results. AI seems to value freshness, pulling in content that’s newer than what ranks in organic search. So if your blog is up-to-date, you might find AI more likely to notice you than Google does.
Google’s AI Overviews are where things get really interesting—and frankly a bit grim for site owners. They’re already reaching over a billion people a month, and when they show up in search, clicks to websites drop by more than a third. To make matters worse, those citations aren’t evenly spread.
A small handful of brands hog the majority of mentions, while more than a quarter of companies don’t get cited at all. And when Google does cite sources, it leans heavily toward platforms like Reddit, Quora, and YouTube. That might explain why marketers suddenly care so much about what’s happening on Reddit.
ChatGPT, meanwhile, has become the surprise traffic driver. It now sends more traffic to websites than Reddit or LinkedIn. Still, the overlap with Google’s top results is tiny.
It doesn’t matter if you’re ranking number one on Google; ChatGPT might still ignore you and cite something newer. The pattern seems clear: AI search engines are building their own ecosystems, not just mirroring Google.
Behind the scenes, AI bots are crawling the web like ants at a picnic. OpenAI’s GPTBot is the most blocked crawler, but overall, AI bots now account for a quarter of all web requests. That’s a huge shift, and it shows how aggressively these models are sucking up data.
On the content side, the numbers are staggering. Nearly three-quarters of new web content now has AI baked into it. Purely human-written pieces are rare, and even rarer at the top of search results.
Interestingly, AI-assisted content doesn’t seem to perform worse than human work—it actually dominates the top 20 Google results. Marketers have jumped in with both feet. About 87% use AI for some part of their workflow, whether it’s drafting blog posts, brainstorming, or updating old content.
It’s cheaper and faster, and teams that adopt it publish more often. Still, most companies insist on a human check before hitting publish. Almost none admit they’re using AI, though.
Traffic from AI search is still tiny—just a fraction of a percent compared to traditional search—but it’s growing fast. And while those visitors may not click around much, they’re surprisingly valuable.
The big takeaway? AI isn’t replacing search overnight, but it’s already changing the game. If you care about visibility, you can’t just chase Google rankings anymore.
You have to think about how AI systems discover and cite content, how your brand shows up in conversations, and whether your material looks fresh and trustworthy. The landscape is messy, but ignoring AI isn’t an option.
Interesting stuff Diane. I think Google is still 90%+ of organic search but the tide is definitely turning ... and AI overviews are another nail in the coffin for site owners.
Google search has so much inertia though. It's going to take time for the juggernaut to slow down.
Personally, I only really use Google search for SERP research now. GPT and Bing are where I go for my queries and I only really use Bing because I started boycotting Google after the HCU.
A futile protest!
Thanks Diane!
I found this SEM Rush article interesting too, on a similar subject.
https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-search-visibility-study-findings/
I found myself in the 'priviliged' position of when I search something on ChatGPT for my niche, it randomnly mentions my own website- lol. So I guess I am thé source now for miniatures and dollhouses, according to them though haha.
The worst thing about AI overview now is indeed that you might get cited in it, but people click less on links OR pictures in the overview.
The other day, I saw a keyword of mine ranking in the overview, and they used my featured picture for it! So people could click on the picture, and then click again to go to my actual article, but that's 2 clicks away. While that could have been direct traffic! Instead of 3 times less chance for people to click through to my site.
I call that stealing, but anyway, they're a big compagny, get away with it.
The new update from google did give me a little bit of traffic back though, but it could have been so much more, because the 'views' and actual 'clicks' are now so far apart in the Google Search Console. While that used to be tied together, well, more than nowadays. Which is frustrating.
So, my content is actually still good for Google to crawl and use for their AI ( I am still ranking high on page 1 with my site for a lot of keywords ), but it is making sure that people stay on Google instead of actually going to websites. That way they can tell the world : ' see, people are still searching on Google a LOT', 'people still love us' !
Indeed, people are searching more than ever on Google , because THEY ARE DOING SEARCHES OVER AND OVER BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T FIND AN ANSWER STRAIGHT AWAY - lol!
Although platforms like ChatGPT are still minimally used, we can already see where this is going, as the new generations will likely use it a lot more (and already are). I even convinced my husband (generation X) to use it (the European version LeChat), although he was totally against AI, lol. Right after he was complaining about Google and that it is all messed up now, also in Dutch.
Had to 'educate' him a bit though, to always verify its sources, whenever we are in some silly discussion again about who is wrong or right about something hahahaha
Lizzy
@ohnoo_not_her zooming out a little ... it's almost like the whole thing is coming full-circle. When Google started out, they scraped the hell out of the web (and still do of course). Making money serving other people's content. In the early days they were securing the lion's share of the online real-estate and have cashed in ever since.
But I'm digressing ...
AI companies now find themselves in the same situation. Attempting to scrape the hell out of the web but they are coming up against a lot more pushback than Google ever did.
Google find themselves in the position of already having indexed a huge amount of the web and now they can just serve up an AI summary which, like you say, puts your website 2 clicks behind the SERP ... with your website providing the original content!
It sucks ... but it's unstoppable!
It looks like Google will be making it's 'AI Mode' the default for search "soon".
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-mode-default-40067.html
It feels like they're just playing catch up with GPT
@rohanm that would be horrible. Again.
I don't think people would just accept that either, it wouldn't be a 'search engine' anymore. Darn.
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