In several newsletters in the past year, I’ve talked about how AI is going to have a huge impact on search. The time has come: we’re observing real changes.
When Google results contain an AI overview – often above the ads, like in the screenshot below – fewer people will click on the ad or the “organic” results below and alongside the AI overview.
And it’s a big difference. Seer Interactive found that when AI overviews are shown, it easily cuts ad clickthrough rates in half.
This means fewer clicks from Google to your website. As a result of lower inventory of clicks, advertisers bid more for each click to their website. According to a study by Wordstream, the education sector saw a Cost per Click (CPC) increase of 40%!
This is more or less in line with what we predicted in chapters 8 and 9 of my book Genuinely Helpful. I’m proud to say that a year ago, Kyle Campbell, Karine Abbou and I already came up with ways to deal with this challenge and as of today, they still hold water.
So, how to respond?
1. Be a source for AI overviews
In the end, students still need to enroll somewhere. Even if they visit your website at a much later stage, or only to submit their application. Make sure your website is up-to-date and crawlable, so Google can include your offerings into the AI overviews.
2. Diversify
I’m just going to leave the conclusion of Chapter 9 here:
Based on the patterns and developments we see today your best way forward is to gradually shift your attention towards becoming visible in many places around the web instead of on your website alone – while making sure your website is a reliable and helpful base that offers all the information your audiences need.
3. Streamline
Advertising and SEO are still going to be viable sources of web traffic for the foreseeable future – nothing happens at once. But you’re either going to see a drop in traffic, or you’re going to pay a lot to keep traffic levels stable. So it becomes all the more important that your website is as visitor-friendly as possible – you can’t waste a single click!
Are you feeling the impact of AI overviews yet, on your paid search campaigns or organic search traffic? Don’t fret – your competitors are likely seeing the same thing, and we’ll adjust to this new reality over time.
