Marketers must move beyond Google traffic as zero-click becomes the norm in 2025
SEO specialists have talked about a zero-click reality since Google launched the Featured Snippet in 2014. Now, with the advent of AI Overview 10 years later, we finally see it happen.
AI Insights (AIO) are what SEOs thought the featured snippet was: they’re long, in-depth, and provide not only an answer, but also context, proactively answering related questions that the searcher didn’t have. not even asked yet. They are so long that, once developed, AIOs take up about half the screen for desktop and mobile devices, meaning researchers ultimately don’t need to click through to a website to get a complete picture.
The expansion of AIOs, coupled with their in-depth responses and scale, means the early adopters were right, just a little earlier: zero-click search results are no longer a prediction, but a harsh reality for many brands.
HAS Google has completely changed the SEO landscape? In a word, yes. And marketers must also evolve, otherwise their work will become obsolete. So what’s next?
The measure must change
A big drop in clicks doesn’t mean marketers should panic. We just have to adapt. And the easiest part of this puzzle to adjust is measurement.
Indeed, even though clicks will decrease in 2025, rankings and impressions will likely remain stable or even improve. AIOs have no impact on ranking; they simply push the rest of the results to the bottom of the page, making a #1 ranking a little less valuable.
And with AIOs, conversions might even increase. Think of it this way: AIOs alleviate the need to click through to a website, meaning searchers who actually click through to a website are more likely to convert. In a way, we should thank AIOs for eliminating unqualified traffic for us.
When SEO metrics are analyzed together rather than in silos, organic traffic declines in conjunction with stable rankings and impressions, as well as consistent or even improved engagement and conversions, driving the story of “our efforts “marketers fail” to “the decline in traffic is simply the result of changes in the search landscape.
What about AIO quotes?
Some publishers report increased traffic from links in AIO citations, but these are the exception. Instead, the true value of AIO citations lies in the visibility and brand credibility that brands receive by being mentioned in this prime real estate.
Think of AI Overview quotes as “free” brand advertising; if Google thinks you’re an expert to reference, then searchers will too.
Social Search Eats More Google Traffic
It’s not just the research landscape that’s changing; user behavior is also changing. People are turning to platforms like TikTokYouTube, Redditand Instagram for early information gathering instead of Google. In fact, 67% of social media users participate in social research in their purchasing journey.
This means that increasingly, when people finally turn to Google, it is already with a brand in mind: 44% of all Google searches in 2024. came from brand searches.
When you combine search fragmentation with a decline in organic traffic driven by AI insights, it becomes clear that successful SEO in 2025 means optimizing search wherever it occurs, including on platforms social. Marketers need to think about SEO beyond Google, or they risk being left behind.
Has AI killed organic traffic?
No. Of course, organic traffic is not dead. Just like Featured Snippets, this is simply the next evolution of search in response to changing user behavior.
People are always looking. They’re always asking questions that your brand can answer: maybe they’re now searching on TikTok instead of Google, or getting an AI-generated answer from the best of the internet (at least we hope so). Proven optimization practices remain marketers’ best chance of being found by users wherever they search. information about your brand.
But more generally: what if AI previews ended up killing the click? So what? Clicks don’t keep the lights on, conversions do. There is a world where AIOs do us all a favor and help us see the barriers to conversion more clearly and provide a better experience for the people who end up on your website.
Marketers who quickly move from lamenting the loss of organic traffic to delivering a better, unique experience for their remaining traffic will come out on top in 2025. Getting rid of the unnecessary is a no-brainer – and I for one , I’m here for that.
