Open Google and search for almost anything right now. Before you reach the first blue link, you'll likely scroll past an AI Overview, a featured snippet, a "People also ask" box, and a map pack.
Organic links — the kind that traditional SEO was built around — have been pushed further and further down the page. For informational queries, some studies put the average click-through rate on the top organic result below 2%.
That's not a reason to give up on SEO. It's a reason to do it differently.
What Changed and Why
Google's AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience) pull answers directly from indexed pages and surface them at the top of results. The user gets their answer without clicking. The website that supplied the answer may get a citation — or nothing at all.
For certain query types, this is devastating. "What is X?" and "How does Y work?" questions used to be a reliable traffic source for educational blog content. Now Google answers them inline.
For other query types, it barely matters. Commercial and transactional searches — "best CRM for small businesses," "hire a web developer in Austin," "website redesign cost" — still produce blue links because Google can't complete that intent with a summary paragraph.
This is the dividing line that matters for your SEO strategy right now.
The Queries Worth Ranking For in 2025
Transactional and Commercial Intent
"Best [product/service] for [specific use case]" queries still drive clicks. People searching these aren't looking for a definition. They're comparing options, reading reviews, and making purchasing decisions. A well-structured comparison page or buyer's guide still converts.
Local and Geo-Specific Searches
"[Service] in [city]" searches produce a map pack and local results. Google can't answer "who's the best web designer in Phoenix" with an AI summary — it sends you to actual businesses. Local SEO is more valuable now than it was two years ago, not less.
Original Research and Proprietary Data
If you publish data that doesn't exist anywhere else — a survey, a case study, an internal analysis — AI models can't synthesize it because it isn't in their training set. Original research gets cited, linked, and ranked because it's genuinely irreplaceable.
Long-Tail, Specific Problem Queries
"Why is my Shopify checkout page loading slowly after the 2024.2 update" won't be answered by an AI Overview because it's too specific. Long-tail queries with technical specificity still produce clicks because the searcher has a precise problem and needs a precise answer.
Three Things to Do Right Now
Audit your existing traffic by query type. Pull your Google Search Console data and sort by the queries driving impressions but not clicks. If those queries are informational and now answered by AI Overviews, accept that traffic is gone. Redirect your content efforts toward commercial and long-tail intent.
Optimize for citations, not just rankings. AI Overviews pull from sources Google considers authoritative. Structured content — clear headers, defined terms, direct answers to common questions — gets cited more often. Even if you don't get the click, a citation builds brand visibility with searchers who then search your name directly.
Build content depth on topics you own. Google's Helpful Content system rewards sites that demonstrate genuine expertise. Ten shallow articles about a topic perform worse than two deeply researched ones. Pick the three or four topics most relevant to your business and go deep.
The Honest Truth About AI and SEO
There's a wave of content right now telling businesses to either panic about AI search or ignore it entirely. Both are wrong.
Search traffic is being redistributed, not destroyed. The businesses that adapt — by focusing on intent that AI can't satisfy, by building genuine expertise, by earning citations — will come out with stronger organic presence, not weaker.
The businesses that keep publishing thin, informational articles optimized for keywords that now get answered inline will see traffic drop and wonder why.
The shift is happening. The question is which side of it you end up on.
Webfixus specializes in SEO strategies built for how search actually works today — not how it worked three years ago. Talk to the team.