Did Google just destroy thousands of businesses?

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Did Google just destroy thousands of businesses?
Here’s how you survive.

Let’s start with the obvious: Search traffic isn’t what it used to be.

Google’s new AI Overviews (AIOs) are changing the rules - and if you’re not paying attention, you could be losing a lot of visibility.

Credit to Kevin Indig for calling this out early. His recent testing shows that once a page triggers an AIO result, it can lose anywhere from 18% to 64% of its traffic.

That’s not a blip. That’s a crisis. It is an existential threat.

What’s Actually Happening

We’re entering a zero-click world — not just on Google, but across every AI-driven interface:

• Google AIO (AI Overviews): Summarized answers now sit at the top of search results, often pulling from your content without sending you a single click.

• ChatGPT Search: OpenAI is rolling out a live search experience inside ChatGPT. It pulls from the open web and summarizes answers in-line — again, no clicks.

• Perplexity, Claude, etc.: These tools behave like AI-powered research assistants. Ask a question, get a perfect summary. No website visit needed.

It’s not that your content isn’t good. It’s that AI now answers the question before the user ever sees you.

Why Marketers Should Be Worried

This trend is bigger than SEO. It’s a full-blown shift in how people access and trust information.

• You might rank #1 and still get no visibility.

• Your product comparisons might get summarized by ChatGPT — with zero brand mention.

• Your educational blog post might get quoted by Google — and never clicked on.

In other words: attention is being intermediated. AI is now the gatekeeper, not Google.

Why Businesses Can’t Ignore This

If you rely on search for discovery, lead gen, or product education — you’re already at risk. Here’s how it affects different business models:

• SaaS: AI tools explain your category better than your homepage.

• E-commerce: Review and comparison content gets flattened into a few bullet points.

• Local businesses: AI pulls listings and answers without ever showing your GMB profile.

• B2B: Thought leadership pieces are summarized and abstracted away from your brand.

First-touch discovery is disappearing, and with it, the chance to build trust and convert.

7 Costly Mistakes in the Age of Zero-Click Search

1. Creating easily summarized content

   If AI can reduce your article to 3 bullet points, it will. You’ll lose the click.

2. Forgetting to embed your brand inside the content

   Don’t just watermark images — weave your brand name into frameworks, quotes, and proprietary data.

3. Relying on rankings as a success metric

   Being “#1” below an AIO or AI answer box is meaningless. Visibility now happens above the fold, often outside the ten blue links.

4. Neglecting structured data and semantic clarity

   Add schema markup (FAQ, How-To, Product), write clean HTML, and structure content so AI tools can parse it — and credit you.

5. Skipping multimedia and proprietary assets

   Video walkthroughs, first-person demos, expert POVs — these are much harder to summarize.

6. Ignoring LLM-specific optimization

   Implement llms.txt. Make sure your site is crawlable by AI. Add citations, structured sources, and clear author attribution.

7. Not owning your audience

   If your funnel depends on organic search, you need to diversify now. Build a newsletter. Create a podcast. Own a LinkedIn following.

ChatGPT’s Search Rollout = More Traffic Loss

OpenAI’s new search experience inside ChatGPT is a game changer. Users can now get up-to-date, web-crawled information — without leaving the chat.

Let’s say someone types:

• “Best productivity tools for remote teams”

• “Marketing attribution models explained”

• “Top gluten-free snacks for kids”

ChatGPT pulls product roundups, blog articles, stats — then merges it all into one clean answer. If you’re not mentioned by name in that answer, you’re invisible.

This is the future: AI engines, not just search engines.

What You Can Do Right Now

1. Audit your top-performing pages.

See which ones are triggering AIO or being referenced in ChatGPT. Watch for traffic dips that align with AI surfacing your content.

2. Add brand depth to every page.

Include branded frameworks, internal quotes, and source citations. Make your brand part of the answer.

3. Go beyond surface-level content.

Cover nuanced topics, add context and examples. AI struggles to summarize what’s not commoditized.

4. Invest in rich media and tools.

Interactive calculators, video explainers, community experiences — this is content AI can’t (yet) replicate well.

5. Submit llms.txt and add JSON-LD.

Make sure your site is optimized for AI agents, not just search crawlers. Think LLM visibility, not just Googlebot.

6. Prioritize bottom-of-funnel content.

Product demos, case studies, onboarding previews, ROI calculators — these are hard for AI to summarize and often high-converting.

7. Build a direct audience.

This is your insurance policy. Use your site and social channels to turn casual visitors into subscribers, listeners, or community members.

TL;DR

We’re in a new era of search. One where AI sits between you and your customer.

One where being “ranked” isn’t enough.

And one where visibility happens inside the answer itself — not after the click.

If you want to win, you need to adapt. Fast.

Want help getting your brand noticed in AI search engines like ChatGPT and Google’s AIO?

That’s what we do at Open Forge AI.

Let’s talk. [email protected]

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