How much has AI search affected your organic traffic? Sharing real numbers

E-commerce brand, home goods category.

Our numbers:

Traffic:

• Organic sessions: -19% YoY
• Product page traffic: -12%
• Blog/informational traffic: -34%

Rankings:

• Core product terms: Stable
• Informational keywords: Stable to improved

Conversions:

• Organic conversion rate: +28%
• Organic revenue: -3% (almost flat despite traffic drop)
• Average order value: +8%

The interpretation:

Informational seekers are getting answers from AI. Product researchers who DO click through are more qualified. Conversion rate improvement almost compensates for traffic loss.

Key insight:

Track revenue and conversions, not just traffic. The traffic we’re losing wasn’t converting well anyway.

Large digital publisher, multiple content verticals.

Our reality is rougher:

Traffic:

• Overall organic: -31% YoY
• News/current events: -22%
• How-to/tutorials: -41%
• Reference content: -48%

Rankings:

• Most terms: Stable or improved
• Featured snippets: We have MORE, but they click less

Revenue impact:

• Ad revenue: -29% (directly correlated to traffic)
• Subscriptions: +5% (users who come are more engaged)

The pattern:

Reference and how-to content hit hardest. AI answers those queries directly. News still gets clicks because it’s time-sensitive.

What we’re doing:

• Investing in original reporting (AI can’t replicate)
• Subscription push (direct relationship, not dependent on search)
• AI visibility monitoring to understand where we ARE being cited

Great data. The conversion rate improvement is consistent with what we’re seeing.

Question: Anyone tracking the correlation between AI visibility and these changes?

B2B software company here.

Our data:

Traffic by content type:

• Product pages: -8% (minimal impact)
• Feature pages: -15%
• Blog (thought leadership): -22%
• Blog (how-to): -35%
• Documentation: -42%

The pattern:

Bottom-of-funnel pages more resilient. Top-of-funnel informational content hit hard.

Lead generation:

• Organic leads: -12%
• Lead quality score: +18%
• Sales cycle: -15% (shorter)

Net impact:

Fewer leads but better leads. Sales team actually happier. Pipeline value roughly flat.

My interpretation:

AI is filtering out tire-kickers at the top of funnel. Serious prospects still come through.

What we changed:

• Less focus on high-volume informational keywords
• More focus on problem-aware, solution-seeking content
• AI visibility monitoring (Am I Cited) to track brand presence

Healthcare / YMYL sector perspective.

Our numbers:

Traffic:

• Overall organic: -26%
• Symptom/condition info: -45%
• Treatment info: -32%
• Provider/service pages: -8%

The YMYL factor:

Google is very careful with health content in AI Overviews. They’re showing less of it, but when they do, they cite authoritative sources.

Our experience:

When we ARE cited in AI health responses, we see qualified traffic spikes. AI seems selective about which health sources to trust.

Conversion:

Appointment requests from organic: -5% (much better than traffic decline suggests)

The strategy:

Double down on E-E-A-T. Author credentials, medical review, source citations. If AI is being selective, we want to be in that select group.

What we monitor:

AI visibility for health queries specifically. We’re at ~35% citation rate for our specialty, which is high for the category.

Local business (service industry) perspective.

Different story for local:

Traffic:

• Organic website traffic: -15%
• Google Business Profile views: +22%
• “Near me” queries: Stable

The local search reality:

AI Overviews are less dominant for local queries. Users still want to see local business options, reviews, locations.

What’s shifted:

More visibility happening in Google Maps and Business Profile rather than website. But overall discovery is stable or up.

Revenue:

Call and booking volume: +8% YoY

Local businesses:

May be less affected by AI search changes. The local intent still drives real-world actions.

My focus:

Google Business Profile optimization. That’s where local AI responses pull from.

I help companies navigate these traffic changes. Patterns I’m seeing.

Industries most affected:

• Publishers / media (-25 to -40%)
• How-to / tutorial sites (-30 to -45%)
• Reference / informational (-35 to -50%)
• Affiliate / review sites (-20 to -40%)

Industries less affected:

• E-commerce product pages (-10 to -20%)
• Local services (-5 to -15%)
• B2B (bottom funnel) (-5 to -15%)
• Brand-focused sites (-5 to -15%)

The pattern:

Transactional intent > navigational intent > informational intent in terms of resilience.

What I recommend:

1. Accept some decline is structural
2. Focus on quality metrics not just volume
3. Monitor AI visibility alongside organic rankings
4. Optimize for AI citations where possible
5. Build direct channels as traffic hedge

The perspective shift:

Stop trying to “recover” old traffic levels. Optimize for the new reality.

Executive perspective on how to frame this.

The old report: “Organic traffic down 25%. Action: More content production.”

The new report: “Organic traffic down 25%, but conversion rate up 20%, pipeline from organic stable. AI visibility at 32% and growing.”

What leadership needs to understand:

Traffic ≠ value. In the AI era:

• Less traffic can mean same value (better quality)
• AI visibility is a new metric to track
• Conversion optimization matters more than ever

Our dashboard now includes:

1. Organic traffic (context: declining is expected)
2. Organic conversion rate (should improve)
3. Organic pipeline/revenue (the real goal)
4. AI visibility score (new metric)
5. Brand search volume (indicates awareness)

The strategic shift:

We’re not doing “SEO for traffic.” We’re doing “visibility for revenue.” Different metrics, different optimization.

How to properly measure this in analytics.

The attribution challenge:

Users might:

1. See your brand in AI response
2. Later search for you directly
3. Convert

That conversion is branded traffic, not organic. But AI visibility drove it.

What to track:

• Organic non-brand: The pure SEO metric (this is declining)
• Organic branded: Brand search (watch for increases)
• Direct: Could be AI-influenced awareness
• AI referrals: When platforms send traffic (Perplexity does this)

The correlation analysis:

Compare AI visibility trends to branded search volume. We’ve seen clear correlation - higher AI visibility → higher brand search.

The full picture:

Organic non-brand down, but branded + AI awareness up, often nets out to similar total value.

Measurement recommendation:

Don’t just report organic traffic decline. Report the full visibility picture including AI metrics.

Aggregate view from managing 40+ client accounts.

Client distribution:

• 35% seeing significant traffic decline (>25%)
• 45% seeing moderate decline (10-25%)
• 15% seeing minor decline (<10%)
• 5% seeing traffic increase (AI visibility winners)

Common factor in least-affected:

Strong brand presence, high authority, AI-optimized content structure.

Common factor in most-affected:

Generic content, informational focus, low brand differentiation.

What we’re doing for all clients:

1. Adding AI visibility monitoring (Am I Cited)
2. Restructuring content for AI extraction
3. Building E-E-A-T signals
4. Shifting KPIs from traffic to conversion value
5. Tracking AI visibility as core metric

The honest conversation:

We’ve had to reset expectations with clients. “Traffic will likely decline. Here’s how we’ll maintain or grow value.”

The projections.

Industry forecasts:

• Gartner: 50% organic traffic decline by 2028
• Various SEO platforms: 25-40% decline by end of 2026
• The trend is clear and accelerating

The new normal:

This isn’t a temporary dip. It’s structural change in how users find information.

What the data suggests:

Sites adapting (AI visibility focus, quality optimization, conversion focus) are buffering the decline.

Sites not adapting are seeing the worst of it.

The opportunity:

As competitors drop out or struggle, the survivors gain share. It’s a challenging transition but the endpoint is sustainable.

Incredible data from this community.

Summary of what I’m seeing:

Traffic changes (typical range):

• Informational content: -30 to -45%
• Transactional content: -10 to -20%
• Local content: -5 to -15%

Conversion changes:

• Generally improving (+10 to +30%)
• Traffic quality is higher
• Revenue often more stable than traffic suggests

The correlation:

• Higher AI visibility = smaller traffic decline
• AI visibility = brand awareness buffer

My action items:

1. Reframe reporting - Add conversion value, AI visibility alongside traffic
2. Set up Am I Cited - Need AI visibility data
3. Optimize for citations - Content structure for AI extraction
4. Track branded search - Indicator of AI-driven awareness
5. Accept new normal - Plan for continued structural shift

The mindset:

This isn’t about “recovering” traffic. It’s about maximizing value from the traffic we do get + building AI visibility.

Thanks everyone for sharing real data!