For years, the formula for the success of online business was simple: ascending in the Google search ranking or investing in ads in the main search engine to generate traffic. But the general views (overview) of Google, launched in May 2024, are drastically reducing clicks on websites by showing answers, instead of links, at the top of the search page.
Knowledge -based companies (consultants, editorials and electronic learning platforms) have been the first to suffer it. Local businesses (such as restaurants, plumbers or carpenters) have not yet noticed the consequences of the AI overview, since its customers arrive through location -based searches. But time also urges for them, warn the search engine optimization consultants (SEO) that work with small businesses.
The Internet veteran Andrew Shotland, who founded local Seo Guide in 2006, says he is already seeing the impact on small businesses that have depended on the educational content to attract potential customers to their websites. He mentions a client of a law firm who has traditionally received a lot of traffic with consultations such as “Is sex in the car in Alabama?” If you are looking for that question on Google today, you will probably get an overview that analyzes public lasciviousness according to title 13 of the Alabama Code and minor crimes of class C, possibly attributed to Findlaw and Justia Law. While this type of general vision does not generate much traffic for Findlaw and Justia, it has reduced the clicks that the Shotland client receives, although it still appears in the search results.
Those lost clicks are important. Without them, companies lose a direct connection with potential customers. Not visiting a website means losing the opportunity to tell its history, generating credibility or presenting a proposal. However, that descent can easily unnoticed. This is because companies monitor impressions or web positioning. Unfortunately, both might seem correct or even improve. In fact, Google’s general views can increase impressions (the frequency with which a site appears in the search results). This occurs when AI generates a summary or fragment that includes the site link, making it visible to users. Even if the AI extracts information from the site without the users visiting it, its appearance in the general view of the account as an impression. However, clicks (real visits to the company’s website) decrease because users usually find enough information in the AI summary and do not need to click. The site continues to position, but users do not click, which is what counts.
Read more: the reluctance of some people with AI is similar to the concern of vegans about the diet: veganism AI
How small businesses can survive Google’s AI ‘overView’
Seer Interactive reports a 70% drop in organic click rates when AI summaries appear. The Pew Research Center discovered that users click on traditional links only half of times when a search generates a summary of AI that when it does not, and that only 1% of those who see a summary of AI really click on an integrated link in that summary. “The search without clicks redefines marketing,” says the consultant Bain & Company. According to Bain, 80% of consumers trust the results without clicking at least 40% of the time.
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of online searches for merchants. In 2022, the Forrester research firm estimated that 59 % of all retail transactions had a digital component, which means that the sale was made online or that the customer investigated the product or the online company before buying in a physical store. This translated into 2.7 billion dollars in income. Forrester projects that this figure will increase to 3.8 billion dollars by 2027.
Until now, the greatest impact of Google’s AI overview has been on news and information sites. Ben Fisher, director of Seo Steady Demand’s firm, coincides with Shotland’s assessment that most small businesses have not yet experienced a great impact. Both affirm that their clients – Fontaneros, local restaurants and even lawyers – continue to appear in searches and get potential customers, although some sites (such as lawyers who depend largely on educational content) are already receiving less clicks.
But they also urge their clients to start taking measures now. And they offer surprising advice: although the summaries of AI do not generate clicks directly, they claim, it is important that companies appear in them, which means that they must improve the educational content of their websites.
Shotland explains this apparent contradiction in this way: research shows that people are increasingly trusting in AI summaries, and that can change their way of selecting companies. Therefore, appearing in a summary presumably has a halo effect. Companies that appear in these summaries can get less clicks than before AI, when they simply appeared in the first search results. But they can also be obtaining higher quality leads, since those who click after reading a summary can take more seriously a topic or be closer to buying, especially a validated source for the AI summary. The problem is that the quality of a lead is difficult to measure. Clicks, on the other hand, are easy to count. As Shotland admits, trying to convince customers that less clicks could be better is a difficult strategy to convince.
What should companies do now? Fisher recommends that they take responsibility for how they appear in the summaries generated by AI. This begins with reputation management. Make sure your chips are precise and correct the incorrect or deceitful summaries. In other words, ask about your company and ask questions related to the content, and see what AI produces.
Fisher gives the example of his own company, which was poorly represented in a general description of Google AI due to a Reddit publication on another company in which his company was mentioned. He sent comments and corrected the summary (you can do it by clicking on the “Like” button in a general description and then reporting a problem “in the emerging window). This type of diligence, he says, is more important than ever. “The content of its website, as well as the content and narrative found on the Internet, are really important to enrich AI’s general description,” he says.
Shotland states that companies should also avoid blocking AI trackers, as this could prevent them from appearing in summaries. In addition, it recommends exploring list format and other formats, such as videos, which seem to function well in the summaries of AI.
In summary: most small businesses do not face an immediate crisis for Google’s summaries, but as these summaries capture more user attention, they could weaken the control of companies about their marketing and connection with consumers, especially if they do not adapt. Adjust the content for AI summaries, correct inaccuracies and develop traffic sources beyond searches (for example, create content for YouTube or Tiktok) could maintain its competitiveness. Acting now gives them an advantage in the changing world of searches driven by AI.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
You may be interested: Trump impulse for more deportations could increase the demand for foreign agricultural workers with ‘guest worker’ visas
