Can AI Send You More Traffic?

While everyone fears AI will steal their traffic, Google's CEO just shared that the opposite is true.

 Two offhand comments  Pichai made in a Verge interview jumped out at me:

1. We’re seeing overall query growth.

2. We are definitely sending traffic to a wider range of sources and publishers.

That’s not what we thought was happening.

Why AI isn’t replacing organic or paid search

By now, about half the US population uses generative AI, including about half of non-college-educated workers, lighter users of search!

For college-educated users, AI isn’t replacing search. It’s replacing other tools we used to write code, content, presentations, or tables.

But the 2/3rds of the U.S. that isn’t college educated, and in fact, for most users, AI is more likely to be used to write a song, or make art, to help with homework, or for health/fitness/mental questions, than for work.

AI isn’t replacing organic or paid search; it’s bringing a cadre of non or light searchers in.

This has implications for sellers and for Google. As Pichai noted in the second point. To answer these new types of queries, which prior to AI weren’t very popular, Google has had to expand the number and types of sources to which it sends traffic.

Even before the advent of AI, we’ve tended to rely heavily on the small number (15%) of search queries that were “transactional” or “commercial”, versus the 60% that were “informational” (to find knowledge or answers).

Today, “Informational” is a stunning 80% of searches.

Here's why I'm optimistic about what this means

·Search is finally less of a numbers game. Gone are the days of churning out volumes of thin content. Now, it’s about clarity, expertise, and trust.

Maybe we’ll see less misinformation. If fewer people are using social media for information, hopefully, it will reduce the viral spread of bad info.

Moving from a numbers-based SEO strategy to a content-based, AI search strategy means understanding the shift in consumer behavior, including the cohort of AI users who never used Google search- they used social media, bloggers, or word-of-mouth.

What should you do to appear in AI overviews?

• Diversify your approach. Focus on content that demonstrates genuine expertise. Offer unique insights and expert commentary.

  
  

• Diversify your content. Move beyond basics -  interactive formats (tools, video) are harder for AI to summarize and more likely to drive engagement.

  
  

• Keep an eye on your marketing strategies. Platforms that drove traffic in the past may start declining in importance, and new forms of consumer engagement may start overperforming.

  
  

• Invest in consumer behavior research. Predictive analytics are backward-looking. at a pre-AI world. More frequent analysis, other sources of data, and new forms of analysis will be needed to stay competitive.

  
  

AI will send you more customers—but only if you adapt.

Maryanne Conlin is an award-winning, classically trained marketer and founder of NeuroD Marketing. She's worked with leading Fortune 500 brands, and helped over 500 clients build their businesses strategically for sustainable growth. An expert speaker and writer on marketing, she runs workshops and teaches internationally.

Contact me to learn how to optimize your marketing strategies for sustainable growth.