Organic traffic and Google: what’s happening with AI
Google says its AI features still send billions of clicks to websites every week, while queries get longer and Search Console launches reports to measure AI visibility. I analyse what’s changing and how to adapt your strategy.
Published on · Updated on · 11 min read
Artificial intelligence is changing the way people use Google.
But there’s a question that particularly worries those working in SEO:
Is AI reducing the organic traffic Google sends to websites?
The answer isn’t that simple.
Google states that its new AI features are increasing Search usage and that, at the same time, they continue to send billions of clicks to websites every week.
What’s more, Google has created new reports in Search Console to measure the visibility of pages within features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.
This means SEO isn’t disappearing.
But it is changing how we need to measure visibility, traffic and the value of appearing on Google. If you’re starting from scratch, begin with the roundup of 10 official Google data points on SEO and AI.
Is organic traffic falling because of AI?
It’s one of the most repeated questions in SEO.
When Google shows an AI-generated answer directly in the results, it seems logical to think that the user can get the information without visiting any website.
However, Google offers a different view.
According to Google, AI features are designed to also show relevant links to websites and to make it easier for users to continue exploring information.
In its official documentation, Google explains that AI Overviews and AI Mode can show a broader and more diverse set of useful links thanks, among other things, to the technique known as query fan-out.
This technique allows several related searches on different subtopics to be performed in order to build an answer.
So AI doesn’t necessarily eliminate the search engine’s role as a gateway to a website.
It’s transforming it.
Google says it still sends billions of clicks to websites
This is one of the most important data points for understanding the current landscape.
Official Google data: Google states that its AI features are sending billions of clicks to websites every week.
The data was shared by Google in its communication about the 2026 Search results.
Google also states that AI-based features are generating an incremental increase in search queries.
This is important because it changes a common interpretation:
More AI on Google doesn’t automatically mean fewer searches.
According to Google, the use of these new experiences is making people search more.
In other words, behaviour is evolving in two directions at the same time:
- Some answers can be resolved directly inside Google.
- Other searches are more complex and can generate new opportunities for websites.
Users are making more complex searches
One of the keys to understanding the change lies in how people search.
AI Mode allows much longer and more specific questions.
Google has indicated that AI Mode queries are, on average, approximately three times longer than traditional searches.
This connects directly with the change in search intent.
Before, a person might perform several separate searches:
- what to visit in London
- best areas of London
- hotel near central London
- what to do in London with kids
With a conversational experience, they can pose a much more complete question.
For example:
«I’m going to London for three days with two children, I want to stay near the centre and visit places that don’t require long journeys. Which area would you recommend and how would you organise the trip?»
The query contains much more context.
And that has consequences for SEO. If you want to dig deeper into this change, you can read our article on AI Mode searches and their greater length.
Search intent becomes more important
For years, an important part of SEO work consisted of identifying keywords.
That’s still useful. You can review the basics in what a keyword is and how to choose keywords with criteria.
But a strategy based solely on keywords falls short when faced with more complex queries.
Now we also need to understand:
- what the user wants to achieve;
- what information they need to make a decision;
- what context they have;
- what doubts appear afterwards;
- what alternatives they’re considering;
- and what action they can take after getting the answer.
This makes search intent carry even more weight within an SEO strategy.
Instead of creating a page for every small variation of a keyword, it can be more useful to create resources that fully cover a specific problem. A good SEO content plan in 5 steps helps you decide which pages deserve to exist and which don’t.
In our series on AI and SEO we also analyse how search intent is changing with AI Mode.
AI can also discover pages that previously didn’t get as much visibility
There’s another interesting aspect.
Google explains that AI Overviews and AI Mode can use a technique called query fan-out.
The system can split a complex question into different subtopics and perform related searches.
It can then identify pages that provide useful information for different parts of the answer.
This can expand the number of sources used to answer a query.
For a website, this means the opportunity isn’t necessarily limited to ranking for a single main keyword.
A page can provide useful information about different aspects of a question.
That’s why building content with topical depth becomes important. If you want to reinforce that part, review how to optimise your website for AI (GEO).
What does this mean for organic traffic?
Here it’s worth separating several metrics.
Visibility isn’t exactly the same as clicks.
A page can appear as a source or link within an AI experience without that producing the same behaviour as a traditional position in the results.
That’s why we shouldn’t analyse SEO by looking only at the total number of sessions.
We should also study:
| Metric | What we should analyse |
|---|---|
| Impressions | How many times our content appears on Google. |
| Clicks | How many visits come from search results. |
| CTR | What proportion of impressions end up generating a click (how to improve CTR on Google). |
| Conversions | Whether the traffic generates contacts, sales, sign-ups or other actions. |
| Time on page | Whether users find useful content after the click. |
| AI visibility | Which pages appear in Google’s generative experiences. |
This last dimension has been especially important since 2026.
Search Console changes how visibility is measured
Google has introduced new generative AI performance reports in Search Console.
Since 31 August 2026, these reports have been available for websites worldwide.
The reports allow you to analyse the presence of URLs in Google’s generative features.
The available data includes:
- impressions;
- pages appearing in AI features;
- countries;
- devices;
- trends over time.
This represents an important change for SEO professionals.
Until now, many external tools tried to estimate a website’s presence in generative answers.
Now Google offers its own data inside Search Console.
Here you can read our analysis of Search Console and visibility in generative AI.
Google also says clicks from AI Overviews can be higher quality
This point deserves attention.
Google states that it has observed that clicks coming from results pages with AI Overviews can be of higher quality.
According to Google, those users are more likely to spend longer on the site.
This doesn’t mean that all sites will receive more traffic.
Nor does it mean that all clicks coming from AI have a better behaviour.
It’s an observation communicated by Google about the behaviour it has observed.
For SEO, the practical consequence is interesting:
The goal shouldn’t be to get any click, but to get traffic that has the right intent and can turn into a valuable action. This principle connects with what we analyse in SEO and GEO content that ranks and converts.
Traditional SEO remains important
It may seem contradictory.
Search is incorporating more and more AI, but Google still recommends the same SEO basics.
Google expressly states that recommended SEO practices remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode. You can see the complete analysis in is traditional SEO still working with artificial intelligence?.
There is no special optimisation that guarantees appearing in these features.
Google recommends maintaining fundamentals such as:
- useful and reliable content;
- content created for people;
- a good page experience (Core Web Vitals: what they are and how to improve them);
- important content available as text;
- quality images and videos when they add value;
- internal linking;
- structured data consistent with visible content (checking that schema works);
- correct indexing.
So it doesn’t seem that SEO is being replaced by a completely different discipline.
Rather, we’re seeing an evolution of the same ecosystem.
Generic content may face more difficulties
Google’s evolution also changes the value of certain content.
If a page simply repeats basic information that appears on hundreds of sites, it can be harder to give the user a clear reason to visit it.
That’s why providing your own information is becoming increasingly important. This principle connects with the criteria of E-E-A-T: experience, authority and trust in Google.
For example:
- real experiences;
- your own data;
- case studies;
- original comparisons;
- analysis;
- concrete examples;
- step-by-step processes;
- opinions based on professional experience.
The goal isn’t to write more for the sake of it.
It’s to offer something that really adds value.
Should we worry about organic traffic?
The right answer depends on each site.
There’s no universal behaviour.
A news portal, an online shop, a SaaS, a local website and a specialised blog can be affected in different ways.
That’s why it makes no sense to assume that:
«AI is killing organic traffic».
But it would also be wrong to assume that everything will stay exactly the same.
What we can state, based on official Google information, is that the ecosystem is changing.
Google is incorporating AI into search.
Users are making more complex queries.
AI Mode has already passed one billion monthly users according to Google.
And Google states that its AI features continue to generate billions of clicks towards websites every week.
The question for each SEO project is to determine how its own traffic is changing.
What you should do if you have a website
If you have a project that depends on organic traffic, this is a good moment to review your strategy.
Analyse the pages that generate business
Not all visits have the same value. Identify which pages generate contacts, sales, sign-ups or any other important conversion.
Review search intent
Check whether your content really answers the questions users are asking. Don’t just focus on the keyword. You can dig deeper with the complete on-page SEO guide.
Reinforce original information
Add data, examples, experiences and analysis that differentiate your content.
Build a topic architecture
Connect content through internal links. A main page can link to more specific content and these can return topical authority to the main page. A good example is local SEO on Google Maps.
Measure AI visibility
Use the new Search Console reports to find out which URLs appear in Google’s generative features.
Don’t abandon technical SEO
Indexing, crawling, internal links, page experience, accessible content and a clear structure remain important. To be sure, review how to create robots.txt and sitemap XML correctly.
Analyse traffic beyond sessions
Look at conversions, engagement, revenue and post-click behaviour. If you need a solid foundation, start with a complete SEO audit in 7 steps.
A drop in certain visits doesn’t necessarily mean an equivalent drop in traffic value.
What AI really changes in SEO
The most important change may not be in traffic volume.
It may be in how search happens.
People can move from performing several short searches to formulating a much more complete question.
Google can split that question into different subtopics.
The answer can incorporate information from multiple pages.
And the user can ask follow-up questions within the same experience.
This means SEO has to think less about a single isolated query.
And more about the set of needs a person has during their search process.
The strategy shifts from:
«Which keyword do I want to rank for?»
to questions like:
«What problem is the user trying to solve?»
«What information will they need next?»
«What original content can I offer them?»
Conclusion: organic traffic doesn’t disappear, but it changes
Artificial intelligence is modifying Google.
But current data doesn’t indicate that the search engine has stopped sending traffic to websites.
Google states that its AI features are driving Search usage and sending billions of clicks to websites every week.
At the same time, queries are getting longer and more complex.
And Search Console is adding new tools to measure visibility within generative experiences.
For SEO professionals, this implies an important evolution.
The goal should no longer be just to get a position.
You need to achieve visibility, provide useful information, generate clicks when the user needs to dig deeper and turn that traffic into real results for the business.
SEO remains relevant. You can review it from scratch in what SEO is and why it remains the foundation of everything.
But search is evolving.
And our way of measuring it has to evolve too. If you want to broaden the approach, review the differences between SEO, GEO and AEO and multimodal search on Google.
Do you want to adapt your strategy to the new organic traffic with AI? I work with businesses across the UK auditing the real impact on their traffic, measuring AI visibility from Search Console and redesigning content, architecture and measurement. Tell me about your case and I’ll reply within 48 hours.
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