For over 20 years, Search Engine Optimization (website positioning) has been the cornerstone of digital visibility, spawning a whole business round rating excessive on search outcomes pages. The aim was to look as excessive as attainable within the first web page of outcomes on Google. However shopper habits are altering: publishers report a 30%-50% decline in natural site visitors coming from Google, as they substituted internet search with LLM Chatbots or Google’s personal AI summaries (and more moderen AI search mode), making the necessity to click on on an exterior hyperlink, redundant.
Automated site visitors accounts for 51% of all web site visitors, with malicious bots constituting 37%.
2025 Imperva Dangerous Bot Report (supply)
This variation in shopper habits and the rise of AI autonomous brokers who can carry out actions on behalf of a person together with internet shopping, is resulting in a brand new paradigm that’s being known as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This shift raises a query for traders and founders: will GEO finally displace website positioning as the first driver of web site site visitors? And if AI bots already include 51% of internet site visitors, will the GEO be directed at people or AI Brokers?
The Plain Shopper Behaviour Shift… However Not But Displacement
Shopper habits are evolving, displaying a transparent motion in the direction of AI-driven discovery. Two years in the past (in June 2023), I’ve printed a put up on VC Cafe about how search is being reinvented with generative AI. That evolution is going on quicker than anybody has predicted with the introduction of ChatGPT’s internet search and operator, the rising recognition of Perplexity and the rise of ‘analysis brokers’ that are capable of produce deep analysis reviews without cost or for a small charge.
Capgemini’s 2025 report discovered that 58% of customers choose product suggestions from GenAI instruments over conventional search engines like google and yahoo, with 68% ready to behave on these suggestions. Conversations with practitioners counsel 90% of B2B patrons are utilizing AI to analysis purchases. We’re additionally seeing a decline in conventional Google searches, together with a phenomenon famous for the primary time in 22 years: Google searches in Apple’s Safari browser declined within the final month.
This reliance on AI is immediately impacting conventional search experiences. Google itself is contributing to this modification with AI Overviews that dominate search outcomes and sometimes present synthesised solutions, decreasing the necessity for customers to click on by to web sites. Within the newest Google IO, Google went additional than AI overviews by introducing a brand new paradigm for search known as ‘AI Mode‘ through which customers are capable of ask questions of their search outcomes. Try the video beneath for a demo:
Research point out that customers discover all the knowledge they want with out leaving the search outcomes web page in as much as 64% of searches, resulting in declining web site site visitors from Google. AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are rising as “reply engines” that may completely bypass conventional search outcomes. If a enterprise isn’t showing in these AI-generated solutions, potential clients could by no means uncover them, even when they rank nicely in conventional search outcomes. With AI mode, it’s probably that the variety of individuals clicking on the exterior sources will go down even additional.
Nevertheless, current information offers a extra nuanced image of the present site visitors panorama. In response to a 24-month examine evaluating the highest 10 search engines like google and yahoo and high 10 AI chatbots (April 2023 – March 2025):
- AI chatbots have seen a exceptional surge in site visitors, with a YoY progress of 80.92% from Apr 2024 to Mar 2025, totaling 55.2 billion visits.
- Engines like google skilled a YoY decline of 0.51% in the identical interval, with whole visits falling to 1.86 trillion.
- Regardless of the speedy progress of AI chatbots, chatbot site visitors accounted for under 2.96% of the full visits of search engines like google and yahoo over the previous 12 months. To place it one other method, chatbots generated 34 instances fewer visits than search engines like google and yahoo from Apr 2024 to Mar 2025.
- In March 2025, search engines like google and yahoo nonetheless noticed roughly 5.5 billion day by day visits, whereas chatbots had solely about 233.1 million, creating an nearly 24X hole in person engagement.
- Evaluating the leaders, ChatGPT nonetheless sees roughly 26 instances much less day by day site visitors than Google.
This information makes the conclusion clear: AI chatbots should not (but) changing conventional search engines like google and yahoo. They’re rising explosively and reshaping how customers work together with info, however they at the moment lag far behind search engines like google and yahoo by way of whole site visitors quantity.
Why website positioning Alone is No Longer Ample (for AI Visibility)
Whereas conventional search engines like google and yahoo nonetheless dominate site visitors quantity, their function is evolving, and website positioning alone is inadequate for visibility within the AI-driven components of the search panorama. Conventional website positioning techniques, centered on key phrases and backlinks, solely affect about 30% of AI visibility. Analysis signifies that classical website positioning strategies like key phrase stuffing supply little to no enchancment on AI engine responses. In distinction, GEO, which optimises content material for generative engines, can enhance visibility by as much as 40% in AI engine responses.
In a nutshell, manufacturers care about how they seem on LLMs, each by way of discoverability of the manufacturers and its numerous SKUs, but in addition by way of shopper sentiment, aggressive panorama and being the ‘really useful’ resolution. For instance, when you take ‘Nike’ – they’d like to know all the above for each main product they promote, throughout the preferred LLMs, in addition to what responses come up for questions like ‘what’s the finest/coolest sneaker mannequin’.
The core distinction between website positioning and GEO is in optimisation technique: conventional website positioning depends on key phrases and backlinks, whereas GEO depends extra on intent and context or reminiscence. Generative engines personalise content material supply based mostly on previous interactions and preferences, that means manufacturers successfully addressing particular buyer profiles usually tend to seem in AI options. This makes GEO about not simply displaying up, however making certain correct and beneficial portrayal inside personalised suggestions.
The Present Actuality: Coexistence and Adaptation
Regardless of the clear shift in person habits and the restrictions of conventional website positioning for AI visibility, conventional website positioning is dying out completely. It is because AI engines nonetheless depend on underlying search infrastructure for content material discovery. ChatGPT makes use of Bing’s indexing system, so pages not listed by Bing gained’t seem in its responses. Google’s AI Overviews depend on Google’s search infrastructure, and up to date evaluation discovered a robust correlation (0.65) between Google key phrase rankings and the chance of a web page being cited by AI fashions, notably Google AI Overviews. Subsequently, the present actuality is: you want GEO along with website positioning. GEO is rising as website positioning’s “important companion”.
Furthermore, search engines like google and yahoo are actively adapting by integrating AI options themselves. Google’s resurgence in month-to-month site visitors since late 2024 aligns with increasing AI-driven options like AI Overviews and SGE. Microsoft Bing’s important progress displays its AI-first strategy and Copilot integration. Even Yahoo’s decline is attributed to its slowness in adopting AI options. This implies that reasonably than being changed, search engines like google and yahoo are evolving.
Nevertheless, the information additionally reveals the consequence of not adapting. Firms with out an AI visibility technique are seeing double-digit site visitors decreases from search engines like google and yahoo. Ignoring GEO will probably result in a gradual decline in visibility and relevance and reducing site visitors from search engines like google and yahoo. The search panorama is transferring from “discover info” to “get solutions”, and GEO is about making certain your enterprise is a part of these solutions. Specialists agree that AI chatbots should not changing search however are “redefining the time period” or “converging with it”.
The Way forward for Discoverability and Site visitors Sources
Whereas website positioning and GEO at the moment coexist, the development factors in the direction of AI-driven discovery changing into more and more dominant over time.
Your complete advertising and marketing funnel is beginning to occur throughout the chat atmosphere, with customers doubtlessly transferring from consciousness to conversion with out leaving the chatbot. A January 2025 survey discovered that 71% of customers wished GenAI built-in into their purchasing expertise. This implies that a good portion of future industrial site visitors may originate inside these conversational interfaces.
Competitors for visibility can also be altering, transferring from 10 choices on a conventional search outcomes web page to perhaps 2-5 manufacturers talked about in a concise AI reply. Whereas this intensifies competitors for these high spots, GEO additionally affords a extra stage taking part in subject than conventional website positioning by prioritizing content material relevance to person intent over backlinks, which traditionally favored giant enterprises. Semrush’s evaluation in early 2025 recommended that extra domains are benefiting from ChatGPT referrals over time, indicating a broader distribution of site visitors throughout the net.
AI Discoverability options are rising, broadly categorized into Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), AI Promoting, and AI Discoverability Infrastructure. The vast majority of startups are centered on the GEO house. GEO suppliers assist manufacturers optimize by establishing and operating artificial queries, analyzing AI responses for visibility, accuracy, sentiment, and citations, and offering suggestions or performing actions like content material technology or optimizing for Agentic Expertise (AX). AX ensures AI brokers can simply entry and precisely painting web site content material. Successful GEO propositions are constructing proprietary strategies to grasp person queries, context, and personas. The long run probably includes “Analytics + Motion,” the place suppliers not solely supply insights but in addition carry out the optimization, together with end-to-end advertising and marketing and AX. Content material freshness and high quality are paramount, as 51% of articles cited by AI engines have been printed throughout the final 90 days.
One other rising space is AI Promoting. Whereas platforms like Google AI mode and Perplexity are rolling out sponsored content material, that is seen as complementary to GEO, not a substitute, very similar to how Google Advertisements didn’t kill website positioning. ChatGPT can also be rumoured to be working by itself advert community to be proven alongside outcomes, although nothing has but been introduced.
Under are two current startup landscapes within the GEO house, printed by A16Z and MMC Ventures previously month:
Conclusion: Adaptation and Co-Evolution
Will GEO fully displace website positioning as the largest supply of site visitors? to this point the reply is not any, not but. Engines like google nonetheless deal with the overwhelming majority of internet site visitors. Nevertheless, the shift is plain and accelerating. AI-driven discovery is quickly gaining prominence and is the place a rising share of person consideration and future interactions, notably conversational ones spanning the advertising and marketing funnel, will reside.
Ignoring GEO just isn’t a viable long-term technique. Firms that adapt shortly by creating useful, useful content material optimized for generative engines, specializing in intent and context, and making certain their content material is well discoverable by AI brokers (AX), will keep visibility and guarantee they’re a part of the solutions AI offers. This adaptation requires understanding that the sport is altering from “discover info” through hyperlinks to “get solutions” through dialog.
At Remagine Ventures, we’ve made an funding on this house which is at the moment nonetheless in stealth. Based by an skilled crew, they perceive that for corporations to be accessible by brokers who need to carry out actions on behalf of customers through LLMs, one thing wants to vary. I’m excited to share extra about them sooner or later.
For founders and VCs, the chance lies in constructing the instruments and providers that assist manufacturers navigate this transition. Probably the most compelling GEO corporations may transcend evaluation to develop into the system of document for a model’s interplay with the AI layer, doubtlessly representing a wedge into broader efficiency advertising and marketing. The timing is important as search behaviour is shifting, and those that place manufacturers to be remembered and referenced by the fashions maintain a major aggressive benefit. The query isn’t whether or not AI will impression site visitors, however how companies will guarantee they’re seen and referenced within the coming AI-first world. The search engine panorama is quickly evolving, and platforms that fail to adapt by incorporating AI-driven options danger being left behind.
I am a former normal companion at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google’s first bodily hub for startups.
I am additionally the founding father of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing collectively the startup ecosystem on biking challenges in help of Room to Learn. Since inception in 2012 we have constructed 11 colleges and 50 libraries within the creating world.
