Has AI and social media killed search engine marketing in 2025? Not even shut. 

Right here’s the factor: on one aspect, we’ve received how individuals really feel about search engine marketing today—the doom-and-gloom headlines, the panic about zero-click searches, the worry that AI has made every little thing out of date.

However alternatively, the info tells a very totally different story.

The info says search engine marketing continues to be some of the efficient methods to get in entrance of enormous audiences. It additionally performs a giant position in shaping the solutions AI assistants give to their rising consumer base.

So, let’s take a transparent have a look at what’s really going on.

To be sincere, the panic is comprehensible. AI Overviews are taking excessive of search outcomes, and also you’re dropping clicks; it’s irritating. Whereas utilizing AI to pump out content material would possibly sound like a fast answer, the fact is that everybody’s considering the identical factor.

As a substitute of directing you to web sites, Google now solutions your questions immediately on the search web page by means of AI Overviews (these AI-generated summaries on the high of outcomes).

After we final checked, AI Overviews appeared in 16% of all US searches (greater than doubled since March 2025).

AI Overviews (AIOs) have damaged the previous sample the place extra impressions normally meant extra clicks. Now, it’s widespread to see impressions go up whereas clicks go down on the similar time—the good decoupling. This shift exhibits up in what’s typically referred to as “crocodile charts” (instance under) in Google Search Console, the place the strains for impressions and clicks transfer in reverse instructions.

The influence of AIOs on web sites is huge:

Google was a librarian who pointed you towards the fitting guide. Now it’s turn into the librarian who simply tells you the reply immediately, so that you by no means want to choose up the guide.

Gen Z isn’t looking out the best way you suppose they’re. Whilst you’re optimizing for Google, 45% of Gen Z is looking out on TikTok, Instagram, and different social platforms as a substitute. Even 35% of Millennials have made this swap.

See for your self: search for any form of product overview on TikTok and examine the engagement metrics.

Why the shift? Comfort and desire:

• They need video, not articles. A 60-second TikTok overview beats a 1,500-word weblog publish each time.
• They belief actual individuals over manufacturers. Genuine consumer content material from somebody’s bed room can carry extra weight than polished advertising and marketing copy.
• They like bite-sized, visible data. Fast, digestible content material wins over long-form textual content.

Give it some thought: should you’re already spending hours on TikTok or Instagram, why go away the app to go looking on Google? It’s like asking somebody to go away their favourite espresso store to get espresso someplace else.

At this time, 74% of all new net content material is created with generative AI, that means solely about 26% is solely human-created.

That aggressive edge you constructed through the years with content material? It’s gone nearly in a single day.

Your competitor who by no means wrote a weblog publish can now pump out 50 AI-generated articles per week with an n8n automation purchased for pennies on-line.

And right here’s the kicker—they’ll nonetheless rank to your key phrases. After we analyzed the highest 20 rating pages of 100k key phrases with our AI content material detector, we discovered that solely 13.5% of the content material was pure human.

Whereas everybody’s targeted on what’s altering, it’s straightforward to overlook what’s staying the identical. Google nonetheless processes billions of searches day by day, the variety of guests who click on by means of is increased than ever, and AI assistants are dependent on the net content material that search engine marketing helps create and optimize.

Regardless of all of the AI hype, Google isn’t going anyplace.

Google nonetheless controls nearly 90% of all searches worldwide. It’s true that Google’s market share has dropped (barely) under 90% for the primary time in 20 years, however we’re nonetheless coping with search market dominance right here.

You may clearly see the dominance within the site visitors supply information. We checked about 82k websites and Google despatched 345x extra site visitors than ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mixed.

You may even see it in key phrase search volumes. Each time one thing turns into well-liked, individuals Google it.

And, paradoxically, “is search engine optimisation useless?” is being searched greater than ever—persons are actually Googling whether or not Google search is useless.

Sure, chances are you’ll get fewer clicks than earlier than. However give it some thought: the individuals who do click on by means of are those who weren’t glad with Google’s AI abstract. They need extra element, extra depth, or they’re able to take motion. This brings us to a different level.

Right here’s the silver lining: the guests you’re getting now are increased high quality than ever earlier than.

We discovered that site visitors from AI assistants generated 12% of signups whereas accounting for under 0.5% of the general site visitors. That form of traffic-to-signup ratio is unparalleled.

What’s extra, fewer individuals bounce when coming from AI assistants in comparison with natural search.

So, plainly AI customers typically fall into two teams:

1. Fast reply seekers get their wants met. These of us simply desire a quick, easy reply. If AI provides them what they want instantly, they’re glad and transfer on—no must click on by means of. This type of site visitors most likely wouldn’t have transformed anyway.
2. Deep analysis customers click on by means of. The individuals who do click on after seeing an AI abstract want greater than a primary reply. They need detailed steering, wish to strive a instrument, or are able to take motion. They’ve seen the overview and determined they want the total expertise.

AI doesn’t create authentic data; it finds and repackages present content material, a lot of which comes from Google search outcomes. Nearly all AI assistants use RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Era) to seek out data past what they already know from the info they had been skilled on.

Because of this rating excessive in Google, Bing, or Courageous search immediately will increase your probabilities of being featured in AI outcomes.

Once more, it’s all within the information:

Conventional search engine marketing turns into much more helpful as a result of it now feeds two programs: direct search site visitors and AI citations.

search engine marketing outcomes haven’t disappeared. Actual companies are nonetheless getting actual outcomes.

Content material printed years in the past continues to drive tons of free, certified site visitors. Take our key phrase analysis information—it’s nonetheless pulling in guests and producing leads even years after we hit publish. That’s the fantastic thing about search engine marketing: you create it as soon as, and it retains working.

One other search engine marketing approach, content material refreshing, nonetheless works as nicely. For example, when my colleague Louise refreshed previous content material utilizing Ahrefs AI Content material Helper, the site visitors increase was rapid and sustained. Right here’s how she did it:

Lastly, it nonetheless is smart to publish new content material as a result of it may nonetheless outperform your best hits. As an illustration, our latest examine on how AI Overviews cut back clicks generated extra site visitors within the final 3 months than our key phrase analysis information, and that information has been our high performer for years, as you’ll be able to see above.

 

In a nutshell, listed below are the important thing modifications it is best to think about:

• As a substitute of gaming algorithms, construct real authority.
• As a substitute of optimizing for one search engine, optimize for a whole discovery ecosystem.
• As a substitute of making content material simply to rank, create content material so helpful that AI programs cite you because the professional supply.

I’ll break down the main points under.

Much less site visitors doesn’t imply no site visitors. Even should you’re getting 30% fewer clicks, that’s nonetheless doubtlessly hundreds of certified guests per thirty days. It’s foolish to desert the perfect acquisition channel most corporations can entry simply because it’s not as straightforward because it used to be.

Regulate your expectations, refine your technique, however don’t throw away years of search engine marketing funding as a result of the sport received tougher.

Your model is now your most vital search engine marketing asset. Being a acknowledged, trusted, and persistently communicated model issues greater than ever as a result of AI assistants and Google desire to reference well-known, authoritative sources.

Once more, it’s all within the information:

In different phrases, when AI mentions your product time and again throughout a number of prompts, you win even with out the click on.

Let me illustrate this with Ahrefs Model Radar. Right here, I’m checking which of those undertaking administration instruments get talked about extra typically in AIOs.

As you’ll be able to see under, the model that searchers will come throughout probably the most on this case is Monday. AIOs will suggest this model in 60% of circumstances, which creates a large benefit over the competitors and a excessive likelihood that searchers will land on their web site not directly, be it by means of a hyperlink, looking out the model identify in Google, or visiting the URL immediately.

In 2025, model constructing and search engine marketing are inseparable. The businesses which might be successful are people who construct model authority whereas optimizing for search, making a flywheel the place every model point out improves search rankings, and every search rating builds extra model consciousness.

We’ve documented precisely how to do that—from figuring out the fitting model constructing alternatives to measuring your progress with particular metrics. See the entire Model search engine marketing technique.

Deep experience in your area of interest provides you extra visibility in AI overviews and search outcomes, which nonetheless closely affect client selections.

To earn lasting visibility – and never short-term visibility purchased by hacky LLM visibility tips – your model must sign to search engines like google and yahoo and LLMs that it’s an authority in matters associated to your choices for the meant viewers you serve.

Merely put, it’s about growing the probability that your target market sees your model each time they seek for matters associated to your product.

For instance, Ahrefs focuses on matters like search engine marketing, content material advertising and marketing, and aggressive intelligence as a result of that’s what our viewers cares about. By going deep on these matters—creating detailed guides, authentic analysis, and complete assets—we’ve turn into the model that AI programs cite when individuals ask search engine marketing questions.

And, as you’ll be able to see on this screenshot from our Net Analytics, it really works: AI assistants cite our content material. With out these pages, our model can be absent from the AI outcomes.

Backside line: Don’t unfold your self skinny throughout dozens of matters. Choose 5-10 carefully associated areas the place your viewers wants assist, then turn into THE definitive useful resource on every one. When AI wants an professional supply to quote, you wish to be the apparent alternative.

If AI can reply the search question in seconds, why would anybody click on by means of to your website? Go deeper:

• Free instruments: Create calculators, templates, or interactive assets. We discovered that “free instruments” key phrases didn’t expertise the identical CTR decline as different content material, even when AI Overviews had been current. Zero-click summaries weren’t sufficient; customers had a job to do and wanted the precise instrument.
• Unique information: Conduct surveys, analyze tendencies, and publish analysis that doesn’t exist anyplace else. Deep content material that showcases distinctive experiences, experience, and information naturally earns extra backlinks—one thing important for rating in aggressive areas.
• Complete guides: Be the definitive useful resource in your matter—the place individuals bookmark and return to.

Create content material so helpful that AI summaries really feel like previews, not full solutions. When somebody wants to really do one thing or get detailed steering, they’ll nonetheless must click on by means of to your website.

Folks don’t simply use Google anymore, that’s for positive.

Your potential prospects are scattered throughout platforms, every with totally different search behaviors and intentions. A buyer would possibly uncover you on TikTok, analysis you on YouTube, examine evaluations on Reddit, and solely then Google your model identify. To maintain up, the advertising and marketing world is beginning to embrace a brand new strategy: Search All over the place Optimization.

Right here’s the place your future prospects is perhaps looking out:

Right here’s a fast tactic you should utilize for Reddit: concentrate on threads that have already got visibility in Google Search.

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Web site Explorer, enter “reddit.com”, and open the Natural key phrases report.
2. Use filters: positions 1-10, key phrase contains (enter phrases associated to your website). You may choose a most popular location, too.
3. Search for related key phrases with a number of site visitors.
4. Add considerate, helpful solutions to those high-traffic threads.

In case your response is upvoted or sits close to the highest, it turns into a part of what individuals see after they land on the thread from Google. And doubtless not Google alone: based on our information, Reddit has been talked about in 12.859M AI citations, with 287% development within the final 3 months.

Last ideas

Whereas others quit on search engine marketing or preserve utilizing outdated tips, you’ll be able to construct visibility on each platform individuals use to go looking. In a nutshell:

• Construct a model individuals belief and acknowledge.
• Create content material so good, AI-generated summaries simply don’t reduce it.
• Present up the place your viewers really searches (it’s not simply Google anymore).
• Be the go-to professional in your area.

Sounds acquainted?

We commonly share updates on how AI is affecting search and what methods are working proper now. Comply with our weblog to remain forward.

Acquired questions or feedback? Discover me on LinkedIn.