Can Small Businesses Survive Google’s AI Overview?

Forbes

Search driven traffic used to deliver visitors and sales. AI is reducing those clicks and businesses that rely on educational content are feeling it first.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonkochkodin/2025/07/31/small-business-survive-google-search-traffic-crash/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, How Small Business Can Survive Google's AI Overview

00:05For years, the formula for online business success was simple.

00:10Climb the search rankings in Google, and or shell out for ads on the dominant search site to drive traffic.

00:17But Google's AI Overviews, rolled out in May 2024, are dramatically cutting clicks to websites

00:23by delivering answers, instead of links, at the top of the search page.

00:28Knowledge-driven businesses, like consultancies, publishers, and e-learning platforms, have felt it first.

00:35Local outfits, think diners, plumbers, or carpenters, have mostly yet to feel the pain

00:40as their customers arrive through location-based searches.

00:44But time is running short for them, too, warn Search Engine Optimization, or SEO,

00:50consultants who work with small businesses.

00:51Internet veteran Andrew Shotland, who founded Local SEO Guide way back in 2006,

00:58says he's already seeing the hit on small businesses that have relied on educational content

01:03to bring prospective customers to their websites.

01:06He points to a law firm client that has traditionally gotten heavy traffic from queries like, quote,

01:11Is CarSex legal in Alabama?

01:14Google that question today, and you're likely to get an AI Overview that discusses public lewdness

01:19under Alabama Code Title 13A and Class C misdemeanors, with attribution, perhaps, to Fine Law and Justia Law.

01:27While that sort of overview doesn't produce much traffic for Fine Law and Justia,

01:32it has reduced the clicks Shotland's client is getting, even though it still turns up in the search results.

01:37Those missing clicks matter.

01:40Without them, businesses lose a direct connection with potential customers.

01:45No website visit means no opportunity to tell their story, build credibility, or make a pitch.

01:50Yet that decline can be easy to miss.

01:53That's because companies track impressions or web ranking.

01:57Perversely, both might look fine or even improve.

02:00In fact, Google AI Overviews can boost impressions, how often a site appears in search results.

02:07This happens when the AI generates a summary or snippet that includes the site's link, making it visible to users.

02:14Even if the AI pulls information from the site without users visiting it,

02:18the site's appearance in the AI Overview counts as an impression.

02:22However, clicks, the actual visits to a business's site,

02:26decline because users often find enough information in the AI summary and don't need to click through.

02:33The site still ranks, but users aren't clicking, which is what counts.

02:38Seer Interactive reports a 70% drop in organic click-through rates when AI Overviews appear.

02:44Pew Research Center found that users click traditional links at just half the rate when a search produces an AI summary,

02:51as when it doesn't,

02:52and that just 1% of Google searches that show an AI summary actually result in a click on a link embedded within that summary.

03:00Consultant Bain & Company puts it like this,

03:03quote,

03:03According to Bain, 80% of consumers are relying on so-called zero-click results at least 40% of the time.

03:14It's hard to overstate the importance of online searches for merchants.

03:18In 2022, research firm Forrester estimated that 59% of all retail transactions had a digital component,

03:26meaning the sale either happened online or the customer researched the product or company online first before buying at a physical location.

03:34That translated into $2.7 trillion in revenue.

03:38Forrester projects that figure will grow to $3.8 trillion by 2027.

03:43So far, the biggest hit from Google's AI Overview has been to news and information sites.

03:51Ben Fisher, who runs the SEO firm Steady Demand,

03:54echoes Shotland's assessment that most small businesses haven't seen much impact yet.

04:00Both say their clients, plumbers, local restaurants, and even lawyers,

04:03are still showing up in search and still getting leads,

04:07even if some sites, like those of lawyers who rely heavily on educational content,

04:11may already be getting fewer clicks.

04:14But they're also both urging clients to start taking steps now,

04:18and they're offering some surprising advice.

04:21Even though AI summaries don't directly lead to clicks, they say,

04:24it's important that companies show up in them,

04:27meaning that they need to up their site's educational content.

04:30Shotland explains the seeming contradiction this way.

04:33Research shows people increasingly trust AI summaries,

04:36and that can change how they eventually select businesses.

04:39For full coverage, check out Brandon Cocodin's piece on Forbes.com.

04:47This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:49Thanks for tuning in.

04:51Thanks for tuning in.

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