How is AI really changing search?

AI is changing search in a number of ways, from the volume of searches that end without a click-through to the way marketers measure success, the way users interact with search engines and, increasingly, the fact that they choose generative AI engines instead.

AI search at a glance:

• 60% of searches now end without a click
• On average, websites are seeing a 2.5% decline in traffic year-on-year
• The average ChatGPT prompt is 23 words, compared to the average Google search term of 4 words
• 70% of ChatGPT’s prompts don’t fall into Google’s search intent categories as users expect GenAI to evaluate for them (the intent is for the prompt to be ‘resolved’).  

ChatGPT is NOT outperforming Google search on conversion rate.

Zero-click search and the traffic gap

You may have heard the phrase ‘zero-click search’ – but what does it mean?

According to research from SparkToro and Datos, 60% of searches now end without a click. This limits our opportunity to turn visibility into clicks, and clicks into traffic. It puts those measuring all their success on traffic – one of marketing’s most popular vanity metrics – at a disadvantage.

Let me be clear: traffic isn’t a bad thing to track. It’s great to understand the breakdown of traffic from organic vs paid sources, track which pages are seeing the most visits, and use that traffic to learn more about your audience, the devices they’re using and how they’re spending their time on your site. But, as SparkToro’s Rand Fishkin puts it, 'you cannot be measuring the success of your job based on overall traffic growth.’

Why? Because it tells you nothing new about how visibility helps build your lead list, sales pipeline, or profit margins. It gives you no indication of how well your website is actually performing.

And, with sites seeing steady YoY declines of at least 2.5% on average, marketers hanging their hats on traffic growth will only set themselves up for disappointment. That’s why we encourage clients to set SMART goals, prioritise conversion rate, and work to maximise value from every high-intent visit.

Zero-click search forces us to get smarter about content and marketing strategy.

How is generative AI changing search and search intent?

It isn’t just traffic and the way marketers are (or should be) monitoring performance that’s changing. Generative AI is also altering the way people search, with longer-tail keywords becoming increasingly favoured. The average ChatGPT prompt, for example, is 23 words (approx. 19 words longer than your typical Google search).

That said, around 70% of these ChatGPT searches don’t fall into any of Google’s search intent categories (navigational, informational, commercial, or transactional) so it may not be a fair comparison. Semrush categorised these as ‘unknown’ – but I’d argue we’re looking at a new category of intent.

Because we use generative AI engines to draw conclusions, not just answer questions and provide options for research, navigational, informational, commercial and transactional searches can often be collapsed or collated into one response.

One could describe this new category as ‘resolved’ intent (I’m coining that – you heard it here first).

For example, a query like ‘what’s the best CRM for a SaaS company?’ used to trigger multiple searches and comparisons. Now, users expect a single response that explains, compares, recommends, AND helps them justify their decision – all in one. That’s resolved intent in action.

So, as we all become more comfortable with conversational prompts, AI is shifting search intent and changing the terms people use. And, sorry friends, it’s definitely going to mean fewer people needing to read more on your website. Yet another reason why you need to invest in AEO and GEO strategies (alongside SEO, of course).

Is conversion rate higher in traffic from ChatGPT results than Google searches?

Another commonly observed difference between Google search and GenAI tools is the conversion rates they yield. But don’t believe everything you read.

I’m seeing a lot of claims that ChatGPT outperforms Google search when it comes to conversion, with some sites citing a difference of around 14% based on a case study by Seer Interactive. While the case study is interesting, its results come from just one of their clients. Just one business. When we look at data from studies with larger sample sizes, it tells a different story entirely.  

Researchers analysing 12 months of first-party data from 973 e-commerce websites found that ChatGPT’s conversion rate was far lower than Google organic search.

As Danny Goodwin from SearchEngineLand summarised:‍

• ChatGPT referral traffic was around 0.2% of total sessions, which is 200× smaller than Google organic
• >90% of LLM-originating ecommerce traffic came from ChatGPT (Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, etc. were negligible).
• Affiliate (+86%) and organic search (+13%) conversion rates were higher than ChatGPT. Only paid social converted worse than ChatGPT.
• ChatGPT also trailed behind paid and organic search on revenue per session, but beat paid social.
• ChatGPT referrals had lower bounce rates than most channels, but organic/paid search was still best on bounce rate. Session depth was generally lower than most channels.

So, don’t bin off your SEO strategy just yet. That would be a big mistake.

Want straight-talking, jargon-free advice on tackling AI-driven search? Book a chat with our strategists.

We’re not going to sell you a subscription to the latest tool or tell you to restructure your entire website. We’ll just talk through your goals, help you identify some quick wins and put a roadmap in place for the more long-term, strategic stuff.

Get in touch via marketing@proctorsgroup.com