Businesses Scramble to Get Noticed by AI Search

The evolution of artificial intelligence has fundamentally altered how businesses attract visitors to their websites, with companies across sectors grappling with significant traffic declines as search behaviour migrates towards AI-powered tools. The shift represents a critical challenge for organisations that have traditionally relied on search engine optimisation to maintain their digital presence.

HubSpot, a provider of sales, marketing and customer service tools for business-to-business companies, experienced a loss of 140 million website visits over a single year, a decline attributed primarily to the changing landscape of internet search. Kipp Bodnar, chief marketing officer at HubSpot, notes that access to information has become instantaneous through AI systems, fundamentally changing how individuals locate information and subsequently take action.

The traffic reduction stems from multiple factors. Search engines have modified their algorithms to combat AI-generated content of poor quality, placing greater emphasis on websites demonstrating credible expertise in core topics. Users increasingly bypass traditional search engines in favour of AI tools. Search engines themselves now feature AI-generated overviews at the top of results pages, enabling users to obtain answers without clicking through to source websites.

Bodnar indicates that click-through rates for searches featuring AI overviews have declined by approximately 60% to 70%. This development has prompted businesses to explore answer engine optimisation, also termed generative engine optimisation, which focuses on achieving prominence in responses generated by AI tools including ChatGPT and AI overview features. These systems operate on large language model technology.

The practice requires understanding evolving search behaviours. Traditional search queries typically comprise four to six words, whilst AI search engine queries average 40 to 60 words, representing a substantial increase in specificity. Bodnar illustrates this with a hypothetical scenario involving a motorhome rental company in New Zealand. A user might request a complete holiday plan for a family of five, including opportunities to view specific wildlife. To feature in such a response, the company would need to publish content addressing popular animals for children to observe in New Zealand, written in natural language that mirrors potential queries.

HubSpot has restructured its content strategy accordingly. The company previously maintained lengthy articles about its products and feature integration. Such comprehensive pieces have diminished in importance now that AI can provide explanations. The revised structure employs smaller content segments that AI systems can readily extract. When users enquire about specific features such as contact management, AI tools can efficiently locate relevant information.

AI currently delivers between 7% and 12% of HubSpot’s website visitors monthly, though Bodnar anticipates this channel will grow in importance for brand discovery. He suggests that visitors arriving through direct traffic and other sources will increasingly be influenced by large language model responses. Bodnar maintains that competitive businesses will require strong competency in answer engine optimisation.

Spice Kitchen, a retailer of spice gift sets, is developing a content cluster focusing on spice trade history to support its latest product range. Ann Lowe, head of public relations and communications at the company, explains that survival necessitates adaptation. The dedicated website subsection aims to establish authority on the topic and engage AI search systems.

The content will resemble a training course rather than a commercial shop, targeting researchers who may discover the brand during their information gathering. Lowe collaborated with Lumos Digital, a digital marketing agency, on the strategy. Nathan Pearson, co-founder of Lumos Digital, observes that traditional optimisation focused on product pages to capture purchase-ready consumers. The emphasis has shifted towards the research and decision stages, winning customers at that earlier point in their journey.

Pearson recommends businesses publish buying guides featuring clearly ranked products, noting that AI systems favour such structured content. Andy Lochtie, also a co-founder at Lumos Digital, emphasises expertise, authority and trust indicators. These include incoming links from trusted websites, outbound links to high-quality sources, and credibility markers such as content policies and author biographies.

MKM Building Supplies, an independent builders’ merchant also serving retail customers, has observed fewer visitors reaching its website as AI models provide direct answers. Andy Pickup, digital director at MKM Building Supplies, acknowledges that users no longer need to visit the company’s website to read instructional content on topics such as artificial grass installation. If this trend continues unchecked, site traffic could potentially dwindle substantially.

Pickup recognised the importance of citation in AI results to ensure the company receives references when users search for information about building projects, rather than competitors. Such visibility should support footfall in physical stores where staff can assist customers with their projects.

Despite Google’s dominance in search, ChatGPT is currently sending more visitors to MKM than Google’s integrated AI features. Pickup describes this as a seismic shift in user preference, with customers making conscious decisions to use ChatGPT rather than Google, even with the latter’s AI capabilities.

Pickup implemented what he terms a defensive strategy, creating content about best-selling products for AI tools to reference. The approach resembles search engine optimisation in positioning the company as an expert whilst ensuring large language models have comprehensive information to provide thorough answers. The content has evolved beyond product descriptions to focus on problem-solving applications.

Whilst search engines sought keywords, AI systems require easily processed meaning. MKM’s new pages feature summaries, bulleted lists and frequently asked question sections. Pickup stresses that content must be clear, concise and comprehensible. The website employs a site map to assist AI bots in navigation.

Over the past year, MKM’s AI-sourced traffic has grown from negligible levels to a low double-figure percentage and continues to increase. Pickup reports that AI visitors demonstrate substantially higher purchase propensity than search engine visitors. His theory suggests that customers obtain necessary information from large language model answers, providing confidence to complete purchases.

The emergence of answer engine optimisation represents a fundamental shift in digital marketing strategy. Businesses must adapt their content approaches to remain visible as AI tools increasingly mediate the relationship between consumers and information sources.