Why AI Search Is Killing SEO Traffic and What to Do

The Search Traffic Decline Is Real—and It's Accelerating

If you've noticed fewer visitors coming from Google, you're not imagining it. Google now answers a growing share of queries directly inside AI Overviews, and platforms like ChatGPT and Claude field the questions people used to type into a search bar. Neither sends much traffic back to your site. This isn't a temporary dip—it's a structural shift in how people find information online.

For nearly two decades, the SEO playbook was simple: create great content, optimize for search, and watch the traffic roll in. That playbook built countless businesses, including Semrush itself. But as Semrush's own analysis shows, creating great content is no longer enough. With fewer clicks coming from search, focusing on SEO alone doesn't deliver the same predictable return on investment it once did.

Why does this matter for your bottom line? Because if your business relies on organic search traffic, you're facing a slow leak that will only get worse. The brands that adapt now will capture the attention that's shifting to AI platforms; those that don't will watch their traffic—and revenue—erode.

AI Platforms Are the New Gatekeepers—and They Favor Big Brands

Here's the uncomfortable truth: AI platforms cite names they already recognize, not just content that answers the question well. According to Semrush's AI visibility study from January 2026, the most cited domains by large language models are mostly big brands. For smaller businesses, this creates a chicken-and-egg problem: you need authority to get cited in AI answers, but you need to be more visible and recognized in general to convince AI you're an authority.

This dynamic is a strategic threat to any business that isn't already a household name. Even if you produce excellent content, AI platforms are more likely to reference a well-known competitor. The result? Your potential customers get answers from someone else—and they never even know you exist.

What This Means for Your Business

The shift from search to AI doesn't affect every business equally. If you're a local service provider with a strong word-of-mouth reputation, you may feel less impact. But if you rely on organic search to attract new customers, this is a direct threat to your growth.

The good news: you can fight back. The key is to build a brand that AI platforms recognize and trust. That means investing in brand building, not just SEO. Semrush's advice is clear: brand authority helps you grow visibility because AI platforms cite names they already recognize. When you have a strong brand, people search for you by name, bookmark your site, and share your content without being asked. AI platforms reference your content more readily too, because that same recognition reads as trustworthiness to them.

Seven Tactics to Build a Brand That AI Will Cite

Semrush offers seven practical tactics to start building your brand today. Let's break them down with real-world examples.

1. Create Sticky Content

Sticky content keeps visitors engaged and makes them more likely to share, which builds visibility over time. To make your content sticky, lead with a strong point of view or original data, publish a recurring series, show the people behind your brand, and build in a genuinely useful or surprising element.

Growth.Design is a perfect example. They create interactive stories that teach design and growth principles through engaging visual narratives. Their content combines beautiful illustrations, storytelling, and practical lessons in a format you won't find anywhere else. As Peep Laja, founder of CXL, puts it: "Many sites are in a sea of sameness. But Growth.Design’s content is just so different. Serious effort goes in there. It’s clearly hard to produce. Most people aren’t ready to put in that kind of work and resources."

2. Launch PR Campaigns

PR campaigns build credibility by getting your brand covered in outlets your audience trusts. That coverage does double duty: it puts your brand in front of a publication's readers, and it creates authoritative, third-party mentions that search engines and AI platforms use to judge whether your brand is worth citing.

In early 2025, Duolingo announced on social media that their mascot Duo had died. While obviously a stunt, the announcement went viral on TikTok and generated millions of views. Following the buzz, media outlets like CBS News, NPR, and USA Today covered the news. This campaign reinforced Duolingo's playful brand personality and kept them top of mind—without a huge budget.

You don't need elaborate stunts, though. In 2025, Perplexity partnered with Airtel to give its users in India a free one-year Perplexity Pro subscription. This single move generated coverage across media publications like The Economic Times.

3. Invest in Digital Ads

Digital advertising—running ads on platforms like Google, Meta, and ChatGPT—helps you reach more people in your audience. It offers instant exposure, laser-focused targeting, and real-time insights. Many successful companies find their best-performing content and promote it through paid ads.

For example, Grammarly promoted its workplace productivity guide through LinkedIn ads, positioning them as experts in the business productivity space. Notion does something similar: when creators post videos about how they organize their work in Notion, the company amplifies those videos through paid promotion.

4. Post Consistently on Social Media

A steady social presence builds familiarity, and familiarity earns trust over time. That familiarity extends beyond your followers—social conversations, shares, and mentions contribute to the broader signals that search engines and AI platforms reference when evaluating who to trust.

What works? Support your colleagues' posts, engage in conversations, use visual content, use hashtags strategically, and collaborate with industry voices. At Semrush, teams use social media to promote blog content, highlight product updates, and engage with their audience. They also run influencer campaigns to reach new audiences.

5. Create Merchandise

Merchandise gets your brand noticed in the real world, and that exposure often loops back online. Someone who spots your logo on a hoodie may later search your brand by name. Merchandise works especially well for growing businesses because it boosts visibility, builds positive associations, and brings your digital brand into the physical world.

GitHub is a prime example. Their Copilot stickers on laptops and water bottles are ubiquitous, and they create hoodies and t-shirts that developers actually wear with pride. It helps them signal belonging to the coding community.

6. Sponsor Events (or Organize Your Own)

Sponsoring events—or running your own—puts your company in the room with people who already care about your industry. Event sponsorships generate backlinks, press mentions, and social posts, strengthening your visibility well beyond the event itself.

Sponsorship borrows authority from the event and reaches a highly targeted audience. But you don't always have to rely on other people's events. Semrush hosts an annual conference called Spotlight, where digital marketing professionals share insights about search, content marketing, and more. This in-person event allows them to deeply engage with their audience and reinforce their position as a leader.

7. Develop and Share Your Brand Story

Your brand story—the "why" behind what you do—helps people connect with your business on a human level. But having a compelling story isn't enough; you need to actively share it across every touchpoint. That consistent story is what helps users and search systems recognize who you are and what you do.

Notion's team consistently shares their story of building a tool that adapts to how people actually think and work—not forcing them into rigid structures. This narrative appears everywhere: in marketing copy, product demos, founder interviews, and community discussions. It reinforces why Notion feels different from traditional project management tools.

The Bottom Line: Brand Is the New SEO

The era of "build it and they will come" is over. AI platforms are the new gatekeepers, and they favor brands they recognize. To thrive, you must invest in brand building—not just SEO. Start with a few tactics that align with your resources, and scale as you gain momentum. As your brand becomes stronger, traffic will follow. That's the real power of having a brand.

Source: Semrush Blog