Published:
by Wayne Smith
SEO isn’t dead -- it’s just changing. Today, when people search for simple answers, they often find them right on the search results page. They don’t need to click through to a website. For example, if someone searches, “Are carrot tops edible?” the answer might already be visible.
This happens through:
- AI Overviews
- Featured snippets
- Page titles or meta descriptions
These are called zero-click searches -- when users get what they need without clicking. While that might mean fewer visits to websites, AI Overviews are also generating more impressions than ever before. Some of these AI overviews have upwards of ten impressions.
Hat Tip
Edward Sturm -- Why Skyrocketing Impressions Are Killing Your Clicks (The AI Overview Effect)
Informational Intent SEO Is Changing
For most e-commerce businesses, informational intent matters mainly at the top of the funnel — it's useful for raising awareness or introducing "blue ocean" products. But searches like “Are carrot tops edible?” rarely lead to conversions. Visitors get the information they need and move on without making a purchase.
On the other hand, advocacy organizations and sites focused on social or ideological persuasion rely heavily on informational intent. Like, considerations of electric vs gas powered cars. However, they may find more impact by investing in content like documentaries, building online communities, or other forms of deep engagement that operate in SEO as the bottom of the funnel.
Marketing in AI Overviews
Traditional search engine marketing follows a simple model: someone searches, sees a link, and clicks through to a website. But that model is shifting. AI-powered search experiences — like AI Overviews — often give users answers directly, with no clicks required.
This means the usual KPIs for SEO and SEM — like click-through rate (CTR), time on site, and bounce rate — no longer tell the full story. AI Marketing (AIM) needs new metrics that reflect off-site engagement.
Recommended KPIs for AI Marketing:
- Impression Share in AI Overviews: How often your brand or content appears in AI-generated answers.
- Brand Mentions: The number of times your brand is referenced in AI summaries or search responses.
- Content Attribution: Tracking when your content is sourced or cited by AI systems.
- Visibility Score: An aggregate metric of how prominent your brand is across AI results, snippets, and overviews.
- Engagement Shift: Measuring changes in direct traffic, branded search queries, or social mentions after high AI visibility.
AI Marketing is less about driving clicks and more about driving awareness. The goal is to be present where the conversation happens — even if it’s not on your site.
Does AIM (AI Marketing) work?
Is an interesting question. To answer the question a large enough group of people need to see if they can make it work, and then data needs to be collected to see if it is cost effective -- The earliest data points would be in 2026.
Zero-Sum Against Affiliate and Information Network Marketing
Before AI-driven search experiences, companies relied on strategies like affiliate marketing to build off-site brand awareness. These networks helped brands reach users across the web through third-party endorsements and referrals.
Now, with AI Overviews handling more of the user’s journey directly on the search results page, there’s a shift. Instead of competing for affiliate placement or paid clicks, brands are now competing for visibility inside AI-generated answers.
The challenge is no longer just getting traffic. It’s being included in the conversation that AI presents. Ironically, this may need mentions from sites who in the past made money from affiliate advertising.