Dr. Noah St John warns that AI-generated search results now capture most clicks, leaving traditional web pages with far less traffic. Backlinks are on life support, and SEO tactics from 2019 no longer work. Content owners who don't adapt will lose rankings.
What's blocking your visibility in an AI-driven search world? Hmm. Well, first of all, Google AI overviews absorb all the clicks. Now, if you have been doing a Google search, if you've done a Google search in the past 6 months, and I'm sure most of you do those every single day, right? You will notice that Google's AI summaries capture user attention, reducing clicks to your site. And limiting traffic. So those of you that were getting a lot of clicks from Google before, I'm sure you've noticed they're going down and down, and that will not stop. That will only continue to get worse. Assistants present only one answer. Digital assistants, the LLMs I talked about a moment ago, deliver a single answer, narrowing opportunities for multiple listings or backlinks. Backlinks are— I don't want to say dead, but they're certainly on life support. Agencies, meanwhile, sell outdated 2019 SEO deliverables. Thanks a lot. Which means many agencies rely on old SEO tactics from 2019 that no longer work in today's AI search landscape. The search environment has fundamentally shifted forever. It ain't going back. Visibility challenges are due to changed rules, not your efforts. Identify who or what is preventing your content from ranking and adapt your strategy to win. The sad part is Jason didn't adapt and he paid the price. So don't be like Jason.
