Are you worried about the growing number of AI search engines popping up all over the digital landscape? There’s no denying that AI search has had a profound impact on small business marketing - but what exactly is going on? We look to explore what the current AI search trends are and how they’re impacting SMEs, along with what you can do to keep up with the latest digital advertising ideas.
2. Why AI Search Is Important To Small Businesses
3. What Are The Implications Of AI Search Trends?
- Both Search And AI Are Useful - It’s The Intent That Matters
- AI Overviews Draw Traffic Away From Organic Web Results
4. How Small Businesses Should Respond To AI Search Trends
What Is AI Search?
AI search (or AI-driven search) is an evolution of the typical search engines we’ve known for years. While Google will show you web pages it deems the most relevant to your search keywords, AI search provides a more personalised and in-depth search experience.
Users search for things, and artificial intelligence finds the answers and brings them to the user, rather than simply giving the user a selection of links to investigate. Common examples of AI search include Google AI, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Searching the web, and other data sources, for information that answers a user’s question. This is often shown in a chat-bot style interface.
Why AI Search Is Important To Small Businesses
Naturally, search engine advertising forms a core part of any small business’s marketing strategy. You want to appear visible online, which means your website needs to be found within the first page of Google’s search results. This has been the way for decades - but how is AI search changing this concept?
To start, here are a few key statistics showing the general usage of AI search:
- Google claims that AI Overviews had more than 1.5 billion users in Q1 2025 - 26.6% of all internet users (Source)
- AI traffic has grown almost 10% since January 2024, largely down to ChatGPT references (Source)
- 77% of people have used ChatGPT as a search engine (Source)
All of these stats show a common trend of internet users moving towards AI search as an alternative to Google. For small businesses, this means a big chunk of your audience no longer relies on Google alone.
As a small business, it’s not good enough to command a strong traditional search engine presence - you need to establish a good presence within AI search platforms too.
What Are The Implications Of AI Search Trends?
It’s easy to look at the data above and assume that traditional search is irrelevant - but that is far from the case.
Despite more and more people using things like ChatGPT or Google AI, research shows that 95.3% of ChatGPT users still visit Google to conduct regular searches. By contrast, the same study found that only 14.3% of Google users visit ChatGPT.
This tells us that users still rely on Google as a source of information, so the rumours of its downfall are greatly exaggerated. In fact, the same research study quoted above also discovered that Google organic search accounted for 37x more referral traffic than ChatGPT.
On the other hand, one study found that 80% of AI-cited sources don’t appear in Google, and only 12% of cited sources were found in the top Google results. Why?
Both Search And AI Are Useful - It’s The Intent That Matters
Clearly people are still searching for things on Google while also using AI search to find information. The common mistake a lot of small businesses make is that they don’t realise that both search platforms serve a purpose in the grand scheme of digital marketing/advertising.
It’s not about picking one or the other, but rather looking at the search intent.
-
Users are less likely to make casual searches through Google because AI search provides much clearer answers to their questions.
-
However, when it comes to high-intent searches (e.g. you’re looking to buy a product), then user behaviour suggests that traditional search engines are still the primary search method.
Why? Because consumers are willing to put in more effort when they’re spending money. They don’t trust a machine to carry out all of the research for them; they’d rather gather information from Google, compare different businesses and make their own conclusion.
This isn’t as true for casual searches - if you want to find the answer to a question, it’s way easier to rely on an AI search because the info is served on a platter.
AI Overviews Draw Traffic Away From Organic Web Results
A Pew Research study found that AI summaries equate to a near 47% drop in search result clicks.
When a user conducts a search and sees an AI summary, they are only 8% likely to click on a website link within the organic results for that search. Comparatively, users who don’t see an AI summary are 15% likely to click on website links.
This shows another potential implication of AI search trends for SMEs, though it specifically looks at AI summaries - which is interesting because to generate an AI summary, you need to conduct a traditional Google search anyway. The implication here is that AI summaries may cause you to lose organic web traffic from search engines, yet it’s far more complicated than it seems.
The research doesn’t tell us the search intent, so there’s no way of knowing the click-through rate for high-intent sales searches, etc; but it’s likely that this drop is mostly in casual, informational searches. Still, this is something to keep in mind as you look to adapt your digital marketing strategy in the face of AI search.
How Small Businesses Should Respond To AI Search Trends
Good news: you don’t need a complete digital marketing overhaul to contend with new AI search trends.
Split your approach into two main areas:
-
Focus on gaining visibility for high-intent searches through traditional search engines, like Google
-
Adapt your on-page SEO strategy to appeal to AI search platforms
Focusing On High-Intent Searches
As we’ve established, consumers will always flock to Google when it’s time to make a purchase. They rely on it for high-intent searches, so you need to make sure your website appears in these types of searches.
That means you should focus on targetting keywords or phrases tied to high-intent searches for your business. It also puts a massive emphasis on doubling down on PPC - which is one of the most reliable ways to get more customers online via search engines.
Quick recap on PPC: This is where you bid on keywords/phrases to present your website as a promoted listing on Google. It’ll be one of the first sites someone sees when carrying out the relevant searches, and you only pay for your advert when someone clicks on it.
Pay-Per-Click advertising is a digital marketing model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked, essentially buying visits to your site rather than paying to show the advert.
PPC is a fantastic way to broaden visibility and drive clicks, but you need to incorporate a few key things to make it as effective as possible:
- Target the right high-intent keywords
- Use attractive ad copy to draw someone into clicking your link
- Set up excellent landing pages that encourage users down the sales funnel and boost conversions
When it works it can be a highly effective marketing startegy, and it will help your small business capitalise on those high-intent sales searches. Combine this with more general SEO practices to ensure your website appears organically, too.
There is also some evidence that suggests a 5.1% increase in CTR when your business appears simultaneously in both the organic and sponsored listings. This is believed to be because the organic listing adds more authenticity to your brand.
Adapting SEO For AI Search Platforms
Small businesses must recognise that users won’t always perform high-intent searches. So, if you only focus on that side of things, you will miss out on exposure through casual searches. This makes it harder for you to establish brand credibility - which is why you should attempt to be cited by as many AI search engines as possible, even if those citations don’t directly drive as much traffic to your website.
You want your business website to appears as a cited source in an AI Search Overview at the top of Google Search results page, or be referenced in a chat-bot style system like ChatGPT or ClaudeAI.
While this won’t necessarily translate into clicks or traffic, it still exposes your brand to more and more users. Imagine this: people keep searching for information on a certain topic, and your business always appears in the AI Overview or ChatGPT results. It tells them that your brand is clearly an authority on this topic, which sticks with them. Should they ever choose to purchase something related to the topic, they are more likely to go to you because you’ve built a level of trust with them.
How do you adapt on-page SEO for AI search platforms? According to SEO.com, it’s all about EEAT:
- Experiece: Your first-hand experience with the subject matter, this speaks to how reliable and trusted the content is
- Expertise: Showing your knowledge, and if possible relevant qualifications, about the subject matter
- Authority: Your reputation, trustworthiness, and credibility
- Trust: Your content is safe, accurate, cites sources and is cited by others
You should focus on creating content surrounding popular talking points within your business niche with a focus on EEAT. Use plenty of cited sources, lean on statistical data and use authoritative language.
Studies show that AI search engines are 89% more likely to cite businesses when they show authority in their content and present themselves as a knowledgeable source.
Key Takeaways & Summary
All in all, AI search trends are changing the way small businesses approach digital advertising and marketing. You don’t need to worry about AI searches taking over - Google still dominates - but you should adapt your overall strategy to do the following:
- Use PPC and traditional SEO to improve Google rankings for high-intent searches
- Build authoritative content to optimise on-page SEO for AI search engines
This gives you the best of both worlds as you’ll receive lots of traffic through those high-intent, traditional search engine searches, yet boost visibility for the more casual, AI-driven searches.
How Digital Gurus Can Help
In the age of AI, ensuring you can reach those high intent searches is more important than ever, and PPC is a great way to do that. But it requires technical expertise to get set up properly, uses difficult and complicated platforms, and requires regular monitoring and optimisation. That’s why our approach is to make it as simple as possible:
- Sign up to our online platform—it’s completely free to sign up. You just need to be a UK-based business with a website
- Use our simple, streamlined order flow that guides you through defining your needs, goals and budgets
- Relax, while we take care of everything else; installing conversion tracking on your site, setting up your campaigns and creatives, optimising, reporting, and much more
So why not sign up now or book a demo to see the platform and discuss how we can help supercharge your marketing!
Book Demo
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is AI Search and how does it differ from traditional search?
A. AI search (or AI-driven search) is an evolution where artificial intelligence finds and presents answers to a user’s question, often using a chat-bot style interface, rather than just showing a list of relevant web pages. Common examples include Google AI, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Q: How are AI search trends impacting organic traffic for small businesses (SMEs)?
A. AI Overviews (summaries) are shown to correlate with a near 47% drop in search result clicks. When an AI summary is present, users are only 8% likely to click a website link, compared to a 15% click-through rate when no summary is shown. This suggests AI summaries are causing a loss of organic web traffic, especially for more casual searches.
Q: Should my small business prioritize traditional SEO/Google or AI search optimization?
A. Small businesses should prioritize a dual approach. Users still rely on Google for high-intent searches (when looking to buy a product). Therefore, focus on PPC and traditional SEO for high-intent searches while simultaneously adapting your content to be cited by AI search platforms.
Q: Why should small business care about appearing in AI overviews and searches?
A. While users are less likely to click a website link in an AI summary, some will do so, meaning AI summaries can still be a source of traffic. In addition, being citated as a source brings exposure and establishes a level of trust and credibility for your brand with the user.
Q: How should small businesses adapt their SEO for AI search platforms?
A. Small businesses should focus on creating authoritative content that emphasizes EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust). AI search engines are 89% more likely to cite businesses that show authority and use cited sources and statistical data in their content.
Q: Why is it still important to focus on PPC in the age of AI search?
A. Consumers default to traditional search engines for high-intent sales searches. PPC allows you to bid on these high-intent keywords to appear as a promoted listing, capturing traffic when consumers are ready to purchase. There is evidence suggesting a 5.1% increase in click-through rate (CTR) when your business appears organically alongside a sponsored PPC listing.
