Google AI Overviews Are Stealing Your Traffic

If your website traffic dropped in the second half of 2025 without any obvious explanation, no algorithm penalty, no technical issue, no change in competition, there’s a good chance AI Overviews are the reason.

Google’s AI-generated answer summaries now appear at the top of results for over 50% of all searches. They answer the question directly, on the page, without requiring the user to click through to any website. For businesses that depended on informational search traffic, the impact has been significant. Some sites have reported 20–40% organic traffic declines that correlate precisely with the expansion of AI Overviews.

The good news: there’s a way to fight back. And it doesn’t require abandoning everything you’ve done for SEO. It requires a different layer on top of it.

What Are Google AI Overviews?

Google AI Overviews (formerly called Search Generative Experience, or SGE) launched in limited preview in 2023 and rolled out broadly in 2024. By 2025, they appeared in more than half of all Google searches in North America.

An AI Overview is a boxed, AI-generated summary that appears above the traditional organic results when Google determines that the searcher’s question can be directly answered. The AI pulls from multiple sources, synthesises the information, and presents it as a single paragraph or a bullet list, with small source citations that a fraction of users actually click.

For queries like “how long does a hot water tank last”, “what causes low water pressure in a house”, or “how to choose an HVAC system”, exactly the kinds of questions your potential customers ask before they hire someone, Google now answers them in the Overview. The user gets the answer. You get the traffic only if Google specifically cites your site as a source.

Why Your Traffic Dropped in 2025

Before AI Overviews, a Fraser Valley HVAC company that ranked #2 organically for “how to maintain a furnace” might get 200–400 monthly visits from that one keyword. After AI Overviews expanded, Google answers that question in the Overview. The same business now gets 40–80 visits from the same keyword. The ranking hasn’t changed. The traffic has been absorbed.

This is the zero-click search problem at scale. It’s not new, featured snippets caused a smaller version of it years ago, but AI Overviews are longer, appear more often, and are far more thorough in the answers they provide.

The traffic that AI Overviews absorb skews heavily toward informational searches. Transactional searches (“hire plumber Abbotsford”, “book HVAC service”) are less affected because they trigger Maps results, not Overviews. But the informational layer, the content that traditionally fed the top of your SEO funnel, is where the biggest losses are concentrated.

The New Search Landscape: ChatGPT and Perplexity

Google isn’t the only AI eating your search traffic. ChatGPT now handles roughly 1 billion queries per week globally, and that number is growing at 250% year-over-year. Perplexity, an AI-native search engine, is processing hundreds of millions of searches per month with a user base that skews toward high-income, high-purchase-intent consumers.

When someone in Langley asks ChatGPT “who is the best physiotherapist near Langley” or “what should I look for in a web design agency in BC”, ChatGPT answers based on websites it has indexed and trusts. If your website isn’t structured in a way that AI systems can easily read and cite, you don’t exist in that answer.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the practice of making your website visible and citable by AI search tools. It’s the fastest-growing category in digital marketing: Semrush data shows 600% year-over-year growth in businesses investing in GEO-focused content strategies in 2025.

How to Get Cited in AI Overviews

Google’s AI and the major AI chatbots share similar citation preferences. They prefer content that is:

Direct and structured. Content that clearly states a question and answers it in the next sentence or paragraph. Not buried in paragraphs of preamble.

Supported by specific data. AI tools cite sources that contain statistics, specific numbers, named examples, and verifiable claims. Vague, generic content gets summarised and ignored.

Consistent with other trusted sources. If your business is consistently mentioned alongside a keyword across multiple authoritative sources, AI tools are more likely to treat you as an authority on that topic.

Here’s what to implement:

Add FAQ Sections to Every Service Page

FAQ sections are the single highest-ROI addition for GEO. A well-structured FAQ with 6–10 specific, direct Q&A pairs gives AI tools exactly what they want: questions they recognise and answers they can cite.

Example: “How long does a local SEO campaign take in Abbotsford?” followed by a specific, honest answer. Not “it depends”, a real answer with a realistic timeline.

Implement Full Schema Markup

Schema markup is structured data added to your website’s code that tells search engines, and AI crawlers, what your content is about. For local businesses, the most important schema types are:

• LocalBusiness with address, phone, hours, and service area
• FAQPage schema on every page with FAQ content
• Service schema for each service you offer
• Review and AggregateRating schema if you have Google reviews

Google explicitly states that schema markup helps it understand your content better. AI tools use similar signals.

Create an llms.txt File

llms.txt is an emerging standard, similar to robots.txt, that tells large language models which parts of your website to prioritise when indexing. It’s a plain text file placed at yourdomain.com/llms.txt that lists your most important pages and describes your business’s services and authority.

Early adopters are already seeing measurable improvements in ChatGPT and Perplexity citation rates. It takes about an hour to implement and costs nothing. If your website doesn’t have one, your competitors who do have a real advantage.

Build Entity Authority Through External Mentions

AI tools weight consistency across the web heavily. If your business name appears alongside “Abbotsford web design” or “Fraser Valley HVAC” in multiple trusted sources, news articles, industry directories, review platforms, local business associations, that reinforces your authority as an entity related to those keywords.

This means local PR, partnerships with local associations, and being cited in relevant industry content. Traditional link-building has always mattered for SEO, for GEO, it’s even more directly connected to whether AI tools recognise you as an authority.

What Shaxx Builds Into Every Website

Shaxx includes full GEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) as part of our AI Search Optimisation service, which is included in every Growth and Scale plan.

This includes:

• Schema markup on every page (LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Service, BreadcrumbList)
• llms.txt file configured for your business
• FAQ sections on every service page optimised for AI citation
• Entity authority building through citation and content strategies
• Monthly tracking of AI visibility across Google AI, ChatGPT, and Perplexity

Every website we build through our web design service also ships with all of these built in from day one, not as an afterthought.

The Stats Are Unavoidable

• 50%+ of all Google searches now show an AI Overview (2025 data)
• 250% YoY growth in ChatGPT search query volume
• 600% growth in GEO-focused content investment among SMBs (Semrush, 2025)
• 20–40% organic traffic losses reported by businesses with no GEO strategy

The businesses adapting now are the ones who will maintain and grow their organic visibility over the next 3–5 years. The ones who are waiting are silently losing ground.

Get Your Free AI Visibility Check

Not sure how visible your business is in Google AI, ChatGPT, or Perplexity? Book a free AI visibility check with Shaxx and we’ll test your business across all three major AI search platforms, show you what your competitors are doing differently, and build you a GEO action plan.

Free. No obligation. Just clarity on where you stand in the search landscape of 2026.