Website operators are losing a lot of reach as Google answers more and more search queries directly with AI and third-party content. One example: Morgan McBride, who posed for a Google advert in March 2024, lost over 70% of her website traffic shortly afterwards. The reason: Google’s new “AI Overviews” function, which automatically summarises web content and displays it directly in the search – without having to click on the original source.
A report by Bloomberg uses interviews and data to show how severely smaller websites in particular have been affected – in some cases with a historic loss of reach.
๐ต๏ธโโ๏ธGoogle cancels silent agreement
Google has changed the rules of the game: Instead of rewarding good content with visibility, the search engine is answering more and more queries itself – with third-party content.
Many websites are losing a massive amount of traffic, in some cases over 70 %, regardless of compliance with quality guidelines. Particularly badly affected: Niche blogs about travelling, cooking or DIY.
๐Findings
Publisher Gisele Navarro reports that although her content appears in Google’s AI Overviews, website traffic and therefore revenue is not materialising. A key problem: there is a lack of transparency – publishers do not know whether and how their content is being used by AI. The media company Raptive estimates that up to 25% of traffic could be lost due to AI Overviews in the long term – and that is still a conservative estimate.
๐งโ๐ผInvitation on Google
In October 2024, Google invited around 20 publishers to talk about the consequences of using AI. Conclusion: praise for content, but no prospect of improvement – search is now “simply different”. According to Google, content with expertise should be favoured. In practice, however, large platforms such as Tripadvisor, Wikipedia and YouTube are benefiting. Small sites are increasingly losing out to Reddit, Quora or AI-generated spam sites๐ค.
AI overviews intensify the development of earlier formats such as featured snippets: they provide complete answers – without a click. New tests such as recipe summaries offer little compensation. According to Raptive, this means up to 50 % less traffic for food blogs. The travel blog “The Planet D” was hit particularly hard: 90% loss of traffic, redundancies, the blog was abandoned. “I feel betrayed,” says founder Dave Bouskill. Now they are focussing on YouTube – whether that will be enough remains uncertain.
๐ฌWhat remains for independent platforms?
In Germany, too, many independent content providers are dependent on Google – for example through advertising or affiliate models. If visibility is lost, entire business models are jeopardised. Those who provide high-quality content must not permanently lose out to AI-generated content – otherwise the open web risks losing its diversity.
And ultimately, the question remains: if nobody creates any more content, what will Google even display?๐ง
