Let's start with what we are currently seeing in the market.
In both B2B and B2C we see structural traffic loss. We are talking about drops in the double digits year on year.
Although that decline is now easing slightly (publishers and news websites are hit much harder than the average website, by the way), the overall trend is clear: total website traffic is shrinking.
Surprisingly, conversions hold steady
And yet something striking is happening. Conversions often stay stable or even grow.
How is that possible?
The traffic you are losing now consists mainly of informational searches. Those were quick readers who were never going to buy from you anyway. What we are seeing now, is that people now do their research 'off-platform'. They use ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews.
By the time they do click through to your website, the chance of a conversion is much higher. After all, they already know exactly what they are looking for.
Then and now
For perspective:
- The old way: you searched on Google and got 10 blue links. You clicked on a few, did your research and once you knew what you wanted, you went back to the website with the best product to make your purchase.
- The new way: you do your research directly on the platform. Google's AI sums it up, Gemini sums it up, ChatGPT sums it up.
So people no longer need to visit your website at all for basic information. When they do come to your website, their buying intent is rock solid. They have already finished their research and in many cases they have made their decision before they even visit your website.
The new reality is quality over quantity
The rules of the game for organic traffic have changed for good. You no longer need to hunt for as many visitors as possible. Your focus is on quality traffic and on brand mentions (citations).
Rankings and traffic have simply fallen out of sync. We see businesses climb in the search results while their organic traffic drops. The big culprit? AI Overviews that give the answer directly, so people no longer need to click at all.
The zero-click search (0-click)
This concept is nothing new. Google has been doing it for years.
Think back for a moment: you used to type in "Weather in Breda", click on Weeronline or Buienradar (Dutch weather sites) and check the forecast. Now you type it in and Google shows the forecast straight away.
You no longer click on anything.
The same goes for all sorts of things. From converting euros to dollars to typing in a simple sum like "4+4". Google summarises the basic information so you no longer need to click through.
And let's be honest, those quick searchers were never going to convert with you anyway.
Growing with less traffic
Do you think a drop in traffic means you cannot grow? Take a look at HubSpot:
their organic traffic fell by around 70% to 80% compared with its peak. What did their quarterly figures from November 2025 show?
- They raised their revenue forecast for the past year (they are beating analyst expectations).
- Their growth rate is even accelerating.
This chart proves it: with significantly fewer clicks you can still generate more revenue and grow fast.
Decoupling traffic and results
You leave the outdated model behind: High rankings = More traffic = More conversions.
In today's world you have fantastic rankings and huge visibility. Your brand appears in AI Overviews and in ChatGPT's answers. You get millions of impressions, yet your traffic drops because the research happens on those platforms themselves. Your conversions, meanwhile, stay stable and in many cases they rise.
And the bottom line is: more revenue.
AI Overviews in the picture (Google keeps growing)
What is causing that drop in traffic within traditional SEO?
It is not the algorithm updates. Google rolls out around 9 to 10 of those a day and always has. Nor is it the images or videos in the search results. It can be traced very clearly to AI Overviews and people doing their research on the platform itself.
Make no mistake: Google itself just keeps getting bigger.
According to figures from March 2025, they went from 8.5 billion daily searches to 13.7 billion a day (around 5 trillion a year!).
People are searching more than ever.
It may no longer bring that gigantic volume of noise to your website, but it does bring exactly the right kind of traffic. The traffic that actually intends to buy.
Stop counting clicks, steer by influence.
Let's talk about shifts.
We are moving away from clicks and focusing on influence. That is exactly where AI has been pushing us for more than a year.
The statistics that used to be sacred – organic sessions, page views, bare impressions or click-through rates (CTR) – are losing their value.
What you steer by now:
- What is your conversion rate (for organic and paid traffic)?
- How often is your brand mentioned in Google's AI Overviews?
- How often are you cited in LLMs (large language models) such as ChatGPT?
- And just as important: what is the sentiment of those mentions? Are they positive or negative?
- What is the actual revenue per visitor?
- Is the total search volume for your brand name growing? (You can easily check this in Google Trends. Type in your brand name and see whether the line rises, falls or stays flat).
These are the statistics that matter now.
By the way, you can track much of this for free (such as your position in Gemini and ChatGPT and your sentiment compared with competitors) with tools such as Semrush.
Impressions versus citations
Forget impressions.
It is not about how often people 'see something of yours'. Make sure your brand is cited by AI as often as possible. This demonstrably generates more revenue than anything else.
I have been in marketing for 10 years now. For years people have been saying that email and SMS are the channels with the very highest conversion rates. I understand that you need traffic to collect those email addresses and numbers.
Let's flip it around:
Traffic from an LLM (such as ChatGPT) converts better than anything we have ever seen.
We are not talking about an increase of 5% or 10%. We are talking about multiples. It converts 2 to 3 times better. It is huge. You do not need massive volume. You simply need the right people with rock-solid buying intent.
How do you get into those AI answers?
The way to claim that visibility in AI models is through Digital PR.
- Actively collect positive reviews.
- Make sure your brand is mentioned on trusted websites.
- Reach out to the press.
- Launch new products, services and smart campaigns.
Want to know whether it works?
Just go to ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini and ask about your brand. See what the AI gives back. You can also use UTM tags (personally not my thing), or look at the data. The proof is growth without extra traffic
Before we dive deeper into the tactics, I want to use a few cases to show you that you can grow fast even when your organic traffic is falling. Both examples are ordinary SMEs, not big brands, so you can see this works just as well for a business your size.
Case study 1: Regenerative agriculture consultant (focus on Entities and Own Data)
A self-employed consultant in regenerative agriculture saw his organic traffic fall by more than 40% after the rise of AI Overviews. Instead of writing more blog articles, we switched to entity-based SEO (understanding and optimising concepts, topics and how they relate to each other).
We combined his own field data (think measured soil improvements per plot, specific growing methods and results per crop type) with mentions in trade journals, agricultural knowledge platforms and regional media.
The result is that AI systems such as ChatGPT and Gemini started citing him for questions about soil restoration and sustainable farming. The number of serious consulting enquiries through organic discovery rose by 64%, with fewer visitors and far more qualified leads.
Case study 2: Offline advertising agency for pavement signs (Paid Search)
An agency specialising in pavement signs had a modest online presence and noticed that more and more potential clients were searching Google for local advertising solutions, only to click on competitors.
Instead of increasing the budget, we completely rebuilt the campaign structure. We used Google Performance Max aimed at businesses actively looking for offline visibility, supplemented with a retargeting campaign on Meta for website visitors who had viewed the pavement sign page but had not got in touch.
The result is 31% more quote requests, while the total advertising budget stayed the same. The cost per new client fell by 18%.
That is what it is all about.
It is about profitable revenue from the traffic you already have, not about spending more or getting more traffic.
Everyone thinks that rising ad costs mean you always have to spend more. That is nonsense. This proves you can achieve more with the same budget, as long as you go about it smart(er).
The hard reality of AI in marketing
So how does that LLM visibility translate into sales? Simple. You may see your total organic traffic fall, yet your total revenue rises.
Visitors who come to you through AI have a buying intent we have never seen before.
This is why Digital PR works so well. It is one of our biggest pillars at zoekmachinespecialist.com. Many marketers do not even know the term, yet this is exactly what keeps our clients constantly mentioned in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google's AI Overviews.
I know many marketers have started to panic.
They think: "AI changes everything, we are done for." And yes, the ROI (return on investment) of smart AI tools for making a creative visual is nice. Make no mistake: the single biggest revenue driver in the modern marketing world is being cited by a language model (LLM).
This structurally generates more revenue than any trendy technology or cloud service. If ChatGPT or Gemini cites you as the solution, you win the market.
Conversion Optimisation (CRO) is making every visitor count
Let's talk about conversion optimisation (CRO). As the name says, it is about making every visitor count.
What do we see happen when traffic starts to stall or even fall? Most teams try desperately to pull in more volume. Keep in mind that the real lever for growth is often something other than more traffic.
It is your conversion rate.
In this article I will show you how CRO can be the critical growth factor for your business.
The power of an extra 1%
On average, the conversion rate across all industries is between 2% and 5% (depending on your sector and product, of course).
Let's do a quick sum. If you are at 3% and you manage to raise that to 4.5%, you have just increased your conversions by 50%. And the best part? You have not spent a single extra cent on new traffic. No new channels, no higher media costs.
Just better performance from the traffic you already had.
This is often very achievable. Say you make 10 small optimisations (10 winning tests) and each winner delivers a modest 2% extra growth. Together that already adds up to 25% growth.
Why? Because it compounds. Every optimisation builds on the previous one. This is more than theory: businesses that prioritise CRO see their revenue grow up to 1.6 times faster.
As traffic becomes more expensive and less predictable, efficiency becomes your biggest advantage. Look at the chart. When traffic falls, the winning statistics are no longer based on volume. They are based on conversion rate, revenue per session, lead quality and the lifetime value of a customer.
Those are the statistics that will pay off for you.
The next step is personalisation
Once you shift the focus to conversion efficiency, the next logical step is personalisation.
High-performing teams are moving away from static, one-size-fits-all experiences. They build customer journeys based on behaviour.
- Which channel did someone arrive through?
- Which pages do they view?
- Which do they skip?
That data shapes the experience in real time. Content and offers are no longer fixed. They adapt dynamically. AI-driven recommendations replace old-fashioned, rigid funnels.
Why does this matter?
Because businesses that get personalisation right see up to 40% more revenue as a result. That increase comes from more relevance per visit, not from more traffic. Personalisation is no longer a nice extra for the 'customer experience'. It is a hard-nosed performance strategy.
Building for mobile (where the Action is)
Did you know that almost 85% of people on Facebook are mobile-only users? (The other 15% are probably my uncle and his mates behind a desktop and, yes, secretly me too…).
This changes everything.
Discovering, considering and converting now happen on mobile. Most paid and organic customer journeys start and end on a smartphone.
The problem is that many brands still optimise for desktop and simply try to shrink that down for a mobile screen.
That is fundamentally wrong.
If you deliberately build funnels for mobile and app environments, the uplift can be dramatic. App users view more products, add more to their basket and convert better.
The environment is crucial.
Friction that is still acceptable on desktop is deadly on mobile. Extra fields in a form, slow load times, messy layouts or vague calls to action? On a small screen, every bit of friction is magnified. If most of your traffic comes from mobile, this deserves your absolute priority.
AI as your best salesperson
As customer journeys get shorter and attention spans shrink, the window to exert influence keeps getting smaller. This is where AI and chat features become extremely powerful.
In the coming years, a quarter of organisations are expected to use AI as their primary service channel. That means 'support' moves to the moment of decision instead of being tucked away in a help centre.
AI-driven chat does more than answer questions. It helps rescue conversions in those short funnels. Is someone hesitating? Comparing options? Holding on to one last objection? AI can step in straight away with relevant advice.
That is why brands see their conversions rise by almost 30% when AI is integrated directly into the customer journey. The biggest impact lies in steering the decision in the moment itself. Not afterwards in a follow-up email, but now, when intent is at its highest. We are not replacing people. We remove friction and support intent when it really matters.
Psychology over design
When we talk about improving conversions, a lot comes down to psychology. Many brands optimise the buttons on the page (and that works), but you also need to keep an eye on how people make decisions.
High-converting landing pages do three things exceptionally well:
- A clear value proposition (above the fold): not tucked away at the bottom of the page. Within a few seconds it is clear what you do, who it is for, what they can do here and why it matters. Is this unclear? Instant friction.
- Benefit-driven Call to Action (CTA): the word "Send" or "Submit" motivates nobody. "Get my free demo" or "Start my free trial" does. The button should convey the value, not the action.
- Social Proof (Risk reduction): everyone wants to know: "Can I trust this?" Testimonials, reviews, logos of well-known brands. These signals answer that silent question in the visitor's mind
When you combine clarity, benefit-led language and strong trust signals, you are not just designing a page. You are steering a decision.
That is where the profit is.
Quick wins without a redesign
Want results right away? Here are a few quick wins you can implement this very week. You do not need a complete website redesign for them:
- A/B test your CTA message: test the copy as well as the colour. Move away from "Send" or "Read more". Test results-focused messages: 'Get my free plan', 'Start my trial', 'View my report'. Make sure the button reflects value.
- Add urgency: limited-time offers, countdown timers, stock counters. Used authentically, they reduce hesitation and prompt action.
- Fewer form fields: every field is friction. Removing one unnecessary field can already deliver 10% more conversions. Ask only for what is truly necessary. No use for that date of birth? Leave it out.
- Use exit-intent pop-ups: think of this as your last lifeline. Is someone about to leave your site? This is your last chance to offer value.
A quick word on pop-ups …
‘Many Dutch business owners are terrified of pop-ups. They find them pushy or too 'American'. And to be fair: they are, if your offer is worthless.
If a potential customer wants to close your website and you throw up a pop-up saying: ‘sign up for our newsletter', then you are indeed spamming. Nobody is waiting for yet another generic newsletter.
Let's make it concrete.
Say you are a flooring specialist.
A visitor has just spent three minutes on your page about vinyl flooring and moves their mouse to the close button to leave the site. At that exact moment, a pop-up appears saying:
'wait a moment! are you also considering underfloor heating? download our free checklist right here with the 5 biggest (and most expensive) pitfalls of vinyl flooring and underfloor heating.'
That is not spam. That is outstanding service at exactly the right moment. The visitor thinks: 'wow, I almost got that wrong, let me grab that document after all.'
You have just turned a visitor who was dropping off into a warm lead. It all comes down to this rule. Make the value you give away so high that closing it feels like a missed opportunity.
Paid ads and the costs
Let's talk about paid advertising (paid ads). The paid media landscape is changing faster than ever. I will show you what is going on and, more importantly, which techniques are working right now to drive your revenue.
Let's be honest, costs are rising across the board:
- Google cost per click (CPC) has risen by as much as 45% year on year.
- In some markets, LinkedIn Ads have risen by as much as 147%.
- The average ROAS (return on ad spend) on Facebook has fallen to 2.19.
And yet... despite those rising costs, paid media remains one of the most important tools for achieving growth, especially when your organic traffic is declining.
Google Ads and embracing AI
Let's start with Google Ads.
Last year Google launched 'AI Max' (also known as Performance Max/Broad Match integrations) for search campaigns. When my colleague started testing it, we saw an average 14% increase in conversions, while the cost per acquisition (CPA) and ROAS held up well.
Are you still stuck on 'Phrase Match' or 'Exact Match' and have you not yet dared to make the move to 'Broad Match'? Then the impact is even bigger. There we see uplifts of as much as 27%.
This is the reality: it is no longer about guessing exactly which words someone types in.
The AI looks for the right user intent. You reach more relevant users and draw them to your site with the right message. This delivers a much higher conversion rate than traditional, tightly defined search campaigns.
Performance Max (PMax). Fix the teething problems
Next, Performance Max (PMax). Many advertisers have had their battles with it in the past. "It does not deliver the same results as my old search campaigns," is a common complaint.
The problem is almost always the set-up. Set it up smartly and those problems disappear.
- Exclude your brand name: use brand exclusions and negative keywords. That stops PMax from eating into the results of your best-performing (brand) search campaigns.
Google makes PMax look very clever by letting it score on your own brand name. Don't fall for it.
- Clean up placements: dig through your placement reports and exclude low-quality placements (such as dodgy apps or irrelevant websites).
If you do that, PMax can deliver a rock-solid ROAS of 125%+ while your existing search campaigns stay intact.
Google makes PMax look very clever by letting it score on your own brand name. Don't fall for it.
Portfolio strategies and AI Overviews
Another powerful tool is 'portfolio-based bidding'. With it you set a maximum CPC and a target CPA across a whole group of campaigns (a portfolio). This makes scaling much more predictable. You can raise your budget while your cost per click stays under control.
And remember what I said earlier about AI Overviews. These AI answers appear more and more often at the top of the search results. The icing on the cake: ads are often shown even above those AI Overviews. For informational searches, that top position (the ad) is now even more valuable than before.
Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram). Split your funnel
On to Meta.
If you want to grow here, it helps to split your campaigns based on the value they bring. Keep each stage in its own campaign.
- Prospecting (cold acquisition): use broad targeting and vary your creatives (images/videos) a lot. This lets you fish for new customers in a huge pond.
- Retargeting (warm leads): Visitors to your site or people who abandoned their basket deliver on average 4.3 times more ROAS than cold prospects. Set up a separate campaign for this so you can steer the goals more tightly.
- Retention (existing customers): stay top of mind with your existing customers. This is your most valuable audience, so it is fine to pay a bit more per click here.
- Cold traffic: ~2X ROAS
- Warm audiences: ~3X ROAS
- Retargeting (general): 4.5 to 5X ROAS
- Basket abandoners: 4.3 times higher than prospecting.
Advantage+ and the power of lo-fi video
Just as with Google (PMax), let the AI do the work. Advantage+ Shopping campaigns (ASC) deliver on average 32% better ROAS than manually configured campaigns. Leave the guesswork to the algorithm. AI can find customers much faster and more efficiently than you can with manual tweaks.
And the content? Short, vertical video is king.
Meta is a mobile-first platform. Vertical videos are the most effective creatives and deliver 31% better ROAS than image-only campaigns.
Tracking and creative fatigue
- Tracking has become a nightmare. Since iOS 14, third-party tracking has been unreliable. Want to fix this? Use the Meta Pixel together with the Conversions API (CAPI). Also feed your own customer data (first-party data from your CRM or offline sales) back to the platform. That is the only way the algorithm can keep optimising.
- Creative fatigue. On Meta and TikTok, people tire of your ads at lightning speed. The solution? Refresh your creatives every week (or every two weeks) and keep testing. Use User Generated Content (UGC). This is content that looks as if an ordinary user made it with a phone. It feels native in the feed and almost always outperforms slick, expensive ads.
The 1-month blueprint in practice
We have covered a lot and I know what you are thinking now: "how on earth do I turn this into a plan for my own business?"
Let's make it concrete. Say you are a regional bed specialist with a beautiful showroom and a webshop. Within 30 days you turn falling traffic into hard revenue.
Week 1: the baseline (finding the leak)
Stop staring at your overall visitor numbers. Dive into your data and discover where you are losing money. You might find, for example, that your Google Ads budget has been draining away for months on the search term 'cheap mattress ikea', while you operate exclusively in the luxury segment.
Exclude those terms immediately.
Week 2: the quick wins (plugging the gaps)
Clear the path to the checkout.
- Change that boring 'Send' button on your contact form to 'Book my free sleep consultation'.
- Remove those 4 unnecessary form fields (such as the mandatory company name or fax number 📠) from your checkout.
- Immediately switch on a Meta retargeting campaign for the people who put a box spring bed in their basket and then left without checking out. This alone brings you extra revenue this week.
Week 3: scaling up and feeding the machine
Now that the foundation is in place, let AI do the heavy lifting. Switch on Google Performance Max with the right exclusions and let the algorithm look for people with high purchase intent (people who have just moved house, for example). Also update your most important article about 'back pain and mattresses' with hard facts from your own showroom, so ChatGPT starts citing you as an expert.
Week 4: steering by euros, not clicks
Compare the results with week 1. The hard lesson: celebrate the 15 beds you sold and the 30 new showroom appointments in the diary, not the 2,000 website visitors. Check which channel those 30 appointments came through and double your budget on it next month.
Cut the rest ruthlessly.
Frequently asked questions about growing while organic traffic falls (FAQ)
Q: My website traffic is falling because of AI. Am I losing revenue too?
A: Not at all. The drop is mainly in informational searchers who were never going to buy anyway, because they now do their research directly through AI. Anyone who still clicks through to your website afterwards has often already made their decision. So you get less traffic overall, while the buying intent (and with it your conversion rate) is many times higher.
Q: How do I get AI models like ChatGPT to cite my brand as the expert?
A: You do that by going all in on Digital PR and authority outside your own website. AI needs to come across you everywhere on the web: through strong reviews, publications on trusted industry platforms and sharing unique data of your own. The more often and more positively you are mentioned 'off-platform', the more often AI presents you as the ultimate solution.
Q: Advertising costs are rising sharply. How do I keep growing profitably?
A: Stop hunting for more noise and focus on conversion efficiency and smart algorithms. Use campaigns such as Performance Max. Exclude your brand name and poor placements to stop wasting budget. At the same time, optimise your mobile website (CRO) and focus your budget on warm retargeting. That way you simply get more revenue from your existing budget.
More in this series on strategy and trends
