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Until recently, Google regularly brought customers to your business. Now visits are down, and orders are falling with them. It is tempting to buy more SEO work. First, however, find out where the customer journey has changed.
Some people can get the answer they need in Google without visiting a website. Others may compare products in ChatGPT and only then visit a chosen store. There are simpler reasons for a decline too: seasonality, lower demand, problems with the offer or the website. These situations call for different actions.
Customers may keep searching but click less often
Pew Research Center analyzed 68,879 Google searches made by 900 adults in the US in March 2025. A traditional result was clicked on 8% of visits with an AI summary and 15% without one. A link inside the summary was clicked on 1% of those visits.
| Situation in the Pew study | Visits with a click | What was measured |
|---|---|---|
| Google results with an AI summary | 8% | A click on a traditional search result. |
| Google results without an AI summary | 15% | A click on a traditional search result. |
| A link inside an AI summary | 1% | A click on a summary source. |
Source for the table and data: Pew Research Center, published July 22, 2025
This is a difference of 7 percentage points between two types of visits, not proof that a particular store has lost a certain share of customers. The study describes observed US behavior; it does not isolate the cause of your business's decline.
The practical lesson for business owners is simple: Google rankings and website visits are separate measures. A customer can read an answer, compare options and finish searching without clicking a guide.
AI traffic is growing. That does not mean it has replaced Google traffic
Adobe recorded a 393% year-over-year increase in visits from AI tools to US retail websites during January-March 2026. This measures identified traffic to stores, not every conversation with AI.
Source: Adobe Digital Insights, April 16, 2026
A large percentage increase does not tell us this channel's share of total traffic. It does not establish that every lost Google visit moved to ChatGPT. It does justify checking another place where customers discover offers.
Fewer visits and fewer orders raise two questions
The first is why fewer people reach your website. The second is whether those who still visit buy as often as before. Combining these questions into one result can lead you to the wrong fix.
These example data explain the method and do not represent any brand's results. With 10,000 visits and a 2% conversion rate, a store receives 200 orders. A fall to 8,000 visits at the same rate produces 160 orders. So do 10,000 visits at a 1.6% conversion rate.
In the first case, the issue is visit volume. In the second, it is the website's sales effectiveness. Similar outcomes do not imply similar causes. This is a simplified calculation; a real analysis must use consistent definitions of visits, orders and time periods.
| What you observe | What to check | What remains unknown |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer impressions and clicks | Demand, seasonality, indexing and key page rankings. | Whether AI caused the change. |
| Similar impressions, fewer clicks | CTR for the same queries, devices and pages; search result appearance. | Why the user did not click. |
| Similar visits, fewer orders | Prices, availability, delivery, payments and transaction tracking. | Whether acquisition is the problem. |
| A decline mainly on guides | Audience needs, AI results and guides' role in buying. | Whether sales across the channel are declining. |
| AI suggests other businesses for needs your offer meets | Repeated recommendations, sources and the accuracy of your offer's description. | How many orders result from these answers. |
The table proposes a diagnostic approach, rather than reporting research findings. It helps you choose the first question to investigate.
How to begin without guessing
Choose an important product or service category. Compare the decline period with a similar earlier period, allowing for seasonality. Separate searches using your business name from searches about a need, category or solution.
Then check which pages lost clicks. A change affecting one guide is not the same as losing visibility across the business. If visits are stable, start with the offer and purchase process.
A useful reference: Google's official guidance on traffic drops
Where Semly helps with this diagnosis
Search Console helps assess your presence in Google. Analyzing AI answers adds another question: does your business appear among the solutions suggested to the customer?
Semly offers brand monitoring, competitor comparisons and analysis of cited sources. It lets you test selected questions in supported AI environments. It does not provide access to customers' private conversations or prove that a particular answer caused a purchase.
Feature description: Semly - monitoring AI visibility
Treat the free report as an initial check of your business's presence. Compare it with visits and orders. This helps you decide whether to improve traffic acquisition, the offer or the information customers find before visiting.
What to do after the first check
Choose one gap: missing information about an application, outdated purchase terms or an incorrect business description. Record the change and revisit similar questions after implementing it. Do not attribute all sales growth to one publication.
Frequently asked questions
Does falling Google traffic mean customers have moved to AI? No. That is one possible hypothesis. Without analyzing demand, visibility, clicks and sales, you cannot identify the cause.
Will AI visibility restore previous visits? There is no guarantee. Appearing in an answer and receiving a website visit are different events.
What should you check first? Whether visits, sales effectiveness or both are falling. Only then choose an action.
Sources and data scope
Sources were checked on October 13, 2026. Pew and Adobe data concern the US. This article contains no monitoring results for the user's brands or results from Semly customers.
1. Pew Research Center - clicks alongside AI summaries
2. Adobe Digital Insights - AI traffic in Q1 2026
3. Google Search Central - diagnosing traffic drops
4. Semly - public feature descriptions
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