Is SEO Dead? Yaroslav Belkin Marketing Insights On GEO For Your Business Visibility

Organic traffic is down 40%+ across industries. Yet rankings are rising. How?

The Paradox Explained

Organic traffic is collapsing. Reports of 20–48% drops in website visits. Google's AI Overviews (AIOs) now dominate search results, answering questions directly — without ever sending users to your website.

In other words, AI is cannibalizing your traffic at the top of the funnel.

Traffic is down. Revenue doesn't have to be.

What the Data Shows

Semrush's 2025 AI Overviews study found click-through rates fell by up to 61% for organic results affected by AI summaries. BrightEdge research confirmed that while overall site impressions rose, clicks fell sharply. Publishing and e-commerce sectors saw traffic drops of 40–55%.

Yet at the same time, Semrush and LocalFalcon studies recorded 20–40% increases in branded search queries for businesses that were cited inside AI Overviews.

The conclusion is clear: the businesses winning in 2026 are not the ones mourning lost clicks. They are the ones engineering content that earns AI citations.

7 Strategic Shifts Your Business Needs to Make

1. Move Your Attention to Bottom-Funnel ContentNo more top-of-funnel articles. AI will answer those questions and absorb the traffic. Instead, prioritize transactional content: service comparisons, buyer guides, pricing transparency, case studies.

2. Structure Your Content for AI CitationMake it easy to parse and quote. That means leading every section with a clear answer in the first 60 words. Use FAQ sections for every page. Implement Schema markup. Add "Key Takeaway" summary boxes.

3. Build E-E-A-T Signals Into Every PageFor businesses on a platform like Antspath, this means: add named authors with real credentials, link to authoritative external sources, include first-hand experience and testimonials.

4. Reframe Your KPIsForget "monthly organic sessions". Track branded search volume growth, AI Overview mention frequency, direct traffic trends, and conversion rate. A 30% traffic drop paired with a 15% revenue increase is a success story, not a failure.

5. Dominate Topical Authority in Your NicheLLMs cite the most comprehensive, trustworthy source on a given topic. For businesses in any sector, this means systematically covering every subtopic, question, and use case within your specialty.

6. Implement Multi-Touch Attribution TrackingThe user journey now looks like this:

AI overview seen → user closes results → user searches brand name directly → user converts. 

Invisible for traditional analytics. So implement GA4 event tracking, enable cross-device attribution, and segment your traffic sources to capture branded uplift. 

7. Invest in Branded Visibility, Not Just TrafficThe endgame of the new SEO is brand recognition. A user who sees your business cited by AI three times will trust you enough to search for you directly.

Is SEO Dead?

No. But it has forever changed. The businesses that don't get it will continue to lose. The businesses that see an opportunity will get:

— CTR drops of up to 61% for organic results (Semrush 2025)— 20–40% increases in branded search for AIO-cited brands (BrightEdge)— Bottom-funnel content with the HIGHEST AI referral rates (Position Digital)— Pages with strong E-E-A-T rankings improve(Moz/Ahrefs)

More data in the full article: SEO Is Dead? Analyzing the AI-Driven Traffic Paradox

Adapted from the original analysis by Yaroslav Belkin. For more insights on GEO strategy visit Belkin Marketing AI Inclusive Content Marketing Page.