Is Google’s place as the undisputed tool for online content discovery really under threat with the emergence of AI large language models (LLMs)? Here, we look at how the search engine has responded, how it continues to adapt, and what it means for websites.
Is LLM in a hype cycle, or is Google really under threat?
The actual drop in Google Search use has been miniscule. According to One Little Web, Google still accounted for 91.6% of all search traffic as of March 2025, down just 0.42% from November 2022. That’s hardly a collapse.
Concurrently, tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity AI have seen significant and continuous growth in traffic, demonstrating that users are diversifying how they seek and explore information. Broadening their toolkit, rather than abandoning Google.
How Google is adapting to Generative AI
For years, the goal of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) was simple: secure the number one ranking. That changed in 2014 with the introduction of featured snippets. Dubbed "position zero", snippets appear above the traditional search results, often in a box, list or table format.
In March 2025, Google Gemini AI generated overviews and began replacing featured snippets – a shift we anticipated happening. The overviews offered conversational, context-rich answers drawn from multiple sites. Set to roll out globally later this year and live in the US for Google One Premium users, Google AI mode will take this evolution even further, enabling interactive, multi-step queries with responses grounded in real-time context.
An example of a Google Gemini search result.
Zero-click search and the new role of social platforms
The biggest shift in user behaviour isn’t that people are leaving Google, but that they’re less likely to click through to websites from search results. Instead, answers are now often displayed directly on the search results page. Search was once a bridge to content, but it’s also become a query endpoint. "Zero-click" began with featured snippets and has been extended further by AI-powered Gemini overviews.
In 2025, Amsive conducted a study across 700,000 keywords and observed an average click-through rate (CTR) decline of 15.49% when AI Overviews appeared. Notably, non-branded keywords experienced a sharper decline of 19.98%, and keywords outside the top three positions saw a 27.04% drop (source: Search Engine Land).
This has major implications for publishers and content creators, particularly for content behind paywalls. While tools like ChatGPT can’t (or aren’t supposed to) access paywalled material, Google can still potentially index and rank it. At first glance, this trend may seem like a threat to publishers - but it could present an opportunity. Zero-click visibility has the potential to drive awareness and reinforce brand authority, especially when users seek out trusted sources. Publishers will need to rethink how their paywalled content is structured and crawled to balance visibility with revenue.
The role of social media in zero-click
A major development is the growing presence of social media content in Google Search results, a marked shift from earlier years when social media content was largely invisible to search engines due to platform-side restrictions and big tech competition.
Reddit was integrated into Google search rankings in February 2024, with threads often appearing natively in Gemini Overviews as trusted commentary or experiential insights.
From July 2025, professional Instagram accounts will have the option to allow photos and videos to be crawled and displayed in search results. Interestingly, Meta is making increasing efforts to keep users on their platforms. According to Facebook's transparency data, 97.3% of all post views are now going to content without external links. This shift aligns with the principle that platforms increasingly reward content that keeps users engaged inside the feed. Social platforms and search engines are prioritising user experience over outbound clicks.
Websites aren’t dead, but they need to evolve
A website is still your most important owned digital asset, but its role and how to optimise it for discoverability are evolving.
Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and a long-time search strategist, summed it up: “Does a Zero Click Web mean... there’s no point in optimising? No. It means changing how we do things, not throwing in the towel.”
Traffic will remain significant, especially when aligned with user intent. People searching for a solution, product or service still need to visit a destination to do their due diligence, access detailed information, make bookings or sign up. While zero-click results may satisfy general curiosity or simple questions, decision-making journeys still rely on well-structured, trustworthy websites.
The biggest change is likely to affect generic, informational searches, with AI-generated summaries satisfying basic curiosity within the search results page.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
To appear in Google and LLM search results, a well-structured, trustworthy website is critical. SEO must now include a focus on how generative AI models find and summarise content. This approach, often referred to as Generative Engine Optimisation, builds on the same principles used to rank featured snippets: clear headings, structured content, concise answers and natural language phrasing.
Cloudflare and what generative search means for earned media
Generative AI tools appear to be increasingly reliant on authoritative editorial sources to build their responses. As my colleague Scott Thomson noted in his recent article, AI tools often favour high-quality journalism over branded or social content.
This makes earned media even more valuable in how brands are discovered, trusted and referenced by AI systems.
Meanwhile, Cloudflare has just announced a new “pay per crawl” model to give publishers greater control over how their content is accessed and monetised by AI bots. Supported by major media outlets and platforms including Reddit and The Atlantic, the initiative allows websites to block AI crawlers by default or require payment to grant access. This is a significant development, given that Cloudflare handles around 20 per cent of the world’s internet traffic.
Final thoughts
While Google remains the dominant player in search, discovery is now distributed across a broader set of tools, models and platforms. Content is being found in more places, in more formats, and often without users clicking through. The rapid pace of this evolution highlights the importance of closely monitoring how generative search experiences continue to evolve.