AI Search: It’s not coming. It’s already eating your traffic.
You thought you had time, huh?
You thought this AI search thing was some “coming soon” situation.
Wrong.
AI search didn’t knock politely.
It kicked down the door, grabbed your traffic, and walked out whistling.
And unless you’re adapting faster than a cheetah on Red Bull, your SEO game’s about to get steamrolled.
Let’s get into the numbers and the game plan, because this isn’t just a trend.
It’s the new arena.
First five months of 2025.
That’s all it took for AI-driven search to blow the roof off.
According to the Previsible AI Traffic Report, sessions from LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot shot up by a ridiculous 527% for the first five months of 2025 vs the same period for 2024.
That’s not a typo.
That’s from 17,076 sessions to 107,100.
And I will say it again: In five months.
Here is the graph to prove it:
If you’re not on the right side of this?
Cue funeral music for your Google traffic.
Marketers spent the past year arguing whether AI search was gonna change anything.
Spoiler alert: it already changed everything.
LLMs are no longer science projects.
They’re legit search engines, and they’re hoovering up traffic while some folks are still tweaking meta descriptions from 2014.
And it’s not just ChatGPT leading the charge (though it’s still the MVP).
Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini are gaining so much ground, it’s looking like the start of a multi-model arms race.
What’s that mean for you? It means if you’re only optimising for Google, you’re playing chess while the rest of the internet is cage fighting.
SEM Rush even brought out a new study predicting LLM traffic will completely overtake traditional Google search by 2027.
So if you’re sitting around waiting for your “rankings to recover,” maybe go ahead and pour yourself a strong one.
You’re gonna be waiting a while.
AI search isn’t playing by Google's rules
Let’s get one thing straight:
AI doesn’t care if you’re #1 on Google.
LLMs don’t crawl, index, or rank. They select.
And what do they select?
Content that’s:
No perfect meta titles or descriptions. No sob story about how your blog used to rank.
You either look like a boss to the bots… or you don’t show up at all.
Real Questions. Real Traffic. Real Fast.
Here’s the deal: AI is already answering high-stakes, high-intent queries that Google never handled well.
Think:
“What type of travel insurance covers high-risk adventure activities like whitewater rafting or mountaineering?”
“How can I plan a multi-day trekking tour that’s ethical, low-impact, and supports local communities?”
“What are the legal requirements and safety standards for operating an adventure tour company in different countries?”
These aren’t keyword-stuffed queries.
They’re real human problems, answered better, faster, and smoother by AI.
So if you’ve got expert-level content that hits those kinds of questions?
It’s time to make sure LLMs are picking you.
Reddit’s big AI move (Yup, even the forums are waking up)
You think this is just about OpenAI?
Please.
Even Reddit, yes, the land of memes, mayhem, and midnight conspiracy theories, is stepping into the AI ring.
Their new “Reddit Answers” feature has blown up 5x in users, and they’re positioning themselves as the go-to source for “stuff you can’t find anywhere else.”
This ain’t a gimmick.
It’s a full-blown strategic play to become an AI-driven discovery engine.
“Ahhh What Do I do?” You ask.
Here’s Your Hit List:
1. Track LLM Traffic. Yes, even if it’s messy.
LLM attribution is like dating in your 20s, messy, inconsistent, but still better than being clueless.
Use UTM tags. Watch for unexplained spikes in direct traffic. Annotate AI responses that feature your content.
If your GSC shows impressions spiking while clicks tank?
That’s a flashing neon sign: “Your content is showing up in AI. You’re just not monetising it.”
2. Structure your content like a pro
Bullet points. Subheadings. FAQs.
You’re not writing essays for a uni professor.
You’re building content that LLMs can scan, lift, and quote like gospel.
Strip out the fluff. Be concise.
3. Build trust like your revenue depends on it (Because actually… it does)
Get featured on respected third-party sites. Own your Reddit threads. Nail your “About” and “Reviews” pages.
This is where E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) becomes your new religion.
Because LLMs pull from trusted sources, and that ain’t your blog unless you’ve earned your stripes.
4. Optimise for “multi-model discovery”
Different LLMs play by different rules:
Your job? Be everywhere that matters.
PS. We have a whole other blog post fleshing this point out. Check it out here.
Final thought (AKA your reality check)
You can’t win the old SEO game anymore.
It’s not just about ranking #1 on Google’s blue links.
There are now two search universes running in parallel:
If you’re not showing up in AI-generated answers, then guess what?
You don’t exist in the future of search.
The brands that win from here:
✅ Move early.
✅ Speak the language of trust.
✅ Show up across all the right LLMs.
✅ And structure content like they actually want to be found.
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