A lot of owners are asking a fair question. If Google now answers with an AI summary at the top of the page, why would anyone click through to a blog post? And if nobody clicks, why write one?
The short answer is that blogging still helps, but not every kind of post. The posts that used to bring in easy traffic by defining basic terms are the ones losing out. The posts that only you could write are holding up, and they're also what AI answers draw on.
What changed
Google now shows AI Overviews on many searches, and has an AI Mode for longer conversations. Those summaries answer simple questions right on the results page.
That does cost clicks. In a Pew Research Center study of 900 US adults' Google searches in March 2025, people clicked a regular search result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared to 15% when one didn't. They clicked a link inside the AI summary on just 1% of visits. About 18% of the searches in the study produced an AI summary.
So yes, for some searches, fewer people click. That's real, and it's worth planning for.
What Google says to do about it
Google's own page on AI features and your website is short and direct. "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." To show up as a supporting link, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet."
In other words, the same basics apply. Google lists a few:
- Let Google crawl your site, including through your CDN or host.
- Make content "easily findable through internal links."
- Make sure "important content is available in textual form," rather than only in images or video.
- Keep "structured data matches the visible text on the page."
- Keep your Business Profile information current.
Google also says that "when people click from search results pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality." That's Google's claim about its own product, so take it as such. It does match a simple idea: if the summary handles the easy question, the person who still clicks wants more than the summary gave them.
The posts that are losing
These are the posts most exposed to AI answers:
- Plain definitions. "What is a 401(k)?" "What does HVAC stand for?"
- Generic lists. "10 tips for a cleaner kitchen" that look like every other list.
- Rewrites of what's already out there. If your post says what the top five results say, an AI summary can say it too, in two sentences.
If a big share of your blog traffic came from posts like these, you've probably seen it drop. That traffic was rarely turning into customers anyway. Someone looking up a definition isn't usually ready to hire anyone.
The posts that still work
These are harder to summarize away, and they tend to bring in people closer to buying:
- Your prices and what drives them. "What a kitchen remodel costs in San Diego" with real ranges from your own quotes, if you're willing to share them.
- Your process. What happens on the first visit, how long each step takes, what the customer needs to have ready.
- Comparisons with an opinion. "Tankless vs tank water heaters for an older house," with what you'd actually recommend and why.
- Local specifics. Permits in your city, the weather problems you see every winter, the HOA rules that trip people up.
- Mistakes you see. The things customers do before they call you that make the job harder or more expensive.
- Questions from real customers. Pulled from your inbox and phone calls, answered the way you'd answer them in person.
Each of those carries something AI tools can't make up: your experience. They're also the kind of pages worth citing, because they have specific information in them.
A quick example
Compare two posts a landscaping company might write. The first, "What is xeriscaping?", gets answered by an AI summary in two lines, and the reader moves on.
The second is "Replacing a lawn with a drought-tolerant yard in your city: costs, timing and the rebate paperwork." It covers what the owner sees on real jobs: the price range they quote, which plants hold up in local soil, how long the city's rebate takes, and the mistakes that kill new plants the first summer.
An AI summary can mention the second post. It can't replace it. And the person who clicks through is probably planning a project, not doing homework.
Blogging does more than bring in clicks
Even when a post gets fewer clicks from search, it still does work:
- It feeds the AI tools. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI features all draw on what's written on the web. If your site clearly answers the questions buyers ask, you give them something to cite. We covered how to check this in does ChatGPT recommend your business.
- It helps your service pages. Posts that link to the service they support help Google understand what you do and which page matters.
- It saves you time on sales calls. A good post is something you can send to a prospect who asks the same question you've answered a hundred times.
- It fills your newsletter and social posts. One good post gives you a month of smaller pieces.
How to measure it now
Traffic alone was never a great measure. It's an even worse one now. Look at:
- Impressions in Search Console. If a post shows up for the searches you want, it's being seen, even if clicks are lower.
- Leads from blog visitors. In Google Analytics, check whether people who land on a post go on to call, book or fill out a form.
- Which posts get cited. Ask the AI tools the questions your posts answer and see whose sites they name.
- Sales conversations. Ask new customers how they found you. Some will mention a post.
What to do with an existing blog
- Sort your posts into three piles. Ones that bring leads, ones that bring traffic but no leads, and ones that bring nothing.
- Improve the middle pile. Add your own prices, examples and opinions. Link each post to a service page.
- Merge or remove the bottom pile. Thin posts that compete with each other don't help.
- Write new posts only where you have something specific to say.
If you're unsure how often to publish after that, we answered it in how often should a small business blog.
Want help?
Our SEO content service, from $1,000 a month, builds a keyword and topic plan from real search data, then writes and publishes service pages and articles with internal links and schema. Want to see how AI tools describe you before you start? Our AI search visibility audit is $197 and runs 10 buyer questions across 4 AI engines. If you just need steady posts, there's blog content from $600 a month.