“SEO is dead” is the new “email is dead.” Still wrong. Still loud. Still getting engagement.
New large-scale data (40,000+ US sites, Similarweb + GSC validation) tells a much less dramatic story than X threads would have you believe:
- Organic search traffic is down just 2.5% YoY
- Not 25%. Not 60%. Not an extinction event
- Google says organic clicks are stable YoY — data backs it up
If AI overview was supposed to nuke search, it’s… taking its time.
Where the pain actually is 👇
SEO didn’t collapse. It redistributed.
- The very largest sites grew ~+1.6%
- The biggest declines hit mid-tier publishers (Top 100–10,000)
- Translation: scale + brand + authority still matter. A lot.
About AI Overviews (a.k.a. the new villain)
Yes, they hurt CTR but No, they’re not everywhere.
- Appear in ~30% of SERPs
- Mostly informational queries
- CTR impact when present: -35%
- Commercial & transactional queries? Largely untouched
AI Overviews are an impact, not a collapse.
And no — Google Ads didn’t “steal” organic traffic
- Ads gained ~+2pp of click share
- Organic still drives ~90% of clicks
- Roughly 10x more organic clicks than paid
If Google wanted to fully cannibalize organic, they’re doing a remarkably inefficient job.
The real takeaway (and this is the boring truth):
SEO is still massive. But it’s no longer lazy.
More SERP features.
More AI answers.
More zero-click informational queries.
Similar user demand.
Curious to hear from other digital marketing professionals:
Are you actually seeing meaningful SEO traffic declines?
Or is it more where the traffic comes from — and which queries still matter?
Based on recent data published by Search Engine Land (Graphite + Similarweb).
source: https://searchengineland.com/
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