Google traffic drops dramatically!
Welcome back Rankers! This week I’ll explore the evolving landscape of digital search and artificial intelligence, particularly focusing on how tools like ChatGPT and Claude are reshaping the way we find information online. The discussion highlights the declining use of traditional search engines like Google in favour of AI-powered models and offers insights into how businesses can leverage these new technologies to stay ahead of the curve. You’ll also find practical advice on utilising AI tools effectively and the implications for SEO professionals.
What I Learned
- Why people are shifting from Google to AI search tools.
- The impact of AI on coding and technical searches.
- An introduction to OpenAI’s new SearchGPT.
- Practical Tips for Businesses Using AI Tools.
Transcript
Hey, welcome back, Rankers. How are you going? I’ve had an awesome week. I ran a workshop during the week for business owners about how to use AI tools in their businesses, and we had some really good discussions. One of the key takeaways was noticing how much less people are using Google now and instead relying on tools like ChatGPT. For my own part, I’m not using ChatGPT that much except for searches, which is interesting, right? Most of the time, I use Claude, as I’ve demonstrated before. If I haven’t, let me know, and I can do a review on that. But I’ve been using Claude a lot and also Google Gemini.
The Shift Away from Google
I’ve noticed a lot of SEOs and people in our industry seem to be in denial when it comes to large language models. To me, they are fighting against a tidal wave of change that’s coming. There was a discussion I had on LinkedIn that got a lot of people interested in this topic. Some don’t believe Google is losing traffic, but they are. Look at your own behaviour. Things you would normally search for in Google, you don’t have to anymore; you can just get the answer straight out of a tool like ChatGPT.
When we examine the data, looking at Google Trends, as I’ve shown before, we can see that Google’s traffic is declining. This includes people Googling “Google.” Now, before you say anything, we’ve all done it at one point because many don’t realise that the location bar is also a search bar in the browser. They think they have to type in “Google” to go to Google.
To put this in perspective, we are back at 2010 levels in terms of people using Google. That was the year Instagram launched and the last season of the television series “Lost” aired—a long time ago. Google has seen decreases across some of their key categories. For instance, in the tech community, I’ve been working with Python code for the last two years, and I haven’t used Google once to find anything about Python. I’m just using it within ChatGPT or Claude now.
The Rise of AI Tools
Python is the most popular language for building AI tools, and you would expect searches related to it to be skyrocketing, but Python-related searches on Stack Overflow have not been this low since Python launched. This shift shows the efficiency and ease of using tools like ChatGPT for coding questions. There are also other tools like Perplexity and search engines such as Tavily that format outputs in a way that large language models can interpret. I use Perplexity occasionally, but its conversational threads can get a bit weighed down. I find it quicker and easier to go to ChatGPT and do a search there.
For example, I’m looking for a gift for my wife. I want to buy her a tiny portable fridge, and I can just use ChatGPT to get links to purchase it.
Introduction of Search GPT
The other big news this week is that OpenAI has finally launched SearchGPT. This is their own search tool using GPT-40, but it has only been released to a few select people—and I’m not one of them. Matthew Berman, however, is, and he’s done a comprehensive review of SearchGPT, Perplexity, and Google. His findings are not too surprising, but one notable point is that SearchGPT is actually good at local search. However, for finding images, booking flights, or hotels, people still tend to use Google.
While Matthew prefers SearchGPT for its lack of ads, it’s worth noting that ads serve a real purpose for those looking to buy and shop. Even though I might start my product search journey with a large language model to get reviews and information, I may still use Google and click on a few ads. There is almost a symbiotic relationship at the moment, but I think that’s going to change.
What Businesses Should Focus On
I was asked in a workshop the other day about what businesses should focus on. When using these tools, treat them like the best subject matter expert in the world that you have sitting next to you. Brief them as you would an assistant. In the real world, you would give clear instructions to an assistant because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t get the result you hoped for. The same applies to these tools.
If you have a business and a website, think about what your site does and how it informs people about your products and services. Is it easy to find? Is the assistant, or in this case, the AI tool, going to be able to quickly find that information? Things like shipping information, reviews, pricing, and delivery times are critical.
The Future Outlook
Over the last 18 months, we’ve been helping our clients by looking at their needs through this lens, ensuring all of those boxes are ticked. That’s why we developed our Scrum Report. If you’re an e-commerce business owner or a lead generation business, you’ll benefit greatly from one of our reports. Our reports are not AI-generated; they are AI-formatted, and we’ve used new tools to amplify our skill set, adding more value for our clients.
We don’t see generative AI as something that will take jobs; rather, it will make us better professionals and enable us to do more for our clients. If you’re interested in one of our reports, feel free to contact me at [email protected], and I will get some information out to you. If you’d like to investigate what our SAMScrum reports entail, you can check them out here https://research.stewartmedia.com.au/.
Hopefully, this has been helpful. Please like, share, subscribe, and tell your friends. I’d love to hear what you’re doing. Make sure you check out Matthew’s channel; he does great work on AI news. See you next week. Thanks very much! By the way, you can now train your own models. Check out this person—do you know them?
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
