Overview
- Tools like Semrush estimate a website’s traffic from its rankings, the search volume for each keyword and average click-through rates.
- AI Overviews and other rich results now answer many searches on Google itself, so page 1 rankings send far fewer clicks than they used to.
- That’s why the tools can show traffic growth while real traffic from Google stays flat.
- Websites now have two audiences: people who want the short answer, and bots that want the detail.
- Put the information for people at the top of each page and the detail for bots further down, then judge results on your own Search Console data and enquiries.
Semrush and other digital marketing tools have a problem.
Much of their usefulness comes from their ability to provide estimated traffic for any given website.
Small business owners use them to find out what their competitors are ranking for and how much traffic they get. They are not exact numbers, but generally accepted estimates based on search results. Semrush, for example, takes the monthly searches for every keyword a site ranks for and multiplies it by the average click-through rate for that position. Rank first for a keyword with 1,000 searches a month and the tool assumes you get a fixed share of those clicks.
And there’s the issue.
Google Now Answers the Question Itself
Search results pages have changed. A lot.
They are now covered with AI Overviews, questions, videos and other media. They’re called “rich” results, and the outcome is that people tend to find what they are looking for in Google rather than clicking through to a website.
AI Overviews now have over 2 billion monthly users, and Google’s AI Mode started rolling out to Australians in October 2025. When Pew Research tracked the browsing of 900 US adults, people clicked through to a website on just 8% of searches that showed an AI summary, compared with 15% of searches that didn’t. Only 1% clicked a link inside the summary itself. SparkToro found 68% of US Google searches ended without a single click in the first four months of 2026.
Page 1 Rankings No Longer Mean Page 1 Traffic
So these tools are showing traffic growth, which in reality is not happening. Website traffic from Google is flatlining, even when businesses are showing up on page 1.
The tools still assume a page 1 ranking gets the clicks it used to. It doesn’t. Ahrefs, which makes one of these tools, found the top-ranking page now gets a 58% lower click-through rate when an AI Overview appears above it. Seer Interactive tracked searches for 42 brands and saw click-through rates on AI Overview searches fall 61% between June 2024 and September 2025. If your Search Console shows impressions going up while clicks stay flat, this is a big part of the reason.
Google Is Competing With AI Chat
Google knows that if they don’t provide instant answers, people are going to keep using AI chat more and more, where they can get answers delivered in a tailored, personal and succinct output. ChatGPT alone reached 900 million weekly users in February 2026, up from 800 million four months earlier.
Why click on websites and scroll through pages of information when a summary of every relevant source can be delivered to you instantly?
It signals a change in mindset that is needed. And perhaps like Semrush, we are struggling to get our heads around the change.
Your Website Now Has Two Audiences
We need to look at our websites differently.
They are no longer just a place for people to visit to find out information about your business. They are equally a place where bots visit to understand you and your industry, and then deliver that information on their own platforms.
Bots have a very different set of demands to humans. Bots like lots of specific information about your industry. Things like processes, prices, case studies and images of work. Things that they haven’t seen before on any other website. That’s what keeps them coming back. Humans, on the other hand, like information that is succinct and to the point. They want to know what’s in it for them.
Write for Humans at the Top and Bots Further Down
So what should a website look like? It needs to cater to both.
Put simply, a website should provide the information for humans at the top of each page, then the details and information for the bots further down.
The information at the top is for the person who has just landed on your page. Tell them what you do and why people choose you, and make it easy to get in touch. Keep it short. If they want more, they’ll scroll.
Further down is where the detail lives. How the job actually works, step by step. What it costs, or at least what changes the price. Case studies with the suburb and photos of the finished job. Answers to the questions your customers ask on the phone every week. This is information a bot can’t find anywhere else, because it only exists inside your business.
It’s worth the effort. Seer found brands cited inside an AI Overview had a click-through rate around 35% higher than brands that weren’t. Being the source the bots quote is starting to matter as much as where you rank.
Trust Your Own Data Over Estimates
So what should you use instead of Semrush traffic numbers?
Your own data. Google Search Console shows the searches you actually appear for and how many people click. Google Analytics shows what they do once they arrive, including visits from ChatGPT and other AI tools. And count your enquiries. Calls and form fills are the numbers that pay the bills.
Semrush is still useful for seeing what competitors rank for and finding topics to cover. Just don’t take its traffic estimates as gospel, especially when you’re comparing yourself to a competitor.
We have been integrating these changes into the websites we build and happy to have a chat if you need some help.
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