AI Search Is Growing 2x Faster Than Early Google. Here's What That Means for Your Traffic.
Why the next 12 months will determine who dominates search visibility for the next decade.
Between September 2024 and February 2025, referral traffic from AI engines grew 123% for small and mid-sized business websites. What was 0.54% of organic traffic six months ago is now 1.24% and accelerating.
If you lived through the rise of Google in the late 90s, this pattern should look familiar. But there is one critical difference: it's happening twice as fast with AI.
The exponential shift: Google vs AI search
We've seen this movie before. When Google launched in 1998, early adopters who optimized their sites saw explosive traffic growth. Companies that got it right early like Amazon, eBay, and Wikipedia dominated their categories for decades to come.
AI search is following the same exponential curve but at double the speed of traditional search. You might be asking yourself, what does this mean for your traffic?
Perplexity's share of global referral traffic grew 25% in just four months between January and April of 2025. Meanwhile, Google's global traffic declined 7.91% from 2023 to 2024. Generative AI Search is creating a new channel that is currently compounding monthly and outpacing traditional search.
The 1998 parallel:
Companies that optimized for Google between 1998-2000 captured search traffic that compounded for 20+ years. Most of today's e-commerce giants, SaaS companies, and media properties were built with the help of that early Google traffic.
The laggards who waited until 2005 to "take SEO seriously" found themselves competing against players with massive domain authority, link equity, and brand recognition. It became an ongoing struggle for them to ever get caught up.
The 2025 opportunity:
We are in the early months of the AI search curve. Based on Google's trajectory, we have roughly 12-18 months before the window closes and early winners achieve escape velocity and AI Search success.
Forrester's research shows 89% of B2B buyers now use generative AI during the buying process. The traffic is different and shows fewer visits, but higher intent, think quality of volume. Visitors arrive later in the funnel, ask longer more engaged questions, and show stronger engagement signals to conversion.
Sites that aren't structured for AI search are becoming invisible where buyers start their research. How AI Search volume and dollars is your business missing out on? Use our calculator to get an idea.
Interactive ROI Calculator: Calculate your potential AI search revenue based on your current traffic and conversion rates. Shows projected additional revenue at 6, 12, and 18 months alongside your existing SEO performance.
Three things you can do this week in order to have a dog in the race
AI search optimization is a comprehensive strategy, but you don't need to boil the ocean to start seeing results.
Here are three straightforward changes you can ship quickly that will make your site more visible to answer engines.
1. Add Organization schema to your homepage
Give answer engines a single source of truth about your company. Without it, AI engines piece together facts from multiple pages and may introduce errors or inconsistencies.
File: /app/page.tsx
1export default function HomePage() {2 const orgSchema = {3 '@context': 'https://schema.org',4 '@type': 'Organization',5 name: 'YourCompany',6 url: 'https://www.yourcompany.com',7 sameAs: [8 'https://www.linkedin.com/company/yourcompany',9 'https://twitter.com/yourcompany',10 ],11 logo: 'https://www.yourcompany.com/logo.png',12 foundingDate: '2020',13 description: 'One clear sentence a model can quote.',14 contactPoint: {15 '@type': 'ContactPoint',16 contactType: 'Sales',17 email: 'sales@yourcompany.com'18 },19 };2021 return (22 <>23 <script24 type="application/ld+json"25 dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify(orgSchema) }}26 />27 <h1>Welcome to YourCompany</h1>28 {/* rest of your homepage */}29 </>30 );31}
Why this works: Google, Bing, and AI crawlers all parse schema.org markup. This is the standard approach for providing structured organization data.
2. Structure answers with JSON-LD
Add FAQ schema to your high-traffic pages. Keep answers short and citation-friendly.
File: /app/product/page.tsx
1export default function ProductPage() {2 const faqs = [3 {4 q: 'What is YourProduct?',5 a: 'A brief, factual description that answers the question directly.'6 },7 {8 q: 'Who uses it?',9 a: 'Three customer types and one measurable outcome.'10 },11 ];1213 const schema = {14 '@context': 'https://schema.org',15 '@type': 'FAQPage',16 mainEntity: faqs.map(f => ({17 '@type': 'Question',18 name: f.q,19 acceptedAnswer: {20 '@type': 'Answer',21 text: f.a22 }23 }))24 };2526 return (27 <>28 <script29 type="application/ld+json"30 dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify(schema) }}31 />32 <h1>YourProduct</h1>33 {/* page content */}34 </>35 );36}
AI engines favor structured, brief answers they can quote directly. Research from Princeton shows GEO techniques can boost visibility by up to 40% in AI-generated responses.
3. Get cited on third-party sites
AI engines don't just read your website they heavily favor creditable third-party sources. Research analyzing thousands of AI citations shows that AI search engines cite third-party content the most. Just remember to ensure your surfacing in reputable and domain authority strong sources.
Quick wins this week:
Update your company's Wikipedia page
(if you have one) or the industry/category pages where you're mentioned
Refresh your profiles on review sites
G2, Capterra, TrustRadius with consistent facts about founding date, description, and core offering
Claim and optimize your Crunchbase listing
with accurate data
Update your GitHub README
if you have open source projects
Post on relevant subreddits or industry forums
with helpful, non-promotional answers that mention your solution naturally
Why this works: High-quality third-party sites like industry publications, review platforms, and respected blogs are prime citation sources for all AI engines. When AI models see consistent information about your company across multiple authoritative sources, they're more likely to cite you confidently.
The key is consistency. Make sure your company description, founding date, and key facts match across all platforms and align with your Organization schema.
What doesn't work
Long, generic answers. AI engines prefer tight, sourceable claims under 100 words.
Gating everything. Models can't cite what they can't read. Your best content should be public.
Keyword stuffing. Over-optimizing for keywords actually hurts machine legibility. Models favor natural language and semantic coherence.
Ignoring third-party sources. Your brand site alone isn't enough. AI engines heavily favor external validation and citations from authoritative third-party sources.
Waiting to see what happens. The 1998-2000 window for Google was 24 months. We're at month 24 for AI search right now.
The window is closing
In 1999, if you told a CEO that Google would drive 40% of their revenue within 5 years, most would have laughed. By 2004, the ones who ignored it were out of business or acquired by competitors who didn't.
Stephen S. Andekian
CEO and Owner
Spaceman Media
AI search is following the same curve at double the speed. The companies that structure their sites for AI visibility today will own their categories by 2027. The ones that wait will spend the next decade trying to catch up.
The question isn't whether AI search will matter. It's whether you'll be in the first wave or the second.
Sources
- Search Engine Land: SMB websites see rising traffic from AI engines
- Digital Commerce 360: Forrester on AI search reshaping B2B marketing
- Princeton/arXiv: GEO research on visibility optimization
- Internet Live Stats: Google Search growth statistics (1998-2010)
- ElectroIQ: Perplexity AI growth statistics
- One Little Web: AI Chatbots vs Search Engines 24-month study
- SE Ranking: AI traffic research study 2025
- Semrush: Google search statistics showing 7.91% decline
