AI results don't drive inbound site traffic

Last month, search referrals to top U.S. travel and tourism sites tumbled 20% year over year, according to the latest data from Similarweb. E-commerce companies saw their referrals fall 9%. For news and media sites, search traffic dropped 17%. The finance, lifestyle, and food-and-drink categories all saw similar types of declines on the month.

Maybe make traditional search useful again? People are flocking to a tool that works. Shoving 10 ads in my face to find an irrelevant linke due to SEO hijacking does not cause me to shed one tear. My prediction is that more content will recede behind paywalls and only the trash will remain. Including this blog! lol.

_{Quote Citation: Barron’s, “Google Search Is Fading. The Whole Internet Is at Risk.”, June 13, 2025 3:12 pm EDT, https://www.barrons.com/articles/ai-google-search-internet-economy-932092ef/}