The search community generates a lot of news and information often sourced from – well – within the search community.

That’s not a complaint per se because information sharing is a good thing. But it’s also nice to occasionally find data from independent sources and real users who don’t have an axe to grind or an app to sell.

Such is the case with YouGov’s recently released 2026 U.S. Web Search and AI Report and that’s why we are sharing it with you.

Report Background

YouGov’s report is based on responses to questions it asked its research panel of over 34 million registered members from 55+ markets worldwide. The report is primarily focused on the US search and AI market though there are some comparisons between the US and the rest of the world.

DBE team members reviewed the report and found some interesting data points we felt were worth sharing with our own insights on the implications for SEO and SAIO.

Search Behavior Highlights

86% of US online searchers looked for information or answers on a search engine in the last 30 days. Only 25% reported using an AI assistant/chatbot. Also, search engines were the default starting point for all the tested tasks. E.g., for “asking a specific question,” 69% of respondents said they started on a search engine and only 25% said they started with AI.

• DBE insight: The only caveat we have is the Google platform is now very much both a traditional search engine and an AI assistant at the same time – and we still don’t have any way to parse the usage and click performance of either. Nonetheless, this does offer further proof that SEO is not dead and remains a vital part of brand visibility.

58% of AI searchers are using AI more than a year ago, and 35% expect to use AI assistants even more in the next year. Among those who have not used AI in the past, 72% don’t expect to start.

• DBE insight: The growth in future AI usage is coming from those already comfortable with AI. These AI users will also likely be perfecting their prompts to search for the best answer to their question. As AI users become more adept at prompting AI, marketers must become more adept at creating SAIO content designed to become part of “the” answer to those more sophisticated prompts.

22% of AI users “most often” click on links as a next step. 16% compare sources with other AI apps; 8% conduct further searches on other topics; and only 17% stop searching.

• DBE insight: AI search is not a zero-click abyss but rather part of a longer journey of discovery. This finding is similar to what Marc Engelsman reported when looking at zero-click data for Google searches. A core goal of SEO and SAIO strategy is to develop consistent visibility throughout the search journey.

16% of AI searchers said “clear links to sources” would most increase trust in an AI answer. 15% said they trust AI more when “the answer comes from an official source” and 14% said “seeing multiple sources side-by-side” would increase their trust of AI answers.

• DBE insight: The report doesn’t define what is an official source, but as Billy Joel sings it, an official source may one with “A matter of trust”. And in both the traditional SEO and SAIO search realms, the Trustworthiness in Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines is earned with relevant, helpful content that leverages Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness.

Want to see the full report? If this data piqued your interest and you want to read more, you can download the YouGov report here.

Recently I have been trying to open some people’s one-track-mindsets regarding zero-click searches.

You may have heard some of our industry’s Chicken Littles proclaiming how the traditional search sky is falling because a recent study showed 68% of clicks now end with zero clicks on traditional Google organic search results.

But, as with the proverbial Chicken Little, it’s best not to leap to conclusions based on one experience. Consider these two additional data points from other studies produced by the same group behind the above referenced study:

• An obviously pre-AI 2020 study mentioned in the same story above showed – wait for it – 65% of Googles searches ending without a click. So a 3% increase in zero-click searches = the search sky is falling.

• Additionally, a 2024 study said the zero-click data included 21% of searchers who actually conducted refinement/follow up searches. So a third of the zero-clicks were actually led to a two-step search?

All I’m saying is maybe we shouldn’t be counting zero-click searches until they’ve fully hatched. (Couldn’t resist mixing chicken metaphors.)

P.S. If you’re a Dave Matthews Band fan, you probably know their song “Two Step.” The lyrics came into my head as I wrote the headline and I realized that one minor adjustment would make it relevant for AI search:

“Say, my [AI], I came to you with best intention
You laid down to give to me just what I’m seeking
Say [AI], you drive me to distraction”

The big question on SEO-ers and SAIO-ers minds: What does Google’s search bar expansion and AI-first announcement mean for organic search traffic?

Short answer: it’s too soon to tell, especially given Google also announced a May 2026 core update of its search algorithms last week, too.

But we have some considerations to share and impact premonitions:

Consideration 1: A recent analysis of user behavior when presented with an AI Overview included on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) found increases in time users spent on the SERP and increased scrolling activity as they reviewed the range of information being presented. The implication is many users needed the time to review all the results on the SERP to confirm the AI Overview and/or decide which result they want to click for more information.

Consideration 2: A McKinsey survey of US consumers showed “research and understand general topics” as the top use of AI by task. “Discover and/or decide on brands, products, or services” was the third-highest use of AI. (We added the italics on “decide” to reinforce the consideration aspect.)

Premonitions: Based on Google search and analytics data we were analyzing before the AI-first announcement, we foresee:

• Impressions in Google Search Results will continue to increase but click-through-rates (CTR) will drop — so Organic Search Traffic volume will be lower than previous averages.

• However, the value of the Organic Search clicks you get (whether from AI Overviews or other traditional Google organic results) will increase as the user has considered your content to be more relevant to their needs. This will result in higher conversion rates and reduce the impact of fewer visits.

Stay tuned for more updates as we develop a clearer picture of the SEO/SAIO search road ahead.

It appears Google is trying to drink its own E-E-A-T Kool-Aid with respect to the 5 AI search linking enhancements being rolled into AI Overviews and AI Mode:

1. “Explore new angles.” Here Google is anticipating potential fan-out queries and is prompting you to dive deeper into your prompt topic with links to articles, analyses, and other related content. It’s definitely an attempt to improve the user Experience.
2. “Easily access your news subscriptions.” This feature will highlight links from your news subscriptions in AI Mode and AI Overviews. It clearly amplifies the Trust factor (provided you trust the sources you subscribe to). One question is if it also might skew the AI algorithm to narrow the breadth of content presented, aka “preaching to the converted or choir”?
3. “Get advice from people who have been there.” AI responses will now include links that “provide a preview of perspectives from public online discussions, social media, and other firsthand sources.” Human Experience, check. Expertise, Authority, and Trust, TBD based on the quality of links and content being presented.
4. “See links right where you need them.” More links will be embedded directly within AI responses right next to the relevant text. This could be a plus for user Experience, but the rest of the E-A-T depends on how relevant the content presented really is.
5. “Get more context on linked websites.” Another attempt to provide elements of Expertise, Authority and Trust to preview and prompt a link click…

…Hmm, wait a minute as a cynical idea coalesces…

Is Google really adding these enhancements to help the user with a better AI response? Or is it just trying to bolster the reportedly very low Click-Through-Rates on AI Overviews and AI Mode citation links? Let’s go with both things so Google can have its cake (link clinks) and E-E-A-T it, too.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been 3 years since DBE was one of the first agencies to recognize the marketing opportunities inherent in Search AI Optimization (SAIO) and publish a framework for brands to leverage them.

There have been many changes since then in the form of new AI search engines, new AI search capabilities, new AI search tools, and (of course) new AI search acronyms (AIO, AEO, GEO).

What hasn’t changed, and what is now generally accepted within the search industry, are the 4 core strategic elements we introduced as a formula to gain AI search visibility and citations: Technical, On-Website Content, Off-Website Content, and Analytics.

And, while the strategic core remains, the tactics used to deliver AI success across these 4 pillars have evolved. So here is DBE’s 2026 Framework for AI Brand Visibility and Citations:

Recently, I’ve been questioning the role and capabilities of AI in various marketing- and content-related situations. So, I asked Perplexity those questions and am sharing the answers:

AI & Departmental Silo Mentality

In a post about the still ongoing issue of “silo mentality” betwixt and between company departments including sales, marketing, finance, etc., the question was “Will  AI technology help hasten organizational strategic alignment or create new kinds of tactical silos?” Here are highlights of Perplexity’s answer:

• “AI can do both—and which dominates depends almost entirely on how it’s introduced and governed.”

• “Evidence across research and practice converges on a conditional answer: AI accelerates whatever alignment (or misalignment) you already have.”

• Perplexity then noted one of the key determinants of AI success in terms of helping breakdown silos is a strategy-before-AI approach: “Strategy → AI, not AI → strategy”.
  

The bold emphases are Perplexity’s, but they are noteworthy — especially the realization that AI is a tactical tool that builds off the strategic inputs (and biases) of the users.

AI & Brand Differentiation

The ongoing need for marketers to create differentiation and relevance for their brand raised this question: “How would you respond to this statement regarding the differentiation dilemma marketers face: ‘the biggest issue with AI-generated content isn’t accuracy. It’s sameness.’” The Perplexity reply included these nuggets:

• “I’d respond by partly agreeing—but reframing it for marketers: Samenness [Perplexity’s misspelling] is the strategic issue with AI content, but it’s not the only one—and it’s not really a technology problem so much as a marketing one.”

• “You’re right that the deeper problem with AI in marketing isn’t ‘will it hallucinate?’—we can largely manage that. The real threat is that if we use it lazily, it drags our brand voice toward the industry average and makes us invisible. Our job isn’t to stop using AI; it’s to make sure the models are trained, prompted, and edited around our distinctive POV, data, and voice so we scale originality—not sameness.”
  

Perplexity agrees that sameness is a strategic issue with AI content, but it is putting the onus on marketers to provide it with the right prompts and training to avoid it. It’s odd hearing the GIGO (“garbage in, garbage out”) defense from AI. Oh, and the statement that “we can largely manage that” (i.e., hallucination”) is coming after the “samenness” typo?

AI & Creating Duplicative Content

On a lighter note, our post about the “Infinite Monkey Theorem” being updated to the “Infinite AI Theorum” asked: “Can AI bots be prompted in a way that will lead to an exact replication of a play like Shakespeare’s Hamlet?” Perplexity’s answer included:

• “No, not in any legitimate or allowed way—and in practice, not reliably even if you tried to ‘force it.’” 

• “In theory, if someone trained or fine‑tuned a private model directly on Hamlet with no safety filters and then prompted it cleverly, they might get very close to or even exactly reproduce the play.”

• “That’s less ‘prompt magic’ and more ‘I trained a model with the goal of memorizing Hamlet and allowed it to regurgitate it,’ which is exactly the type of misuse current providers try to prevent.”

It is good to know there are some AI guardrails, and it appears Shakespeare’s works are safe from both monkeys and AI bots — at least for now.

How’s this for a click-bait headline? “Google Analytics is lying about your organic traffic and it’s been doing it for ages.” We bit and clicked as, after all, it is germane to our core business. 

The reported lie is that your Organic Search traffic is under-reported in Google Analytics due to attribution issues that result in Organic traffic being miscategorized as Direct traffic. 

Duh! 

We’ve always noted the likelihood of SEO analytics and traffic being under-reported. Not just due to the Direct traffic issue mentioned above. It also happens when Organic traffic becomes Unassigned traffic when the visitor ignores or does not agree to your website’s consent requests.

So, yes, Google Analytics is hiding some of the extra website traffic driven by your SEO efforts.

On the plus side, Google Analytics can also reveal the extra value of Organic Search traffic; the value of the quality of Organic Search traffic that extends beyond the quantity.

One example of the added value of Organic Search traffic is the “pre-qualified” nature of those visits. The journey started with someone posing a query expressing the information they were seeking. Then, they selected your website from the many options delivered on the Search Engine Results Page as the one providing the likely answer. 

This pre-qualification increases the likelihood of conversion. You can see this value by comparing the engagement and conversion rates of Organic Search traffic with other channels driving traffic to your website as reported via Google Analytics. You can also drill down to the Conversion Attribution Paths Report in GA4 to see how many touches Organic Search had along the visitors’ paths to conversion.

Go ahead and look for the hidden value SEO brings to your website in terms of traffic quantity and quality. We think you’ll be surprised to see how much more your SEO strategy is worth. 

When we launched our AI optimization strategy over 2½ years ago, the search engine industry was struggling with what to call this newfangled thing. It didn’t help that the new AI platforms kept changing how they referred to themselves.

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) led some to talk about Generative Experience Optimization (GEO) which also led to GEO gaining traction for Generative Engine Optimization. But then, after over a year of being in testing mode, Google launched SGE with a new name – AI Overviews – and the AIO acronym for AI Optimization gained some traction. 

Then there was some push back on using AIO as a generic acronym that was tied to Google. Answer Engine Optimization – or AEO – got some favor as it expanded beyond the Google connection.

Two and a half years and we still don’t have industry consensus on what to call optimizing for AI engine citations. Neither GEO, AEO, AIO, nor DBE’s original coinage, SAIO.

We went with SAIO – Search AI Optimization – from the start for a couple reasons. 

1. We foresaw the impact these AI models would have on traditional search behavior. 
2. We developed our AI search optimization best practices as an extension of our SEO services. We preferred to keep the “S is for Search” value first.

Regardless of the name kerfuffle, the search community is increasingly aligning on one thing we’ve said from the beginning and have proven over time: AI optimization best practices are interconnected with SEO best practices.

Perhaps Rand Fishkin was right when he said maybe the collective industry “we” shouldn’t worry about what acronym we use for AI optimization and simply say we do SEO for AI. The idea being optimizing for AI is a subset of SEO which is a subset of digital inbound marketing. 

We at DBE are okay with that. We’re okay if you or company prefers AEO, AIO, GEO, SAIO, or something else. 

After all, it’s not the name that drives the success. 

Two questions on digital marketers’ minds these days are:

• “What is the impact of AI platforms on my organic search and paid search success metrics?”
• “What metrics should I be focused on to show digital marketing success moving forward?”

Let’s break it down and offer some answers.

What were the core SEO and Paid Search metrics before the AI era?

Historically, SEO success was tracked using keyword rankings, organic traffic, click-through rates (CTR), bounce rates, conversions (as possible), backlinks, and indexed pages.

Paid Search focused on impressions, CTR, cost-per-click (CPC), conversions, quality score, and impression share.

These metrics were rooted in how and where pages/ads appeared in traditional search engine results pages (SERPs), and how often these impressions were clicked relative to their exposure. ​

Why are these metrics less relevant in today’s AI-inclusive landscape?

• From an SEO perspective, the traditional SERP layout has changed. Google long ago shifted priority to the appearance of paid ads and other search features to the top of the page, pushing the natural search results down (and often below the fold on a mobile phone). Not only does the inclusion of Google AI Overviews content further this downward push of natural positions, its direct, conservational answers have reduced or zero-ed out organic and paid search clicks and CTR. ​
• Another issue facing Paid Search is Google’s double-serving policy shift earlier this year. This means an advertiser’s ad may appear in multiple positions in the same auction. The result is increased impression counts without driving a comparable rise in clicks. The impact of declining CTRs and diluted impression share are making these old benchmarks unreliable.

How else are AI chatbots and generative search agents (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, etc.) changing search performance measurement?

• AI search and chatbots tend to “summarize” their answers from a variety of sources that often do not include direct brand citations with links. In some cases, brands are actually competing for visibility with their product distributors or being cited with competitors based on competitive reviews on publisher websites.

• The traditional digital customer journey has been upended as AI-focused search results and AI chatbots are gaining traction as key steps in the brand discovery and research phases. While there is growing evidence that people are not leveraging AI platforms as their only search vehicle, we now have a chicken/egg attribution challenge as to where, when, or even, if a click or conversion was impacted.

What are the important metrics for search marketers moving forward?

• Conversions and Conversion Value: We’re still going to track traditional metrics like clicks, CTR, etc. as they are good signals of optimization gains and opportunities for improvement. However, the most important success metrics in this AI era should be overall Conversions and Conversion Value that can be used to determine ROI. This is why Conversion Goal Setting is a critical part of our client onboarding Discovery Phase.

• Brand Authority and Visibility: Authoritativeness is one of Google’s E-E-A-T core ranking/relevancy guidelines. Authority is also widely viewed as a significant factor behind brand citations/links. We track Moz Authority scores to demonstrate improvement over time. We also track Target Keyword Visibility through Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) over time as indication of optimization success. Impressions can also be used as an indicator here.

• Competitive Presence and Advantage: One of the great things about digital marketing is you can track and compare competitive authority and visibility to demonstrate success. Even paid search offers Auction Insights to show your share of voice vs. competitors.​

Final Thoughts

In today’s digital landscape, the most valuable question on search metrics is no longer “How many clicks or impressions did I get?” Instead, marketers must now focus on “How visible and trusted is my brand before a click ever happens?” To thrive, embrace search measurement frameworks that prioritize conversions, brand perception, and competitive positioning that are consistent with search and consumer journeys as they evolve in the AI era.

Can you believe we’ve reached the end of the 3rd Quarter 2025? January seems both long ago and yesterday at the same time, especially in the ever-changing world of SEO/SAIO.

Here’s a month-by-month recap of some of the industry’s key news stories as covered in our Perspective Marketer newsletter with our perspective on how the impact of the story has changed over the course of the year:

January

Are People Clicking Links In ChatGPT Search? Brands Say Yes. The sub-head summary was: “Brands report anecdotal evidence that users are clicking links in ChatGPT and Google Gemini search results, driving traffic and sales.” What’s changed since then:

• There is now definitive analytical evidence that people are using AI engines and clicking on links as part of their purchase journey. In fact, we call ChatGPT the “Google” of AI search in terms of the percentage volume of clicks it delivers to websites.

• We’ve learned ChatGPT is using Google rankings as part of their algorithm for including link citations (see August below).

• We liked that ChatGPT had a search mode but the interface no longer supports that mode with a clickable button. In many cases you now have to prompt ChatGPT to provide its citations and links via prompts.

February

DeepSeek Now In Perplexity’s AI Search—U.S. AI Dominance Challenged. This story suggested Perplexity’s adoption of DeepSeek’s “innovative R1 reasoning model” solidified Perplexity as a leader in AI-powered technology. What’s changed since then:

• DeepSeek itself has not become a SAIO target for optimization as a stand-alone AI platform, and Perplexity is nowhere close to dominating the AI search space. According to Perplexity’s link citations, Perplexity has an estimated 22-30 million monthly users while ChatGPT has 782-838 million estimated monthly users. We are seeing corresponding disparities between ChatGPT and Perplexity in terms of the sessions and conversions data being captured in GA4. That said, we still believe Perplexity is an important independent AI search platform.

March

Google begins testing AI Mode while rolling out Gemini 2.0 AI Overviews. AI Mode was only available in Search Labs. It appeared to be Google’s response to DeepSeek “thinking” as a way to go deeper in your searching in ways that AI Overviews did not. With respect to a question posed in the article about Search Console filtering AI queries and data separately from Organic Search data, Google said “We currently don’t have anything to share about the reporting tools for this experiment, but will let you know if that changes.” What’s changed since then:

• Google opened AI Mode to all users in May – much faster than it took them to get AI Overviews out of the lab. According to Perplexity’s link citations, AI Mode is estimated to have 100 million monthly users.

• What hasn’t changed – Google Search Console is still not filtering AI Mode or AI Overviews usage data. It’s all wrapped up with the organic search data which has some in our industry speculating about what Google may be hiding.

April

Google officially rolls out links in AI Overviews to its own search results. Yes, it’s worth repeating, Google AI Overviews started including links back to its own search results. This further fueled industry speculation about the motive for this “enhancement.” Some saw it as an effort to monetize AI Overviews by moving searchers back to the traditional platform that includes ads. What’s changed since then:

• AI Overviews still includes links to Google search engine results pages. There is now discussion that in addition to the monetization aspect, Google is trying to bolster the losses of search referral clicks due to the zero-click aspect of AI Overviews results (an issue we also discussed in Perceptive Marketer in April).

May

Turn chats into checkouts. ChatGPT Shopping Search announced a pending feature that allows merchants to submit product feeds to allow Instant Checkouts with a sign-up waiting list. This feature will put ChatGPT more in direct competition with Google and Amazon shopping features. What’s changed since then:

• ChatGPT Shopping Search launched in September. Details on purchase volume are not yet available but consider that an estimated 60% of shoppers use AI recommendations for product searches.

June

90% of AI search traffic comes from desktop: Report. Surprised? We were, too, but there were reasonable technology issues with mobile (e.g., lag times in results displays and click functionality in AI apps) that affected referral clicks. What’s changed since then:

• Another surprise – not much has changed. Seems people who are using AI to research topics and/or create content are more likely to want to use desktop over mobile.

July

Explaining The Great De-Coupling To C-Level. Remember that story in March about AI Overviews impacting Google’s traditional search click-throughs? This story explains how AI Overviews and AI Mode data are dramatically increasing search Impressions in Google Search Console reporting but the Click-Through Rate is dramatically dropping which in turn translates to a drop in reported Organic Search Clicks. In fact, if your website shows up in both AI Overviews and traditional search results, Search Console will capture that as two Impressions when the likelihood is you will only Click on one of those Impressions. What’s changed since then:

• There has been growing discussion about what success looks like in SEO/SAIO. Should we just be counting Impressions as a sign of brand visibility? Should we ignore Impressions and just be counting combined traditional Search and AI referral clicks to the website? Stay tuned for developments and industry consensus on how best to align available data with brand KPIs.

August

ChatGPT is using Google Search, multiple tests suggest. We shared reports that showed occasions where up to 90% of ChatGPT’s cited URLs matched Google’s top results. See how quickly things change as we first started talking about ChatGPT Search in January.

September

Google’s Danny Sullivan: ‘Good SEO is good GEO’ . “Generative engine optimization (or whatever the new acronym is for optimizing for AI search experiences) is the same core work SEOs have always done: creating unique, valuable content for people and providing a great page experience”.

• So, in other words, what is good for the SEO goose is good for the SAIO gander. It’s furthering the concept that SEO and SAIO are complementary in nature while allowing for differences in execution.

Stay tuned to Perspective Marketer for what changes arise in the 4th Quarter 2025 and, in the meantime, let’s all sing along…

🎵 Time May ChAInge Search, But We Can TrAIce Time