“The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all.” – Joan Robinson, Economic Philosophy, 1962.
The deal between web publishers and the search engine companies is over
The informal agreement between web publishers and search engine companies has always been that search companies can scan your site and copy your content, and in turn, they send visitors to your site. Good content led to higher rankings and more visits. No one talked about potential copyright violations because the traffic generated to the website benefited the publishers.
In May of 2025, 69% of Google searches resulted in no website clicks. A month-long survey of almost 69,000 Google searches, run by the Pew Research Center, found users only clicked a link under an AI summary once every 100 times. Visitors found the AI overview answered their question. For other consumer AI platforms, the click-through rates are even more dismal. For OpenAI, 1 in 750 queries results in a website visit. For Anthropic, it is 1 in 30,000.
The old order is dead. Website publishers are beginning to sue AI companies for copyright violations, they’re blocking AI from scanning their sites, and considering content deals or charging AI and search companies for access to content. This strategy may work for the largest publishers, like the New York Times, but for most web publishers, their website is the most compelling way to let the world know they exist.
If websites are where companies demonstrate the value of their brand, create trust, and build an ongoing identity. But with no visitors, why build a website at all? The rationale for sites that run on advertising or rely on the traditional web marketing funnel has started to collapse. No visits, no leads, no sales, no profit. The analytics tools developed over the last 30 years are no longer useful because they don’t track how AI platforms rank content.
AI Answer Engines (like ChatGPT, Google AI snippets, Mistral’s Le Chat, etc.) are a new channel, not a replacement for websites today. Without a website, you have no voice or influence on these channels.
How to show the value of your website in this new world?
This new world requires new ways to measure success. Understanding the business goals that your organization has for your website will drive how you measure success. Luckily, if you are doing SEO correctly (i.e., structuring your website’s data, providing clear answers to common questions, etc.), you are well on your way to making progress with Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
Three main categories of analytics are emerging in this new paradigm:
- Engagement and Influence
- Business and Revenue Impact
- Brand and Authority Metrics
Engagement and Influence can be measured using traditional analytics tools, but also need to account for visits from chatbots and automated sources. Business and revenue impact can still be tracked via a CRM tool or other sales-tracking methods, and Chatbots can drive leads and sales. For brand and authority, tools that analyze brand mentions in chatbot responses can provide valuable insights into how often content is cited or linked by AI platforms.
At FastrackPR, we continue to deepen our understanding of the effectiveness of these tools, particularly those that track brand and authority metrics. Meanwhile, what steps is your organization taking to adapt to the rise of AI? Please share your thoughts, or reach out to learn more about our continued work on AEO and brand tracking.