- Video
AI means you need a better website
One visit for every 170 times you’re shown in Google. And I’m being generous.
▶Play the video: AI means you need a better websiteGoogle finally started showing how often you appear in its AI results, like AI Overviews and AI Mode. We look after hundreds of websites, so I went through about 100 of them in Search Console. For roughly every 170 times a site is shown, it gets one visitor. That’s the conservative figure. For some it’s closer to 500.
So there’s a big impressions number in your Search Console that sends you almost nobody. I think that’s an opportunity, if you take three things seriously.
Write articles on your website, now and regularly. Keep everything up to date: no old staff, no articles about something that happened in 2012. AI reads your site and repeats it, so if your opening hours are wrong, it tells people the wrong opening hours. (No dogs either. That’s nothing to do with AI.) And finally get a good website, with information worth citing.
If it takes 170 appearances to earn one click, you need a lot more appearances. More in is AI killing website traffic?
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Read the full transcript
Here's a crazy statistic for you. For every 170 times you're getting shown in Google, one person will visit your website and I'm being extremely conservative with that figure. So, last month Google finally revealed how many times you're actually being shown in their AI services such as AI overviews, AI mode, things like that. And because I look after hundreds of websites, I decided to look in Google Search Console and look at some of the figures that Google are giving us. And in some ways, to be honest, the figures are quite scary.
Because after looking at about 100 websites, I can say that maybe for about every 170 times you're appearing in Google, you're going to get one website visitor. And as I said before, I'm being very conservative with that figure. For some people it might be closer to 500 times that you're appearing before you get one website visitor. I don't know why we're filming me pouring cold water into a cup, but that's what we're doing. So, what that means is if you look in Google Search Console right now, you'll see the AI overview section that's being added.
And in there you'll be getting thousands of impressions to your website, but not even one click. Weirdly though, I think that's an opportunity. I think it's now time for you to do three things to your website incredibly seriously that you've probably never done before. I'm going to pour this cold milk into this cold cup. Yes, it is cold water.
Let's have a look what happens. Milk's off and all. The first thing it means absolutely that you need to start writing articles on your website immediately and regularly. Then you need to absolutely make sure that all the information on your website is as up-to-date as possible. No old members of staff on your website anymore.
No articles that are talking about that happened in 2012. No dogs on your website either. That's nothing to do with AI. That's just a personal pet peeve. That The Yeah, that was a pun.
Accidental, but it was a pun, yes. Because the problem with old information on your website is that it's feeding AI now. So, when somebody searches a question, what is so-and-so business's opening hours? If the opening hours on your website is wrong, it's going to pull that information in and it's going to be incorrect and you're going to look like a aren't you? And then the final thing you need to do is that you finally need a good website.
It stuff of information that people want to read in AI search so you can get cited. And most importantly of all, you've got to bump them numbers up. If you have to appear 170 times in Google before one person clicks on your website, you need to develop reasons to appear in Google searches and AI thousands and thousands and thousands of times. So you better start writing that good information. And no, I'm not drinking this tea because it's got sour milk in it.