Like the first hint of rain in the air, most nonprofits can already sense what’s coming—a massive storm reshaping online search behavior. AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI summaries, and Perplexity are quietly sweeping away traditional website traffic, forcing organizations to brace for impact or risk getting washed out.
Grab your poncho and let’s break down what this means…
TL;DR
- ~60% of Google searches now end without clicks (SparkToro, 2024).
- Organic website traffic down 18–64% due to Google’s AI summaries (Search Engine Land, 2024).
- Informational content (e.g., HubSpot blogs) losing up to 80% traffic (Semrush, 2025).
- Educational platforms like Chegg saw traffic decline ~50% from AI answers (CCN, 2025).
- AI tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity) send <1% referral traffic to external sites (BrightEdge, 2024).
Summary of Key SEO Data over past 6 months:
- Significant Organic Traffic Loss:
- Google searches ending without clicks reached ~60% in 2024, reducing organic website visits significantly (Rand Fishkin, SparkToro via Search Engine Land, July 2024).
- Google’s AI summaries (SGE) led to organic traffic drops ranging from 18% to 64% across analyzed websites (Search Engine Land, June 2024).
- Major informational websites like HubSpot experienced traffic losses of around 80% for top-of-funnel educational content (Semrush via Taktical Digital, Jan 2025).
- ChatGPT & AI Chatbots Shifting Search Habits:
- ChatGPT reached 400 million weekly users by early 2025, substantially replacing traditional Google queries (Press Gazette, Feb 2025).
- Tech Q&A platforms such as Stack Overflow saw monthly traffic reductions of up to 17.7% following ChatGPT’s rise (TechXplore, Aug 2023).
- Minimal Referral Traffic from AI Platforms:
- Referral traffic from ChatGPT to publisher websites remains minimal (under 0.1% of total traffic), despite an 8× increase in 6 months (Press Gazette, Feb 2025).
- AI tools overall contributed less than 1% of total referral traffic in late 2024 (BrightEdge via Search Engine Land, Dec 2024).
- Educational & Informational Sites Hit Hardest:
- Education providers like Chegg reported nearly 50% organic traffic losses due to Google’s AI answers (CCN/BusinessWire, Feb 2025).
- Marketing and general how-to content creators significantly impacted as users turn to AI answers instead of website visits (Ahrefs study, Feb 2025).
Strategic Recommendations for Nonprofits:
What used to work for nonprofits that relied on reaching audiences by answering their questions and creating discoverable content is changing. Whole Whale, digital marketing and analytics agency has been planning for ways to adjust for a new nonprofit discovery strategy.
1. Diversify Traffic Sources and types
- Email & Newsletters: Strengthen email marketing to retain direct audience engagement.
- Social Media: Build communities that drive direct visits, rather than solely relying on search.
- Community Platforms: Engage users on external platforms (Discord, LinkedIn groups, Slack) to drive intentional traffic.
- Video is a must: Create multimedia content that can be shared across video-first social channels like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.
2. Optimize for AI Citations and Search EVERYWHERE Optimization (SEO)
- Create highly credible, citable content (statistics, studies, annual reports).
- Clearly structure data points (bullet points, numbered lists, clear headings) that AI tools easily parse and reference.
- Consider structured data markup (schema.org) to facilitate inclusion in AI results.
- Consider all locations where your organization has content and optimization opportunity
3. Rethink Content Goals & KPIs
- Move beyond pure traffic numbers—emphasize deeper engagement, conversions, subscriptions, and donations.
- Create pathways on your site optimized for user journey beyond just initial traffic (deep content, clear calls-to-action).
4. Leverage AI Tools
- Use generative AI and chatbot technology internally to create high-quality, SEO-friendly content efficiently.
- Ensure your website’s Q&A or support sections align with common user queries likely answered by AI.
5. Advocacy & Thought Leadership
- Publish thought leadership on ethical AI usage, citation best practices, and data integrity to position your nonprofit as a leader in responsible AI integration.Video is a must: Create multimedia content that can be shared across video-first social channels like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.
Given these stark shifts, nonprofits must adapt rapidly to mitigate the declining effectiveness of traditional search-driven traffic strategies.
Industry Traffic Loss by Sector
Different online sectors are experiencing the traffic shift in varying degrees. Here are a few examples illustrating the cross-industry impact of AI-driven search:
- Education & Study Help: Sites offering homework help, study guides, or tutorial content have been hard-hit. Chegg (education services) is a prime example, citing nearly a 50% drop in visit volume due to students getting answers from AI, ccn.com. Similarly, anecdotal reports suggest traffic to sites with flashcards, textbook solutions, or language translations has declined as users leverage free AI assistance instead of visiting those resources.
- Tech Q&A and Forums: Communities like Stack Overflow (programming) and Reddit saw declines in question posting and page views once large language models could answer many common queries, techxplore.com. The software development Q&A niche is particularly affected because coders can quickly get code snippets or solutions from ChatGPT without navigating multiple forum threads. Some users even feed forum content to AI (via plugins or copy-paste) to have it summarize answers, reducing the need to engage on the site itself.
- Media & News Publishers: News outlets are concerned that AI summarizers will reduce referral traffic. As noted, major publishers got <0.1% of their traffic from ChatGPT even as it used their content, pressgazette.co.uk. While not a big traffic source yet, the worry is that as AI adoption grows, fewer readers will click through to full articles, impacting online ad impressions and subscriptions. Publishers like The New York Times and BBC are monitoring AI usage of their content closely, and there have been industry discussions about compensation or content access restrictions if AI begins to draw large audiences away from news sites.
- Marketing and How-To Content: Digital marketing blogs and how-to websites that built their audience via SEO have seen notable drops. HubSpot’s marketing blog losing roughly 80% of its Google traffic in 2024 was a wake-up call, taktical.co. Much of that loss came from general interest articles (career tips, generic business advice) which are exactly the kind of content readily answered by AI chatbots, taktical.co. Other marketing sites and even DIY/home improvement blogs report similar patterns – their top-of-funnel informational pages no longer attract the same volume from Google, because users either find the answer in Google’s own summary or just ask an AI assistant. These businesses are now pivoting to focus on content that AI can’t easily replicate (e.g. very niche expertise, proprietary research, or tools).
Sources:
- Anna Crowe, Search Engine Land – “How will generative AI impact website rankings and traffic?” (June 2024) – discusses Google SGE’s effect on CTR and trafficsearchengineland.comsearchengineland.com.
- Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable – “Report: Google AI Overviews Are Killing Click Through Rates” (Feb 2025) – cites Seer Interactive’s CTR studyseroundtable.com.
- CCN / BusinessWire – Chegg press release and lawsuit details accusing Google AI of causing a 49% traffic drop (Feb 2025)ccn.com.
- Michael Hess (Code Signing Store) via InformationWeek – notes a 20% CTR decline when Google displays AI summaries (Oct 2024)informationweek.com.
- Peter Grad, TechXplore – “Despite fails, ChatGPT wins showdown against Stack Overflow” (Aug 2023) – Stack Overflow traffic down ~17.7% in one monthtechxplore.com.
- BrightEdge data via Search Engine Land – “ChatGPT’s search surge: 1% market share predicted by 2025” (Dec 2024) – compares ChatGPT vs. Perplexity usage and Google’s remaining dominancesearchengineland.comsearchengineland.com.
- Press Gazette – “ChatGPT referrals to top publishers up eight times in six months but still negligible” (Feb 2025) – provides ChatGPT (3.5M) vs Perplexity (450–850k) referral figures to news sitespressgazette.co.ukpressgazette.co.uk.
- Ahrefs – “63% of Websites Receive AI Traffic (Study of 3,000 Sites)” (Feb 2025) – finds 0.17% of avg. traffic from AI and breaks down referrals: ChatGPT ~50%, Perplexity ~31%, Google SGE ~18%ahrefs.comahrefs.com.
- Taktical Digital – “How HubSpot’s SEO Got Crushed: 80% Loss in Organic Traffic” (Jan 2025) – case study citing Semrush on HubSpot’s decline and role of AI searchtaktical.cotaktical.co.
- Rand Fishkin (SparkToro) via Search Engine Land – “Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024” (July 2024) – latest zero-click search statssearchengineland.com.
