Google’s new AI Overviews mode is changing how people interact with search and how search interacts with your content.
Soon, Clicks, Impressions, and Position data from AI Overviews will flow into Google Search Console. And already, some SEOs and marketers are panicking. They’re seeing fewer clicks and jumping to conclusions:
“Let’s stop writing informational content—it’s not converting anymore.”
But that’s exactly the move that will bury your brand in the AI-driven search future.
Here’s what many marketers still miss:
Ranking content is no longer just about traffic. It’s about visibility across layers—search, snippets, AI answers, and even future queries.
The New Search Hierarchy You Need to Understand
Google doesn’t just crawl documents. It ranks at three levels:
- Document Ranking
- Passage Ranking
- Passage Generation (used in AI Overviews/SGE)
If your document doesn’t rank, your passages won’t rank. And if your passages don’t rank, they won’t be cited in AI-generated answers. You lose relevance and opportunity.
This has huge implications for B2B IT marketers who rely on search as a top-of-funnel strategy.
Because here’s the kicker:
Strong informational content still drives commercial results.
Proof: Informational Drives Transactional
Across multiple eCommerce and SaaS projects, we’ve seen the same thing:
- Pages explaining how a tool works, what alternatives exist, or how to implement it?
→ They end up ranking for pricing, comparison, and feature-based keywords too. - Blog posts designed to answer “how to” questions?
→ They build topical authority—which improves rankings for product and service pages.
You’re not just creating awareness. You’re training Google to associate your brand with expertise.
Two Concepts Every B2B Marketer Needs Now
If you want to future-proof your SEO and content strategy, focus on:
- Statistical Semantics – Your site’s total relevance across topics, not just individual keywords.
- Cost of Retrieval – Google’s AI weighs how “expensive” it is to find good answers. Make it easier, and you get surfaced more.
Every helpful passage you write increases the odds you’ll show up in Featured Snippets, “People Also Ask,” and AI Overviews.
Clicks Aren’t Dead—They’re Evolving
Let’s be clear: click traffic isn’t disappearing.
- Query count per session is up
- Average query length is longer
- Click-per-user rates are increasing
And with Google under regulatory pressure to maintain open web access, they need to keep sending traffic. If they don’t, it becomes a legal liability.
TL;DR: Stop Panicking. Start Building Authority.
If you’re in IT marketing or sales, especially in competitive B2B verticals, informational content is still your best bet to:
- Build long-term relevance
- Drive demand generation
- Stay visible in AI-powered SERPs
Treat content as a system, not a series of one-off blog posts.
Because every ranked document today makes your brand more citable tomorrow.
Disclaimer note:
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any company or their associates.
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