Clicks are disappearing. Awareness is eroding. Top-of-funnel content is losing visibility fast.
If you’re still relying on the traditional marketing funnel — Awareness → Evaluation → Consideration → Purchase → Retention — it’s time to rethink your approach.

Generative AI is dismantling the system marketers have depended on for years. Pew Research shows the shift clearly:

• Only 8% of searches with AI summaries lead to a click (vs. 15% without).
• Just 1% of visits result in a click on a summary link.

Your blogs, guides, and resources — once reliable awareness drivers — are now buried under zero-click answers from AI-powered search.

So what does the new user journey look like, and where should you focus your efforts?

The New Reality: A Shrunken Top of the Funnel

Generative answers now deliver instant solutions for informational queries, meaning fewer users visit your site. In March 2025, 27.2% of U.S. searches ended without a click, up from 24.4% the year before.

This impacts: Informational blogs, How-to guides, Explainer videos, Infographics.

Instead of landing on your site, users get their answers directly in the search results. To stay visible, your brand needs to show up inside AI Overviews and zero-click results — not just in organic rankings.

Opportunities Still Exist — But They’ve Shifted

Your brand can still win top-of-funnel attention by thinking beyond your blog:

• YouTube videos (still highly visible in search)
• Social media platforms
• Forums and discussions (Reddit, Quora, niche communities)
• Targeted online ads

However, the biggest shift is toward the middle of the funnel (MOFU) — where intent is higher and competition is thinner.

Why the Middle of the Funnel Matters More Than Ever

The MOFU is where users seriously evaluate their options. This is your chance to:

• Share case studies proving your solution works
• Publish comparison guides to help buyers choose
• Demonstrate expert authority beyond surface-level tips

Traffic may be lower, but conversion rates are higher because these visitors already have buying intent.

7 Steps to Revamp Your User Journey

1. Restructure your content
   Make every piece easy to scan with subheadings, concise data points, and expert quotes. Include original insights and case study results that spark fresh conversations.
2. Refresh past high-performers
   Update older, successful content with new data, examples, and strategic product mentions.
3. Shift to commercial and transactional queries
   Target searches like “Best snoring aids” or “X vs. Y comparisons”. Add schema markup, build backlinks, and optimize for buyer intent.
4. Build topical authority
   Even if top-funnel traffic is declining, cover your niche thoroughly with definitions, lists, tables, and FAQ schema.
5. Interlink your content
   Create topic clusters that connect top-, middle-, and bottom-funnel content to guide users deeper into your site.
6. Focus your budget where it works
   Prioritize MOFU content — demo pages, product comparisons, and case studies — to maximize conversions.
7. Diversify your presence
   Go beyond search: contribute meaningfully to forums, discussions, YouTube, and TikTok to reach audiences where they’re engaging.

From Awareness to Action

Generative AI may be reshaping the way users discover brands, but the fundamentals remain:

• Trust matters
• Expertise sells
• User journeys evolve

By shifting focus from pure awareness to intent-driven middle- and bottom-funnel strategies, you can keep your brand visible, relevant, and profitable — even as AI changes the rules of search.

At SEO Guru NYC, our team of expert SEO consultants in NYC specializes in helping brands adapt to the evolving world of generative search and AI-driven answers. We create intent-focused strategies that position your business to capture high-value clicks, build trust, and drive conversions in this new era. Let’s redefine your SEO strategy — contact today.