As the entry portal for most web users, search engines play a significant role in how you discover content online and how much traffic websites receive. However, as massive players like Google and Bing integrate ChatGPT-like AI chatbots within their search engines, how you interact with these services will change drastically.

AI-powered search engines will significantly impact how you find and consume content online and the future of websites. While this is still a gray area, this article will explore one of several potential ways AI chatbot-driven search engines could affect independent websites.

How Traditional Search Engines Work

Whenever you search for something online through a search engine like Google or Bing, complex bots crawl through millions of web pages to generate the most relevant results for your query. Once this happens, you can click any link on the search engine results page (SERP) and be redirected to the website providing the information.

The more users visit a specific website, the more visibility, traffic, and revenue it can generate using advertising and affiliate marketing strategies, among others. This is why businesses invest in search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to ensure their websites rank on the first page of results—allowing them to get more visibility and revenue.

How Generative AI Search Could Impact Website Visibility, Traffic, and Revenue

AI chatbots like ChatGPT can generate human-like conversations and provide personalized answers to users. It's no wonder Microsoft has integrated this technology into Bing, and Google is launching its AI chatbot called Bard to stay competitive in the market. Other search engines like you.com and Neeva AI have also integrated AI chatbots in their search engines to provide more customized responses to users.

So, how does this new approach work?

Let's say you visit bing.com to find the best smart TV to buy in 2023. In addition to displaying a list of relevant links you can click on to find the information you need, Bing's chatbot can also sift through the webpages related to the query and provide personalized and human-like conversational responses with links for further reading.

So, instead of manually going through multiple websites to find the information you're looking for, you can save time by getting more personalized responses from the AI chatbot. In addition, you can ask follow-up questions for more precision and specificity. For example, you could ask the chatbot to narrow your search to TVs within a specific price range or those with gaming features. From here, you can head straight to Amazon to buy the product.

Although these chatbot responses also include links to (their sources) other websites providing TV reviews, we can predict that some users will skip this step and ask follow-up questions instead or head straight to purchase the product. This is similar to featured snippets on search engine results pages, which provide instant answers, for instance, someone's age, without having to click through to the website providing the information.

The above could lead to fewer website visits, less traffic, and, thus, decreased revenue.

The Potential Implications of AI-Powered Search Engines

Although it is still too early to know precisely how generative AI search will change websites, there are a few potential implications we can anticipate. Considering the traditional search model basically works by trading traffic for free content, online publications struggling with decreased web traffic may suffer from lower advertising revenue and find it harder to stay afloat.

Smaller or mid-sized independent websites with less revenue may be the first to be impacted and may become obsolete as these AI chatbots become better at providing personalized answers. Larger publications, on the other hand, may have more resources to come up with new SEO strategies or different innovative approaches to boost their website traffic.

Some online publications might have to rely on AI content generators to write their articles, as they are cheaper and can churn out content faster than humans. This could lead to more bland, unauthentic, and low-quality content on the internet, as ChatGPT-like tools aren't good enough to replace skilled writers.

The Case for Human-Written Content

Large language models like ChatGPT rely on vast text databases to generate coherent and plausible-sounding responses. Considering the complexity of their tasks, these chatbots need training using high-quality data and feedback to get better at providing personalized answers.

Consequently, as seen in the smart TV example above, integrating AI chatbots within search engines means they will need access to current, factual, and reliable content written by skilled human writers to provide the best responses. This is particularly important for health and news verticals that require accurate and real-time information.

Thus, current and accurate information written by knowledgeable and skilled writers creates a positive feedback loop with generative AI search engines and ensures they provide users with more factual and up-to-date responses.

How Websites Can Adapt in the Age of AI-Powered Search Engines

Independent websites and generative search engines may need to coexist for this new search model to work. In this regard, websites must adopt new strategies and approaches to remain relevant in an AI-driven search engine world. This includes:

1. Producing High-Quality Niche Content That Provides Value

Although ChatGPT-like tools have been wowing users with their writing prowess, they lack the depth, accuracy, and factual correctness that human-written content provides. These tools are notorious for producing bland, shallow, and generic content, which is not good enough for some users.

Content creators can capitalize on these weak points and fill in the gap to drive more website traffic by producing high-quality, niche content that covers specific topics from different angles and provides unique perspectives to users.

2. Using Social Media to Drive Traffic to Websites

If search engines integrated AI chatbots end up redirecting a significant percentage of users away from websites, then online publishers need to find new ways to make up for this lost traffic. Social media is the next best place to do this, providing a direct platform to reach potential readers and drive them back to websites.

Content creators can use social media platforms such as TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook to promote their content and attract more visitors.

3. Getting Familiar With AI Tools

Artificial intelligence is not going anywhere any time soon, so it would be wise to jump on the bandwagon and get familiar with AI tools that can help you thrive. Although content writers should not rely on AI chatbots to write their articles, there are other ways to leverage these tools, including generating content ideas, researching, overcoming writer's block, and more.

4. Becoming a Trusted Source of Information

AI chatbots are excellent at generating coherent responses but not so good at fact-checking and verifying the accuracy of the information provided. There are already several instances of Bing's chatbot providing misleading information, which can negatively affect users' trust in AI-powered search engines.

Skilled content writers outperform AI chatbots by fact-checking and producing relatable content that instills trust and confidence in readers. By becoming a trusted source of information, independent websites can differentiate themselves from AI-generated content and become the go-to place for readers looking for factual information.

5. Embracing Subscription Models

If all of the above fails to boost website traffic, then online publishers can embrace subscription models to increase their revenue. Subscription models typically provide readers access to exclusive and premium content for a fixed fee without dealing with ads. Online publishers can use this business model to monetize their content and compensate for the lost ad revenue due to AI generative search.

AI-Powered Search Could Change the Internet as We Know It

It's still early to know how AI-driven search engines will change independent websites, as we have only covered one possibility. However, what is certain is that there will be some change, and this will significantly depend on how you and other users will respond to this new search model.

It is possible that AI-driven search may boost traffic to independent websites or not, as we have covered in this piece. Whatever the outcome, the traditional search model works in a symbiotic relationship with search engines, independent websites, advertisers, and users. So, for this new search model to be sustainable, we might need to find ways to replicate this relationship with AI-powered search.