Only 15% Of Queries Led To AI Overviews A Year Ago. Now It's Practically All Of Them. Your Keyword Strategy Is Dead.
Forbes Agency Council reports that search behavior has shifted dramatically. One year ago, only 15% of queries triggered an AI Overview. Now brands can no longer assume SEO-driven links will reach consumers at all. The article recommends conducting a GEO, generative engine optimization, or AEO, answer engine optimization, visibility audit instead of relying on traditional rank tracking.
This illustrates the concept of channel displacement, where a new distribution mechanism renders the old one structurally irrelevant. The mechanism is called answer engine optimization, and it measures whether your brand appears inside the AI's synthesized response rather than on a blue link. You need to stop optimizing for the list and start optimizing for the summary.
Forbes Agency Council contributors are advocating the GEO and AEO audit framework. They position it as the successor to the traditional SEO audit, moving beyond rank calculation toward diagnostic visibility in generative outputs.
- Open ChatGPT or Claude and type a query your customers would actually search, like 'best CRM for small business.' Observe which brands appear in the response and which do not.
- Search the same query on Google and compare the AI Overview at the top with the traditional links below it. Note whether your brand appears in either surface.
- Run the same query across Gemini and Perplexity to map your presence across generative engines. This is your crude GEO audit. If you are invisible in the summaries, your traditional rank does not matter.