Impressions are up. Clicks are down.
Rankings haven’t moved.
If that describes your last Search Console export, you don’t have a content problem or a technical problem. You have a SERP that no longer sends you the clicks your positions used to earn, and the playbook you’re running was built for one that did.
Five shifts are restructuring how search visibility works right now. Each one builds on the one before it, and each one comes with work you can start before Q3 planning is finalized.
1. Don’t Treat Organic CTR Decline as a Seasonal Dip
AI Overviews and zero-click results are absorbing clicks on queries where your positions are stable. If you’re reporting blended CTR, one metric is combining two different losses: clicks lost to AI Overviews on queries you still rank for, and clicks lost to competitors who now outrank you. Each requires a different fix.
How to Find Out If AI Overviews or Competitors Are Taking Your Clicks
The diagnosis starts in data you already have. Segmented correctly, your query data splits into two groups with very different jobs: one shows you where competitors are winning clicks you can fight to take back, and the other shows you where the SERP itself changed and your effort belongs somewhere new. Knowing which group is driving your decline determines what your team spends Q3 fixing.
In our upcoming SEJ Live, 6 experts will spend 3 hours helping you identify, repair, and expand your AI Search strategy for Q3.
2. Optimize for Being Surfaced, Not Just Ranked
Position one on SERPs no longer guarantees visibility.
LLMs and AI Overviews extract passages, synthesize across sources, and cite, which means your pages need to be extraction-ready, not just rank-ready.
A page AI systems can lift a clear answer from becomes a citation asset, and a page that ranks well but can’t be extracted stays invisible at the answer layer no matter its position.
Knowing which group your best pages fall into is the first thing to settle before rewriting anything, and it starts with understanding what “discoverable content” actually means when AI is doing the surfacing.
3. Build Presence on the Platforms Feeding AI Models
Reddit and LinkedIn have become citation sources, not just social channels.
In studies of AI outputs, Reddit threads keep showing up. So do LinkedIn posts from practitioners whose job titles, posting history, and engagement signal verifiable expertise.
Both now influence which brands get cited, and you don’t control either property.
Start by finding out whether the sources AI answers trust in your category mention your brand, your competitors, or neither.
4. Plan Paid & Organic in the Same Room
AI Mode ads are rolling out. ChatGPT ad testing is in flux. The same AI surfaces now blend organic citations and paid placements, and if you’re only watching the organic half, you’re missing where paid placements are taking visibility you thought your rankings secured.
5. Report Citations Alongside Clicks
Search Console clicks no longer measure your full search visibility. Being cited in AI answers is a second visibility metric that captures brand exposure clicks never record, and your leadership report almost certainly doesn’t include it yet.
Where to Take This Work Next
Shifts 3, 4, and 5 are exactly what SEJ Live covers on June 17: a free, virtual event with three sessions built to connect AI search, social, paid, and attribution into one strategy.
- A fireside chat answering the AI visibility and traffic questions you submit
- Reddit and LinkedIn experts on earning the citation signals AI models trust
- A multi-channel session on building attribution you can actually act on
You shape these sessions: when you register, you can submit the question you most need answered, whether that’s AI citation tracking, AI Overview displacement, PPC overlap, or content extractability. The sharpest questions shape the conversation on stage, and yours could be one of them.
Register free for SEJ Live, June 17, 12–3 PM ET. Recordings included, so you can share every session with your team after the event.
