Is AI damaging your search engine rankings? 

We have all seen it now. You search Google and, before you even get to the normal website results, an AI-generated answer appears at the top of the page. Or maybe you have started using ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI tool to ask questions you would once have typed into Google. 

So the obvious question is: could AI be affecting your website traffic? 

The short answer is yes, it could. But the better answer is that AI is changing how people search, how answers are displayed and how websites are chosen. That does not mean SEO is dead. It means your website has to work harder to be found, trusted and selected. 

At One Design Group, we think about this in three parts: built to be found, designed to be chosen, marketed to win. 

What is actually changing? 

Google is now using AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode to answer more complex questions directly in the search results. These features can include links to supporting websites, but they may also answer enough of the question that fewer people click through to individual sites. 

At the same time, tools like ChatGPT are changing how people research products, services and suppliers. Some users ask AI for recommendations before they ever visit Google. Others use AI first, then search Google to check, compare or buy. 

This means your business may now need to be visible in more than one place: traditional Google results, AI-generated search results, map listings, business profiles, trusted directories, review sites and AI tools that use web sources. 

Does that mean schema is the magic answer? 

Not on its own. 

Schema markup is a form of structured code that helps search engines understand a page. For example, it can help identify a service, article, product, review, organisation or FAQ. It is still useful as part of a technical SEO strategy, but simply adding schema does not automatically make a website appear in AI results. 

That is where experience matters. AI visibility is not about one trick. It is about making your website easier to crawl, easier to understand, more credible and more useful. It includes technical SEO, content structure, internal links, page titles, evidence, reviews, citations, speed, user experience and the quality of the information on the page. 

What should business owners check first? 

The first step is not to guess. It is to audit. 

We start by looking at your current visibility in Google, your website structure, your service pages, your content, your competitors, your citations and how your site is being measured. A citation is simply a mention or reference to your business or website from another source. In AI search, strong and consistent references can help build confidence around who you are and what you do. 

We also look at the basics that still matter: can Google crawl the site, are the pages indexed, are the service pages clear, do the page titles match what people search for, is the content actually helpful and is the website designed to convert visitors once they arrive? 

What can be done? 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but there are practical steps that help. 

Your website may need clearer service pages, stronger question-led content, better page titles, more structured information, improved internal links, schema markup, stronger calls to action, better evidence, more consistent business citations, improved analytics and clearer conversion paths. 

Some of this is technical. Some of it is content. Some of it is design. That is why One Design Group exists: your website needs to be built to be found, designed to be chosen and marketed to win. 

Our view 

AI is not something to ignore, but it is also not something to panic about. Google Search is still hugely important for most businesses. AI search is growing, and it will influence how people discover and compare suppliers, but the strongest approach is still to build a better, clearer, more useful website with the right technical foundations behind it. 

If you are unsure whether AI search, Google changes or competitor activity are affecting your traffic, we can help you find out. 

Ask us for an AI and Search Visibility Audit. We will review your website, your citations, your search performance and the opportunities to make your business easier to find and easier to choose.