AI Overviews are changing search — but not in the way Google wants you to think.

In this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast, Tim Soulo sits down with Kevin Indig to discuss the real impact of AI on search behavior, website traffic, and SEO strategy.

Kevin analyzed over 5 billion search visits and found that while people are searching more often, they’re spending less time per session — and zero-click searches are on the rise.

But this isn’t just about traffic.

Kevin argues that SEO isn’t dying — it’s just entering a new investment cycle. The smartest companies are already shifting resources toward AI visibility, building tools, and rethinking how they show up in ChatGPT and beyond.

In this episode:

(00:00) Intro

(02:39) How is search changing?

(06:20) Revenue vs traffic

(10:30) How AI Overviews are changing

(13:46) Join Kevin at Ahrefs Evolve

(14:23) How to show up in AI Overviews (and is it even useful?)

(20:10) AI Overview volatility

(26:02) Queries vs prompts

(31:11) External validation: the key to ranking on AI Overviews

(35:13) Is SEO dead?

(42:50) Ranking in AI Overviews vs ChatGPT

(49:18) What you should be optimizing with AI

(01:05:42) Vibe coding in action

(01:07:21) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast!

Be sure to like, subscribe — and tell a friend.

Where to find Kevin:

LinkedIn: Kevin Indig

X: @Kevin_Indig

Website: mkt1.co

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: Tim Soulo

X: @timsoulo

Website: timsoulo.com

Referenced in this episode

👤 People

Dmitry Gerasimenko

Ryan Law

Rand Fishkin

Eric Siu

🏢 Companies & Brands

Ahrefs

Google

OpenAI

Similarweb

ChatGPT

Ramp

🛠️ Tools / Platforms

Claude

Humata AI

AirOps

v0 by Vercel

Cursor

Relevance AI

📚 Frameworks & Concepts

AI Overviews (Google SGE)

Vibe Coding

Zero-Click Searches

First Mover Advantage

Information Gain (SEO Strategy)

#SEO #GoogleAI #AIOverviews #AhrefsPodcast #KevinIndig #SearchMarketing #DigitalMarketing #AIContent #LLMSearch #ZeroClickSearches #ContentStrategy #AIinMarketing #VibeCoding #MarketingAutomation #aiseo

Google Will Kill Your Traffic - Here's How You Adapt | Kevin Indig (Growth Memo)

Ahrefs Podcast