Why share of search matters more than traffic in the AI era

The SEO industry is entering its most turbulent period yet.

Traffic is declining. AI is absorbing informational queries. 

Social platforms now function as search engines. Google is shifting from a gateway to an answer engine.

The result is a sector running in circles – unsure what to measure, what to optimize, or even what SEO is meant to do.

Yet within this turbulence, something clear has emerged.

A single marketing metric that cuts through the noise and signals brand health and future demand. 

A metric that marketers and SEOs can align around with confidence.

That metric is share of search.

Discovery is changing, and measurement must change with it

The old model of being discovered by accident through classic search behavior is disappearing.

AI Overviews answer questions without sending traffic anywhere. 

Meta is already rolling out its own AI to answer user queries. 

TikTok and YouTube continue to grow as product discovery engines. 

It is only a matter of time before LinkedIn becomes a business search engine powered by conversational AI.

We are witnessing a seismic shift. In moments like this, measurement becomes even more important. 

Many SEO metrics are losing meaning, but one is rapidly gaining importance.

What share of search actually measures

Share of search is a metric developed by James Hankins and Les Binet. 

It is calculated by dividing a brand’s search volume by the total search volume for all brands in its category. 

The result shows the proportion of category interest the brand commands.

The value is not in the calculation itself, but in what the metric correlates with.

Studies published by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) show that share of search correlates strongly with market share and future buying behavior. 

As the IPA notes:

• “Share of search is a leading indicator or predictor of share of market. When share of search goes up, share of market tends to rise. When share of search goes down, share of market falls.”

In simple terms, consumers search for brands they are considering, buying, or using. 

That makes search behavior one of the clearest available signals of real demand.

Share of search was never designed to be perfect. It does not capture every nuance of how people find information across platforms. 

It was built as a practical proxy for brand demand – and right now, practical measurement is exactly what the industry needs.

Dig deeper: Measuring what matters in a post-SEO world

From traffic to demand: Why marketers need a new signal

Traffic as a measurement has become almost meaningless. 

It has been easy to inflate, manipulate, and misunderstand.

Goodhart’s Law explains why. When a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure. 

Traffic was treated as a target for years, and as a result, it stopped being a reliable indicator of anything meaningful.

Now traffic is falling – not because brands are doing anything wrong, but because AI is answering questions before users ever reach a website.

Ironically, this makes traffic more meaningful again, as much of the noise that once inflated it is disappearing.

The bigger advantage, however, belongs to share of search. 

It cannot be inflated through content tactics or gamed by chasing trends. It reflects underlying consumer interest.

That is why share of search has become so significant. 

It shows whether a brand is being searched for more or less than its competitors. 

When share of search rises, brand demand is growing. When it falls, demand is weakening.

If an entire category collapses – as it did with air fryers once most consumers had already bought one – the metric also provides a clear signal that demand for the overall market is shrinking.

There is another advantage. Share of search is a multi-platform metric.

A metric that crosses platforms

People no longer search in one place. 

Product searches may begin on Amazon, TikTok, or Facebook. 

Credibility checks often happen on YouTube. Long-form research may still take place on Google.

Discovery is fragmented, and behavior is fluid.

Share of search adapts to this reality. It is platform agnostic. 

You can measure it using Google Trends, Ahrefs, Semrush, My Telescope, or any platform that provides reliable volume estimates. 

You can track demand across Amazon, TikTok, YouTube, and emerging AI search interfaces.

Where the behavior happens matters less than the signal itself. 

If people are looking for your brand, they are demonstrating intent.

This cross-platform visibility is critical because AI search sends little traffic to websites. 

ChatGPT, Claude, and other LLMs present answers, snippets, and summaries, but rarely generate click-through. 

Links are often buried, inaccessible, or accompanied by friction.

Instead, these systems trigger brand search. 

Users encounter a brand in an AI response, then search for it when they want more information.

As a result, share of search becomes the tail-end signal of everything marketing does, including AI exposure. 

When share of search rises, marketing is working. When it falls, it is not.

However, the metric needs a champion.

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A metric SEOs should champion

The SEO industry has spent years focused on two types of keywords: 

• Non-brand buyer intent.
• Non-brand informational. 

That approach made sense when classic search was the dominant discovery channel. That world is disappearing.

Yet many SEOs continue to cling to outdated deliverables, such as structured data micro-optimization or churning out endless blog posts to influence hypothetical AI citations.

Citations are a distraction. 

At best, they are a minor signal in LLM outputs. 

At worst, they are a misleading metric that will not stand up to financial scrutiny. 

When CFOs start questioning the value of SEO budgets, citations will not hold up as evidence of ROI.

Share of search will.

SEOs who embrace share of search position themselves not as keyword tacticians, but as strategic insights partners. 

They become interpreters of demand who help:

• CMOs understand whether brand marketing is breaking through.
• Leadership teams see where consumer interest is rising or falling.

This shift changes the role of SEO entirely. 

Instead of being judged by how much content they produce, SEOs begin to be valued for how well they understand search behavior and the commercial impact of that behavior.

A well-structured share of search report tells a coherent story:

• Is the brand being searched for more this quarter?
• Are competitors gaining ground?
• Is the category contracting?
• Did a recent PR campaign increase branded search?
• Did a product launch move the needle?

In the AI era, this narrative becomes essential. 

Someone inside the organization must understand how people search, where they search, and what the numbers mean.

SEOs are naturally positioned to fill that role. You have the background and the expertise. 

And as AI automates more mechanical SEO tasks, this progression becomes increasingly natural.

Because share of search requires interpretation.

Dig deeper: Why LLM perception drift will be 2026’s key SEO metric

The depth and complexity available

Share of search does not have to be a single top-level number. It can be:

• Broken down by product line, model, or competitive set. 
• Segmented into branded and semi-branded queries.
• Tracked across every channel where search behavior exists.
• Compared against AI model outputs to understand where visibility aligns or diverges.

Consider the air fryer category. 

Demand collapsed across the market once most consumers had already purchased one. 

Within that collapse, however, individual models rose and fell based on their appeal. 

Ninja’s latest model, for example, showed spikes and dips that revealed shifts in consumer interest long before sales data arrived.

Share of search acts as early detection for market movement.

SEOs who understand this level of nuance become indispensable. They can:

• Advise whether a category is shrinking or whether a competitor is accelerating. 
• Identify gaps in PR coverage.
• Highlight where LLMs reference competitor brands more frequently.
• Signal when product positioning needs reinforcement.

This is the future skill set – not chasing rankings, but interpreting behavior.

A human role that AI can’t replace

As AI becomes more integrated into search and site optimization, many mechanical SEO tasks will be increasingly automated. 

The interpretation of marketing performance, however, cannot be fully automated.

Share of search requires human judgment. 

It requires an understanding of context, seasonality, category dynamics, and brand strategy. 

That role can and should belong to the SEO professional.

Some agencies may label this function an insights specialist or a data analyst. 

Some organizations may house it within marketing. 

But the people who understand search behavior most deeply are SEOs. 

They are best positioned to interpret what the numbers mean and communicate those insights to leadership teams.

Leadership teams need to understand what is happening with their brand.

The metric that protects brands in the AI era

Marketing leaders are already discussing share of search, and it is beginning to appear in boardroom conversations. 

It is quickly becoming a central indicator of brand strength. 

In an AI-driven world where traffic is scarce and visibility is fragmented, the strategic imperative is clear.

Brands need to be searched for. Those that are searched for endure. Those that are not fade.

That is why share of search is not just another metric. It is becoming the metric. 

SEOs who embrace it can elevate their role, influence, and strategic value at exactly the moment the industry needs it most.

Your next steps 

The advice for SEOs is simple: Learn share of search.

To get started:

• Learn more about the metric by reading reports and studies.
• Create your first share of search report.
• Analyze the drivers of change, such as market shifts or recent PR or TV campaigns.
• Experiment with search tools to determine which reporting approach works best.
• Involve other departments. Host a session on share of search and collaborate with PR teams to track activity.

You will not become fluent in the metric without using it. Once you do, its applications become clear.

Share of search is the bridge that connects SEO to the broader world of brand.

Take the first step.