Why 80 percent of searches end without a click, and how you can be in the 20

The world has changed and you’re sitting there asking to be ranked higher in Google. But it’s not just about being ranked on Google any more, it’s about being mentioned, cited and recommended by AI.

In fact, recent figures suggest that around 60% of searches end up with zero clicks, and that rises to over 80%, if there’s an “AI Overview” at the top of the page.

The numbers don’t lie

ChatGPT alone receives approximately 5.6 billion visits per month, with around 800 million weekly active users. Add Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Copilot into the mix, and you begin to see just how much our world is changing. It’s not just that the goalposts have moved, we’re now playing a different ball game.

And it’s because us mere humans like answers over direction, and 71.5% of people now say they use AI tools for search queries. That’s over two thirds of your potential customers seeking answers to questions about which suppliers, partners or solutions they should be considering. If your name isn’t coming up in those answers, you’re not in the running. It’s as simple as that.

So where does digital PR come in?

This is where it gets really interesting, but at the same time, it’s where many businesses are still completely missing the point.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) and ASO (AI Search Optimisation) aren’t just about what’s on your website, they’re about what the wider internet says about you. Because the AI tools don’t just crawl your pages, they look beyond your site for signals of authority, credibility and relevance. And that’s exactly what digital PR delivers. It’s exactly what we do here at Catalyst PR.

When your business is featured in a credible industry publication, or a high-authority online news source, AI notices. And when someone asks it a relevant question, it draws on those resources to decide who to recommend.

And why is that so important? Because content with citations, statistics, and quotations from credible third-party sources can achieve 30 – 40% higher visibility in AI-generated responses.

The old PR argument

PR should never just be about vanity, it’s about reaching the right people, in the right places, with the right messages, and at the right time. We talked about this in a previous posts, the difference between talking to your industry and talking to your markets.

And the same principle applies here, but with added layers now. Today, a well-placed piece of editorial in the right online publication doesn’t just reach the decision maker, iIt also becomes a data point that ChatGPT draws on when that same decision maker asks three months later, “Who are the best providers of [whatever it is you do] in the UK?”

That’s the power of digital PR in the AI era, because earned and trusted coverage leads to citations, which gives you visibility over and above your competitors. 

What does this look like in practice?

It’s not complicated, but it does require joined-up thinking between your PR strategy and your digital presence. Success in AI search requires getting published in credible, relevant places. This looks like the vertical markets you sell into, and well-regarded online publications that AI tools recognise as trustworthy sources.

To make content citable you need data, statistics, and expert commentary, and a lot less fluff. Likewise, it’s crucial to build coverage that backs up the expertise. One article helps, but 15 articles, across multiple relevant publications, over time, builds something AI engines can’t ignore.

And finally, that content needs to stay relevant and current, as AI favours brands that are actively visible and consistently producing timely, credible commentary.

If your PR strategy is still purely about getting into trade press that your competitors read, you’re spending money on something that feels good but isn’t working hard enough for you.

And if you think digital PR is just a nice-to-have that sits below SEO and paid media in the pecking order it’s time to reconsider. Because the businesses that are going to win in AI search over the next few years are the ones building credible digital authority right now.

Because 28% of Gen Z already use ChatGPT before any other search engine, and 68% go to non-traditional platforms such as Tiktok before Google, is a trend that needs to be taken seriously if you want your brand to be the answer to their questions.  

Digital PR was always about more than column inches. It was about reputation, influence and reach. The AI era just makes that more measurable, more urgent and more commercially important than ever.

If you’d like to talk about what a digital PR strategy built for AI visibility looks like in practice, get in touch. We’d love to help make sure you’re in the 20%, not the 80.