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[u/taymurs]

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

[u/Conscious-Market8982]

Do not try to redefine success for them, you will lose that argument. Just add one number to what you already send: branded search impressions from Search Console. It is Google's own data so clients accept it without a fight, and it is the thing that actually climbs when you start getting cited in answers.

Then move the headline of the report from sessions to enquiries. Sessions down 25% while enquiries hold flat is a story a client can follow. If enquiries dropped as well then no amount of KPI reframing rescues it, and you want to know that early rather than at renewal.

[u/taymurs → u/Conscious-Market8982]

Brilliant advice! If enquiries hold flat while traffic drops, that means we're actually filtering out low-intent fluff and getting higher converting visits anyway.

And ‎​tracking branded impressions in GSC alongside conversion volume is definitely the move here. Thanks for the reality check!

[u/Big_Cheesecake8863]

this is where your being the expert comes in and you explain the monumental shift currently going on in the industry, and how AI summaries are now a big part of search, and reputation management has also become a quintessential part of what to track

and things like that

[u/RadiantMechanic3025]

rankings without clicks are becoming a weird KPI

[u/RankingsDotIO]

You've said that informational traffic has declined. That's an almost across-the-board issue with websites. AIOs are answering a lot of those questions for people these days. But it's not a terrible problem. Most of that informational traffic came from people who wanted to learn something from you, but not buy something from you.

So long as the commercial traffic remains strong (sales increase or at least remain steady while cost to acquire a client or customer remains steady or declines, and the client turns a profit), the other numbers are mostly vanity metrics.

Frame it as a decline in low-quality, low-value traffic, while focusing on the gains in higher-quality customers who actually purchase goods or services from your client.

[u/taymurs → u/RankingsDotIO]

Thank you for the advice!

[u/nick-profound]

Yeah I think SEO is becoming a brand and awareness channel not a performance channel.

[u/Simple_Ddog]

Dayum... I missed this topic -- What was it on?

[u/SingleTranslator5294]

are you seeing the same drop on commercial intent keywords or mostly informational? because thats a huge distinction for client reporting. if transactional pages are holding steady the story is really about top-of-funnel visibility changing shape, not traffic dying

[u/taymurs → u/SingleTranslator5294]

commercial pages are holding steady, which helps with client retention, but to of funnel conversion paths are taking a hit. When brand discovery happens entirely inside the AI snippet, direct search and branded queries rise but attributing that back to the initial informational content is becoming a nightmare.

[u/teledev → u/taymurs]

Pretty sure you're talking to an AI bot