I recently watched a fascinating video from Marketing Against the Grain featuring some jaw-dropping statistics about how AI is reshaping the internet landscape. The data presented by Cloudflare’s CEO paints a concerning picture for content creators and marketers alike – we’re witnessing what could be called “the great content collapse.”
The numbers are staggering. For years, there’s been an unspoken partnership between content creators and search engines: they scrape our content, and in return, they send us traffic. Ten years ago, Google would scrape two pages of content and send back one visitor. That was a reasonable exchange.
Fast forward to six months ago, and that ratio had worsened to six pages scraped for one visitor. Today? It’s a shocking 18 pages scraped for a single visitor. That’s a nine-fold increase in difficulty to get traffic in just a decade.
This collapse isn’t happening gradually – it’s accelerating at breakneck speed.
The AI Overview Effect
What’s driving this rapid change? AI overviews in search results. Six months ago, about 75% of Google queries were answered directly on Google’s site, with no clicks to the original content creators. Today, that number is approaching 90%.
Google is monetizing publisher content through ads while giving almost nothing back to the creators. This fundamentally breaks the value exchange that has powered the internet for decades.
But Google isn’t even the worst offender. OpenAI’s ratio is truly alarming:
- Six months ago: 250 pages scraped for one visit
- Today: 1,500 pages scraped for one visit
- And Claude? A mind-boggling 60,000 pages scraped for one visit
The reason is simple: people are growing more comfortable with AI assistants. We’re trusting them more and enjoying the convenience they provide. As someone who creates content regularly, I find this trend deeply concerning.
The Marketing Implications
For marketers, this shift has profound implications. Most scalable marketing models have been built around Google Search. As organic traffic dries up, we’ll be forced to pivot in several ways:
- Shifting from traffic metrics to “share of voice” in AI systems
- Greater reliance on paid advertising
- Rising costs as competition for paid channels increases
- Development of entirely new marketing playbooks
The closed-wall nature of these platforms means they want to keep users within their ecosystems. Social platforms already penalize promotional content and links. Search engines now keep users on their sites. AI assistants rarely send users elsewhere.
We’re witnessing the most significant shift in marketing since the internet itself became popular.
What Content Creators Should Do
If you’re a content creator or marketer, this is not the time to bury your head in the sand. The business model of creating content to drive visitors is breaking down rapidly.
I believe we need to explore new approaches like micro-audience targeting – using AI to proactively reach specific audiences with personalized experiences rather than waiting for clicks. The days of publishing content and hoping for organic traffic may soon be behind us.
Stay curious and keep learning. The marketing playbooks we’ve relied on for years are being rewritten as we speak. Those who adapt quickly will thrive; those who don’t may find themselves creating content that no one ever sees.
This transformation is happening faster than most people realize. Within 6-18 months, the marketing landscape could be unrecognizable compared to what we know today.
For content creators who’ve built careers around the traditional web model, this is a wake-up call. If you can’t sell subscriptions, can’t sell ads, and don’t even get the satisfaction of knowing people are consuming your content – what’s the incentive to create at all?
The great content collapse is underway. The question is: are you prepared for what comes next?
