Search Has Changed
Why AI Search is taking over Google Search
If your school's website is getting fewer visitors than it was two years ago, and you can't explain why, you're not alone and it probably isn't your fault.
The rankings haven't dropped. The content hasn't changed. Nobody made an obvious mistake. The traffic just isn't coming through the way it used to, and the usual fixes, better keywords, more content, a technical audit, aren't moving the needle the way they once would have.
What's changed isn't your school's website. It's what happens before a parent gets there.
Two things are happening at the same time
The first is on Google itself.
60% of all Google searches now end without a single click to any website. When Google's AI Overviews appear at the top of search results, that figure rises to 83%. AI Overviews reduce click-through rates by 58% even for pages ranking in the top position.
A school ranking number one for a relevant search term is now receiving less than half the traffic that same ranking sent two years ago. Not because of anything they did wrong. Because the search result page now answers the question before anyone has to click.
The second is happening away from Google entirely.
53% of consumers now regularly use generative AI to research major decisions, up from 38% a year ago. Choosing a school is one of the highest-stakes decisions a family makes. Parents are increasingly starting that research not with a Google search but with a conversation. They open ChatGPT and ask something like "what should I look for in an independent secondary school for a child who's always found traditional learning difficult?" They get a considered, curated answer back in seconds. That answer often includes school names. It forms first impressions before a website is visited, before a prospectus is downloaded, before any formal contact is made.
Both of these shifts are happening now, in this admissions cycle. And they require two different responses.
60% of Google searches end without a click to a website.
AI Overviews reduce click-through rates by 58%.
53% of consumers now regularly use generative AI to research major decisions.
AEO and GEO: what they are and why both matter
AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation, is about Google. When an AI Overview appears at the top of a search result, it cites sources. The schools and organisations cited in those overviews see 91% more paid clicks and 35% more organic clicks than those that aren't cited. Being a cited source in Google's AI answers is now more valuable than ranking first in the traditional results below it.
GEO, Generative Engine Optimisation, is about ChatGPT and tools like it. When a parent opens ChatGPT and asks an open question about schools, what comes back? Which schools are named? What does it say about yours? This is a visibility layer that exists entirely outside of Google, and one that most schools have never thought to check.
The underlying principle behind both is the same: AI tools form their answers from what's publicly available, well-sourced, and specific enough to be useful. Schools with clear, distinctive, well-structured content in the right places tend to appear. Schools with generic, templated web content that could belong to any school tend not to.
Why being cited matters more than ranking
AI search traffic converts at 14.2%, compared to 2.8% for traditional Google search. Parents arriving from an AI answer are already informed, already filtered, already much further along in the decision. One accurate citation in the right AI answer can drive more qualified enquiries than a first-page ranking on a competitive search term.
The question for schools has quietly shifted from "do we rank?" to "what does AI say about us, and is it accurate?"
Where to start
In practical terms, both AEO and GEO start with the same first step: knowing your baseline.
How to find your GEO baseline:
Open ChatGPT. Ask it to recommend schools like yours in your area. Ask it what it knows about your school specifically.
For example, “What are the best independent boarding schools near Oxford?”
How to find your AEO baseline:
Open Google and ask the same question. See if the AI Overview appears and whether your school features in it.
What comes back across both is your current position, without any intervention.
Most schools have never done this. What AI says about you right now is the version of your school that parents in the early stages of research are encountering.
From there, the work is about making your school's genuine differentiators findable. The things that set you apart need to be stated clearly and specifically on your website and in the places AI indexes: third-party directories, local press, review platforms, league table listings.
Vague phrases that could apply to any school ("warm community," "outstanding results," "nurturing environment") don't give AI enough to work with. Specific, ownable information does.
This is something I'm building monitoring for through Signal, a tool that tracks what AI says about a school over time across both ChatGPT and Google, and flags where the information is inaccurate or missing. I'll share more on that soon.
The timing matters
Schools are closing. Pupil numbers are falling. Marketing and admissions teams are doing more with less, and the channels they've depended on for years are delivering diminishing returns.
The schools that respond to this shift early won't necessarily be the ones with the biggest budgets. They'll be the ones who noticed what was happening and adjusted while most of the market was still waiting to see if the traffic came back.
Most of your competitors haven't checked what AI says about them yet.
So maybe the traffic problem isn't a performance problem at all. It's a visibility problem across two channels that opened up without announcement and that almost nobody in independent school marketing is paying attention to.
