AI Search User Behavior 2025: Aligning Content for Conversational Queries

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Change‑log

Updated on 2025-09-14: Added 2025 AI Overviews trigger rates and CTR impacts; incorporated Perplexity usage milestones and ChatGPT search updates; refined measurement framework examples.

Why conversational search changed the funnel

In 2025, users don’t “search” so much as they hold a conversation with answer engines. Queries are longer and multi‑turn; people expect cited, synthesized answers fast—and only click through when they need depth, tools, or local specifics. Google’s AI Overviews (AIO) now appears on a meaningful slice of informational queries, while Perplexity and ChatGPT have matured into research companions. The upshot: impressions rise inside AI panes, but organic CTR often falls when those panes appear. Winning means being the cited, trusted source inside the conversation—and instrumenting visibility beyond classic blue links.

What’s different in 2025

AI Overviews prevalence: On a large U.S. panel, AIO showed on 13.14% of queries in March 2025 (up from 6.49% in January), heavily skewing toward informational intent, according to the Semrush AI Overviews study (2025). Search trade press also tracked a March spike and ongoing volatility in coverage by category, as reported in Search Engine Land’s March 2025 analysis.
Zero‑click dynamics: Among searches with AIO, the median zero‑click rate sits around 80% in 2025, per the Similarweb zero‑click analysis (2025). Yet on a controlled panel, Semrush observed zero‑click actually dipped slightly after AIO appeared for those exact keywords (38.1% → 36.2%), underscoring context sensitivity in the Semrush AIO study (2025). Macro clickshare has also shifted: organic clickers fell year over year in the U.S. and EU/UK cohorts, per Datos/SparkToro’s March 2025 clickshare update.
Perplexity scale and usage: The service handled roughly 780 million searches in May 2025 and reached about 22 million active users, with India MAUs up 640% year‑over‑year, according to TechCrunch’s reporting on Perplexity usage (June–July 2025).
ChatGPT becomes search‑like: OpenAI added shopping discovery, memory‑assisted search, multi‑search for complex tasks, and a Deep Research agent with a visual browser in 2025. See OpenAI’s release notes update on June 13, 2025 and coverage of shopping features in TechCrunch’s April 2025 report. For attribution mechanics, OpenAI details OAI‑SearchBot and UTM tagging in ChatGPT search product discovery (2025).

Why this matters: user journeys now span multiple answer engines. Your content must be parsable, citable, and convincingly authoritative for each, while your KPIs must account for “seen and cited” outcomes—not just clicks.

How users ask now: the Conversational Query Stack

Design your content for the typical multi‑turn flow:

Seed question (broad): “What is SOC 2?”
Nuance: “What’s different about Type II?”
Constraint: “For a Series B SaaS with EU customers?”
Action: “Give me a 60‑day readiness checklist.”
Follow‑up: “Where do teams usually fail? Any templates?”

Patterns to mirror in copy:

Use question‑forward headings and short, factual definitions to answer fast.
Anticipate follow‑ups with H2/H3s. Create “When not to use,” “Limitations,” and “Alternatives” blocks—AIs favor balanced coverage.
Capture voice‑of‑customer phrasing from support/sales transcripts and forums to reflect real question variants.

Playbook: structure, evidence, schema, refresh cadence

Lead with the answer: Open with a 50–120‑word factual summary. Keep jargon light; add a single authoritative citation in that block.
Build scannable modules: definitions, step‑by‑steps, pros/cons, comparisons with explicit criteria, and a short checklist. Use entity‑rich language and specific nouns.
Cite like a pro: Link to canonical sources with descriptive anchors. For example: “AIO appeared on 13.14% of queries in March 2025” linking to the Semrush AI Overviews study (2025).
Mark up your pages: Use FAQPage/HowTo/QAPage/Product/Organization schema appropriately. Follow Google’s current stance in “AI features and your website” (Google developers, May 2025). There’s no special LLMs.txt; eligibility is still governed by fundamentals like indexability and structured data policies, per Google’s structured data policies (2025).
Refresh rhythm: Update priority pages every 6–8 weeks. Maintain an “Updated on” note and a mini change‑log for transparency.

Measurement beyond CTR: visibility, citations, assisted outcomes

Shift from pure click metrics to a decoupled set of KPIs:

AI visibility
- AIO inclusion rate: Share of your target queries that show AIO and cite your domain. Ground your sampling in a stable keyword panel.
- Perplexity citation share: Frequency and position of your domain in Perplexity answers for core topics.
- ChatGPT link presence: Track link referrals carrying utm_source=chatgpt.com as outlined by OpenAI’s search product discovery (2025).
On‑page engagement proxies
- Scroll depth and time‑to‑answer for your above‑the‑fold answer blocks; copy/save/download rates on checklists and templates.
Business outcomes
- Assisted conversions from AI‑referred sessions; post‑view effects where supported; brand search lift around pages that gain citations.

Reporting cadence: Weekly spot checks for volatile categories; monthly rollups that annotate shifts with your change‑log.

Platform‑specific tactics (2025)

Google AI Overviews
- Where it appears: informational queries across science, health, people & society, and law/government saw notable growth in early 2025, per the Semrush category split (2025). Expect reduced CTR when AIO is present (e.g., non‑top‑3 positions saw −27% CTR in one 2025 analysis), as summarized by Search Engine Land’s compilation of CTR impacts (2025).
- What to do: Prioritize clarity and verifiability. Provide stabilized definitions, concise answers, safety/limitations language, and accurate schema. Accept that “visibility inside AIO” can be a win, even if clicks dip.
Perplexity
- What it favors: crisp, citable passages, original charts/tables, and transparent sourcing. Its 2025 momentum (780M monthly queries; strong MAU growth) suggests growing research usage, per TechCrunch’s reporting on Perplexity (2025).
- What to do: Publish methods and appendices; keep author bios and org credibility pages prominent; deep‑link to data. Provide concise summaries that can be quoted verbatim.
ChatGPT
- What changed in 2025: better multi‑search for complex tasks, shopping discovery, and a Deep Research agent, per OpenAI’s June 2025 release notes and OpenAI’s Deep Research overview (2025).
- What to do: Structure step‑by‑step guides and decision criteria. For products, use tidy spec tables with compatibility and price ranges. Ensure your site is crawlable to OAI‑SearchBot and watch UTM‑tagged referrals from ChatGPT’s links per OpenAI search product discovery (2025).

AI Search Visibility Toolbox (parity‑based)

Geneo — tracks brand visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews; monitors citations/sentiment and logs historical query presence; supports multi‑brand teams and exports. Disclosure: Geneo is our product.
SISTRIX AI Overviews tracking (2025) — keyword‑level AIO detection, domain citation tables, and a SERP archive; MCP interface for programmatic access noted in the SISTRIX MCP server update (2025). Coverage breadth is strong; learning curve is moderate; API access is a plus.
seoClarity AI Overviews Tracking and AI Mode (2025) — monitors AIO flags and domain citations, ties to Search Console data, and provides AI Search Site Analytics dashboards, as detailed in seoClarity’s AI search analytics overview (2025). Enterprise‑oriented; robust dashboards; demo required for pricing.
Nightwatch LLM tracking (2025) — vendor‑described capability to track performance across AI engines (e.g., ChatGPT 4o‑mini, Claude 3.5) alongside Google/Bing. Lightweight setup; documentation via blog; export/pricing specifics vary.

Selection criteria to apply neutrally: coverage (which AI engines/regions), learning curve, export/API availability, and pricing transparency.

Example workflow: tracking AIO inclusion over 30 days

Define a 100‑keyword panel: informational topics where AIO appears per recent SERP checks.
Baseline: Record whether AIO appears, which sources are cited, and your domain’s presence/position.
Interventions: Update top two pages with concise answer blocks, explicit methods/limitations, and FAQ schema.
Monitor: Use a visibility tracker (e.g., Geneo) to log AIO inclusion and citations daily/weekly, and complement with a SERP archive tool (e.g., SISTRIX) for snapshots.
Evaluate: Compare inclusion rate and citation share week‑over‑week; annotate with your change‑log. Tie any uplift to on‑site engagement and assisted conversions, not just clicks.

Note: Keep this neutral—avoid attributing performance to a single intervention without a counterfactual. Correlate with traffic, but acknowledge external volatility (core updates).

Risks, limitations, and your change‑log policy

Conflicting zero‑click studies: Treat numbers as context‑dependent. For instance, Similarweb’s ≈80% zero‑click among AIO queries vs. Semrush’s panel showing a slight decline post‑AIO. Cite dates and methods and avoid universal claims by referring to the Similarweb zero‑click analysis (2025) and the Semrush AIO study (2025).
Category swings: Healthcare, education, and government/legal often see higher AIO presence; ecommerce incidence has fluctuated, according to Search Engine Land’s coverage of BrightEdge vertical findings (2025). Plan per‑vertical playbooks.
CTR expectations: For many queries, AIO reduces organic CTR, with position‑dependent effects observed by multiple 2025 analyses aggregated by Search Engine Land. Manage stakeholders toward “visibility and assisted outcomes.”
Change‑log: Add “Updated on YYYY‑MM‑DD” and bullet what changed (stats, sources, features) at the top of each key page to preserve trust.

Appendix: schema starter snippets

{
      "@context": "https://schema.org",
      "@type": "FAQPage",
      "mainEntity": [
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "What is [topic]?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "Provide a concise 50–120 word definition with a citation to a canonical source."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "When should you not use [approach]?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "List clear limitations and contraindications; link to methods and data where relevant."
          }
        }
      ]
    }

Next steps

Map your top 5 conversational journeys and rebuild pages with answer blocks, explicit methods, and FAQ/HowTo schema guided by Google’s AI features guidance (2025).
Stand up a lightweight AI visibility dashboard tracking AIO inclusion, Perplexity citations, and ChatGPT referral share. If you need a unified tracker for AI answer engines with sentiment and historical logs, consider Geneo as part of a broader stack.
Institute a 6–8 week refresh cadence with a public change‑log. Annotate updates and measure assisted outcomes alongside clicks.

Selected sources for further reading