A Case Study by Or Rahamim, Senior Growth SEO Lead @ Cut Inside
TL;DR: Our client’s best pages collapsed. Not because rankings dropped. Because AI Overviews buried position #1 under layers of AI-generated answers, video carousels, and People Also Ask boxes. Content is splitting into two archetypes now. Informational content is getting eaten by AI. Action-oriented content still wins. Here’s what we did.
The Moment Position #1 Stopped Mattering
This is what adapting looks like in SEO.
When we started working with a leading crypto wallet platform, AI wasn’t reshaping search yet. Our method was simple: find informational intent gaps, create pages that filled them, outwork the competition. The client was an underdog. Monster players with massive domain authority and deep pockets dominated the space.
We helped them win anyway. Over months of grinding, they crushed competitors on high-intent “how to withdraw” queries. Top rankings. Strong impressions. Clear answers.
Then the game changed.
We didn’t lose rankings. We lost clicks.
Clicks on “how to” pages dropped from 23,000 to under 6,000 over twelve months. But impressions held steady. The average position actually improved in some cases. We were ranking #1 for major keywords and watching traffic vanish.
The real shift started when AI Overviews began to appear at the top of our target queries in mid-2024. First they showed up only in the U.S., then Google expanded them to more countries through late 2024 and into 2025. Each time AI Overviews started showing for more of our core queries, we saw another drop in clicks – even as our average position stayed around #1.
This isn’t a story about success getting disrupted. It’s an ongoing fight for visibility. The moment we saw the data shift, we adapted.
What a SERP Actually Looks Like Now
Search for any “how to” query. Look at what sits above the first organic result:
[Insert SERP screenshot showing AIO, Videos carousel, PAA, then organic results]
AI Overview with a complete answer. Video carousel from YouTube. People Also Ask. Sponsored results. And somewhere below the fold – position #1.
Most users never scroll that far. They got their answer already.
Two Content Archetypes
Content is splitting. The rules are different for each type.
Informational Content
This is dying as a traffic source. How-to guides, explainers, definitions – AI consumes them directly. Google scrapes your answer, synthesizes it, serves it to users who never visit your site.
You rank #1. You’re invisible.
Action-Oriented Content
This survives. Transactional pages built around what the user needs to do. Buy pages. Comparison pages. Pages where completing the task requires your platform.
AI can’t buy crypto for the user. Can’t store it. Can’t execute decisions. These pages still get clicks because users need to act – and that happens on your site.
The Pivot
We didn’t wait for things to swing back. We moved resources.
The lines crossed around April 2025. How to (withdraw) pages kept falling. Conversion intent (Buy) pages and Asset pages climbed. By Q3, action-oriented pages generated 3-4x the traffic of pages that used to dominate.
What we did:
Redirected the content roadmap toward Buy pages for specific coins. Asset pages showing how to store coins securely. Landing pages built around clear user actions. Restructured internal linking to push users toward action-based flows instead of informational dead ends.
More content wasn’t the answer. Better-aligned content was. Match the page to the moment the user is ready to act.
YouTube Is a Front Door Now
We noticed something else: YouTube keeps showing up above organic results for informational queries.
Check any “how to” SERP. Video carousel appears under the AI Overview, above everything else. Google is telling us something. For informational intent, they’d rather show a video than send traffic to a landing page.
If we were building a content cluster strategy in 2026, we wouldn’t stop at text pages. We’d invest in YouTube content too. (AI video tools make this easier than it used to be.) Own the video carousel. Stay visible where users actually look.
Video is an additional front door for informational queries now. Plan for it.
What This Actually Means
Go deeper on intent. This was true before AI. Now it’s mandatory. What problem is the user solving? What decision are they making? Surface-level keyword targeting doesn’t work anymore.
Study how Google serves answers. Look at the SERP for your target queries. Which elements is Google prioritizing? AI Overview, video carousel, PAA, organic? Find the gaps. Figure out where you can squeeze in.
Listen to search. Monitor how behavior evolves. Track what’s working. Track what’s dying. Let data guide your pivots. This deep research approach matters more now than ever with GEO and AI Overviews reshaping results.
Separate your content by type. Which pages exist to inform? Which exists to convert? Informational pages are vulnerable. Action pages still work.
Build for the job to be done. Your transactional pages should handle the whole decision-making journey. Short. Clear. What does the user need to accomplish? What core information – not filler – is required for that decision? Build a page that gets them there.
Take YouTube seriously for how-to content. If your strategy depends on informational queries, video isn’t optional anymore. That’s where Google sends the traffic now.
This is what adapting to survive looks like.
The brands winning right now are working with teams that test new ideas constantly and watch search dynamics obsessively. Every week we find something new. The landscape keeps shifting.
The old playbook? Rankings held. Impressions held. Users never made it to the page.
Search will keep changing. The question is whether you’re set up to change with it.
Seeing this in your own data? What’s working for you right now?
