Especially if you already have a website but never focused on SEO
If you’ve been hearing that “AI is killing SEO” or that “Google traffic is disappearing,” it’s easy to assume starting SEO now would be a waste.
But the data being discussed by Ethan Smith, CEO of Graphite, points to a different story.
Not that SEO is “back.”
Not that traffic is exploding for everyone.
But that small businesses who have a website and haven’t really optimized yet may be stepping into unusually good timing.
What the data actually says about AI and website traffic
Ethan Smith partnered with Similarweb to analyze organic traffic trends across 40,000 U.S. websites.
This wasn’t a survey and it wasn’t based on a handful of cherry-picked examples. The point was to look at the overall pattern as AI tools like ChatGPT became mainstream.
The takeaway was simple.
Traffic didn’t collapse across the web.
It was redistributed.
The winners and losers in the shift
When Ethan sliced the dataset by site size, the pattern got clearer.
Large sites
- Generally up
- Strong brands keep benefiting from authority and navigational demand
- Often show up in citations and references across the web
Mid-sized sites
- Down roughly 6 to 7%
- This group takes most of the pain
- Often built growth on broad informational content that’s easy for AI to summarize
Small sites
- Up overall, and in Ethan’s cut, up the most
- Not because they “hacked” SEO
- Because the environment rewards focus and specificity
And “small” here is about site traffic relative to others in the 40,000-site dataset, not how many employees you have or how long you’ve been in business.
For a lot of small business owners, that looks like a few hundred visits per month, sometimes less.
Why this is good timing if you have a website but never optimized it
If you’ve had a site for years but never really focused on SEO, you’re not “behind” in the way people assume.
You may actually have an advantage.
AI is filtering out generic informational content
AI Overviews show up heavily on informational queries.
Those are things like:
- Basic definitions
- General explanations
- “What is X?” topics
And those queries usually monetize poorly anyway. They drive clicks, but not necessarily clients.
If your website hasn’t been built around pumping out generic informational content, you’re less exposed to what AI is replacing.
AI still depends on the web for real expertise
AI systems need credible sources for:
- Niche problems
- Specific scenarios
- Industry nuances
- Practical experience
That’s where small businesses can win because you’re close to the work and close to the customer.
You have real-world answers that aren’t just summaries of common knowledge.
You’re not undoing years of bad habits
A lot of mid-sized businesses are now stuck trying to unwind years of:
- Keyword-chasing blogs
- Broad, generic content
- Traffic-first strategies that never turned into revenue
If you never really focused on SEO, you don’t have to fix a mess.
You get to start clean, with a modern approach that matches how search is evolving.
More traffic is not the goal. More clients are.
Most small business owners don’t need “a lot” of traffic.
They need the right traffic.
A modest lift can mean:
- More inbound inquiries
- More qualified leads
- More prospects who arrive already trusting you
Because the real value of Google isn’t the visitor count.
It’s intent.
People searching are raising their hand.
What “starting SEO now” actually means
This does not mean:
- Publishing endless blog posts
- Trying to outwrite giant brands
- Chasing every keyword you can find
Based on what Ethan shared, the modern opportunity is about:
- Making your expertise easy to discover and reference
- Clarifying who you help and what you help them do
- Ensuring your key pages reflect reality today, like services, about, pricing, and FAQs
- Earning visibility across trusted places online, not only your own site
That is how SEO and AI visibility becomes client attraction, not just clicks.
The real opportunity most small businesses are missing
This is not an extinction event for SEO.
It’s a reshuffle.
And reshuffles create openings.
If you already have a website but never really prioritized being found, this may be the best time to start because:
- Clarity beats volume
- Specific expertise beats generic information
- Trust beats tactics
Not because Google is suddenly easy.
Because the environment is rewarding the exact strengths most small businesses already have.
If you’ve been putting off SEO because it felt overwhelming or outdated, this is your sign to approach it differently.
Start now, not to chase traffic.
Start now to attract more of the right clients this year.