Charity Site Traffic Growth Slows by 2.5% as AI Search Rolls Out

Charity and not-for-profit businesses have seen a drop in organic traffic growth since the rise of AI-powered search - but they’re outperforming other industries, according to new research.

The Google AI Search Shift Report by digital marketing and PR agency Tank analyses website traffic across 800 companies in 16 different sectors before and after the rollout of Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, to identify which industries are most and least impacted.

Charity websites were the second least affected sector in terms of organic traffic, which has grown by 12.5% over the past year, compared to 15% growth the year before.

Across all industries, average monthly traffic growth from 2024 to 2025 has dropped from 26.3% to just 3.7% - a growth difference of nearly 86%.

This decline in traffic comes despite continued global growth in internet usage. Latest data shows that the number of internet users worldwide has grown by 2.7% year-on-year, with 146 million new users in the last 12 months.

The global ‘connected’ population has almost doubled over the past decade - increasing from 2.98 billion in July 2015 to 5.65 billion in July 2025.

IT emerged as the least affected sector, with organic traffic growth slowing by just 0.6%. This resilience could be due to the nature of tech-related search queries or a faster response to changes like the introduction of AI overviews.

Consumers now rely on zero-click searches, with 60% of searches now ending without a click. While fewer people are clicking through to businesses websites, there’s still opportunities: those that do engage are likely to be deeper in the buying stages, ultimately bringing more high-quality leads.

Industries least affected by the shift to AI search

Credit: Tank

Industries hardest hit by the shift to AI search

Credit: Tank

On the other end of the spectrum, hospitality experienced the biggest decline in organic traffic following Google’s AI rollout, followed by fashion and travel and tourism.

The bigger picture

The research also looked at ranking pages, revealing that charity brands ranking high in search results before Google launched its AI features are now ranking low - despite being among the least impacted in terms of organic traffic.

Ranking pages, refers to the total number of pages from a site ranking in the top 100 organic search results. Sites with fewer ranking pages are less visible on organic search and are less likely to get those all-important clicks.

Charity businesses saw a 5.7% decline in ranking pages in the year before AI-search. However, the sector now faces a ranking page decline of -28.9% - the biggest drop out of all 16 sectors analysed.

Despite experiencing the highest decline in ranking pages, the charity sector experienced a minimal loss of traffic. Charity-related queries are often intent-driven, with people looking to donate, volunteer, or verify a cause. This requires trust and emotional connection that AI-search can’t replicate, likely keeping traffic high despite the steep drop in ranking pages.

Across all industries, websites have 11.1% fewer ranking pages after the launch of AI mode. Whereas the previous year saw ranking pages increase by 13.4% on average.

Martin Harris, head of digital at Tank, said:

“While AI-powered search makes life easier for the consumer, it could spell trouble for businesses that rely on website visitors to drive sales. And there’s things that customers could be missing out on, like discovering new brands and experiences, as well as things like exclusive discounts.

“The silver lining of the shift to AI search is that those who do land on your website are likely to be further along in the buying journey than casual browsers. This provides new opportunities for brands to capitalise on a smaller, but more targeted customer group.

“Charity businesses have already shown resilience in keeping up with the shift to AI search, but there’s more to be done if we’re to keep traffic growing and donations flowing. For brands, putting in a strategy on getting found - not just by search engines, but also by AI - is going to be essential.”

Read the "The Google AI search shift report" here.

Source: Tank

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.