Fiverr says search traffic is moving to AI. What should a small business do?
By Bilal Haider, Founder, Theepa Studio · · 4 min read
Short answer
In its third-quarter 2026 results, Fiverr blamed AI-related disruption to SEO and SEM for falling marketplace traffic, and it expects the shift from search to AI-driven discovery to cut traffic further through 2027. If a company built on search says this, smaller businesses should plan for discovery in two places: Google results and AI answers. Start by checking which of your buyers' questions AI tools answer with you, and which with a competitor.
What did Fiverr say about search traffic?
Fiverr published its third-quarter 2026 results on 29 October 2026. Next to the numbers was a warning every business that relies on Google should read. Fiverr blamed "AI-related disruption to traditional SEO and SEM" for falling demand and traffic on its marketplace. It also said it expects the shift from search to AI-driven discovery to cause a steeper fall in marketplace traffic than it previously expected, through 2027.
Its chief executive, Micha Kaufman, described the landscape as moving "from traditional search toward GEO and automated workflows". GEO, generative engine optimisation, means making your business show up in AI answers. Many people call the same work AEO, answer engine optimisation.
Fiverr built much of its business on people searching for services. When it tells investors that search traffic is a lasting problem, smaller businesses should pay attention.
How much has the shift hurt Fiverr?
| Metric, Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025 | Change |
|---|---|
| Annual active buyers | Down 25.8%, to 2.4 million |
| Marketplace revenue | Down 24.7%, to $55.4 million |
| Annual spend per buyer | Up 12.9%, to $373 |
| Total revenue | Down 15.8%, to $90.9 million |
Fiverr's shareholder letter says the change in search traffic is hurting "both low-value and high-end work". So this is not only about small, quick jobs. Bigger projects also need buyers to find you first.
Not everything went down. Fiverr says revenue beat its previous guidance, and it raised its outlook for 2026. It credits AutoDS, its e-commerce business, and tight cost control for that.
What is Fiverr doing about it?
Fiverr is going where buyers now ask their questions. Its letter says it launched its first public APIs, command-line tools and MCP integrations inside Claude and ChatGPT. It says gross merchandise value from AI-sourced first-time buyers grew about 64% from the previous quarter. It is also scaling Mira, which it calls an AI headhunter, to scope projects and match buyers with freelancers.
A small business does not need to build an MCP integration tomorrow. The lesson is simpler. People now find suppliers in two places, classic search results and AI answers, and you need a plan for both.
What should a small business do about AI search?
This is our advice, not Fiverr's:
- 1List the 10 to 20 questions buyers ask before they contact you. Use sales calls, emails and Google's "People also ask" box.
- 2Ask those questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google. Note which businesses are named and which pages are cited.
- 3Give each important question a clear page or section. Answer in the first two sentences, then explain.
- 4Use question-shaped headings. They match how people write prompts.
- 5Make the basic facts easy to find. Who you are, where you work, what you offer, who it is for and what it includes.
- 6Keep pages fast and readable without scripts. A page that is hard to load is hard to quote.
- 7Track enquiries by source. Add "AI assistant" as an option on your enquiry form.
Our free AEO score checker scores how ready a page is to be read and cited by AI tools, with a fix for every gap. For the longer version, read how to get recommended by ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity.
Worked example: a Dubai accounting firm checks its AI visibility
This is a hypothetical scenario, not a client. A 12-person accounting firm in Dubai gets most of its enquiries from Google and wants to know where it stands in AI answers.
- 1Week 1: the question list. The team writes 15 questions clients ask, such as "Does a freelancer in the UAE need to register for corporate tax?" and "What does a small company in Dubai need for bookkeeping?"
- 2Week 1: the test. They ask all 15 in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google, and log who is named and cited in a spreadsheet.
- 3Weeks 2 and 3: the pages. For the 8 questions where competitors are cited, they write answer-first sections with question headings, and add who the service is for and which emirates they cover.
- 4Week 4: the basics. They check that key pages load fast and read well without scripts, and add "AI assistant" to the "How did you hear about us?" field.
- 5Every month: the re-test. They rerun the same 15 questions and compare the log, so they track change instead of guessing.
None of this needs a new website. It needs a clear list of questions and pages that answer them well.
Can Theepa help?
Our SEO, AEO and GEO service starts with a buyer question map and turns it into answer-first pages, with a monthly visibility report.
Sources
Bilal Haider
Founder, Theepa Studio
Bilal founded Theepa Studio in 2016. The studio has delivered more than 10,000 brand identities for companies in the US, UK and the GCC.
