Why Chasing Website Traffic in 2025 Is Like Collecting Beanie Babies in 1999
By someone who once believed Google Analytics could fix his life
If you're still measuring success by how many people show up to your website in 2025, I have bad news: you're that guy at the party still bragging about his Klout score. You know, the one who peaked during the Vine era and insists the fax machine is "still the most secure."
According to Jason Barnard (a man with more facts in his brain than I have unpaid parking tickets), website traffic as a KPI is about as valuable as a screen door on a submarine.
The real action, he says, is happening off your site—on Google's SERPs and inside AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and whatever Bing is calling itself this week (probably "Clippy 2.0: This Time It's Personal").
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The Kalicube Process
Jason calls this shift "The Kalicube Process," which sounds a little like a wellness retreat but is actually a structured way to ensure your brand shows up in all the places that matter—even if no one actually clicks your link. Picture it like putting your content in front of the cool kids before they ask for it.
And here's the real kicker: brands are making more money without getting more clicks.
Zero-click searches (when someone Googles something and doesn't bother clicking anything because Google spoon-feeds them the answer) are now the norm.
Your audience doesn't want to read your perfectly crafted About Us page content. They want AI to distill your essence and serve it in a neat little summary, preferably with no reading required.
Your website is no longer a destination
You read that right: Your website is no longer a destination. Instead, it's a data buffet for machines. You write so they can eat. It's less about convincing humans and more about training robots to say nice things about you. Let's face it: most of us do this on LinkedIn, anyway.
The Kalicube Process isn't about tricking the system. It's about grooming it. It's like brushing your cat so it doesn't cough up a hairball in front of the company. You feed search engines and AI tools consistent, structured information about your brand across multiple platforms so they can present you like a confident, competent adult—one who absolutely does not still use Hotmail.
In short, traffic is dead. Visibility is the new currency. If your brand isn't showing up in AI results, you don't exist. And no, that isn't dramatic—it's just 2025.
For the source of this rude awakening, check out the video below from Jason Barnard.