With 64.82% of Google searches now ending without a click, Redefine ROI founder Mrinal Kaushik warns that ranking reports have become a dangerous distraction-and the ₹20,000–₹1,00,000 monthly SEO spend of most Indian businesses deserves better accountability.
Mrinal Kaushik, founder of Noida-based AI SEO and LLM optimization agency Redefine ROI, has issued a formal advisory to Indian SME founders, startup operators, and enterprise marketing heads: stop treating keyword rankings as a proxy for SEO success.
The warning comes as Google’s AI Overviews – confirmed and expanded at I/O 2026 – accelerate a structural shift in how organic search delivers value, stripping click-through rates even from the coveted #1 position. For the tens of thousands of Indian businesses that currently evaluate their SEO agencies based on monthly ranking reports, Kaushik argues that the measurement model itself is obsolete.
Why This Matters Now
The data behind Kaushik’s advisory is difficult to ignore. According to a 2026 study by SparkToro and Datos, 64.82% of all Google searches now conclude without a user clicking any result – a trend largely driven by Google’s own answer features and AI Overviews.
Ahrefs’ December 2025 research found that AI Overviews can reduce organic click-through rates for the #1-ranked result by up to 58%. In practical terms, a business that has “won” SEO by traditional metrics may be losing brand visibility in real time.
The risk is concentrated among Indian SMEs, which collectively represent one of the fastest-growing digital advertising markets in Asia but often lack internal analytics capabilities to detect the gap between visibility and revenue.
Industry Validation
“The shift Mrinal is describing is real and measurable. We have seen Indian B2B companies walk away from SEO entirely after a bad experience, not because organic search does not work for them, but because the reporting they received never connected to the pipeline. When you introduce proper attribution, the ROI case for organic becomes one of the strongest in the channel mix. SeoProfy data citing HubSpot puts average B2B SEO ROI in the SaaS sector at 702% – but you cannot claim that return if you cannot measure it.”
KEY DATA POINTS
- 64.82% of Google searches now end without a click – SparkToro + Datos, 2026
- AI Overviews reduce organic CTR for the #1 position by up to 58% – Ahrefs, December 2025
- B2B SEO delivers an average 702% ROI in the SaaS sector; organic search drives 23.6% of all e-commerce online sales – SeoProfy citing HubSpot, 2024
Founder Statement
“Indian businesses are spending ₹20,000–₹1,00,000 per month on SEO and evaluating the return by checking keyword positions. That is the equivalent of measuring a sales team’s performance by how many calls they make rather than how many deals they close. Rankings are an input metric. Revenue is the output metric. Only one of them pays your bills.”
– Mrinal Kaushik, Founder, Redefine ROI
The Advisory
The advisory calls on Indian businesses to demand revenue attribution reporting from their SEO agencies and to hold organic search to the same performance standards as paid media.
The framework being promoted targets three categories of businesses most exposed to the current measurement gap:
- E-commerce brands losing revenue attribution clarity as zero-click searches grow
- B2B SaaS companies underinvest in organic because they cannot close the loop from search to signed contract
- Service businesses paying for SEO retainers with no defined revenue baseline or attribution model in place
About Mrinal Kaushik
Mrinal Kaushik is a digital marketing consultant and the founder of Redefine ROI, an AI-driven SEO and LLM optimization agency based in Delhi-NCR, India. Having 13+ years of experience in SEO, organic growth strategies, and AI-driven search visibility. He has worked with startups, eCommerce brands, and small businesses, helping them build scalable ROI and improve visibility across both traditional search engines and emerging AI-powered discovery platforms.
MEDIA CONTACT
Redefine ROI
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Phone: +91-7078411664
Website: https://redefineroi.com/
