Google’s AI Overviews decrease clicks by 34.5%, according to Ahrefs. A recent Ahrefs study showed that Google’s AI Overviews are significantly impacting organic search traffic.
Key findings:
Ahrefs analyzed 300,000 keywords and found a 34.5% decrease in click-through rates (CTR) for top-ranking pages when AI Overviews are present.
CTR for position one dropped from 5.6% to 2.6% year-over-year for informational queries with AI Overviews.
Even when cited in AI Overviews, links compete with multiple additional sources, diluting individual click potential.
How to adapt:
Target some keywords that don't trigger AI Overviews. Longer, more specific queries often have less competition and are less likely to be summarized by AI Overviews.
Develop deep, non-trivial content. Create "deep content" that addresses complex, nuanced topics that require detailed explanations. This content is less likely to be addressed by AI summaries.
Opt out of AI Overviews for certain content. Not everyone knows this, but you can choose to prevent your content from appearing in summaries by adding a "nosnippet" tag. Use this sparingly though; if competitors target the same topics without this tag, AI Overviews will still get created. They'll just exclude your content.
This is really interesting — thanks for sharing the breakdown. I’m building a niche content site on eco-friendly pet care, and one of the hardest parts has been just getting out of the Google sandbox. Seeing that AI Overviews can also cut traffic by a third makes me wonder how much harder it’s going to get for new projects. Have you found any strategies that help smaller sites in particular adapt to this shift?
My worry about this sort of thing is that we're letting AI do the thinking for us. Instead of browsing even the top ten (which was always a woefully small slice of possible results), we're just letting the AI have the answer.
That's bad enough for today... but long term, I worry that if humans don't reject AI 'help' in a lot of these use cases, we'll lose the tools that allow us to do it. Popularity of AI assistance (and assistants) gives companies incentive to de-prioritize tools that help humans make sense of complex data, choices, and skills.
We need AI solutions that reinforce human capability. Instead of AI fishing for us, feeding us for the day, we need AI solutions that help humans be better at catching their own fish.
this is true, even when I’m coding I notice me just focusing on prompting AI to do the coding for me. And now it can just apply the changes straight into my ide. I’ve noticed my brain not engaging in the complex multi dimensional thinking that coding requires as often as before AI.
I was going to post something like this, but you said it better than I could. AI can be so helpful if it can help augment and improve us. Instead, I worry we’ll start to offload our critical thinking and humans will start to lose that skill.
Indeed, the purpose of users searching on Google is to solve problems and obtain the desired information. If the AI response can directly meet the user's needs, then this is the inevitable result.
Thoughts on making products:
1. It cannot be limited to providing graphic information
2. Entrepreneur products should provide more professional value and content to achieve a level that AI cannot reach.
3. The end of search should be AI+Google search
Google's shift from search engine to answer engine was always going to cannibalize organic traffic — especially for informational queries. The 34.5% drop confirms what many of us have seen anecdotally: SEO as we knew it is becoming a losing game unless you're adapting fast.
The playbook has to change. Targeting un-summaryable queries, building content that’s too deep or too strategic for AI to flatten, and being deliberate about what not to give away in the open web — that’s how you stay in the game.
AI Overviews aren’t a feature. They’re Google quietly rewriting the rules of distribution — again. And they’re not done 😒
There’s a lot of hype around AI-integrated search right now. I don't think there will ever be a time it replaces traditional SERPS fully, as there will always be a need for users to arrive on websites and want to do their own research. I have been doing my own research on zero-click search behaviour and there are patterns in that Google’s AI overview is mainly being used as a broad, first-level search, like your BOF type things. Then TOF and MOF users are relying of traditional SEPR results. I go into more detail over at UTOPi Digital Optimisation, where I recently published a piece on zero-click search
I have developed my own Organic Optimisation Model, as I’ve been exploring how to develop beyond traditional SEO. One of the key takeaways from my research is that full-funnel thinking is essential. We need to optimise the whole journey to get value from every interaction, including impressions and brand visibility within AI Overviews.
Thanks for this great information
Wow, that 34.5% number is brutal, but the drop from 5.6% to 2.6% for the #1 spot is what really stands out. It's a huge hit for informational content. The advice to focus on deep, non-trivial content seems like the most sustainable long-term strategy now. Thanks for sharing these insights.
This is both fascinating and a bit concerning for small creators and indie SaaS. The CTR drop from 5.6% to 2.6% is huge when you're already fighting for scraps against bigger players.
I really like the recommendation around going deeper with content. Feels like the future of SEO might shift from "quick answers" to "trusted depth" if AI Overviews become the norm for surface-level info.
Also, thanks for mentioning the nonsnippet tag, didn’t realize we could selectively control that. Definitely something to experiment with.
Curious if anyone here has actually seen noticeable traffic drops yet from AI Overviews, or is it still too early for most niches?
I think this was a necessary tradeoff made by google to compete with openAI and LLM-native companies in the long-term. For a huge number of search use-cases, an AI-overview provides a better user experience. If they hadn’t done this, they would just slowly bleed users over to AI-native solutions.
I agree with what has been said around limiting the financial damage by focusing on certain experience where SERP is better or ok but I think they were going to take a hit regardless if they wanted to compete on the quality of their experience and how well it serves user needs.
what is the influence for the seo?
I have experienced decrease in CTR on my own websites because of AI overview.
A better to know instruction
wow
It's interesting to see the significant impact AI Overviews are having on click-through rates. The 34.5% decrease in CTR for top-ranking pages could be a real challenge for content creators, especially those relying on organic search traffic. Targeting long-tail keywords and creating deep, non-trivial content seems like a solid strategy to stay competitive. It's also important to consider using the "nosnippet" tag strategically, though it's not a perfect solution. The evolving role of AI in search really requires us to adapt our SEO strategies.
Big hit to organic traffic—34.5% drop is no joke. Even cited links in AI Overviews are losing clicks. Time to lean into long-tail keywords and deeper content. Might test "nosnippet" on a few pages too. Anyone else seeing this trend?
whats the reason behind this?
This is known issue. Users are searching for products on AI and this means all the websites trying to get top searches in google are no longer relevant and your websites now need to be optimised for AI to recommend your site
Every clicks has been taken by ai overviews
ok. Thanks for this great information. I will look the same on your perspective.
There are lot of people saying that AI is helping with SEO, I wasn't sure about that either, thanks for sharing your perspective.