US EditionSurprising No One, New Research Says AI Overviews Cause Massive Drop in Search Clicks
UNITED STATES, JUL 22 – Click-through rates for Google's top search result dropped from 28% to 19% after AI Overviews were introduced, affecting website traffic and user engagement, studies show.
- Google introduced AI Overviews, AI-generated summary boxes at the top of many search pages, initially rolled out last year and expanded by May 2025.
- The rollout stemmed from testing starting in May 2023, followed by steady growth to over 172,000 keywords by May 2025, amid evolving user search behaviors.
- Studies from GrowthSRC and Pew Research Center found users clicking traditional search results dropped significantly when AI Overviews appeared, with clicks halving compared to searches without summaries.
- Pew noted that only 8% of visits with AI summaries led to a click on search results, versus 15% without, while just 1% clicked on sources cited inside AI Overviews.
- These shifts imply decreased site traffic from search referrals, prompting SEO experts to advise focusing on brand visibility and diversified engagement beyond clicks.
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16 Articles
A survey of 900 US Google users: of ~69K searches, 18% gave AI Overviews; of those, users clicked a link 8% of the time, compared to 15% with no AI summary
Pew Research Center: A survey of 900 US Google users: of ~69K searches, 18% gave AI Overviews; of those, users clicked a link 8% of the time, compared to 15% with no AI summary — Last year, Google introduced “AI Overviews,” a feature that displays an artificial intelligence-generated result summary at the top of many Google search pages.
Users apparently see their Google search request answered by this.
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