{"id":2901,"date":"2025-04-17T11:08:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T11:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-by-34-5\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T11:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T11:08:32","slug":"ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-by-34-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-by-34-5\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Google says AI Overviews increase clicks. Cold, hard logic disagrees, and so does our research.<\/p>\n<p>We analyzed 300,000 keywords and found that the presence of an AI Overview in the search results correlated with a <strong>34.5% lower average clickthrough rate (CTR)<\/strong> for the top-ranking page, compared to similar informational keywords without an AI Overview.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to our data scientist, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/author\/xibeijia-guan\/\">Xibeijia Guan<\/a>, for pulling the data for this analysis.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"small\">\n<div class=\"quote-content\">\n<p>\u201cIn fact, if you put content and links within AI Overviews, they get higher clickthrough rates than if you put it outside of AI Overviews.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"quote-info clearfix\">\n<div class=\"quote-photo\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sundar Pichai\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sundar-pichai-e1744820085270.jpeg\"\/><\/noscript><img class=\"lazyload\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sundar Pichai\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sundar-pichai-e1744820085270.jpeg\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>We selected 300,000 keywords from Ahrefs <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/keywords-explorer\">Keywords Explorer<\/a> database, consisting of 150,000 keywords with an AI Overview present and 150,000 keywords with informational intent and no AI Overview present.<\/p>\n<p>We used aggregated GSC data to get each keyword\u2019s average desktop clickthrough rate (CTR) per month (sum of clicks\/sum of impressions). We then compared the clickthrough rates for both samples for March 2024 (before the US rollout of AI overviews) and March 2025 (after).<\/p>\n<p>In March 2024, the average position one CTR for informational keywords was 0.056. In March 2025, this had dropped to 0.031:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1283\" class=\"wp-image-187068\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-1.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-1-530x425.png 530w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-1-768x616.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-1-1536x1232.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In March 2024, the average position one CTR for AI Overview keywords was 0.073. In March 2025, this had dropped to 0.026:<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1283\" class=\"wp-image-187069\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2-530x425.png 530w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2-768x616.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2-1536x1232.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1283\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-187069\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2-530x425.png 530w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2-768x616.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/word-image-187067-2-1536x1232.png 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\">\n<p>Sidenote.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cAI Overview keywords\u201d refer to keywords that triggered an AI Overview in March 2025. In March 2024, before the US rollout of AI Overviews, these keywords did not trigger an AI Overview.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We can use the drop in CTR for informational keywords to predict the CTR for our sample of AI Overview keywords, assuming AI Overviews had not rolled out. This forecasted CTR is <strong>0.040<\/strong> <code>(0.073*(0.031\/0.056))<\/code>.<\/p>\n<p>Calculating the difference between the forecasted and actual CTR for AI Overview keywords suggests that the presence of AI Overviews reduces the click-through rate for position 1 by <strong>~34.5%<\/strong> <code>((0.026-0.040)\/0.040)<\/code>:<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-187084\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate-549x425.png 549w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate-768x595.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate-1536x1189.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-187084\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate-549x425.png 549w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate-768x595.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-ai-overviews-clickthrough-rate-1536x1189.png 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"post-187067-_ntg3jfm3mwud\"\/>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>This isn\u2019t surprising. I have seen anecdata suggesting that some websites have seen <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-is-still-your-best-marketing-channel\/\">clicks reduce by 20\u201340%<\/a> since the rollout of AI overviews.<\/p>\n<p>It seems possible. AI Overviews function in a similar way to Featured Snippets, by trying to resolve the searcher\u2019s query directly in the SERP\u2014likely contributing to more zero-click searches. And although AI Overviews often contain citation links, there can be many of these links cited, making it less likely for any single link to earn the lion\u2019s share of clicks.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also telling that despite <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.google\/products\/search\/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024\/\">Google\u2019s optimistic claim<\/a> that <em>\u201clinks included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query\u201d<\/em>, there is still no way to disambiguate AI Overview clicks and impressions from the rest of your Search Console data.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that Google doesn\u2019t want us to see the clickthrough rate for AI Overviews.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming AI Overviews stay in this current form, this is also likely the <em>highest <\/em>the CTR will be. As the novelty wears off and the <a href=\"https:\/\/andrewchen.com\/the-law-of-shitty-clickthroughs\/\">law of shitty clickthroughs<\/a> kicks in, I would expect to see clicks reduce further.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\nif(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');fbq('init','1511271639109289');fbq('track','PageView');<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google says AI Overviews increase clicks. Cold, hard logic disagrees, and so does our research. We analyzed 300,000 keywords and found that the presence of an AI Overview in the search results correlated with a 34.5% lower average clickthrough rate (CTR) for the top-ranking page, compared to similar informational keywords without an AI Overview. Thanks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}