🎧 Podcast · Pavel
Google increasingly shows an AI Overview above the search results: an AI-written answer that summarises several websites. Google also has a separate AI Mode where people chat with search. It’s convenient for users, but website owners often see their traffic drop.
What does the research show?
- According to Pew Research, users clicked a result 8% of the time when an AI Overview appeared, compared with 15% when it didn’t.
- Several studies show that for queries with an AI Overview, clicks on the top results fall by roughly 40–60%.
- Google says clicks are stable and spread more widely, and it has added more source links to AI Overviews.
Who is affected most?
Informational pages that answer simple questions such as “what is…” or “how to…” are hit hardest. Queries where someone wants to buy, order or find a specific business, such as “WordPress maintenance Tallinn”, are affected less.
What to do
- Focus on buying and booking queries. Service and product pages, prices, location and a clear offer still bring customers in the AI era.
- Be the source that gets cited. AI Overviews link to sources. Clear answers, facts, structured data and expertise improve your chances of being one of them.
- Offer what AI can’t. Calculators, a quote form, a portfolio, client stories and personal advice.
- Measure correctly. In Search Console, look at impressions as well as clicks. If impressions rise while clicks fall, AI Overviews are the likely cause, not the quality of your site.
- Don’t depend on one channel. A newsletter, your Google Business Profile, social media and repeat customers reduce the risk.
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