Published 2026-09-05 · Last updated 2026-09-05
Google's AI Overviews do reduce clicks to websites, and the drop is large on the searches where they appear. Pew Research Center measured it in 2025, Ahrefs measured it twice, and Semrush tracked where the summaries show up. The part most headlines skip: local-intent searches, the ones that send a homeowner to a plumber, showed under 3% AI Overview saturation in Semrush's 2025 tracking.
What did Pew measure?
Pew Research Center studied 900 US adults and 68,879 of their Google searches in March 2025 and published the results in July 2025. 18% of searches produced an AI summary. When a summary appeared, users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits, against 15% when there was no summary. Only 1% of visits clicked a link inside the summary itself.
Users also left more often. 26% ended their browsing session after a page with a summary, against 16% without one. And the trigger was the question form: 60% of question-format searches produced a summary, compared with 8% of one- or two-word searches.
What did Ahrefs find in Search Console data?
Ahrefs looked at 300,000 keywords using Search Console data. In April 2025 it reported that an AI Overview correlated with a 34.5% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page. Position-one click-through on informational keywords fell from 0.056 in March 2024 to 0.031 in March 2025.
Ahrefs repeated the study with December 2025 data and published the update in February 2026. Position-one click-through was 0.039 without an AI Overview and 0.016 with one, a 58% reduction. The gap widened over the year.
Where do AI Overviews actually appear?
Semrush tracked more than 10 million keywords from January to November 2025. AI Overviews appeared on 6.49% of tracked queries in January 2025, peaked at 24.61% in July 2025, and settled at 15.69% in November 2025. Google pulled back after the summer surge.
The type of search changed too. Comparing October 2024 with October 2025, the share of AI Overviews on commercial queries rose from 8.15% to 18.57%, transactional from 1.98% to 13.94%, and navigational from 0.84% to 10.33%. The summaries moved from research questions toward money questions.
Two findings in the Semrush study cut against the panic. On the same keywords measured before and after an AI Overview appeared, the zero-click rate fell slightly, from 33.75% to 31.53%. And local-intent categories showed under 3% AI Overview saturation. The map pack a homeowner sees when searching for a roofer is mostly untouched.
| Study | Sample | Headline finding |
|---|---|---|
| Pew Research Center, Jul 2025 | 900 US adults, 68,879 searches, Mar 2025 | 8% clicked a result when a summary showed, vs 15% without |
| Ahrefs, Apr 2025 | 300,000 keywords, Search Console data | 34.5% lower CTR for the top page with an AI Overview |
| Ahrefs, Feb 2026 | Same 300,000 keywords, Dec 2025 data | Position-one CTR 0.039 without vs 0.016 with, a 58% drop |
| Semrush, Dec 2025 | 10 million+ keywords, Jan to Nov 2025 | AI Overviews on 15.69% of queries; local intent under 3% |
| SparkToro / Similarweb, 2026 | US panel, Jan to Apr 2026 | 68.01% of Google searches ended without a click |
How does this fit the bigger zero-click trend?
AI Overviews are one push on a trend that was already moving. SparkToro, working from a Similarweb panel covering January to April 2026, found that 68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click. The zero-click share was roughly 45% in 2016.
Publishers felt it first. Similarweb data reported by Search Engine Roundtable in July 2025 showed the zero-click share for news-related searches rising from 56% in May 2024, when AI Overviews launched, to 69% in May 2025, while organic traffic to news sites fell from over 2.3 billion visits at the mid-2024 peak to under 1.7 billion.
Ads followed the summaries. Semrush data reported by Search Engine Land in December 2025 showed ads next to AI Overviews rising from about 3% of AI Overview results pages in January 2025 to about 40% by November 2025. Google is not giving the summary space away.
What does this mean for a service business website?
Three things. First, the pages most exposed are the informational ones. 'How long does a water heater last' is exactly the question format Pew found triggers a summary 60% of the time. Second, the pages that bring in jobs, the service page, the service-area page, the map listing, sit in the local-intent category that Semrush found under 3% saturated. Third, when a summary does show, the people who still click are fewer but further along.
- Keep writing answer pages, but expect them to be read inside the summary more than clicked. Put the company name, service area, and phone in the answer itself.
- Protect the money pages: one clear page per service, with the towns you serve, a phone number, and a booking path that works on a phone.
- Watch your own Search Console impressions against clicks. A page with rising impressions and falling clicks is being summarized.
- Do not read a national click-rate study as your local forecast. Measure your own calls.
The honest summary is that AI Overviews changed the economics of informational content and left the local money pages mostly alone, at least through 2025. That can change, which is why the Search Console check above is a monthly habit and not a one-time audit.
Common questions
Should I stop blogging because of AI Overviews?
No. Pew found 60% of question-format searches trigger a summary, so an article is more likely to be summarized than clicked. Write it so the summary carries your name and where you work.
Are local searches affected?
Far less. Semrush's 2025 tracking found local-intent categories under 3% AI Overview saturation, and the map pack remained mostly untouched.
Did Google make this bigger or smaller over 2025?
Both. Semrush measured a peak of 24.61% of tracked queries in July 2025, then a pullback to 15.69% by November 2025.
