AI overviews coincide with fewer clicks on regular search results. Pew Research Center found people clicked a regular result in 8 percent of visits with an AI summary. That compares with 15 percent of visits without one. Google says overall website clicks have stayed relatively stable.
How Pew Research Center measured the click drop
Pew Research Center studied browsing data from 900 US adults using a tracking app. The app recorded every Google search the group made in March 2025. The sample included 68,879 unique searches, and 12,593 of them, about 18 percent, produced an AI summary. Researchers rechecked the results pages between April 7 and 17, 2025. The study covered Google only, for one month. It shows a pattern in search behavior that the study cannot confirm as a cause.
Within that pattern, people clicked a regular search result in 8 percent of visits when an AI summary appeared. That compares with 15 percent of visits without one. Sessions ended after 26 percent of pages with a summary, compared with 16 percent of pages without one. People clicked a link inside the AI summary itself in about 1 percent of visits to pages that had one. Longer, more specific searches were more likely to produce a summary. Only 8 percent of one or two word searches produced an AI summary. That compares with 53 percent of searches with ten or more words. Searches starting with who, what, when, or why produced a summary 60 percent of the time.
What Google says about total click volume
Google describes a different picture from its side. In an August 2025 post, Google said total organic click volume to websites has stayed "relatively stable year-over-year." It also said average click quality has increased, meaning users are less likely to quickly click back to the results page. The post said some third-party reports "inaccurately suggest dramatic declines" in clicks, though it did not include figures or explain its method.
What a website needs to appear in AI Overviews
Google Search Central says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page still needs to be indexed and eligible to show with a search snippet. It must meet that bar before it can appear. Our guide to how AI Overviews use the same search rules covers the search rules AI Overviews follow.
A July 2026 guide from Google Search Central adds that owners can skip "AI files" like llms.txt. It also says owners can skip "chunking" content and skip rewriting pages only for AI, since none of it is required. The guide also says structured data is not required for AI search. It also says "optimizing for generative AI search is ... still SEO." Making many pages for every query variation to manipulate AI answers breaks the scaled content abuse policy. The same guide notes that Business Profile and Merchant Center details can appear in AI responses, so current local information matters. A website also needs to stay included under a Search generative AI setting in Search Console to remain eligible for these features.
Checking whether a website appears in AI Overviews
Search Console offers a tool for this. A June 2026 post from Google Search Central Blog introduced the Generative AI performance report. The report rolled out to every website by August 31, 2026. The report shows impressions, meaning how often pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It breaks this data down by page, country, device, and date. According to Search Console Help, the report does not list clicks, and it may not show for websites with few AI impressions.
What a business owner can do now
A few steps come straight from Google's own advice. Google Search Central Blog recommends judging search performance by conversions, like sales, signups, and lookups about your business, as well as clicks. The same post says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews tend to be higher quality. This means visitors spend more time on the page. Keeping a Google Business Profile current matters too, since AI answers can pull local business details. Writing pages that answer longer, specific customer questions also helps. Pew found these searches are the ones most likely to produce a summary.
Checking the Generative AI performance report in Search Console can show whether pages appear in AI Overviews at all. It also helps to confirm a website is indexable and that Googlebot is not blocked, including at the hosting or CDN level. Our guide to what changes with Google AI Mode for business websites covers what AI Mode changes for business websites.
Frequently asked questions
Do AI overviews reduce clicks?
Pew Research Center found people clicked a regular search result in 8 percent of visits when an AI summary appeared. That compares with 15 percent of visits without one. The study covered one month of Google searches and shows a pattern in behavior.
How do I get my business website to show up in AI Overviews?
Google Search Central says there are no special requirements beyond normal SEO. A page needs to be indexed and eligible to show with a search snippet. It must meet that bar before it can appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Can I see if my website appears in AI Overviews?
Search Console's Generative AI performance report shows how often a website's pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It reports impressions by page, country, device, and date, though it does not show clicks.
Do I need an llms.txt file for Google?
No. Google Search Central's July 2026 guide says llms.txt files and other "AI files" are not required to appear in AI features on Search.
Do people click the links inside AI Overviews?
Pew Research Center found people clicked a link inside the AI summary itself. This happened in about 1 percent of visits to pages that had one.
People clicked regular search results less often when an AI summary appeared, while Google continues to point business owners back toward normal SEO and business conversions. See our SEO, GEO and AEO services page for help keeping a website in good shape for search and AI features.
