Will AI Overviews Reduce Website Clicks? The Real Data

2. Do AI Overviews Really Reduce Clicks?

Quick Answer: Yes. Independent studies agree that AI Overviews cut clicks. Pew Research found users clicked a result on only 8% of searches that showed an AI summary, versus 15% without one — roughly half. That fall in the AI Overviews click-through rate is the core reason organic traffic is under pressure for businesses that depend on ranking in Google AI Overviews.

For a while this was anecdotal — owners felt their traffic slipping but had no hard proof. Now the data has caught up, and it points one way.

The most rigorous look comes from Pew Research Center, which studied real browsing behaviour rather than survey opinions. Two findings stand out:

• Clicks nearly halve. Users clicked a link on 8% of searches with an AI summary versus 15% without, per Pew’s analysis of nearly 69,000 searches.
• The AI Overview keeps the click. Only 1% of users clicked a source link inside the AI summary itself, so the citation rarely sends traffic on.

In plain terms: when the AI Overview answers the question, most people stop there. That is the behaviour change behind every “my traffic dropped” story we hear from Malaysian SMEs.

3. How Big Is the Click Drop by Ranking Position?

Quick Answer: The drop is steepest at the top. Ahrefs’ analysis of 300,000 keywords found the position-one AI Overviews click-through rate fell about 58% when an AI Overview was present. Lower positions lose less because they had fewer clicks to begin with. Tracking this in your own account starts with measuring AI search traffic in GA4.

Not every ranking position is hit equally. The pages that lose the most are the ones that used to win the most: the top spots. Ahrefs re-ran its study on December 2025 data and found the damage had grown since its first look, when the drop was 34.5%.

The pattern is brutal for winners. If you fought hard to rank first and that query now shows an AI Overview, you can expect to keep fewer than half the clicks you once earned. The reward for being best is shrinking exactly where it used to be biggest.

4. Which Searches Lose the Most Clicks?

Quick Answer: Informational searches lose the most clicks, because the AI Overview can answer them in a sentence. Commercial, transactional, and local searches hold up far better — people still want to compare, buy, and visit. Knowing the difference is the first move in generative engine optimisation.

The headline 58% figure is scary, but it mostly describes one kind of search. Ahrefs found that almost all AI Overview queries are informational in intent. A “what is” or “how to” question is easy for AI to resolve, so the click disappears. A “buy”, “best”, or “near me” search is not — the buyer still needs to choose and act.

This is the most important nuance in the whole debate. Here is how the click impact tends to vary by intent across Malaysian SME topics we manage:

So a blog that answers “how does SEO work” will bleed clicks. A page targeting “SEO agency in Petaling Jaya” or “book a website audit” stays much healthier, because the searcher wants to act, not just read.

5. Do the Clicks You Keep Still Convert?

Quick Answer: Yes — and this is the good news. Across ZenWeb’s Malaysian SME accounts, organic clicks fell after AI Overviews rolled out, but qualified leads barely moved. The clicks lost were mostly low-intent readers; the high-intent visitors who fill forms and message on WhatsApp still arrive.

Traffic and leads are not the same thing. A page can lose a chunk of visitors and keep almost all its business, if the visitors it lost were never going to buy. That is exactly what we see in the data.

The table below indexes organic clicks and qualified leads to 100 at a Q1 2025 baseline, averaged across our managed Malaysian SME accounts. Watch the gap open up:

Clicks fell roughly a quarter, yet leads stayed flat. The reason ties back to intent: AI Overviews swallowed the informational top-of-funnel reads, while the commercial and local searches that drive enquiries kept landing on the page. If you only watch your traffic graph, you panic. If you watch leads, you sleep fine.

6. Where Is This Heading, and What Recovers Visibility?

Quick Answer: Clicks from informational searches will keep shrinking, so doing nothing means slow decline. Businesses that adapt — optimising to be cited in AI answers and to win commercial searches — recover visibility through citations and brand mentions. The route is optimising your site for large language models.

The trend line is not your friend if you stand still. Ahrefs expects click-through rates to fall further as AI Overviews spread and the novelty fades. But “fewer clicks” is not the same as “less visibility” — if you show up inside the answer, you still win mindshare, even without the click.

The model below contrasts two Malaysian SMEs from the same start point: one that does nothing, and one that adapts to AI search. Visibility blends organic clicks with AI citations and brand mentions, indexed to 100:

The gap is the whole story. Standing still tracks the click decline downward. Adapting flips the curve, because every AI citation and brand mention adds visibility the click-only business never counts. This is why the smarter question is not “is SEO dead?” but “where is search visibility moving?” — a shift we unpack in our take on whether SEO is dead.

7. What Malaysian SMEs Should Do About It

Quick Answer: Stop chasing pure traffic and start protecting revenue. Shift content toward commercial and local searches, structure pages so AI engines cite you, and track leads instead of raw clicks. These moves rebuild the AI Overviews click-through rate you can actually bank.

You cannot stop AI Overviews appearing. You can change what they cost you. Here is the order of work we use with Malaysian SME clients facing a click drop.

How to protect clicks and leads from AI Overviews

1. Audit which pages lost clicks. Separate informational pages (expect losses) from commercial and local pages (protect these first) so you spend effort where money is.
2. Re-weight content to high-intent searches. Build more pages around “best”, “price”, “near me”, and “[service] [city]” terms that AI Overviews resolve less often.
3. Format for citation. Lead each page with a clear 40 to 60 word answer, add lists and tables, and use real numbers, so AI engines lift and credit you.
4. Earn off-site mentions. Get named on YouTube, reputable directories, and local listings — the sources AI answers trust most.
5. Measure leads, not vanity clicks. Track form fills, calls, and WhatsApp messages so a softer traffic line never hides a healthy pipeline.

None of this is exotic. It is disciplined SEO aimed at the searches that pay, plus the citation work that getting cited in ChatGPT and AI Overviews demands. Done together, they steady your clicks and grow your visibility inside the answers themselves.

8. Conclusion

So, will AI Overviews reduce your website clicks? Honestly, yes — the data from Pew and Ahrefs leaves no doubt that the AI Overviews click-through rate is down sharply, especially for informational searches at the top of the page. Pretending otherwise helps no one.

But the fuller picture is calmer. The clicks most at risk are the ones least likely to buy. Commercial, transactional, and local searches stay healthy, and across our own Malaysian SME accounts, leads held steady even as raw traffic slipped. Treat AI Overviews as a reason to focus on revenue searches and to earn citations inside the answers — and a falling click count becomes a manageable shift, not a crisis. That is how local businesses keep winning on Google in 2026.

9. Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will AI Overviews reduce my website clicks?

Yes, for many searches. Pew Research found users clicked a link on only 8% of searches that showed an AI summary, versus 15% without one — close to half. The effect is strongest on informational queries, where the AI Overview answers the question fully. Commercial, transactional, and local searches lose far fewer clicks because the searcher still needs to act.

2. How much does an AI Overview lower click-through rate?

For a position-one page, Ahrefs measured roughly a 58% drop in click-through rate when an AI Overview is present, based on 300,000 keywords in December 2025. That is up from 34.5% in early 2025. Lower-ranked positions lose less in percentage terms, partly because they earned fewer clicks to start with.

3. Do all searches lose clicks to AI Overviews?

No. Almost all AI Overviews trigger on informational searches, so those lose the most clicks. Commercial searches like “best CRM for SMEs”, transactional searches like “book a website audit”, and local searches like “SEO agency near me” hold up much better, because the AI summary cannot finish the buying decision for the user.

4. Can I still get leads if my clicks drop?

Often, yes. Across ZenWeb’s Malaysian SME accounts, organic clicks fell about a quarter after AI Overviews rolled out, while qualified leads stayed roughly flat. The clicks lost were mostly low-intent readers. The visitors who fill forms, call, or message on WhatsApp are usually high-intent searchers, and those searches are less affected by AI Overviews.

5. How do I recover clicks lost to AI Overviews?

Focus on three moves: build more pages targeting commercial and local searches that AI Overviews resolve less often, format your content so AI engines cite you with clear answers and structured data, and earn off-site mentions on trusted platforms. Track leads rather than raw traffic so you can see real recovery, not just a visitor count.