In 2025, one of the most talked-about shifts in the digital landscape is the rise of Google AI Overviews — AI-generated summaries that now appear at the top of many search results. While they may provide quick answers to users, new research shows they’re causing a major drop in link clicks, drastically changing how users interact with search results.
If your website relies on Google Search traffic, this shift isn’t just a tech trend — it’s a potential traffic nightmare.
Let’s dive deep into what the latest Pew Research study reveals, how it affects your site, and what you can do to adapt.
🤖 What Are Google AI Overviews?
Google AI Overviews (AIOs) are automatically generated summaries created by artificial intelligence. Introduced broadly in 2024 and rolled out widely in 2025, these overviews aim to answer user queries instantly — summarising information from multiple web sources right at the top of the search results page.
While convenient for users, these summaries push traditional organic links further down, reducing visibility — and as recent data shows, significantly reducing click-through rates (CTR) for publishers and content creators.
📊 What the Pew Research Study Found
A groundbreaking report from the Pew Research Centre, based on real user data from 900 U.S. adults, analysed how people interacted with Google Search in March 2025. Here’s what it discovered:
- Only 8% of searches with an AI Overview led users to click on a traditional link.
- In contrast, 15% of searches without AI Overviews resulted in a click — almost double the rate.
- Just 1% of users clicked on the links inside the AI summaries themselves.
- In nearly two-thirds of searches with an AI Overview, users either left the search page or ended their session.
The takeaway? When an AI summary appears, users are far less likely to click through to any external website.
💥 Why This Is a Huge Problem for Website Owners and Publishers
For digital marketers, bloggers, SEO professionals, and publishers, this trend presents a direct threat. Here’s why:
1. Less Traffic from Google
Google has long been the primary driver of free, organic web traffic. With AI Overviews answering questions upfront, fewer users feel the need to click through to actual websites — even when those sites are the sources of information.
2. Lower Click-Through Rates (CTR)
Even if your page ranks well in Google, it might be buried under an AI snippet, making it less visible and less clickable.
3. Revenue and Lead Generation Impact
Less traffic often means fewer ad impressions, affiliate clicks, purchases, and conversions, hitting your bottom line directly.
🔎 Why Are People Clicking Less?
AI Overviews are designed to satisfy search intent instantly. People increasingly search using full sentences or specific questions instead of short keywords. These types of queries often trigger AI summaries, which aggregate answers from multiple sites into a single paragraph.
According to Pew, many AI Overviews cite Wikipedia, YouTube, Reddit, and government sites. Interestingly, Google owns YouTube and has signed licensing deals with Reddit — meaning they’re using preferred sources that often keep traffic within their ecosystem.
🛑 Google Responds: Denial and Disagreement
Google has pushed back against the findings. A spokesperson claimed that the study had a “flawed methodology” and insisted that AI Overviews lead to “higher quality clicks” from users with stronger intent — though they failed to back this claim with concrete data.
Still, without clear visibility in Google Search Console about how AI Overviews impact traffic, site owners are left in the dark.
💡 How Can You Protect Your Website from AI Traffic Loss?
Here are strategic steps you can take right now to safeguard your traffic:
✅ 1. Optimise for Featured Snippets
Even if AIOs dominate the top of the page, featured snippets still exist. Write concise, direct answers to common questions in your niche to improve your chances of being cited or shown prominently.
✅ 2. Build a Strong Brand Presence
Users trust brands. The stronger your brand, the more likely users are to click your link over others — even if it appears lower on the page.
✅ 3. Prioritise Long-Tail Keywords
AI Overviews are more likely to appear on broad, informational queries. Target specific, high-intent long-tail keywords that are less likely to trigger an AIO.
✅ 4. Drive Direct and Social Traffic
Diversify your traffic sources. Build communities on email, Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, and YouTube to reduce dependence on Google alone.
✅ 5. Leverage Structured Data & Schema Markup
Make your content easily parsable by AI and search bots. Use FAQ schema, How-to markup, and proper headings to boost visibility.
📰 The Bigger Picture: A Shakeup in Digital Publishing
The situation is especially dire for online publishers. Major news outlets like CNN, Vox Media, HuffPost, and the LA Times have laid off thousands of journalists in recent years. Many blame traffic declines on Google as one of the causes.
With Google controlling nearly 90% of the global search market, even a small change in its behaviour has massive ripple effects.
The U.S. government has even declared Google’s dominance in both search and advertising to be an illegal monopoly, highlighting just how central this issue is to the internet’s future.
🛠 Final Thoughts: Adapt or Risk Obsolescence
Google AI Overviews are changing search behaviour at a fundamental level. As a site owner or digital marketer, you can’t afford to ignore these shifts. While AI tools offer convenience to users, they also represent a significant challenge to organic discoverability.
Suppose you want to stay ahead in 2025 and beyond. In that case, you must evolve your content strategies, diversify your traffic channels, and fight for visibility in a search landscape increasingly dominated by AI.
