A comprehensive study by the Pew Research Center has confirmed what many in the SEO community have suspected: Google’s AI Overviews are dramatically reducing how often users click through to websites from search results.
Key Findings
The research analyzed browsing data from 900 U.S. adults and revealed striking differences in user behavior when AI Overviews appear in search results:
Click-Through Rate Impact:
- Users click on website links only 8% of the time when an AI Overview is present
- This jumps to 15% when no AI Overview appears on the page
- The difference represents nearly a 50% reduction in click-through rates
AI Overview Link Performance:
- Direct clicks on links within AI Overviews themselves are extremely rare
- Only 1% of users clicked on links embedded in the AI summaries
Search Session Behavior:
- Users are more likely to end their browsing session entirely after encountering an AI Overview
- 26% of sessions ended after viewing pages with AI summaries
- Only 16% of sessions ended on pages with traditional search results alone
AI Overview Prevalence and Patterns
The study found that AI Overviews appeared in approximately 18% of all Google searches during March 2025. Several patterns emerged regarding when these summaries appear:
Search Length Correlation:
- Longer, more complex searches trigger AI Overviews more frequently
- Only 8% of one- or two-word searches generated AI summaries
- This increased to 53% for searches containing 10 or more words
- Question-based searches and full sentences are more likely to produce AI summaries
Source Citations:
- The vast majority of AI summaries (88%) cited three or more sources
- Only 1% relied on a single source
- Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit were the most frequently cited sources in both AI summaries and traditional search results
Industry Implications
This data supports what many SEO professionals have termed “the great decoupling” – the growing disconnect between Google search visibility and actual website traffic. The findings align with previous studies showing reduced click-through rates when AI Overviews are present.
Despite mounting evidence from multiple studies, Google executives have previously expressed skepticism about research showing decreased click-through rates from AI Overviews. The company has not made AI Overview performance data available through Search Console, despite requests from the SEO community.
Research Methodology
The Pew Research Center study analyzed online browsing activity from participants who voluntarily shared their data. Of the 900 participants, 58% conducted at least one Google search that generated an AI summary during the March 2025 study period.
The research provides concrete evidence of a significant shift in how users interact with Google search results, with potential long-term implications for website traffic and the broader digital ecosystem.
