Search clicks drop 30% as Google AI overviews come to prominence

BrightEdge report shows search queries are more often answered on the results page

Life

The number of impressions at search engine Google increased 49 percent last year, but the click-through rate fell 30 percent. Cause: the introduction of AI Overviews, answers above search results.

This emerges in US figures from SEO firm BrightEdge, which researched the shifting patterns in how consumers use Google. The reason for the study is the one-year anniversary of AI Overviews being online in the US in March.

This further shows that AI Overviews now appear in more than 11% of search results, up 22% from last year.

This means that search queries are more often answered on the results page, eliminating the need to click through.

Users are also visibly adjusting their behavior to the new form, or operation, of the search engine. The number of longer and more complex searches has grown 49% since last year. Specifically, search queries consist of more words.

BrightEdge also looked at Google’s AI search competition. ChatGPT then turns out to be by far the biggest. That grew by 21% last month. Following at a distance are numbers two and three, Perplexity and Gemini. Far behind them again come Claude, Meta and Grok.

The researchers calculate, Google still has more than ninety percent market share. Nevertheless, a serious shift in search behaviour is taking place, as GenZ and millennials are big users of the GPT likes. Change in the search market is coming from below.

The report tells marketers: “The rise of AI search engines and autonomous agents is fundamentally changing how search technology works and how brands and publishers measure success. Traditional metrics like click-throughs have steadily declined since the launch of AI solutions, while AI-driven impressions emerging through technologies like AI Overviews are booming.

“As generative engines guide users through personalized conversations, visibility at the AI layer becomes imperative. Our data confirms that there is a growing need to rethink performance, not in terms of clickthroughs, but in terms of influence, by making them appear in the right context and at the right time in the AI experience.”

Emerce

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