One Site Estimates Google's AI Features Drove 21% of Its Clicks
TLDR
A site that opted out of Google's AI features estimated that AI Overviews and AI Mode accounted for about 21% of its clicks, with a possible lift on regular listings.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Search Engine Journal reports that one site opted out of Google's AI features in order to estimate how much traffic it gets from AI Overviews and AI Mode. The estimate points to roughly 21% of its clicks coming from those features, along with a possible lift in clicks on its regular search listings.
How we got here: earlier coverage
On September 21, new research indicated that Google's AI Mode reduced organic click-through rates. Then, on October 30, a small study put the click-through rate from AI Overviews and AI Mode at about 0.9%, and found that opting out of generative AI results also reduced clicks in the main web results. Now, a site that opted out of Google's AI features estimates that AI Overviews and AI Mode accounted for about 21% of its clicks, with a possible lift on regular listings.
Summary of earlier coverage
- Oct 30Study Puts Google AI Overviews and AI Mode Click-Through Rate at 0.9%
A new small study puts the click-through rate from Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode at about 0.9%, and finds that opting out of generative AI results also reduces clicks in the main web results.
- Oct 23Semrush finds AI Overviews reaching 88% of commercial search queries
Semrush data shows AI Overviews appearing on 88% of commercial keywords, while studies indicate ChatGPT captures less than 1% of Google organic traffic.
- Sep 25Google's AI Overviews route links to both websites and AI Mode, tracked separately in Search Console
Google's AI Overview links lead either to external websites or to its own AI Mode feature, and Search Console tracks these two traffic sources separately.
- Sep 21Research finds Google's AI mode reduces click-through rates and delivers poor user experience
New research indicates Google's AI mode reduces organic click-through rates and produces a poor user experience for searchers.