Are AI Overviews Draining Clicks? Here’s What We’re Seeing.

The conversation around AI Overviews has been heating up. Did AI Overviews just kill Link Building? SEO? NOPE & NOPE! While the search landscape is shifting, AI Overviews haven’t replaced core SEO fundamentals; they’re layering on new dynamics to consider.

Where does that leave us? We know content discoverability, search engine readability and relevance remain critical, but what’s the next step? That’s where things start to get interesting. With AI Overviews showing up more frequently—and potentially expanding into even more transactional queries in the future—marketers need to stay sharp and adaptable.

And here’s the good news: navigating these changes is less intimidating than it might seem (and even a bit exciting)!

The Impact of AI Overviews on Organic Traffic

One of the first things we’ve observed with AI Overviews is how they’re changing the way search results are presented. At first glance, AI Overviews seem like a win—concise answers, directly in the search results, that offer users exactly what they need. However, their true effectiveness may actually rely on our ability to stick with some core SEO best practices, even if they require extra effort.

These practices include:

• Refreshing content regularly based on key insights from your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
• Deep-diving into content types that are commonly featured in SERP elements.
• Exploring Frequently Unasked Questions (FUQs) that users might not even know to ask.
• Improving internal link flows to better align with priority content.
• And, of course, link building.

In our own tests, we’ve seen content featured in AI Overviews generate far fewer clicks than traditional organic search results. In one case, a page received only 25 clicks from an AI Overview, compared to over 200,000 visits from regular search results. So while the overviews offer greater visibility, the actual traffic driven by them might not always meet expectations.

Various studies reflect the variability in AI Overview outcomes. According to an AWR study, 33.4% of queries that trigger an AI Overview come from the top 10 organic results, while 46.5% do not.

This shift suggests that AI Overviews are not solely dependent on top-ranking organic results, which may offer opportunities for diverse content to surface. Similarly, SE Ranking’s June 2024 study found that 84.72% of links within AI Overviews point to at least one domain within the top 10.

This underscores the importance of maintaining strong organic rankings, as top domains are frequently referenced in AI-driven results.

This raises an important question: If AI Overviews aren’t delivering the clicks, are they still valuable? The answer may lie in staying grounded in core SEO practices—well-crafted, structured content that remains essential, even as AI Overviews add new layers to search.

While AI Overviews offer new possibilities in search visibility, foundational SEO strategies—like quality link building—remain essential. Building a robust link profile reinforces the authority and relevance of your content, potentially enhancing both its organic ranking and its chances of inclusion in AI Overviews.

Well-crafted, high-quality content remains key, especially when it’s structured in ways that are both engaging for users and easy for search engines to interpret. Clear headings, relevant keywords, and well-placed links still play a role in boosting visibility across all types of search results, including AI-driven overviews.

Think of AI Overviews as an added layer rather than a replacement. They’re a new space where marketers can increase brand exposure and credibility, while conventional organic results continue to play their long-standing role in bringing direct traffic. Focusing on a balanced strategy—one that incorporates new trends without disregarding established practices—ensures we’re well-positioned regardless of where search trends shift.

One additional consideration: an improvement over the ‘Answer Box / Featured Snippet’: appearing in AI Overviews is often in addition to appearing in the traditional organic results, whereas earning the Answer Box result often means/meant you would lose the position in organic results.

Content Strategy: Capturing Informational and Transactional Queries

Recent data suggests that approximately 84% of AI Overviews link to at least one of the top 10 organic search results, mostly for informational queries. For instance, when users search for things like “What’s the best way to boost team productivity?” or “How do I get rid of malware on my computer?”, there’s a high likelihood that an AI Overview will be triggered. 

So, what are some steps marketers can take to optimize their content for AI Overviews—both for the current focus on informational queries and the potential future shift towards transactional topics?

1. Generating, Genuinely Helpful Content: Develop compelling content that will resonate with your ideal customer profile and add unique, well-supported perspectives to search results. Then refine, update and further develop this content as warranted over time. Be sure to check all the E-E-A-T boxes, because Google continues to raise the bar on content, which is ultimately what they are attempting to populate in AI Overviews in the first place. This is also the foundation for effective (even unsolicited) link building.
2. Further researching your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Our message will resonate when we’re speaking to the right audience, and the effort to truly understand our customer is never really complete. Challenge assumptions, deep-dive on the full ‘purchase decision committee’ your individual customer represents and above all, ASK THEM DIRECTLY.
3. Supporting SEO Best Practices with Structured Data and Link Building: Integrating schema markup and maintaining a logical content hierarchy enhances visibility in AI Overviews, People Also Ask (PAA) boxes and other SERP features & snippets. Links from authoritative domains, combined with structured data, create a stronger foundation that search engines rely on when selecting content for featured results.
4. Narrowing the Focus: When aiming for AI Overview placement, specificity is key. Instead of a broad guide on “productivity tools,” focus on specific, actionable angles like “how to boost team productivity using free online tools.” This granular approach not only aligns better with the current nature of AI Overviews but can also support transactional intentions as this space evolves.
5. Using FAQs and FUQs for Depth: Structuring content with both FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and FUQs (Frequently Unasked Questions) can capture a broader scope of user intent. FAQs address direct questions users may type in, like “What are the best free project management tools?” In contrast, FUQs tackle deeper concerns that aren’t as explicitly queried, like “How can team collaboration software impact employee retention?” By answering both, you provide comprehensive, valuable content that appeals to the algorithm’s preference for useful, well-rounded information.

In addition, observing competitors who frequently appear in AI Overviews can serve as an indicator of valuable content practices. If you notice a particular brand consistently showing up in these spots, it may be worth exploring how their content aligns with the expectations of AI algorithms. This not only offers insights into potential content gaps but can also highlight areas where your approach might evolve to stay competitive.

In essence, while AI Overviews may evolve to include more transactional searches, the foundational approach of creating specific, structured, and insightful content remains crucial. By combining SEO best practices with thoughtful content design, you’re positioning your content to succeed in both current and future search landscapes.

How to Prepare for the Future of Generative Search

As the landscape of generative AI and search continues to evolve, it’s clear that SEO specialists and marketers need to stay adaptable. The introduction of tools like Google’s Gemini model, which powers AI Overviews, has opened up new possibilities for addressing complex, multi-step queries and offering more detailed, organized responses. 

Notably, other platforms like Microsoft Bing with its Copilot integration and OpenAI’s Search GPT as well as a growing list of others are also pushing the boundaries of AI-driven search. These tools reflect a broader industry movement towards AI-enhanced search experiences, each bringing unique approaches to meet evolving user expectations. 

It’s also worth noting that platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn are becoming key tools for content discovery, especially among younger users. This broadens the landscape, yes, but it also underscores the importance of staying aware and adaptable without needing to upend proven strategies.

From our experience, here are a few key strategies to consider when preparing for the future of generative search:

1. Structured Data and Semantic Search: One of the ways AI systems like Gemini can effectively surface information is by recognizing context and relationships between concepts. Enriching your content with structured data (e.g., schema.org) is a powerful way to improve the chances of being included in AI Overviews. While keywords still matter, Google’s AI is increasingly looking for meaningful, contextually rich content. Sites utilizing structured data effectively tend to perform better in generative search environments. It’s not a guaranteed formula, but ensuring your content is easily understood by AI systems seems to be one of the most valuable steps you can take.
2. Adapting Content for Multi-Step Queries: Generative AI allows users to ask more detailed, complex questions in one search, which means the traditional approach of targeting single keywords or queries might not be enough anymore. Optimizing content for query chains—the follow-up questions users are likely to ask—has become essential. An effective strategy here includes leveraging FAQs and FUQs. By answering the less obvious, unasked questions, you provide additional value and stand out in a crowded search space. Think of the FUQs as those questions users might not even realize they need answers to, but that enhance their understanding of a subject.
3. Continuous Experimentation with Content and Link Building: Just as content requires regular updates and optimization, link building should also be a continuous effort. Tracking link performance alongside other metrics can reveal patterns in user behavior and search engine preferences, allowing for smarter link placement that complements visibility in AI Overviews.
4. Staying Agile: The SEO landscape is in a constant state of flux. Just as Google rolled back the frequency of AI Overviews when it expanded the feature to a broader audience, we expect to see continuous shifts. Being flexible with your strategy is essential. Quarterly (or possibly even more frequent) reviews of what’s working in terms of AI Overview optimizations will help you stay ahead.

Taking a Thoughtful Approach to AI Overviews

As AI Overviews become a more integrated part of search, the real question for marketers isn’t whether to overhaul their strategies, but rather how to thoughtfully integrate these new tools without losing sight of what already works. While these overviews may not always drive the immediate traffic that traditional search results do, their potential for brand visibility and authority-building is becoming an interesting (and potentially integral) part of the game.

The strategies we’ve explored here—experimenting with structured data, answering unasked questions, and maintaining clarity for search engines as well as a litany of other tangential considerations—are about building a steady, long-term approach that adapts without disrupting. AI Overviews are just one piece of the bigger SEO puzzle, and a thoughtful link building strategy complements it perfectly. By focusing on sustainable, high-quality links, you build long-term authority and relevance, which enhances both organic visibility and the likelihood of being featured in AI-driven results.

The Authoritas study also highlights how ranking position impacts AI Overview inclusion, revealing that first-position pages have a 53% likelihood of appearing in AI Overviews, compared to only 36.9% for those in the 10th spot. This emphasizes the importance of building high-ranking, authoritative content to maximize chances of inclusion in AI-driven search results.

Ultimately, navigating this evolving space is about balancing SEO fundamentals with an openness to experiment and analyze, ensuring you’re prepared to adapt while staying grounded in what works.