A brand new examine from GrowthSRC Media finds that click-through charges (CTRs) for Google’s top-ranking search outcome have declined from 28% to 19%. This 32% drop correlates with the growth of AI Overviews, a function that now seems throughout a variety of search outcomes.
Place #2 skilled an excellent steeper decline, with CTRs falling 39% from 20.83% to 12.60% year-over-year.
The analysis analyzed greater than 200,000 key phrases from 30 web sites throughout ecommerce, SaaS, B2B, and EdTech industries. Listed here are extra highlights from the examine.
Key Findings
In accordance with the report, AI Overviews appeared for simply 10,000 key phrases in August 2024. By Might 2025, that quantity had grown to over 172,000.
This growth adopted the March core replace and was confirmed throughout Google’s full U.S. rollout announcement on the I/O developer convention.
These developments seem to distinction with feedback from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who mentioned in a Decoder interview with The Verge:
“When you put content material and hyperlinks inside AI Overviews, they get increased click-through charges than when you put it exterior of AI Overviews.”
CTRs Shift Downward and Upward
Whereas prime positions noticed notable declines, the examine noticed a 30.63% enhance in CTRs for positions 6 by means of 10 in comparison with the earlier yr. This means that customers could also be scrolling previous AI-generated summaries to seek out unique sources additional down the web page.
Throughout positions 1 by means of 5, the examine reported a median CTR decline of 17.92%. The evaluation centered on roughly 74,000 key phrases rating within the prime 10.
Main Publishers Report Related Developments
The findings align with reviews from main publishers. Carly Steven, search engine marketing and editorial ecommerce director at MailOnline, advised attendees on the WAN-IFRA World Information Media Congress that CTRs drop when AI Overviews are current.
As reported by Press Gazette, Steven defined:
“On desktop, once we are rating primary in natural search, [CTR] is about 13% on desktop and about 20% on cell. When there may be an AI Overview current, that drops to lower than 5% on desktop and seven% on cell.”
MailOnline’s broader knowledge confirmed CTRs falling by 56.1% on desktop and 48.2% on cell for key phrases with AI Overviews.
Ecommerce Affected by Product Widgets
The examine additionally highlighted adjustments in ecommerce efficiency tied to Google’s Product Widgets.
Widgets like “Fashionable Merchandise” and “Underneath [X] Worth” started showing extra steadily from November 2024 onward, particularly in classes comparable to residence care, trend, and sweetness.
These widgets open a Google Procuring interface instantly inside search outcomes, which can scale back clicks to conventional natural listings.
Methodology
GrowthSRC analyzed year-over-year knowledge from Google Search Console throughout purchasers in a number of industries, specializing in adjustments earlier than and after the complete rollout of AI Overviews and Product Widgets.
The dataset included queries, clicks, impressions, CTRs, and common positions.
Knowledge was segmented by content material sort, together with product pages, assortment pages, and weblog posts. Further key phrase knowledge from Ahrefs helped decide which queries triggered AI Overviews or Product Widgets.
What This Means
Mahendra Choudhary, Associate at GrowthSRC Media, inspired search engine marketing professionals to rethink conventional efficiency benchmarks:
“With decrease clicks to web sites from informational content material changing into the brand new regular, that is the right time to let your purchasers and inside stakeholders know that chasing web site site visitors as a KPI needs to be considered otherwise.”
He recommends shifting focus towards model visibility in social search, geographic relevance, mentions in LLM outputs, and general contribution to income or leads.
This shift might require:
- Monitoring engagement past clicks, comparable to on-site conversions, branded search development, or assisted conversions.
- Diversifying content material distribution throughout platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit, the place customers usually bypass conventional search.
- Investing in high-authority content material on the prime of the funnel to construct model consciousness, even when direct clicks decline.
These methods may also help guarantee search engine marketing continues to drive measurable worth as consumer conduct evolves.
Wanting Forward
The decline in natural CTRs for prime positions highlights how search conduct is altering as AI-generated content material performs a bigger function in discovery.
Adapting to this atmosphere might contain putting much less emphasis on rankings alone and focusing extra on how visibility helps broader enterprise objectives.
As zero-click search turns into extra frequent, understanding the place customers are participating, and the place they aren’t, can be important to sustaining visibility.
Featured Picture: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
