Do AI Overviews kill organic clicks?

Short answer: They cut clicks, but they're not the whole story. When Google turned AI Overviews off for top election queries, searchers clicked through at 2.4x the normal rate, and Aleyda Solis found a query whose searches grew 38% in a year while its organic clicks fell 8%. Kevin Indig's data shows organic traffic down 13% in the US over 2 years, but he puts part of that down to more search ads and Google's updates.

What the experts say

Clicks jumped 2.4x without AI Overviews

Cyrus Shepard (Zyppy) · Nov 5, 2026
Across 44 million search clicks tracked by Define Media, traffic to publishers jumped 900% when Google suppressed AI Overviews for top election queries, and searchers clicked through at 2.4x the normal rate. Cyrus's conclusion: "Maybe we don't need so many AI Overviews after all."
→ Read Cyrus's post

38% more searches, 8% fewer organic clicks

Aleyda Solis (Orainti) · Oct 26, 2026
For "coffee tumbler," Similarweb shows Google searches up 38% in a year, while organic clicks fell 8% and paid clicks 41%. The page went from 10 organic results to 5, next to an AI Overview, a Shopping pack and other features: "Growing search demand doesn't automatically translate into a growing organic search traffic opportunity."
→ Read Aleyda's post

AI is only part of the lost SEO traffic

Kevin Indig (Growth Memo) · Oct 26, 2026
In Similarweb data for 10,000 domains, organic search fell 13.2% in the US and 24.4% in France over 2 years. Kevin says not all of it is AI: paid search grew strongly, publishers took the biggest losses (41.5% in the US), and Google's updates played a part.
→ Read Kevin's post

SEO is now no-click traffic

Kieran Flanagan (HubSpot) · Oct 22, 2026
Kieran says AI Overviews cut clicks to the #1 result by 58%, and only 1% of people click a link inside the AI summary. It's one reason he says the old content marketing playbook is over.
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Most people will meet your content through AI

Ryan Law (Ahrefs) · Oct 22, 2026
Ryan says the days of compounding search traffic and predictable click-through rates are gone. Most people who interact with your content will now do it through an intermediary like Google's AI Overviews or ChatGPT, so he asks how content should change once you stop assuming people will visit the page.
→ Read Ryan's post

SaaS Marketing Experts collates expert opinions from around the web. We have no affiliation with any of the experts cited here. If you're one of them, ask us to correct or remove your take.