AI Overviews and the changing click: what to do about it

Google AI Overviews and AI Mode answer many questions directly on the results page, so some searches that once produced a click now end there. Informational queries are most affected. To stay visible, become a cited source in the overview, target questions that need depth or a decision, and measure value beyond raw clicks.

What are AI Overviews and AI Mode?

AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some Google results, with links to the sources used. AI Mode is a separate conversational search experience where users ask follow-up questions and receive longer generated answers with links. Google has said both draw on its search index and core ranking systems, using techniques that issue several related searches to assemble an answer.

For brands, the important point is that both experiences cite sources. Being one of those sources is the new version of ranking at the top.

Are clicks really falling?

The honest answer is that it depends on the query, and the evidence is still mixed. Several independent studies and many publishers have reported lower click-through rates on queries that show an AI Overview, particularly simple informational ones. Google has argued that clicks from pages with AI Overviews are of higher quality. Both can be true. We would not quote a single universal figure, because the effect varies widely by category, query type and position.

What is clear is the direction. Quick facts, definitions and simple how-tos are increasingly answered on the page. Questions that need comparison, judgement, local detail or a transaction still send people onward.

Which queries are most affected?

• Most affected: definitions, simple facts, short how-tos, general explainers.
• Moderately affected: comparisons and "best" lists, where overviews summarise but users often click to verify.
• Least affected: branded searches, transactional queries, local intent, and questions that depend on personal circumstances.

How do you get cited in AI Overviews?

Google has said there are no special requirements beyond being indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and that the same SEO best practices apply. Within that, the factors we focus on at SNMRush are:

1. Rank well for the underlying and related queries, since overviews draw on multiple searches.
2. Answer clearly in a self-contained passage, as described in our guide to answer-first writing.
3. Cover the follow-up questions on the same page or tightly linked pages.
4. Add something the consensus lacks: evidence, an example, a nuance.
5. Keep snippets allowed. Restrictive nosnippet settings can also limit use in AI features.

Definitions

• Zero-click search: a search that ends without a click to any website.
• Query fan-out: Google's description of issuing several related searches behind the scenes to build an AI answer.
• Cited source: a page linked within an AI Overview or AI Mode answer.

Which questions should you prioritise now?

Move effort towards questions that still reward a visit, and towards questions where being cited builds the brand even without a click. That means less effort on generic definitions you cannot own, and more on the specific, tension-laden questions your buyers ask before a decision.

Finding those questions is a research job. SNMRush uses SOMIN, an AI audience-research platform, to surface what people actually ask and worry about in real social conversation, with each theme linked to the posts behind it. The SOMIN strategy overview describes how that research feeds planning. Our article on finding the questions your audience asks sets out the process.

How should you measure success now?

If clicks are a shrinking share of value, report more than clicks. Track impressions and positions in Search Console, citations in AI Overviews from a fixed prompt panel, branded search growth, direct traffic, and enquiries that mention finding you through search or an assistant. For a way to frame this for leadership, the forward-looking AI strategy work at our sister studio GPT5 Marketing is useful: they help CMOs redesign workflows around reasoning models, and measurement is part of that redesign.

This is also a good moment to talk to peers. Many marketers are working through the same uncertainty, and communities like Marketing Mondays in Singapore discuss exactly these shifts, one real signal at a time.

What is the long-term view?

Search is turning from a list of links into a conversation. In that conversation, the brands that do well will be those that answered the audience's real questions clearly, earned a reputation others repeat, and were easy for machines to understand. The Exostride case study shows how audience evidence can shape what a brand says; in the answer era, that is also what decides whether it is quoted.

What should you change on existing pages?

• Move the answer up. If the direct answer sits below an introduction, swap them.
• Add the follow-ups. List the next three questions a reader asks and answer them on the page.
• Make the click worth it. Offer what a summary cannot: a calculator, a worked example, a template, local detail or a clear next step.
• Refresh facts. Out-of-date prices and dates are a reason for an engine, and a reader, to prefer someone else.

These changes help in classic search as much as in AI features, which is the point: you are not choosing between surfaces.

A final caution: avoid redesigning your whole content strategy around one month of traffic data. Compare like-for-like periods, separate branded from unbranded queries, and look at the specific pages that lost clicks before drawing conclusions. Often the losses are concentrated in a handful of definitional pages, while decision-stage pages hold steady.

Fewer clicks is a real change. Invisibility is the bigger risk. Plan for both.

Frequently asked questions

Can I opt out of AI Overviews?

Snippet controls such as nosnippet can limit how your content appears, including in AI features, but they also reduce normal search snippets. Most brands are better served by aiming to be cited.

Do AI Overviews use a different index?

Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on its standard search index and core ranking systems, so ordinary SEO foundations still apply.

Which content still earns clicks from Google?

Content that helps with decisions, comparisons, local needs, transactions or personal circumstances, and depth that a short summary cannot replace.