Source: Search Engine Journal
Google's AI Overviews are answering queries directly in the SERP, reducing click-through rates. Search Console still counts these as impressions, masking the traffic decline behind apparent ranking success. Marketers optimizing for traditional click metrics will chase positions that no longer drive business results, since AI Overviews occupy the top slot without sending users to their sites. The feedback loop between SEO performance and customer acquisition breaks. Brands must either stop relying on Search Console for planning or build new KPIs around branded visibility in AI-generated summaries.