AI Overviews and Their Effect on CTR

The online search environment has experienced one of the significant changes in 2025 with the introduction of Google AI Overviews (or AIOs). These are short summaries generated by AI that appear at the top of a search engine results page (SERP). Their main goal is to provide the requested information immediately, and thus, the visits to the websites are minimized. The latest statistics reveal that AIOs are influencing the CTR from organic listings to a degree that can be quantified.

AI Overviews are brief explanations produced by Google's generative AI that are meant to convey the main points directly on the SERP. They collect the content from different web pages, give a concise answer or overview, and show the links or citations. Because they appear before many of the traditional results, they can be understood as a kind of "click diversion" that reduces the visibility of organic listings.

Based on the different studies, it can be inferred that the advent and development of AI Overviews have been followed by a decrease in CTR for organic results in most cases, notably on informational and non-branded searches. To illustrate, a certain analysis pointed out that the top organic result where AI Overview is displayed is getting a drop of 34.5% in click-through rate than in the case where AI Overview is not present.

Another report revealed that the click-through rate (CTR) has dropped by nearly 30% year-over-year for a large number of queries as AIOs are getting expanded. Moreover, the difference in the case of non-branded queries is more significant, as they are the ones that are most likely to be AIOs. A more extensive study showed that users who saw an AI summary were following the traditional links only in about 8% of the cases, whereas 15% when no summary was present.

For companies and marketers in big cities like Mumbai, the transition has an impact on local SEO strategies. The collaboration between a company and a digital marketing agency in Mumbai should now reflect that the top-ranking position might not be able to provide the same traffic volume as before. The reason is that the user can get sufficient details from AIOs and thus may not click further.

This means:

Holding the top position in organic results is worth something; however, it is less likely to bring the same traffic as before.

For content that has been assigned informational intent (e.g., blogs or how-to guides), the risk of zero-click behaviour is higher.

SEO policies need to change: content has to be not only the one to show up in results but also to get the user's attention, encourage them to click, or lead to other interactions.

Marketers and SEO agency in Mumbai and other areas can implement these strategies:

1. Focus on branded and high-intent keywords
These types of keywords have a lower chance of initiating AI Overviews and usually still bring better click-through.

2. Write for engagement and depth
Because AIOs take a summary of the content, your site should have something additional, more comprehensive insights, distinctive viewpoints, attractive visuals, or user-friendly features.

3. Use structured data and schema markup
These changes can significantly raise the possibility of being featured in SERP enhancements and might also facilitate your content being referred to in AIOs instead of just being replaced by them.

4. Track metrics
When you have lower click-through rates, you should also look at other metrics such as on-site engagement, conversions, brand searches, and newsletter sign-ups.

5. Find the perfect agency
A digital marketing agency that is aware of this new situation can be of great help in examining your content strategy, updating the old pages, and upgrading them for the changing SERP environment.

AI Overviews are changing users' engagement with search results and how the flow of traffic is directed to websites. The change in CTR is quite substantial and noticeable, mainly for informational queries. For businesses collaborating with an SEO Company or taking the services of a digital marketing agency, it is not just about getting a high rank anymore. Being prepared for the time of "zero-click" results and creating content and experience in a manner that can adjust to it is very important now. The best sites, in this changing scenario of the internet, will be those that deliver additional value that cannot be captured by the overview alone.