AI Overviews: More Impressions, Fewer Clicks?

[O.SEO]

I have noticed a growing gap between impressions and clicks. some pages are getting 100k+ impressions, yet the click numbers remain surprisingly low despite solid rankings.

My theory is that AI Overviews are playing a big role, especially for informational queries and users get their answers directly on the SERP and never need to visit the actual website.

Is anyone else seeing the same trend in GSC, or is this limited to certain niches?

 

[Topiano]

With the AI overview, that’s exactly the goal, AI crawls websites and puts together a friendly response!

 

[ads studio]

you are not alone i believe we all have been seeing this pattern on several site where impression keep increasing but the CTR keep declining and all because AI summarry seems to be taking all the clicks

 

[BlackShield]

I have noticed a growing gap between impressions and clicks. some pages are getting 100k+ impressions, yet the click numbers remain surprisingly low despite solid rankings.

My theory is that AI Overviews are playing a big role, especially for informational queries and users get their answers directly on the SERP and never need to visit the actual website.

Is anyone else seeing the same trend in GSC, or is this limited to certain niches?

I'm seeing this trend in GSC. Impressions keep growing, but AI Overviews and SERP features seem to be reducing clicks, mainly ininformational keywords.

 

[tazarbm]

My theory is that AI Overviews are playing a big role, especially for informational queries and users get their answers directly on the SERP and never need to visit the actual website.

that's what AI is all about at the moment, so yeah, your theory is correct

Is anyone else seeing the same trend in GSC, or is this limited to certain niches?

it's not about niche, it's about info keywords, these are the ones being affected the most, across all niches

 

[Elodia]

I have noticed a growing gap between impressions and clicks. some pages are getting 100k+ impressions, yet the click numbers remain surprisingly low despite solid rankings.

My theory is that AI Overviews are playing a big role, especially for informational queries and users get their answers directly on the SERP and never need to visit the actual website.

Is anyone else seeing the same trend in GSC, or is this limited to certain niches?

This is the result of the impact cause by zero-click SERPs on websites. should you be interested in increasing the traffic levels for your website, you need to look into goig after keyword that have unique value to your users.

 

[SyedHabib-SEOExpert]

same trend on few client sites. What helped little bit was shifting focus from pure informational keywords toward ones with comparison or buying intent, AI Overview cant fully replace those since user still want to compare options themselves.
Also added things like case study numbers and specific pricing comparisons that AI summary cant easily pull, forces user to click through for details. Doesnt fix everything but few pages start recovering some clicks back even with same impression count

 

[Magical Gorgon]

i think impressions are still useful because they show visibility but clicks and engagement are what actually matter for websites.