The short answer
Independent research shows people click fewer links when Google shows an AI Overview, especially on informational searches. Google says total clicks are stable and better quality. For B2B SaaS, the practical takeaway is the same either way: top-of-funnel traffic is less reliable, so being cited inside the answer, and owning high-intent pages, matters more.
Key takeaways
- AI Overviews reduce clicks on informational content because the answer is provided directly in the search results.
- B2B SaaS teams should shift their focus from pure click-through rates to earning citations within AI summaries.
- Pages with high commercial intent, such as comparisons and product pages, remain less exposed to traffic drops than top-of-funnel definitions.
It's a familiar meeting. Rankings look fine. Impressions are up. Clicks to the blog are down, and nobody can explain why.
AI Overviews are usually part of the answer. Here's what the evidence says, from both sides.
What does the research say?
Two of the most cited studies point the same way.
Pew Research Center tracked the Google searches of 900 US adults in March 2025. When an AI summary appeared, users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits. Without one, they clicked on 15%. Clicks on links inside the summary itself happened on just 1% of visits.1
8% vs. 15%: how often Google users clicked a search result when an AI summary appeared, compared with when it didn't. Source: Pew Research Center, July 2025 1
Ahrefs compared 300,000 keywords using Search Console data from December 2023 and December 2025. It estimated that AI Overviews reduce position-one click-through rate by about 58%, compared with what it modeled would have happened without them.2 Ahrefs is clear that this is a correlation, based on desktop data and a modeled baseline, and that other studies report figures from roughly 47% to 65%.2
What does Google say?
Google disagrees with the doom. In August 2025, Liz Reid, Google's VP and Head of Search, wrote that total organic clicks from Search were relatively stable year over year, and that the share of quality clicks, where people don't quickly bounce back, had risen slightly.3
Both things can be true. Total clicks across the web can hold steady while clicks to a specific type of page, such as a "what is" explainer, fall sharply. That's the pattern many B2B SaaS teams are seeing.
Which B2B SaaS pages are most exposed?
The more a page simply answers a definition, the more an AI Overview can stand in for it. The more a page helps a buyer choose, the less it can.
| Page type | Exposure to AI Overviews | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Definitions and "what is" posts | High | The answer fits in a summary |
| General how-to guides | High to medium | Steps can be summarized; depth still earns some clicks |
| Comparisons and alternatives | Medium | Buyers want detail and a point of view |
| Pricing, demo, and product pages | Lower | Intent is to act, not to learn |
| Original research and tools | Lower | The summary has to cite you to use it |
This is our reading of the research, not a measured result. Check your own Search Console data by page type before you change anything.
Don't delete or neglect informational content because clicks fell. Google's AI features draw on indexed pages to build their answers, and those pages are how you get cited.4 Fewer clicks doesn't mean less influence.
How should you adjust?
Split your Search Console data by page type.
Compare clicks and impressions for definitions, guides, comparisons, and product pages. Google includes AI feature traffic in the Performance report under the Web search type.4
Redefine success for top-of-funnel content.
Track whether you're cited in the AI Overview, not only whether you get the click.
Write answer-first.
Open each key page with a clear, quotable answer, then add the depth a summary can't.
Invest in pages a summary can't replace.
Comparisons, original data, calculators, templates, and opinionated guides.
Strengthen the bottom of the funnel.
Make pricing, demo, and use-case pages as clear and fast as your best blog post.
Search your top five informational keywords in Google today. If an AI Overview appears, note which sources it cites. If it isn't you, that's your first content brief.
AI Overviews didn't end SEO. They moved the goal: from earning the click to earning the mention, and then making the click worth it.
The bottom line
AI Overviews didn't end SEO. They moved the goal: from earning the click to earning the mention, and then making the click worth it.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results, July 22, 2025. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
- Ahrefs, Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%, February 4, 2026. ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/
- Google, AI in Search is driving more queries and higher quality clicks, Liz Reid, August 6, 2025. blog.google/products/search/ai-search-driving-more-queries-higher-quality-clicks/
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website, last updated December 10, 2025. developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
About the author
Aimee van der Haar
Aimee founded Bearly Creative to give great startups and tech companies the marketing they deserve. She works across strategy, design, content, and AI search, and she still does the work herself.
