Pew Study Finds Google AI Overviews Slash Website Click Traffic

On July 24, a major Pew Research Center report revealed that Google’s AI Overviews—AI-generated summaries atop search results—cut click-through rates almost in half. Users clicked external links just 8% of the time when Overviews appeared, versus 15% without them. Only 1% of users clicked citations within the summaries. Additionally, 26% of users ended their session after reading an AI summary instead of exploring further. This study has been echoed by concerns from publishers worldwide.