AI Overviews killed the click. What still works

Two numbers came out this year that explain something a lot of small business owners have noticed but could not name: the search traffic is not what it was, even though nothing on the site changed.

AI Overviews, the answer box Google now puts above the results, appeared on 48 per cent of all Google queries as of March 2026, up from 34.5 per cent in December 2025. And 58 per cent of Google searches now end without anyone clicking anything at all.

Ranking well no longer means what it did. Sitting at position one underneath an AI Overview can deliver 30 to 65 per cent fewer clicks than that exact same position delivered in 2023.

We can show you this from our own data, which is a slightly awkward thing to publish.

What it looks like from the inside

Our two sites picked up around 4,000 search impressions between them last week. Impressions means Google showed us to somebody. Clicks from those 4,000 impressions: three.

That is not a broken website. The pages load in under two seconds, they are indexed, and several of them rank on page one for the terms they target. People are simply reading the answer on Google and never arriving.

We are telling you this because the same thing is almost certainly happening to you, and the usual reaction is to assume something is wrong with your site and start paying someone to fix it.

Which pages get hit hardest

The damage is not evenly spread, and this matters for deciding what to do.

Worst hit, 40 to 80 per cent losses: definition pages, how-to guides, generic comparison lists, and anything that was winning a featured snippet. If your page answers a question completely, Google can now answer it for you.

Moderate, 20 to 40 per cent: general informational content.

Least affected, 10 to 18 per cent: commercial searches. Someone typing “emergency plumber Leeds” or “boiler repair near me” still needs a person, a phone number and a price. An AI answer cannot fit a boiler.

That last line is the whole strategy for a trade or a local business.

What actually works now

Being cited inside the AI answer is the new version of ranking. That sounds abstract, so here is what it means practically.

Say the specific thing. AI answers quote pages that state facts plainly. “We charge from 95 pounds for a callout in Leeds and surrounding areas, seven days a week” is quotable. “Competitive rates, exceptional service” is not, and never was.

Put the boring details in text, not images. Opening hours, service area, starting prices, what you do and do not cover. A shocking number of sites hide all of this in a graphic, where nothing can read it.

One page per service and per area. A page that lists eight services and eight towns is a weak match for every single search. A page about bathroom fitting in Harrogate is a strong match for one.

Go after the searches that need a human. Stop writing “what is a combi boiler” and start writing “what a combi boiler swap actually costs in 2026, and what changes the price”. The first is now answered above your listing. The second ends in a phone call.

Get your Google Business Profile right. The map pack sits above the AI answer in local searches. It is free, most businesses have half-finished theirs, and it is currently the single most protected piece of search real estate a local business can hold.

What is not worth doing

Chasing volume. More thin pages answering more general questions is exactly the content AI Overviews replace. Ten pages that each answer a general question will do less for you now than one page that answers a specific, local, commercial one.

Panicking about the numbers in isolation. Impressions holding steady while clicks fall is the signature of this change, not evidence your site broke. Check whether your rankings actually moved before you spend money.

The honest position

We build websites for a living, so read the following with that in mind.

This shift is not good for us either. It makes proving the value of a website harder, because some of the value now shows up as someone knowing your name rather than as a click you can count.

What has not changed is the bit that ends in money. Somebody with a leak, a broken boiler or a job that needs quoting still has to reach a human. They still compare two or three businesses on a phone. They still ring the one that looks like it will answer. A site that loads fast, states a price, and makes the phone number one tap away still wins that comparison, and no AI answer does that job for them.

The traffic mix is changing. The reason for having the site is not.

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