Opting out of Google AI Overviews cut organic clicks too, small study finds
A small case study by Cyrus Shepard has put an estimated click-through rate of roughly 0.9% on impressions inside Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Shepard used Google's generative AI opt-out controls to remove a site from those features, then compared impressions, clicks and click-through rate before, during and after the block.
AI impressions fell to zero during the opt-out period. More unexpectedly, clicks on ordinary organic results also dropped while the site was excluded from AI features, even though AI Overviews continued to appear on the results page for those queries. Shepard described the pattern as a "Search SERP Halo Effect", where appearing in more places on a results page makes a user more likely to click something on it.
Sitewide, average position rose slightly over the period, helped by new posts and brand searches, but individual URLs with the most AI visibility lost position during the opt-out and recovered when it was switched back on. Overall impressions fell, with AI impressions accounting for about 8% of the total.
The sample is small and the method is indirect: the 0.9% figure was calculated by comparing overall site click and impression data and subtracting known AI impressions during the opt-out window. Greg Sterling of Near Media said in comments that AI Overviews appear to create brand lift that carries into later searches and clicks, though not consistently. For brands weighing whether to block Google's AI features, the study suggests the decision may cost clicks in the standard results as well.
Reported by Search Engine Roundtable ↗
Topics: AI Overviews, AI Mode, Measurement