> Why clicks fall when Google answers a search with an AI Overview, how to see it in Search Console, what Google says about being cited, and where effort pays. - Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/ai-overviews-traffic-drop/ --- # AI Overviews and falling clicks: how to check, and what to do When Google answers a search with an AI Overview, fewer people need to click a result, so a site can hold its position and still lose visits. The sign in Search Console is impressions that hold steady while clicks fall. Google gives no separate report for it, so the check is done search by search. Updated 6 October 2026 ## What changes when an overview appears An AI Overview is a written answer at the top of the results, with links to the pages it drew on. A searcher who wanted a quick fact has it without clicking. The pages below are shown as often as before and visited less. Google describes these features as using a “query fan-out”: several related searches are run behind the scenes, so the links shown can come from a wider set of pages than the ordinary results. ## How to see it in Search Console Google does not separate this traffic. Its help page says appearances in AI features are counted in the Performance report with everything else. The pattern has to be read from the figures. 1. Open the Performance report and compare the last three months with the three before. 2. Sort the searches by impressions. 3. Look for searches where impressions and position held, and clicks fell. Those are the searches now being answered on the results page. They are usually questions with a short answer: definitions, times, quantities, simple how-tos. ## What decides who is cited Google’s guidance is short. A page has to be indexed and eligible for a snippet. Nothing further is required: no new files and no special markup. The ordinary work applies, which Google lists as crawlable pages, internal links, a good page experience, content in text and accurate structured data. In practice, the pages cited state the answer plainly near the top and cover the question fully enough to be worth a link. ## Where effort still pays Some searches are answered on the results page and some are not. Effort is better spent on the second kind. - Searches that end in a purchase or an enquiry. An overview can describe a service and cannot provide it. - Local searches, where the result is a business near the searcher. - Questions with no short answer: comparisons, costs for a particular case, decisions that depend on detail. - Your own name and products, where the searcher wants you. For the short-answer searches you already hold, aim to be the source the overview cites, since a citation is the visit that remains. ## Measure the other assistants too Google’s features are only part of the change. Visits from ChatGPT and other assistants are counted separately in Google Analytics, and our guide to [seeing ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/chatgpt-traffic-in-google-analytics/) shows where. What makes a business one that assistants name is covered in [how to get ChatGPT to recommend your business](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-get-chatgpt-to-recommend-your-business/). ## Questions people ask ### Can I see AI Overview traffic in Search Console? Not separately. Google states that sites appearing in its AI features are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console's Performance report, within the Web search type. ### How do I get my site into Google's AI Overviews? Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet, and that no additional technical requirements, special files or markup are needed. The pages cited are ordinary pages that answer the search clearly. ### Can I opt out of AI Overviews? Only by limiting what Google may show from the page at all. Google points to the nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex controls, which also reduce or remove the page's ordinary result. ## Free competitor gap report When fewer searches end in a click, being the site that is cited matters more. Name up to three competitors and we measure how your site and theirs read to an answer engine, then send you where they are the easier source to quote. 1. Speed and technical health, side by side 2. On-page SEO and site structure 3. The content they are found for and you are not 4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market 5. A prioritised list of what to fix first [Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Guide%3A%20AI%20Overviews%20and%20falling%20clicks%3A%20how%20to%20check%2C%20and%20what%20to%20do&body=Website%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AWhere%20you%20compete%20(area%2C%20country%20or%20countries)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0ACompetitors%20to%20compare%20against%20(up%20to%20three)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AAnything%20else%20we%20should%20know%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A) - **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com - **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete ## More in this series - [How to check if ChatGPT recommends your business](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/does-chatgpt-recommend-your-business/) - [How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-get-chatgpt-to-recommend-your-business/) - [How ChatGPT search chooses the websites it cites](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-chatgpt-search-chooses-websites/) - [What llms.txt is, with an example](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/what-is-llms-txt/) - [Should you block AI crawlers?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/should-you-block-ai-crawlers/) - [How to see ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/chatgpt-traffic-in-google-analytics/) - [Generative engine optimisation: what it means and what works](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/generative-engine-optimisation/) - [AI search and answer engines: the whole topic](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/ai-search/) - [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/) - [On-site SEO: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/seo/)