Citation Definitely Needed: How AI Overviews Is Disrupting Search And Proving Consequential

The impact that AI has had on Search has been swift and, if new research from Seer Interactive about click-through rates is any indication, significant.

“In January we hypothesized that AI Overviews will significantly affect CTRs for both organic and paid search and that the impact will vary based on (1) the query type and (2) AI Overview citations,” writes Seer Interactive’s Tracy McDonald of research that ultimately found organic CTR falling from 1.41.% to 0.64% for search queries with AI Overviews. “This was absolutely confirmed. And that impact is even more severe than we predicted.”

In its updated research, Seer Interactive found that being cited in an AI Overview led to 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks when compared to not being cited.

(Source: Seer Interactive)

“We cannot definitively prove that citation causes higher CTRs,” writes McDonald. “It’s equally possible that brands with stronger authority and higher baseline CTRs are simply more likely to be cited by Google’s AI.”

“What we can say with confidence is that queries where you’re cited consistently outperform those where you’re not, regardless of the causal direction.”