What is actually happening
Google now answers many searches itself, at the top of the page, in an AI Overview built from several websites. If your page is one of them, you get a small citation link; if it is not, you get nothing. Either way, fewer people scroll to the classic results. Gartner predicted a 25% drop in traditional search engine volume by 2026 as people shift to AI assistants, and for informational content that shift is already visible in most Search Console accounts I open. The important word is informational. Someone who wants to know how a boiler works is not the same as someone who wants a boiler fitted on Tuesday.
The 10-minute Search Console check
- Open Search Console, Performance, Search results. Set the range to the last six months and compare with the previous six.
- Look at the four totals. The AI Overview signature is impressions flat or up, clicks down, average CTR down, with position roughly unchanged. If position also fell, that is a ranking problem, which is a different article.
- Click the Queries tab. Add a filter: query contains “how”. Then “what”. Then “why”. Compare CTR change on those against the rest. This is where the drop lives.
- Now filter for your money queries: your service plus your city, your product category, “pricing”, “near me”. If CTR held on those, your business is fine and your blog is not.
- Switch to the Pages tab and sort by click loss. Write down the ten pages that lost the most. Those are your exposed pages.
Google does not label AI Overview impressions separately in this report, which is why the pattern is the evidence.
Which of your pages are exposed
| Page type | Exposure to AI answers | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| “What is / how to / why does” guides | High | Restructure to be cited; add a clear route to a service page |
| Comparison and “best X for Y” pages | Medium | Add original data, opinion and specifics the AI cannot invent |
| Service pages, pricing pages | Low | Strengthen proof and the ask above the fold |
| Local pages, Google Business Profile | Low | Keep reviews and posts flowing; the map pack still shows |
| Product and category pages | Low to medium | Structured data, real reviews, stock and price accuracy |
A worked example
Composite example: details changed, numbers typical of what I see rather than one named client.
A B2B software company sees blog clicks down 35% over six months. Impressions are up 8%. Demo requests from organic search: unchanged, 22 a month both periods. The “how to” guides lost clicks; the “alternatives to X” and pricing pages held. This is not a business problem. It is a vanity-metric problem. The right move is to restructure the guides so the company is cited inside the AI answer, and to stop reporting blog clicks as if they were leads.
A local plumbing company in the same period: clicks down 4%, calls from the Business Profile up 10%. The only loss is a “how to bleed a radiator” post. Nothing to fix. Keep going.
A recipe or advice site funded by ads is the case where this is an existential problem. If your revenue is page views, AI answers are taking your product, and the moves below help less than diversifying revenue does.
The three moves that protect leads
1. Become the source the AI cites
Pages that state the answer plainly in the first sentence, with a specific number or step, and carry a visible author, get cited. Pages that bury the answer under 600 words of introduction do not. The structure is in the AEO guide; do it on the ten exposed pages first.
2. Move the value and the ask into the first screen
The people who still click from an AI answer arrive already informed and closer to buying. Do not make them scroll past the same explanation again. Put the summary, the proof and the next step in the top half of the page. This is the single change that has held lead numbers steady for clients while their clicks fell.
3. Build what Google cannot take
- Brand searches. When people search your name, no AI answer stands between you and them. Reviews, PR, podcasts, LinkedIn and good work all feed this.
- An email list. Every visitor who gives you an address is a visitor you can reach without a search engine.
- AI referrals. Traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini is small but converts well. Track it in analytics and treat it like a channel. The GEO checklist is how you earn it.
What this means for you
- Local service business: low exposure. Keep the Business Profile active and reviews flowing; restructure any advice posts so they end with a way to book.
- E-commerce: guides and buying advice are exposed; category and product pages mostly are not. Put your buying-guide content on the category pages themselves, in a short form, and keep product data accurate.
- B2B or SaaS: the most exposed model, because education content was the funnel. Report on demo requests and pipeline, not blog sessions, and rebuild the top guides to be cited and to convert.
What not to do
- Do not block Google’s crawlers in frustration. You leave Search entirely and keep none of the upside.
- Do not delete the content that lost clicks. It still earns citations, trust and long-tail searches. Restructure it.
- Do not chase the lost volume with more of the same content. Write fewer, better, cited pages.
- Do not report traffic as the goal. Report enquiries. The people who reach you now are worth more each.
If you are not sure whether your drop is AI Overviews or something else, send me the site and I will look at the Search Console pattern with you. Ten minutes usually settles it.