Breaking through traffic through Google AI overviews: The new challenge for website operators and their traffic development

Dramatic traffic losses: The consequences of the new Google Ai Overviews

The recently introduced Google AI overviews (also known as AI overviews) change the digital landscape fundamentally and cause considerable traffic burglaries on numerous websites. This new functionality, which shows automatically generated summaries directly in the search results, leads to a changed user behavior with dramatic consequences for website operators. While the new technology provides faster answers to users, it presents website operators with existential challenges, since click rates decrease significantly and stuck established business models. The data show an average traffic decline of almost 18% in German-speaking countries, with some niche websites even a loss of up to 90%.

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The functionality and introduction of the Google AI overviews

Google initially started the AI ​​overviews (AI Overviews) in the United States in May 2024, after they were previously tested under the name “Search Generative Experience” (SGE). In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, they were officially introduced on March 26, 2025. The technology is based on Google's Gemini language model and creates AI generated summaries directly in the search results in response to user inquiries.

These AI-generated text blocks appear prominently over the conventional organic search results and occupy a large part of the visible area in the browser. You can claim between 75% and 90% of the screen, especially on mobile devices. The AI ​​overviews are based on content from the web, the Google Knowledge Graph and other structured data and offer users an immediate answer to your question-including link to the sources used.

Interestingly, an average AI overview contains references to 4.8 links of around 4.5 different domains. These links do not lead to start pages, but to specific, thematically suitable subpages. The AI ​​overviews are mainly displayed for informative searches (about 70%), followed by commercial (20%), navigatory (7%) and transactional inquiries (3%).

The measurable traffic burglary for websites

The introduction of AI overviews has led to significant changes in user behavior, which affects website traffic directly. Current data show alarming developments:

Data from the German -speaking area

Websites in German-speaking countries have recorded an average decline in clicks by 17.8%since the start of the AI ​​overviews. For some websites, the break -in is even up to 40%. The data of the Wordsmattr.io agency illustrates a fundamental change: While the visibility of the websites is hardly affected in the search results (the impressions only dropped by 1.2%), the interaction rate decreases significantly. The click-through rate (CTR) fell by 14%in the examined period.

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This development confirms similar trends that were observed after the introduction of Google Ai Overviews in the United States. According to a study, the organic click rates for inquiries with AI overviews between January 2024 and January 2025 fell by up to 55%.

International experiences and especially affected industries

The reports from the USA are even more dramatic, where the function has been active for a long time. According to an analysis by Bloomberg based on data from Similarweb and interviews with 25 publishers, many websites experience historical break -ins. Some pages have lost 70% of their traffic, in extreme cases even up to 90%.

Niche blogs from industries such as:

• Travel
• Cooking and food
• Home Administration (DIY)
• Education

The strongest losses are recorded in informative searches where users can find their answers directly in the AI ​​generated overviews without visiting the actual websites.

Dramatic case studies of affected website operators

The sober statistics become tangible by personal fates. Several case studies illustrate the existential consequences:

Morgan McBride, whose DIY company (“do-it-yourself”) was presented in a Google advertising in March 2024, recorded a traffic dropout of over 70%a month later. This is exemplary for the irony of the situation: While Google presents small companies as success stories on the one hand, on the other hand, it removes the livelihood through AI overviews.

The case of Debra Corbeil and Dave Bouskill from Canada is even more dramatic. Since 2008 they have successfully operated the travel blog “The Planet D”. In 2024, their traffic collapsed by 90%, they had to relieve employees and finally hire the company. Especially bitter: Google even took over her Canadian slang in its AI overviews. "I feel betrayed," Bouskill commented on the development.

Mike Hardaker, operator of the Outdoor Portal “Mountain Weekly News”, made $ 250,000 in sales in 2023. After the traffic slump through AI overviews, he is now dependent on food aids.

The publisher Gisele Navarro from the air purifier blog “Housefresh” reports that her content appears more often in Google's AI Overviews, but the click on the website does not occur-and thus also any form of monetization.

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Why do AI overviews lead to traffic losses

The reasons for the drastic traffic burglaries are complex, but can be attributed to some core causes:

Changed user behavior through direct answers

The main reason is the functioning of the AI ​​overviews itself: They summarize information from the web and offer complete answers directly in the search results. Users no longer have to click on external websites to get their information. This leads to an increase in so-called “Zero-Click-Searches” search queries in which users receive the answer directly in the search results and do not click on a website.

Even before the introduction of AI overviews, the rate of zero-click search in the United States was around 58% and 59% in Europe. This value continues to increase with AI overviews.

Prominent placement of the AI ​​overviews

The outstanding positioning of the AI ​​overviews increases this effect. They appear at the top of the search results and take up to 90% of the screen, especially on mobile devices. The organic search results are thus shifted downwards and are often only visible after scrolling.

Google's AI overviews can also be folded out in such a way that the organic search results become virtually invisible. This reduces the likelihood that users scroll until the traditional search results.

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Double dilemma for website operators

For the operators of websites, AI search is twice any problem: they not only lose reach of reach, their content also ends up in the Google AI overview, which in turn is responsible for the fact that traffic drops. The website operators provide the content that Google then uses to present direct answers to users-without having to visit the original source.

Effects on various industries and website types

The effects of the AI ​​overviews vary greatly depending on the industry and website:

Especially affected industries

According to the data from Similarweb and other analyzes, the following industries are affected by traffic losses above average:

• Travel blogs and portals: The travel category is hit hardest, especially at the time when Google rolled out a lot of AI functions for it.
• Food and recipe pages: Google is currently testing recipe summary directly in the search. For food blogs, this could mean the loss of up to 50% of traffic in the medium term.
• DIY- (“do-it-yourself”) and DIY website: Searches for instructions are often answered entirely in AI overviews.
• Educational websites and magazines: These were already severely affected in the USA when the function was introduced there.

Differences according to website size

Not all websites are equally affected. An analysis by Brightedge shows that the most benefit from the AI ​​Overviews large pages such as Tripadvisor, Wikipedia or Google's own YouTube. Small and medium -sized websites, on the other hand, often experience a historical break -in.

Many small publishers report that they now lose in the visibility competition against forums such as Reddit or Quora-or against AI generated spam pages that are hardly distinguishable on the outside.

Google's position and reactions in the industry

Google's reaction to the concerns of the website operators is reserved. In October 2024, Google invited around 20 operators to the California Mountain View to talk about the effects of increasing AI use. The participants report: Google apologized, praised their content - and then said that there was no hope of improvement. The search is just different now.

Lukas Gehrer, founder and Chief Strategy Officer from Wordsmattr, emphasizes that the current data are a clear wake-up call for SEO strategies in Germany, site operator and marketing manager. AI overviews change the search landscape faster than expected, but adaptation and optimization is often not yet possible because it lacks the necessary data.

Some platforms, such as the media company Raptive from New York, estimate that long-term up to 25 percent of the total website traffic could be lost through AI overviews-and that was valued conservatively.

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Strategies for website operators

In view of the massive changes, website operators have to develop new strategies to deal with the challenges:

Optimization for AI overviews

In order to be cited in AI overviews and thus benefit from this new search function, specific optimization strategies are required, some of which differ from the classic SEO. Structured, precise, unique and current content has the best chance of being included in AI overviews.

The data show that the relationship between organic rankings and the appearance in AI overviews is not linear. Google apparently uses other ranking factors for AI overviews than for traditional organic search. The relevance and quality of the content seems to play a larger role for AI overviews than the established domain authority.

Surprisingly, pages are partially listed in AI overviews, which only appear in the classic search results from position 12. Theoretically, this opens up new possibilities for previously less attention websites.

Balanced content strategy

Companies now have to adapt by balancing their content strategies with a stronger focus on the paid search in order to remain visible in this competitive environment. The data indicate that the following factors are more taken into account when overview of AI:

• Local factors and most recently visited websites get more weight
• Current content is included more often
• Niche sources and smaller websites can also appear more prominent in Google's experiments

Exclude alternative traffic sources

Since AI chatbots and AI searches for most websites currently only make up about 0.1% of the total traffic, there is still time for a strategic realignment. For comparison: The proportion of search traffic (especially Google) is 43.8%, direct views make up 42.3%, and social media is in third place with 13.1%.

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Future prospects and long -term consequences

The long-term effects of the AI ​​overviews could be even more far-reaching. Not only is the direct traffic influenced, the purchase decision process could also change because fewer touchpoints arise between customers and companies. This could limit the possibilities to influence the purchase decision.

The effect is already clearly recognizable for paid advertisements. However, so far only about 7% of the search queries with advertisements have appeared with AI overviews, which limits the overall impact on advertising campaigns.

Interestingly, Google claims that users actually click more links in the event of existing AI overviews than without this function. However, this statement contradicts the experiences of most website operators and the available data.

A fundamental change in the digital landscape

The introduction of the Google AI overviews marks a turning point in the history of web search. After decades of symbiosis between Google and content manufacturers, the balance is fundamentally changing. Website operators have to adapt to a new reality in which direct traffic significantly decreases through search queries.

This development not only affects individual website operators, but has potentially far-reaching effects on the entire digital ecosystem. The rule “Those who offers good content for decades get visibility and thus income” is questioned by the AI ​​overviews.

For website operators, this means both challenges and opportunities. The reduction of direct traffic is partially compensated for by high quality leads, which can be obtained by quoting in AI overviews. The key to success lies in adapting the content strategy to this new reality. Contents must be precise, structured and directly geared towards user stations. At the same time, factors such as authority, topicality and multimedia presence are becoming more important.

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