AI Overviews: Why Your Website Gets Fewer Clicks

Search for a boiler service, a late-opening locksmith or how much a new bathroom costs, and there's now a decent chance Google answers the question itself before you see a single website. That written answer, sitting above the ordinary results, is one of Google's AI Overviews. For a local service business, it changes something that used to be straightforward: a search that used to send someone to a website now often sends them nowhere at all. This isn't a fringe case. It's common enough now that it's worth understanding what's actually going on, rather than just noticing the phone rings a bit less and guessing why.

What are Google's AI Overviews?

An AI Overview is a summary Google generates and places above the usual list of websites for a search. Google's own help page describes it as using generative AI "to create something new" from what Search has indexed, rather than simply listing the pages that match the words typed in. It says plainly that this is a core part of Search now, the same way a knowledge panel is, and that it cannot be turned off for a search where Google decides one adds something. A searcher can pick a "Web" filter afterwards to see plain links only, but that's their choice, not something a business or its website can set.

Why are fewer searches sending a click at all?

AI Overviews are one part of a wider shift, and the scale of it is bigger than most people assume. An analysis of US Google searches by SparkToro, using Similarweb clickstream data, found that 68% ended without a single click in the first four months of 2026, up from around 60% two years earlier. The same study reported that searches which triggered an AI Overview ran even higher again, close to 83% ending with no click, against roughly 60% for an ordinary search with no AI Overview on the page. Mobile searches, which is how most people search for a trade or a shop near them, showed the highest zero-click rate of all. That matters more for a local business than for most, because a plumber or a hairdresser lives or dies on exactly the kind of quick, specific, phone-in-hand search this affects most.

Can an AI Overview get it wrong about your business?

Yes, and Google says so itself rather than leaving it to be inferred. Its help page states directly that AI Overviews "can and will make mistakes" and may show inaccurate information, and it recommends checking anything important against more than one source. If Google's own summary can misstate a fact drawn from a website, it can just as easily misstate something drawn from a Google Business Profile with the wrong hours or an old address. Searching your own business name and trade every so often, and checking what the summary actually says, costs nothing and takes two minutes.

Does your website still matter if people don't click?

Yes, for two reasons worth being plain about. Google's own documentation says a page has to be properly indexed and eligible to appear in ordinary Search before it can ever be cited inside an AI Overview, so a site that doesn't already turn up in normal results has nothing to gain from any of this. Second, the same documentation says clicks that do arrive from an AI Overview are higher quality, meaning the visitor is more likely to spend real time on the site once they land. Fewer clicks is a real change. It is not the same as a website stopping being worth having, and we set out the fuller version of what actually helps in our guide to AI search optimisation. Nobody, including us, can promise a business it will be the one an AI Overview happens to name. What Google's own documentation guarantees is only the ordinary bar: indexed, crawlable, and actually answering the question someone typed.

What can a local business actually do about it?

Nothing here is new work invented because of AI Overviews. It's the same groundwork that has always mattered, now worth doing properly rather than putting off.

• Keep your Google Business Profile accurate. Opening hours, address, category and photos are exactly the kind of detail an AI Overview draws on, and exactly the kind of detail that goes stale without anyone noticing. Our Google Business Profile guide covers claiming and checking it.
• Make sure your site actually answers the question, in plain words, near the top of the page, rather than three paragraphs of scene-setting first. That's what gets cited, and it's also what a human reader who does click wants.
• Be wary of anyone selling "AI Overview optimisation" as a separate service. Google's own account of what it takes is the same site fundamentals that were always worth doing, not a new line item.
• Search your own trade and town and see whether an AI Overview appears at all, and if it does, whether your own site is among the links it cites.
• Don't panic and rebuild everything. The businesses getting cited are mostly the ones that already had a properly indexed, honestly written site. If yours is one of those, this is a reason to keep it tidy, not to start again from scratch.

A site we render for a client ships with a Business Profile set up properly and pages that answer the question straight away, because that groundwork is what actually counts, whether the person searching clicks through or reads an AI Overview and calls anyway. Have a look at what we've rendered for other local businesses, or start the form and preview your own before anything is owed.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Google AI Overview?

It's a written summary Google generates and shows above the ordinary list of websites for many searches. Google's own help page describes it as using generative AI to create a new answer from what Search has indexed, rather than simply listing the pages that match.

Can I stop my customers seeing an AI Overview instead of my website?

No. Google's help pages say AI Overviews are a core Search feature, like a knowledge panel, and cannot be switched off for a search. A searcher can choose the Web filter after they search to see text links only, but that is their choice to make, not yours.

Do AI Overviews ever get things wrong about a business?

Google says so itself: its own help page states plainly that AI Overviews "can and will make mistakes" and may show inaccurate information, and it advises checking anything important in more than one place. It's a reasonable habit to search your own business name occasionally and check what comes back.

Should I pay someone for 'AI Overview optimisation'?

Be sceptical of anything sold as separate from ordinary SEO. We covered this in full in our guide to AI search optimisation: Google's own documentation says there are no special files or extra markup needed, just the same fundamentals that have always mattered.

Does this mean a website is pointless now?

No. Google's own documentation on AI features says a page still has to be properly indexed to be cited at all, and that clicks arriving from an AI Overview tend to be higher quality, meaning the visitor spends longer on the site once they do click. Fewer clicks is not the same as none mattering.