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Is Google's AI taking clicks from your website? What the studies show and what to do

An experiment with more than a thousand people measured almost 40% fewer clicks when Google shows an AI summary. The drop is concentrated in informational searches, and that changes the job of every page on your site.

Cursor over a results page in dark lines on a light background, beside the glass form with a blue core

If your blog traffic has fallen while your Google rankings look much the same, the explanation may sit at the top of the results page.

When Google answers with an AI summary, many people read it there and click nothing. There are now firmer measurements of that effect.

What the experiment measured

Researchers Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen compared in an experiment the behaviour of 1,065 people in the United States, using Chrome on desktop, between January and February 2026. Some saw Google as usual, and others had AI summaries hidden.

On searches with a summary, clicks on organic results were close to 40% lower, according to PPC Land's analysis. The figure varies slightly between versions of the study, which has not yet been peer reviewed.

The most useful finding for a business is the split by search type:

  • Informational searches, such as "what is" and "how does it work", accounted for the drop.
  • Searches for a specific site or to buy showed no clear statistical difference, though that sample is smaller.
Two search paths, where an informational question is answered in the AI summary with fewer clicks and a search for a service or brand leads to the website and an enquiry

What Google says

Google's documentation states that there are no additional requirements or special optimisations for appearing in AI results, and that no new AI files or specific markup are needed. Be wary of anyone selling a magic file to get into those summaries.

Google also claims clicks from these results are higher quality. The experiment found no difference in behaviour after the click, so it is worth measuring on your own site.

What to change on your business website

  1. One page per service, written in the words customers use when looking for someone to hire. These searches appear to suffer less.
  2. Direct answers at the top of each page: what you do, for whom, where and how to start.
  3. What AI does not have: real cases, your own photos, processes, data from your operation and the views of the people doing the work.
  4. Articles with a clear job. An informational piece should also lead to a service page or an enquiry.
  5. A better-known brand. People already searching for your name depend less on the summary.
  6. Measure enquiries, not just visits. If visits fall and conversations hold up, the site is still doing its job.

In Search Console, clicks from AI results are included in the general web search report. So compare enquiries by page as well.

The site has to sell when the click arrives

With fewer clicks, each visit is worth more. A slow or confusing page wastes exactly the people who arrived ready to hire.

In our website and e-commerce development, we define the important pages and searches before the visual design. The site goes live measuring how many conversations each page generates, so you know what brings in customers.