Are AI Overviews Hurting Organic Search? 

When Google surfaces an AI Overview, the page that would normally sit in one of the top spots in organic search results sees its average click‑through rate drop by 34%, per a recent study from AHRefs (source). 

Scary, right? Let’s take a closer look at what that could mean for your website. 

Why Users Stop at the Overview 

We’ve all done it: type in a question, skim the AI summary, and move on. Because the answer is right there, intent is satisfied without the extra click.  

But this instant search fulfillment is causing acute issues for sites in the top few positions; pages that sit beyond these top spots are not as likely to be impacted with the AI Overview introduction. 

Generative Engine Optimization Is Your Friend 

If you already have a defined content and SEO strategy in place, you’re two steps ahead. By updating your strategy to include Generative Experience Optimization (GEO), you can get out from under these AI Overviews while keeping up with the evolving search landscape. GEO is focusing on optimizing your digital content for AIs and LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and others.  

SEO and GEO Similarities 

• On‑page depth & structure – Clear subheads, concise answers, and schema help models grab (and quote) your copy. 

• Topical authority – Clusters of tightly related content show both Search Engines and the language model that you own the subject. 

• Brand signals – Mentions on trusted domains and respected industry publications feed both ranking algorithms and LLM training data. 

• Technical – Site speed, proper headline usage, and core web vitals will ensure your site loads quickly and can be crawled and indexed by search engines and AIs. 

SEO and GEO Differences 

Foundationally, there’s a lot of overlap between SEO and GEO, but they differ in a few important ways, including their audiences: 

• SEO is focused on improving your site’s rankings and visibility via on- and off-page optimizations to send qualified traffic your way from search engines.  

• GEO is ensuring your content can be easily understood, synthesized, and presented via an AI/LLM in an overview summary so that AI engines include it in their responses. 

• Within GEO, you may need to look at structuring your content slightly differently compared with SEO. In GEO, content that is broken down into discrete bites (such as FAQs, bullet points, and structured data/schema) provides AI models easily understandable information, which streamlines processing of your content.  

Quick Tip: Don’t Sleep on Bing (or You’ll Sleep on ChatGPT) 

OpenAI’s “searching the web” callouts hit Bing’s index, so ignoring your Bing performance means ignoring a slice of generative exposure. By auditing keyword gaps between Google and Bing, tailoring SEO content such as Page Titles and Meta Descriptions to match Bing’s slightly different best practices, and claiming your business in Bing Places, you ensure ChatGPT sees the best possible version of your brand. 

Next Steps: The AI Readiness Audit 

By including generative experience optimization within your broader SEO and content strategy, you arm yourself against seeing a drop in click-through rates from AI Overviews. In fact, we’ve seen an increase in traffic when sites are included in the AI Overview position.  

Let MBB review your current standings with AI Overviews and write a plan for you to gain from this growing feature in Google. Together we can talk about how MBB can help your brand – give us a shout today.