1) The “Great Decoupling”: Impressions Up, Clicks Down
“The big story of this year… is the so‑called great decoupling in Google search… there’s a downwards blue line—that’s clicks—and there’s an upwards pink line—and that’s impressions… a lot of people are seeing that their impressions go up and their clicks go down. And this is primarily driven by AI overviews… for a lot of sites, clicks are the conversion.”
“You can see that [AI overviews are] going up pretty much with this impressions line, which is also negatively correlated with the clicks line… as more and more keywords have gained AI overviews… those impressions typically do not result in a click.”
See the chart walkthrough and how to diagnose this in your data. Watch the on‑demand webinar.
2) Position-1 Is Being Rewritten by AI Overviews
“When we look at rank one… AI overviews went from 10% of rank‑one results to 19% of rank‑one results… that’s a 90% increase… but you also have to think about the drop from 49 to 41 for organic.”
“When we look at only informational—only top of funnel—I see a much bigger absolute difference… organic has seen this big drop from 36% position one to 23%… If you were competing for top‑of‑funnel organic, you’ve maybe lost 50%.”
Compare AIO vs. organic rank‑1 shifts and the query types most affected: watch the on‑demand webinar.
3) What’s Still Working: Local Packs & Commercial Organic (for now)
“Local packs [are] pretty stable in their percentage of position one… when we’ve seen Google experiment with AI local features, they’re based on the same underlying data. So I think local SEO is something that tactically is staying pretty stable for now.”
“Organic position one in commercial is actually doing okay… [AIOs] have gone up a lot for commercial queries, but… mainly by cannibalizing things other than organic for those position‑one placements.”
See which local/commercial scenarios still drive clicks, and how to optimize them in the on‑demand webinar.
4) AI Mode ≠ Search Replacement (Yet)
“AI mode is fundamentally a ChatGPT competitor… we’ve already seen over the last few years that the growth of ChatGPT has not really harmed organic. It’s a different type of query… most people who use ChatGPT… are still using regular organic in the way that they were as well.”
“Even a while after rollout AI mode is still less popular than the News tab—and the News tab is already sort of famously unpopular.”
“AI mode… looks like a complement, not a replacement for regular search.”
Get usage trends, why AI Mode complements search, and where classic SERPs still win; watch the on‑demand webinar.
5) Two Strategic Paths: Optimize for Clicks vs. Optimize for Impressions
“Embrace change and… optimize for impressions—start to see SEO not as a performance marketing channel, but as a brand marketing channel… diversify… to build up brand authority… you’re probably interested in GEO because GEO is all about the mentions.”
“A crucial distinction… in‑model versus outer‑model responses… if it makes a follow‑up Google search… that is something that you are much better positioned to tactically affect—and that’s called an outer‑model or a grounded response.”
“We’re looking for mentions, not domains. I really don’t want people looking to be cited as if that’s the goal… Being cited is tactical. The goal is to have your brand mentioned—this is a brand marketing channel.”
“AI search is super dominated by the very, very, very long tail… One tip… People Also Ask data can be really instructive… a clue to the kinds of things that people might be asking in AI search.”
Choose your path, optimize for clicks or for impressions, with concrete playbooks and examples. Watch the on‑demand webinar.
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