Understanding Declining Click-Through Rates Amid Site Updates and Google AI Features
In the realm of SEO and digital marketing, maintaining a healthy click-through rate (CTR) is essential for driving organic traffic and achieving your website’s goals. Recently, many site owners have observed a perplexing trend: a significant drop in CTR despite stable rankings and substantial site modifications. This article delves into a case study to explore this phenomenon, with a focus on potential external factors—specifically the impact of Google’s evolving search features like AI Overview.
Case Study Overview
Between February 2025 and August 2025, a website’s performance metrics in Google Search Console revealed a notable decline in CTR, decreasing from approximately 2.42% to just over 1%. During this period, the site amassed over 70 million impressions and recorded several million clicks. Interestingly, the average search position remained relatively consistent, fluctuating between 15.3 and 15.8, indicating no major fluctuations in rankings.
Monthly CTR Trends:
- February: 2.42%
- March: 2.35%
- April: 2.10%
- May: 1.87%
- June: 1.49%
- July: 1.26%
- August: 1.08%
Simultaneous Site Changes and External Factors
Despite implementing significant site updates—including large-scale meta title rewrites and extensive content revisions—CTR continued its downward trend each month. This suggests that on-page optimizations alone may not fully explain the decline.
The only notable external change during this timeframe was the rollout of Google’s AI Overview feature, which expanded from May onward. This enhancement integrates AI-generated summaries directly into the search results, alongside an increase in other SERP features such as rich snippets, knowledge panels, and enhanced visual elements.
Potential Impact of AI Overview on CTR
The correlation between the timing of the AI Overview rollout and the CTR decline raises important questions:
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Are users’ search behaviors changing due to richer, more informative SERP features?
With AI-generated summaries and visual enhancements, searchers may find the information they need directly on the SERP, reducing the need to click through to individual websites. -
Is the increased visibility of AI and other features diluting organic click opportunities?
As these features occupy more space or prominence on the results page, organic listings might receive fewer clicks, even when rankings remain stable. -
**Could this be a shift in user Engagement