Google AI Overview slashes organic clicks 59.5% as #1 spot drops from 28% to 19%
MicahBerkley · x · 2026-10-07
The author argues AI is driving the most aggressive evaporation of organic traffic in web history, and the culprit is Google's AI Overview: when Google answers at the top, the incentive to click through vanishes.
Key numbers:
- Organic clicks down 59.5% on average
- The #1 spot's value fell from 28% to 19%
- The #2 spot fell from 15% to 9%, a 39% relative visibility decline
The takeaway: the game hasn't changed, the board was flipped. Sites that don't optimize for AEO/GEO will eventually lose out, as traditional SEO's premium-slot logic no longer holds.
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