What are Google's AI Overviews, and do they hurt my traffic?

AI Overviews are the AI written summaries Google shows above the regular results. They can mean fewer clicks: in a Pew Research study, people clicked a regular result on 8% of searches that showed an AI summary, and on 15% of searches that didn't. The businesses the summary names still get seen and picked.

Pew followed 900 US adults through their searches in March 2025. Only 1% of visits included a click on a link inside the summary itself, and people were more likely to stop searching after reading one. So the goal changes: you want to be the business the summary names, not only a link under it. That comes from a website that answers questions in plain sentences, a strong Business Profile, and reviews that say what you do and where. For local searches Google still shows the map and its businesses too, so your profile matters as much as ever.

For example, someone searches "how much does it cost to pressure wash a driveway". If your site answers that in its first sentence, with a price range and your town, you're the kind of page Google likes to quote.

We write your pages so the first sentence answers the question, and we check the AI reports Google and Bing now give site owners to see where you show up.

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