Overview

• Liz Reid’s August 6 blog post states that total organic click volume from Google Search has remained stable year-over-year and that average click quality has increased slightly over the same period.
• Google says AI Overviews now display more links per query, creating additional chances for websites to surface and attract deeper engagement.
• Pew Research found click-through rates for users shown AI summaries dropped to 8% from 15%, and Similarweb reports zero-click news searches climbed from 56% at launch to 69% by May 2025.
• Publishers such as Business Insider and The Washington Post have cited steep referral declines and are accelerating pivots toward subscription models, micropayments, and newsletter sign-ups.
• EU and UK regulators have opened antitrust investigations into Google’s use of web content for AI training, and lawsuits challenge its impact on the open web ecosystem.