Your rankings look stable. Your impressions are up. So why are clicks down? For many Indian websites, the answer sits right at the top of the results page: Google's AI Overviews.
This post pulls together the best available data on how often AI Overviews appear, which queries are hit hardest, what they do to clicks, and six practical ways to protect your traffic.
How Often Do AI Overviews Appear in India?
Ahrefs' Brand Radar study (November 2025) found AI Overviews triggering on 26.8% of queries in India, higher than the US (20.5%) and UK (19.1%) in the same dataset (AEO Rankings summary).
One caution: trigger rates vary a lot by study. BrightEdge's commercial keyword panel put US coverage at about 48% in February 2026. Different keyword samples give different numbers, so treat any single percentage as a range, not a fact, and measure your own keywords.
Which Queries Get Hit Hardest?
Query type predicts AI Overview exposure better than almost anything else.
| Query type | Approx. trigger rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| "Why" questions | 60% | Ahrefs, 146M SERPs (Nov 2025) |
| Question queries (any) | 58% | Ahrefs (Nov 2025) |
| Definitions ("what is") | 47% | Ahrefs (Nov 2025) |
| How-to queries | 35% | Ahrefs (Nov 2025) |
| Comparisons ("X vs Y") | 26% | Ahrefs (Nov 2025) |
| Commercial intent | 3.5% | Advanced Web Ranking (2026) |
| Navigational intent | 0.1% | Advanced Web Ranking (2026) |
By industry, BrightEdge's February 2026 data shows healthcare (88%), education (83%) and B2B technology (82%) among the most exposed, while ecommerce sits near 4%. For India, that's a big warning for edtech, health information and SaaS content, which make up a large share of Indian publishing.
What AI Overviews Do to Clicks
- Pew Research (March 2025 browsing data): users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% without one. Only about 1% clicked a link inside the summary.
- Ahrefs (300,000 keywords, April 2025): an AI Overview correlated with a 34.5% lower CTR for the #1 result on similar informational keywords. Ahrefs has since re-run the study for 2026, so check its latest figures.
- Amsive (700,000 keywords): an average 15.49% CTR decline, but branded queries with AI Overviews saw CTR rise about 18.7%.
Sources: eMarketer roundup, Ahrefs study. These are mostly US studies; India-specific CTR data is still thin, which is exactly why you should track your own.
The takeaway: non-branded informational content loses the most. Branded, commercial and transactional searches are far safer.
How to Diagnose AI Overview Impact on Your Site
- In Search Console, compare clicks and CTR for the same queries over two periods, focusing on long question-style queries.
- Look for the classic pattern: impressions flat or rising, average position stable, CTR falling.
- Manually check your top 30 traffic-losing queries in an Indian Google search to see if an AI Overview appears and who is cited.
- Segment by intent: informational vs commercial vs branded. Expect the informational bucket to show most of the loss.
6 Tactics to Regain Visibility
- Become the cited source. Structure pages with direct answers, clear definitions, steps and tables so Google can quote you. Our GEO strategy guide covers this in detail.
- Shift content mix toward commercial and comparison intent. Pages for "price", "near me", "buy", "best X for Y" and brand comparisons face far lower AI Overview exposure.
- Build branded demand. Branded queries behave better under AI Overviews. PR, YouTube, communities and email all feed branded search.
- Offer what a summary can't. Calculators, tools, templates, original data, expert opinion and local detail (₹ pricing, city-level info) give people a reason to click.
- Diversify traffic. Google Discover, YouTube, WhatsApp channels and newsletters reduce dependence on informational search. See our Discover optimization update.
- Measure value, not just visits. If fewer but better-qualified users arrive, conversion rate and revenue per session matter more than raw sessions.
What Comes Next: AI Mode
AI Overviews are only part of the story. Google's AI Mode goes further, answering long multi-part questions in a full conversation. Read Google AI Mode in India 2026 and our comparison of AI Mode vs traditional search to plan ahead.
The Bottom Line
AI Overviews are reshaping which clicks exist, not ending SEO. Indian sites that get cited in the summary, lean into branded and commercial intent, and offer something a summary can't replace will keep growing while others chase lost informational traffic.
