Study challenges Google’s AI Overviews on click quality claims

Image credit: Search Engine Journal

A recent study found that additional organic clicks gained when Google‘s AI Overviews (AIOs) are removed are of similar quality to clicks when they are present, challenging Google’s claims of improved click quality.

The updated randomized field experiment reported a 39.8 percent decrease in organic clicks when Google’s AI Overviews were displayed, according to research by Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen.

Agarwal and Sen’s study, published on SSRN, found no statistically significant difference in click quality, measured by factors such as back button use, short visits, and time on site, between groups with and without AIOs.

Participants who switched from seeing AI Overviews to not seeing them experienced an increase in external clicks per search, a trend mirrored by zero-click rates, the researchers reported.

The study indicated that click losses attributable to AI Overviews were primarily concentrated in informational searches, showing no measurable change in navigational and transactional queries.

AI Overviews were triggered on approximately 41 percent of all queries and on 53 percent of informational queries, the research noted.

When a top-of-page AI Overview was removed, the top three ranked organic results gained the most clicks, with the first position nearly doubling its click share, according to the findings.

Google’s Vice President of Search, Liz Reid, previously stated that AI Overviews reduce “bounce clicks,” but the company has not released supporting data for this assertion, Search Engine Journal reported.

Source: Search Engine Journal