Following the introduction of AI features, click rates have decreased, and sites should prepare
- If the answer appears at the top of the search results, the number of clicks decreases.
- Why is the inflow decreasing even though the ranking has not decreased?
- AI Overview: Fundamentals are more important than tricks.
- Looking only at the number of clicks can lead to overlooking important details.
- The most common points of failure when attempting a direct repair are:
- Depending on the type of website, there are things that should be changed and things that should be preserved.
- SOHO SEO: Managing the technological foundation.
- Frequently Asked Questions.
- WordPress-related links
The search ranking remains unchanged, but the number of visitors has decreased. If you operate a WordPress site, this is a situation you cannot help but find bewildering.
The cause may be the AI overviews that appear first above the search results. If so, should we completely overhaul the site to cater to AI overviews, or should we continue with the search optimization we have been doing?
If the answer appears at the top of the search results, the number of clicks decreases.
The AI overview feature summarizes the core of a question within the search results. Google explains that it creates answers based on pages in the search index and also displays links to related web pages.
If a user can resolve their curiosity by reading only the summary, they may not visit the site, even if the site’s ranking remains the same. In this case, the search result provides the answer.
The Pew Research Center analyzed 68,879 Google searches conducted by U.S. adults in March 2025. In searches that included an overview of AI, the percentage of users who clicked on the general search results was 8%.
When there was no AI overview, the percentage was 15%. The percentage of users who clicked on the source links displayed within the overview was only 1%.
A summary can prevent clicks.
Why is the inflow decreasing even though the ranking has not decreased?
The reason the operator is looking into this issue is clear: the search ranking report shows no significant changes, but both the number of visitors and the number of clicks have decreased.
According to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, an AI overview was displayed in 18% of the searches examined. In searches that included an AI overview, 26% of users ended their browsing session immediately.
In searches without an AI overview, the same percentage, 16%, was observed. This indicates that an increasing number of users are finding the answers they need directly in the search results and do not feel the need to explore further.
However, it is not possible to assume that the click-through rates of all websites decreased by the same amount. The results vary depending on the type of search query and the content provided by each website.
Not all of the decline is due to the AI overview.
AI Overview: Fundamentals are more important than tricks.
Here is the answer in a single sentence: Rather than using special techniques to get included in AI overviews, it is more important to maintain a foundation for being discovered in search and create a reason to visit even after reading the summary.
Google states that, as of 2026, the fundamental principles of existing search optimization apply to both the AI overview and the AI mode. This means that separate, dedicated AI optimization is not required.
First, check if the robots.txt file is blocking search engine crawlers. Also, verify that the page is being indexed and that important content is linked through internal links.
The core content should be provided in the readable text on the page, not in the text within the image. The structured information must also match the content that is actually visible on the screen.
Simply adding dedicated markup or plugins does not automatically guarantee exposure. Google states that there are no specific technical requirements or dedicated schema for this feature.
At this time, what is needed is to verify the current settings without missing any, rather than focusing on specific markings. SOHO SEO checks the featured image, title, author, mobile screen, and site icon for each post in the Post SEO checklist, and automatically outputs structured data for articles.
In the sitemap settings, you can enable or disable both the standard XML sitemap and the Google News sitemap for recent posts. The robots.txt file and the sitemaps provided by plugins are regularly checked in the Site Error Check. If any issues are detected, a notification email is sent, allowing you to manage all items for checking the technical foundation in one place.
Using specialized workarounds is not the solution.
Looking only at the number of clicks can lead to overlooking important details.
The reason to prepare for a decrease in clicks is because some answers to informational searches are found directly on the search results page, without requiring a click. However, judging a website’s performance solely based on click-through rates can lead to missing out on important visits.
Ahrefs analyzed data from 300,000 keywords and search results, and reported that the average click-through rate for the top-ranking pages for keywords with AI summaries displayed was approximately 58% lower than expected.
In the analysis, the average click-through rate for keywords with an AI overview displayed decreased from 7.3% in December 2023 to 1.6% in December 2025. This is a significant change.
However, these figures are the result of an analysis that combines several keywords. They do not directly reflect the decrease rate of individual WordPress sites.
Google stated that the total number of clicks on organic search results in August 2025 was relatively stable compared to the previous year. Furthermore, Google claimed that clicks coming through AI overviews had increased and were high-quality clicks that users did not quickly abandon on the website.
A decrease in clicks is not the same as a decline in performance.
The most common points of failure when attempting a direct repair are:
The process of identifying the actual problem is itself difficult. It is necessary to examine whether the exposure remains the same while only the click-through rate has decreased, whether the decrease is limited to specific search intents, and whether inquiries or purchases followed the visits.
Looking only at the search performance screen, a decrease in clicks may appear to indicate failure. However, it is difficult to distinguish the cause if we do not differentiate between searches that include an AI overview and those that do not.
It is unclear what needs to be fixed and where.
It is also important to be careful when rewriting content to focus on short answers. If you only provide information that can already be obtained through a summary, there is less reason for users to visit the website.
Conversely, simply increasing the content of each post is not a solution. It is necessary to supplement aspects that cannot be replaced by summaries alone, such as direct experience, comparisons, examples, and verification.
It takes a lot of time to manually check the search terms, clicks, valid visits, and conversions for each page. If measurement criteria are not established, it is also difficult to determine whether the content actually improved after making changes.
If you try to fix it yourself, you will run into problems with the measurements.
Depending on the type of website, there are things that should be changed and things that should be preserved.
If the focus is on informative content, first, in the search console and analysis tools, divide the metrics of impressions, clicks, valid visits, and conversions according to search intent. It is generally better to emphasize the actual process and comparison results rather than providing simple answers.
If you have a website for products or services, don’t just wait for search click recovery. You need to refine the pages that lead to inquiries, purchases, and subscriptions, and also cultivate other ways for visitors to return, such as email marketing, brand searches, and direct visits.
The quality of search traffic cannot be determined solely by the number of clicks. The search console displays web search performance, including AI search, and conversions and website dwell time can be verified using separate analysis tools.
Ultimately, the essential elements to maintain are crawling and indexing, internal links, and readable core articles. The elements that need to be changed are the content that ends with a summary and the structure that does not lead to any action after a click.
Maintain the foundation and only fix the weak points.
If the number of clicks has decreased due to the AI overview, do not overhaul the entire website. Instead, check the technical foundation, and focus on improving the pages with weak reasons for visitors and poor conversion paths. This is the most realistic approach.
SOHO SEO: Managing the technological foundation.
If, instead of rebuilding the entire site, you first need to check the factors affecting search engine crawlers’ access and indexing, the scope that SOHO SEO can handle is clear. Noindex can be applied to archives such as dates, authors, and tags, as well as on-site search results and selected categories, and whether a sitemap is provided can also be managed. Old URLs and broken links encountered by visitors can be connected via redirects, and related internal links and potential external reference links can be identified and added to posts.
When refining the document itself, you can check for each post whether the SEO is optimized and whether the title is exaggerated, and whether it reads like it was written by a person. The Human-touch Post Check displays a score and detailed explanations, but it does not correct the sentences.
Because the internal linking feature targets Korean-language text, you should first check the language of the site’s posts and the scope of what is managed. Rather than viewing it as a tool for measuring search performance, it is more accurate to regard it as a tool for managing the WordPress technical and structural elements that should be checked before analyzing a decline in clicks.
To address a decrease in clicks, it is not necessary to change all content and settings at once. First, you should check the following aspects separately: crawling and indexing, post structure, internal links, and the previous URLs that visitors encounter.
SOHO SEO is a WordPress SEO plugin that manages robots.txt, sitemap status, post elements, archives, and redirections during this process. While search performance and conversions can be measured separately, the tasks involved in verifying the technical foundation can be divided into specific items.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Q. How can I determine if the decrease in clicks is due to the AI overview?
A. In the search console, report impressions and clicks, categorized by search intent. Also, use the analysis tools to check for valid visits and conversions. It is important to distinguish cases where clicks decrease but conversions remain the same.
Q. Does my WordPress site also require me to rewrite all the posts?
A. It is not necessary to change all of the posts. For posts where clicks have decreased and the answer can be found solely in the summary, supplement them with direct experiences, comparisons, examples, and verification details.
Q. Can this problem be easily solved using a tool? What kind of tool should be used?
A. A single tool cannot solve both AI overview exposure and click reduction issues. The standard approach is to use the search console to report search performance and a separate analysis tool to measure dwell time and conversions.
Q. Is it possible to check all the WordPress settings required for search engine visibility in one place?
A. SOHO SEO checks the featured image, title, author, and Article structured data of posts, and manages the sitemap and robots.txt status.
The archive allows management of `noindex` settings, redirection of broken URLs, and both internal and external link candidates. However, measuring search performance and conversions requires further verification using the search console and separate analysis tools.