Google’s AI Overviews are no longer guaranteed to hold the top spot in search results — and that’s great news for SEOs and content creators looking to win back valuable clicks.
According to fresh research from enterprise SEO platform seoClarity, AI Overviews now rank below Position 1 in 12.4% of U.S. desktop searches. That’s a big jump from just a month ago, when fewer than 2% dropped below the top spot.
Why This Matters for SEOs
Ever since Google rolled out AI Overviews, many SEO professionals and publishers have been worried about the drop in clicks and traffic. But this new data suggests that these AI results aren’t as untouchable as they first seemed. There’s still room to outrank them and drive traffic from organic search results.
Key Stats You Need to Know
AI Overviews currently show up in around 19% of all U.S. desktop keyword searches. Here’s how their rankings break down, excluding paid ads:
- 87.6% appear in Position 1
- 7.6% rank in Position 2
- 2.8% land in Position 3
- 2% appear in Position 4 or lower
What Kind of Searches Trigger AI Overviews?
The majority of AI Overviews show up for queries with informational intent — the kind of questions where users are looking for answers or explanations. Here’s the breakdown:
- 84.16% are Informational searches
- 12.38% are Transactional (people looking to buy or take action)
- 3.31% are Navigational (searching for a specific website)
- 0.15% are Local queries
AI Overviews Rank Lower More Often for Transactional Searches
Interestingly, when AI Overviews do drop down the page, it’s often for transactional searches — where users are looking to buy something or compare products.
For Google’s AI results that fall to Position 4 or lower, the share of transactional queries jumps to 22.7%, nearly double the usual rate.
A good example is the search “games on a Nintendo Switch”, where the AI result is outranked by two Nintendo category pages and a Popular Products carousel.
Why Is Google Moving AI Overviews Down?
It may all come down to user behaviour. Mark Traphagen, Vice President of Product Marketing and Training at seoClarity, explains:
“Google watches what people click on when an AI Overview appears. If users are skipping the artificial intelligence results to click on organic results, Google might lower the AI position for that keyword.
If that’s the case, your best chance to outrank AI results is to hold a top organic spot and optimise for a strong click-through rate (CTR). When users consistently choose your page over the AI result, Google could start prioritising your content.”
The Takeaway for SEOs
The message is clear: SEO still matters. Smart strategy, strong optimisation, and delivering what users actually want can help you outrank AI Overviews — and reclaim those valuable clicks.
