B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
58%
58% -- click through rate reduction percentage for Top-ranking (position 1) Google search pages when an AI Overview is present (2026)
Ahrefs found that the presence of an AI Overview correlates with a 58% lower click-through rate for top-ranking (position one) pages.
- Correlational study based on thousands of query profiles
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Lighthouse Research Team
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Evidence graded
Value
58%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
50
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Ahrefs
Primary
Tier C
https://fireflyweblabs.com/research/rankings-dont-mean-reach-anymore/ ↗
Source Article
The Data Is In: Rankings Don’t Mean Reach Anymore
For two decades, the logic of digital marketing was straightforward. You ranked for keywords. People clicked. They visited your website. Some of them became customers.
That logic is breaking down.
Not gradually. Not theoretically. The data is in, and it is arriving from every direction at once.
What…
Original Research
Ahrefs
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Ahrefs analysis of thousands of query profiles; correlation between AI Overview presence and CTR reduction for position-one pages.
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
Top-ranking (position 1) Google search pages when an AI Overview is present: 58% click through rate reduction percentage. Source: Ahrefs (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/ai-overview-top-result-ctr-reduction
HTML Embed
<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ai-overview-top-result-ctr-reduction" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>58%</strong> -- click through rate reduction percentage for Top-ranking (position 1) Google search pages when an AI Overview is present<br><small>Source: Ahrefs (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ai-overview-top-result-ctr-reduction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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