Measuring Google's AI Overviews' impact: Why keyword data is more telling than CTRs for publishers

Google's AI Overviews now cover nearly 19 million keywords, marking a 91% increase since six months ago, according to Semrush data. Despite fluctuations in traffic for individual publishers, overall, there's no evidence suggesting that AI Overviews decrease referral traffic. Publications like ProPublica and BuzzFeed saw significant keyword increases triggering AI Overviews, while some publishers experienced varied changes in organic traffic. However, a separate report from Tollbit claims AI bots are driving 95.7% less referral traffic than traditional Google searches, indicating mixed impacts of AI integrations on publishers' performance.

Nearly 19 million keywords now feature AI Overviews - that's up 91% from six months ago, according to Semrush data. The total number of searches that trigger AI Overviews has grown from 6% in September 2024, to 11.4% in March 2025.

There's no statistical evidence that says that, in aggregate, Google generates less traffic when there is an AI Overview. It generates roughly the same amount of traffic,

Read at Digiday