"The average clickthrough rate is 80-90% lower when an AI Overview is triggered (when Daily Mail ranks on the first Google search page), compared to when no AI Overview is present, according to Daily Mail director of SEO and editorial e-commerce Carly Steven. That's a sharp drop from the 56% lower clickthrough rate Steven cited in May 2025 at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Poland."
"However, despite that "big, scary number," this hasn't been catastrophic for Daily Mail's traffic, Steven said on stage at the Digiday Publishing Summit Europe on Oct. 28. That's because AI Overviews aren't showing up for many keywords that Daily Mail "cares about," she said. AI Overviews don't typically show up around breaking news stories, so by the time a keyword is triggering an AIO, "the story's probably moved on," Stephen said."
"Elizabeth Reid, vp of search at Google, wrote in a May 2024 blog post that "we aim to not show AI Overviews for hard news topics, where freshness and factuality are important." This year, Daily Mail hasn't seen a significant increase in the prevalence of AI Overviews for the keywords that it targets, Steven said. But ultimately, Daily Mail - like most publishers - is at the whim of Google."
When an AI Overview is triggered, Daily Mail's average clickthrough rate on first-page Google searches falls by roughly 80-90% compared to when no AI Overview appears. That decline is larger than a previously cited 56% drop. Overall site traffic has not been catastrophic because AI Overviews seldom appear for many of Daily Mail's targeted keywords. AI Overviews generally avoid breaking news queries, meaning keywords that trigger an AIO often relate to stories that have moved on. Google retains the ability to expand AI Overview coverage or make AI Mode default, increasing future referral volatility for publishers.
Read at Digiday
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