Google AI Overviews Miss Position 1 in Over 12% of Cases, Study Finds
AI-Powered Summaries No Longer Dominate Search Results in All Cases
A new study from the enterprise SEO tool seoClarity shows that Google’s AI Overviews, which were designed to give rapid, AI-generated answers in search, are no longer always at the top of search results. The research shows that AI Overviews rank lower than the first organic result in 12.4% of U.S. desktop searches, which is a big jump from just 2% a month ago.
Why This Is Important for SEOs and Publishers
This change opens up new chances for SEOs and content providers to get more traffic and visibility. As worries about AI Overviews “stealing” clicks have intensified, this statistic gives us a little bit of hope. Organic material can still do well, especially when people want to see traditional online results instead of AI-generated solutions.
By the Numbers: Where AI Overviews Rank Now
According to seoClarity’s study of U.S. desktop SERPs (without including advertisements), the current ranking distribution for AI Overviews is:
- 6% are in Position 1
- 6% in Place 2
- 8% in the third place
- 2% go down to Position 4 or lower
This implies that AI Overviews still often come in first, but there is now a measurable and growing group of people who can beat them with classic SEO methods.
The Intent of the Query Matters
The study also discovered that the type of user question affects where AI Overview shows up:
- Informational questions make up 84.16% of AI-triggered queries.
- 38% are for transactions
- 31% are for navigation
- 15% are from the area
It’s interesting that AI Overviews tend to score lower on transactional queries. For instance, when people search for “games on a Nintendo Switch,” product and category pages, as well as carousels, come before the AI result.
For AI Overviews that are in Position 4 or lower, transactional intent goes up to 22.7%. This means that Google may be giving more weight to commercial or product-focused content for these searches.
What Experts Are Saying
Mark Traphagen, who is in charge of product marketing and training at seoClarity, thinks that how users act is very important:
“Google keeps an eye on what consumers click on when an AI Overview is there. Google may lower the ranking of the AI Overview for that search if most people skip it in favor of an organic result.”
This indicates that publishers who focus on click-through rate (CTR) and keyword relevancy can still do better than AI Overviews, especially when readers clearly prefer regular links.
The SEO Opportunity Ahead
This change might be a big deal for SEO experts and content marketers. It’s no longer a sure thing that AI Overviews will always be at the top of the SERP. By focusing on high-quality, well-optimized content that meets user needs, you can really beat AI-generated summaries and get back valuable clicks.