Opting out of Google's AI answers can cost you 20% of clicks
A small study from Cyrus SEO suggests blocking AI answers also drags down your normal search clicks.
A small new study says that if you block your pages from Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, you can lose up to 20% of your clicks, and some of those are ordinary search clicks you would have kept.
AI Overviews and AI Mode are the AI written answers Google puts at the top of its results. They sometimes link out to the sites the answer draws from. The study, published by @cyrusshepard and picked up by Barry Schwartz, says those links get a click rate of roughly 0.9%. So for every thousand times one of those links shows up, it gets about nine clicks.
The surprising part
You might look at 0.9% and decide the AI answers are not worth being in. The study says opting out costs you more than that tiny slice. Sites that opted out also saw their regular organic clicks fall, the plain blue links further down the page. @cyrusshepard calls this the halo effect. Being present in the AI answer appears to help the normal listing too.
The study also found that AI answers keep pushing organic results further down the page, which is a separate problem and not one you can opt out of.
What to do
Most small business owners have never touched this setting, and that is fine. The opt out is done with a tag in your page code called nosnippet or max-snippet, or with the Google-Extended control. If nobody on your team has deliberately added one, you are already in and there is nothing to do.
If you did block AI answers, or you asked a developer to, this is worth a second look. The trade is giving up a small number of AI clicks plus an unknown number of regular ones, in exchange for your text not appearing in the answer box. The study suggests that trade is worse than it looks.
One caution. This is one study, described by its own author as small, not a Google statement and not an industry wide finding. Treat the 20% as a signal that opting out has a hidden cost, not as a number you can plan a year around.
If you want to check where you stand, ask whoever built your site whether any nosnippet or Google-Extended rules are in place. If the answer is no, do nothing.
AI answers continue to push down organic results
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode have a ~0.9% click-through rate
Be the person who already knew
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