Opt-out test puts Google AI Overviews and AI Mode CTR near 0.9%
What this answers
- What is the click-through rate on Google AI Overviews and AI Mode?
- In one site's opt-out test, SEO Cyrus Shepard estimated about 0.9% on AI impressions, based on before-and-after click data, per Search Engine Roundtable. It is a single-site case study, and Roundtable calls it very limited.
- Does opting out of AI Overviews hurt regular organic clicks?
- In that one test it did: Shepard reports regular organic clicks also dropped once the site was blocked from AI features, per Search Engine Roundtable.
SEO Cyrus Shepard posted a “small case study” on LinkedIn in which he used Google’s Search generative AI opt-out control to block one site from AI Overviews and AI Mode, then compared its impressions and clicks before and after, per Search Engine Roundtable. He estimated about 0.9% click-through rate on the AI impressions, “based on analyzing overall before/after click data”; that is an estimate for one site, not a measured rate across sites.
Shepard said AI impressions fell to zero immediately after the opt-out and that, “most surprisingly,” regular organic clicks also dropped. Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz notes AI Overviews probably still appeared for those queries (the site just was not in them), calls the study “super limited” in sample size, and says he has seen no similar data because few sites are willing to opt out. The wire could not open the original post; the figures are as Roundtable reports them.
Why it matters: Few sites will test the opt-out, so even a one-site result that links AI-feature exposure to regular organic clicks is data nobody else has published; it is a lead to replicate, not a benchmark.
The record: Google AI OverviewsGoogle AI ModeGoogle Search Console
Glossary: SEOAI OverviewsAI Mode
Via Search Engine Roundtable ↗
Posted to the wire October 30, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.