{"id":188835,"date":"2025-06-17T09:02:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T14:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=188835"},"modified":"2026-01-23T04:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:00:17","slug":"the-great-decoupling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/the-great-decoupling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Decoupling (or Why Your Clicks Are Down and Impressions Up)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\">If your Google Search Console chart looks like an open-mouthed crocodile, with clicks plummeting as impressions soar, here\u2019s why.<\/div>\n<p>The roll-out of AI Overviews now creates two opportunities for top-ranking content to log impressions for a given keyword, while simultaneously reducing the number of people who click from the search engine results page (SERP) into your content.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Welcome to the era of zero-click SEO\" data-section=\"one\">\n<h2><a id=\"post-188835-_tmtatelssjmx\"><\/a>Welcome to the era of zero-click SEO<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>If your boss is giving you a hard time over this, it really isn\u2019t your fault. As this <a href=\"http:\/\/seroundtable.com\/google-search-great-decoupling-39524.html\">SERoundtable article<\/a> attests to, this is something being observed across the industry (comments on my recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/thinkingslow_welcome-to-the-era-of-zero-click-seo-activity-7326231933338664960-ct8A?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAuygqQBwS0PzkfW8cQjYRk6Stra8lDgFLo\">LinkedIn post<\/a> corroborate this,&nbsp;too).<\/p>\n<p>And we\u2019re impacted. Here\u2019s what this looks like for the Ahrefs blog, via the <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-ai-overview-links-top-12-organic-rankings-449216\">GSC report in Ahrefs<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1720\" height=\"532\" class=\"wp-image-188845\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-1.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-1.png 1720w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-1-680x210.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-1-768x238.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-1-1536x475.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1720px) 100vw, 1720px\"><\/p>\n<p>In the six-month period at the end of 2024, the daily impressions and clicks for the Ahrefs blog showed a positive correlation of 0.425. Clicks and impressions generally increased together. You can see this in the graph above: both lines generally move up and down in tandem.<\/p>\n<p>In the first six months of this year, that correlation has changed radically to a <em>negative <\/em>correlation of -0.352. Now, as impressions climb, clicks tend to decrease at the same time. Impressions are soaring while clicks are plummeting. Clicks and impressions have become decoupled from one another\u2014one can grow while the other declines.<\/p>\n<p>Hence what <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DarwinSantosNYC\/status\/1928807667117461856\">Darwin Santos perfectly dubbed<\/a> \u201cThe Great Decoupling\u201d. One of the few hard-and-fast rules of SEO no longer holds. Thanks Google.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"The two causes of the great decoupling\" data-section=\"two\">\n<h2><a id=\"post-188835-_4lfcb4mrcda5\"><\/a>The two causes of the great decoupling<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>It seems likely that many websites\u2019 impressions increased because AI Overviews allow <em>multiple&nbsp;<\/em>URLs to \u201cshare\u201d the impressions available for a first-place ranking.<\/p>\n<p>A traditional first-place ranking only allows one URL to receive impressions; AI Overviews can cite several URLs, each of which can now be credited with those impressions.<\/p>\n<div class=\"editor-note\"><div class=\"editor-title\">Editor\u2019s Note<\/div><div class=\"editor-content\">\n<p><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">We previously hypothesized that AI Overviews offered <em>two<\/em>&nbsp;chances to log an impression for a given keyword: once as a \u201ctraditional\u201d blue link in the search results, and&nbsp;<em>again&nbsp;<\/em>as a citation in an AI Overview.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Google\u2019s John Mueller has since confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/markseo_seo-activity-7419722874061500416-eStb?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAuygqQBwS0PzkfW8cQjYRk6Stra8lDgFLo\">this is not the case<\/a>\u2014AI Overviews will only trigger <em>one<\/em> impression, similar to your URL being featured in both an image block and the traditional search results.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"editor-info clearfix\"><div class=\"editor\">Ryan Law<\/div><div class=\"editor-job\">Director of Content Marketing<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>At the same time, clicks decreased because AI Overviews are increasing <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/zero-click-search\/\">zero-click searches<\/a>. Searchers can get all the information they need to resolve their query without leaving the search results page.<\/p>\n<p>When we studied this at scale across 300,000 keywords, we found that the presence of an AI Overview correlates with a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks\/\">34.5% reduction in clickthrough rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1239\" class=\"wp-image-188846\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-2.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-2.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-2-549x425.png 549w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-2-768x595.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-2-1536x1189.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>So, at the same time that impressions are soaring, clicks are at an all-time low.<\/p>\n<p>The period of this widening gap between clicks and impressions corresponds with the large-scale rollout of AI Overviews. Alongside the March Core update, we found that the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks\/\">presence of AI Overviews <em>doubled<\/em><\/a>, increasing by 116%\u2014the same time these \u201ccrocodile mouths\u201d appeared:<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1696\" height=\"1387\" class=\"wp-image-188847\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-3.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-3.png 1696w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-3-520x425.png 520w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-3-768x628.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/word-image-188835-3-1536x1256.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1696px) 100vw, 1696px\"><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/patrickstox_yall-have-seen-the-crocodile-charts-heres-activity-7338739509875929089-0aIL?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAuygqQBwS0PzkfW8cQjYRk6Stra8lDgFLo\">Ahrefs\u2019 Patrick Stox points out<\/a>, sites with very few AI Overviews do not share this same pattern:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-188864\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-4.jpg\" alt width=\"1706\" height=\"852\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-4.jpg 1706w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-4-680x340.jpg 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-4-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-4-1536x767.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-4-400x200.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\"><\/p>\n<p>The great decoupling will probably continue until AI Overviews finish rolling out\u2014but now that it seems likely that AI Mode will become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/google-io\/670439\/google-ai-mode-search-io-2025\">default search experience<\/a>, it\u2019s possible this trend could continue.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"See how AI overviews impact your rankings\" data-section=\"three\">\n<h2>See how AI Overviews impact your rankings<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>You can use the <strong>SERP features <\/strong>filter to see exactly where AI Overviews are triggering for your keyword rankings.<\/p>\n<p>Head to Ahrefs\u2019<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\"> <strong>Site Explorer<\/strong><\/a>, navigate to the <strong>Organic keywords<\/strong> report, and select <strong>AI Overview <\/strong>from the SERP features filter. Filter to keywords where your domain ranks in <strong>Position: 1-10<\/strong>, and you\u2019ll see the keywords most likely to receive impressions from both organic rankings and an AI Overview:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-188859\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-1.png\" alt width=\"1856\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-1.png 1856w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-1-680x113.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-1-768x127.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-1-1536x255.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1856px) 100vw, 1856px\"><\/p>\n<p>When I do this for Ahrefs, I can see over 19,000 keywords that trigger an AI Overview <em>and <\/em>include Ahrefs in the top ten results:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-188858\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-2.png\" alt width=\"1856\" height=\"518\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-2.png 1856w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-2-680x190.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-2-768x214.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-2-1536x429.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1856px) 100vw, 1856px\"><\/p>\n<p>Using Ahrefs\u2019 new AI visibility tool, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/brand-radar\">Brand Radar<\/a>, you can then filter our database of AI Overviews to see those that include a link to your&nbsp;URL:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-188860\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-3.png\" alt width=\"2038\" height=\"874\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-3.png 2038w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-3-680x292.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-3-768x329.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-great-decoupling-3-1536x659.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2038px) 100vw, 2038px\"><\/p>\n<p>Here, I can see over 5,000 keywords that include Ahrefs as a citation. Any keywords that appear both here&nbsp;<em>and<\/em> in the previous report are likely to be suffering from increased impressions and reduced clicks, pulling double-duty in both the organic results and the AI Overview.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"post-188835-_8o7yiyoe26rl\"><\/a>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen hundreds of GSC accounts over the years, and until recently, never seen a pattern like this. Now it\u2019s everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, blog traffic growth seemed well correlated with business growth. But today, I see that correlation weakening. This isn\u2019t a case of one blog bleeding traffic\u2014this is an entire <em>industry <\/em>being recalibrated in real-time.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not all doom and gloom. While our clicks are tanking because of AI search, recent data from Patrick Stox shows that\u2014at least on the Ahrefs website\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-search-traffic-conversions-ahrefs\/\">visits from AI search convert 23x better than visits from traditional search<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The way content marketing functions is very different, but guess what? There are more potential customers in the world, more demand for products and services. That is the real determinant of growth, not clicks to a blog. We\u2019ll find different ways to reach those people.<\/p>\n<p>(But we should probably change our traffic growth targets\u2026)<\/p>\n<div class=\"further-reading\"><div class=\"reading-title\">Further reading<\/div><div class=\"reading-content\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-search-traffic-conversions-ahrefs\/\">Does AI Search Traffic Convert Better Than Traditional Search? For Ahrefs, Yes: 0.5% of Visitors Drove 12.1% of Signups<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/insights-from-56-million-ai-overviews\/\">Insights From 55.8M AI Overviews Across 590M Searches\u2014A Study by Ahrefs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks\/\">AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5%<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-overview-brand-correlation\/\">An Analysis of AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands Studied)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The roll-out of AI Overviews now creates two opportunities for top-ranking content to log impressions for a given keyword, while simultaneously reducing the number of people who click from the search engine results page (SERP) into your content. If your<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,335],"tags":[],"coauthors":[457],"class_list":["post-188835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-marketing","category-general-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Great Decoupling (or Why Your Clicks Are Down and Impressions Up)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If your Google Search Console chart looks like an open-mouthed crocodile, with clicks plummeting as impressions soar, here\u2019s why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/the-great-decoupling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Great Decoupling (or Why Your Clicks Are Down and Impressions Up)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If your Google Search Console chart looks like an open-mouthed crocodile, with clicks plummeting as impressions soar, here\u2019s why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/the-great-decoupling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ahrefs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-17T14:02:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-23T09:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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