AI Overviews Slash Click-Through Rates in France, Health Sector Most Affected

On July 22, 2026, France became the latest major search market to experience the widespread implementation of Google’s AI Overviews. Unlike previous rollouts where the impact was often obscured by other algorithmic changes or seasonal fluctuations, the French launch provided a clear "before and after" scenario. A study by Ahrefs, analyzing data from 963 French domains tracked in Google Search Console for 28 days prior to and nine days after the AI Overview launch, reveals a significant and immediate negative impact on click-through rates (CTR).

The data, meticulously pulled and analyzed by Ahrefs data scientist Xibeijia Guan, indicates that domains with the highest exposure to AI Overviews saw their click-through rates plummet by over a fifth within just nine days. Conversely, domains with minimal exposure experienced negligible changes, strongly suggesting that the observed declines are directly attributable to AI Overviews rather than a general algorithm update.

Across the entire panel of studied domains, the median click-through rate dropped by 3.4% in the nine days following the AI Overview rollout. However, for those domains most exposed to these AI-generated summaries, the decline was a staggering 23.1%, six times greater than the overall average. This severe impact was not an isolated incident; 82.2% of highly exposed domains experienced a loss in CTR, indicating that for a significant majority, avoiding negative consequences has become the exception rather than the rule.

Ahrefs’ analysis established a clear linear relationship between AI Overview exposure and CTR loss. For every additional percentage point of AI Overview exposure across all 963 domains, there was a corresponding loss of approximately one percentage point in click-through rate. This suggests a predictive model where an estimated 15% query exposure to AI Overviews could lead to a roughly 15% reduction in CTR. While this is presented as a crude but actionable estimation tool, Ahrefs cautions that AI Overview rate is a risk factor, not a definitive prediction, and individual site performance can vary due to other factors.

The trend observed in France mirrors previous findings, including Ahrefs’ global study from late 2025 and the phenomenon known as "the great decoupling." AI Overviews do not necessarily remove pages from search engine results pages (SERPs); instead, they render them redundant within the SERP itself. In extreme cases within the French panel, impressions surged by as much as 183% while clicks decreased by 1.9%, effectively dividing the CTR by more than three.

While the 23.1% drop represents the experience of the most exposed sites, the overall market in France saw a median CTR decline of 5.7% and a click decline of 8.8%. However, this median figure masks a stark distribution of impact. Nearly half of the websites studied experienced a loss of over 10% in their daily clicks within the nine-day period, with one in twenty losing as much as 50%. This rapid decline over such a short timeframe is particularly concerning, especially as AI Overview exposure is expected to continue rising. Currently, the median AI Overview rate among the studied domains is 5.4%, with 29% already exceeding 10%, a trend consistent across all markets since 2024. Notably, French domains (.fr) in the panel experienced a median click loss of 12.3%, indicating they are more vulnerable than international competitors operating in the same market.

The health sector emerged as the most severely impacted vertical. Health-related queries typically have an AI Overview rate of 22.2%, the highest recorded in the study, and consequently, this sector witnessed a 20.4% drop in click-through rates. This vulnerability is attributed to the nature of health queries, which are often informational, have concise answers, and do not inherently lead to immediate transactions. AI Overviews excel at absorbing such queries, providing the answer directly within the overview and satisfying the user’s need without requiring a click.

The determining factor for a website’s fate appears to be the intent behind the queries it ranks for. Queries that can be answered within a single paragraph are highly susceptible to being absorbed by AI Overviews. Conversely, queries requiring more complex interactions, such as the use of tools, account logins, price comparisons, purchases, or the need for nuanced human opinions, tend to hold up better. Therefore, analyzing keywords through the lens of user intent is deemed more critical than simply considering industry vertical.

The impact of AI Overviews is projected to worsen over time. Ahrefs’ previous global research tracked the effect on position 1 click-through rates, which escalated from a 34.5% decline in spring 2025 to a 58% decline by the end of that year. This trend suggests that the impact of AI Overviews does not diminish with time but rather intensifies as they become integrated into more queries and users become accustomed to obtaining information without clicking through to websites. France is expected to follow a similar trajectory.

The methodology employed in the study involved analyzing CTR changes for domains with high AI Overview exposure against a control group. The raw observed CTR decline for the highly exposed group was 23.1%. However, during the same period, the control group experienced a slight CTR increase of 2.3%. When accounting for this baseline shift, the true impact of AI Overviews on the highly exposed group is calculated to be a more substantial 24.8%.

In conclusion, two weeks after their introduction in France, AI Overviews have demonstrably reduced click-through rates, particularly for highly exposed websites. The relationship between AI Overview exposure and CTR loss is linear, with each percentage point of exposure costing approximately one percentage point of CTR. Key takeaways for website owners include the measurability of risk through tools like the SERP features filter in Site Explorer, the critical importance of focusing on click-through rates rather than impressions, and the alignment of these findings with other industry reports indicating significant organic CTR declines. The data suggests that the search landscape in France is increasingly moving towards a "zero-click" environment.