France Experiences Significant Click-Through Rate Decline Following AI Overview Launch

On July 22, 2026, France became the latest major search market to integrate AI Overviews into its Google Search results. This precise launch date provided an unprecedented opportunity to observe the immediate impact of this new feature on website traffic without the confounding variables of gradual rollout or concurrent algorithm updates. A comprehensive study by Ahrefs, analyzing data from 963 domains in Google Search Console for the 28 days preceding and the 9 days following the AI Overview implementation, reveals a significant and direct correlation between exposure to AI Overviews and a decline in click-through rates (CTR).

The data, meticulously compiled and analyzed by Ahrefs data scientist Xibeijia Guan, indicates that less than a month after their introduction, AI Overviews are demonstrably eroding click-through rates for French websites. Domains with the highest exposure to AI Overviews experienced a loss of over a fifth of their click-through rate within the initial nine-day period. Conversely, domains with minimal exposure saw negligible changes, strongly suggesting that the observed decline is a direct consequence of AI Overviews, rather than a general algorithm update or seasonal fluctuation.

Across the entire panel of studied domains, the average click-through rate experienced a drop of 3.4% in the nine days following the AI Overview launch. However, for domains that were most exposed to these AI-generated summaries, the decline was substantially steeper, plummeting by 23.1%. This indicates that the impact is not evenly distributed; rather, it disproportionately affects sites that frequently appear within AI Overviews. The study further highlights the widespread nature of this impact, with 82.2% of highly exposed domains experiencing a loss in CTR. At this level of exposure, avoiding a negative consequence has become the exception rather than the rule.

Ahrefs’ analysis also provides a method for estimating potential losses. By comparing the change in CTR against each domain’s AI Overview exposure rate across the 963 domains, a consistent relationship emerged: a slope of -0.9. This suggests a linear correlation, where each additional percentage point of AI Overview exposure equates to approximately a one percentage point loss in click-through rate. Therefore, a website whose queries trigger an AI Overview 15% of the time can anticipate a potential loss of around 15% in its CTR. While this is a simplified model, it offers actionable insight by allowing website owners to assess their exposure rate using tools like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and gain a quantitative understanding of their potential risk. It is important to note that this slope represents a risk factor, not a definitive prediction, as other variables can influence website performance.

The observed trend is characterized by an increase in impressions coupled with a decrease in clicks. Website rankings, for the most part, remained stable in the period following the AI Overview launch. Pages continued to appear in search results with the same or even increased frequency. However, the crucial difference lies in user engagement: these pages are being clicked on less often. This pattern mirrors findings from Ahrefs’ global studies conducted in late 2025, and aligns with the broader phenomenon described as "the great decoupling." AI Overviews, in this context, do not necessarily remove a page from the search results; instead, they render it less essential within the search engine results page (SERP) itself. In an extreme case identified in the French study, one domain experienced a 183% increase in impressions alongside a 1.9% decrease in clicks, effectively dividing its CTR by more than three.

While the most heavily exposed sites suffered significant losses, the median impact across the entire French market was less severe, with a 5.7% decrease in CTR and an 8.8% decrease in clicks. However, this seemingly moderate median masks a more concerning distribution. Nearly half of the websites studied experienced a decline of more than 10% in their daily clicks, and one in twenty lost as much as 50% of their clicks within the nine-day period. This suggests that while the average impact might appear manageable, a substantial portion of the market is facing severe traffic reductions. Furthermore, the exposure to AI Overviews is projected to continue climbing. Currently, the median AI Overview rate among the studied domains stands at 5.4%, with 29% already exceeding 10%. This upward trend has been consistent across all markets where AI Overviews have been implemented since 2024. Notably, French domains (.fr) in the Ahrefs panel experienced a median click loss of 12.3%, indicating they are more vulnerable than international competitors operating within the same French search market.

The health sector emerged as the most adversely affected. This vertical exhibits the highest AI Overview rate in the study, at 22.2%, and consequently experienced a substantial 20.4% drop in its click-through rate. This vulnerability can be attributed to the nature of health-related queries, which are often informational, have concise answers, and typically do not lead to immediate transactional outcomes. These characteristics make them ideal candidates for AI Overviews, as the information can be readily provided within the AI-generated summary, satisfying the user’s query without the need to click through to a website. The underlying factor determining a website’s fate, therefore, is not solely its industry vertical but the intent behind the user’s queries. Queries that can be answered with a single paragraph are at high risk of being absorbed by AI Overviews, whereas queries requiring tools, account access, price comparisons, or nuanced human opinions tend to be more resilient.

The impact of AI Overviews is projected to worsen over time. Global research conducted by Ahrefs has shown a consistent increase in the effect of AI Overviews on the CTR of top-ranking positions. This decline, which moved from -34.5% in spring 2025 to -58% by the end of that year, does not appear to stabilize but rather intensifies as AI Overviews are triggered on a greater number of queries and users become accustomed to receiving information directly from the SERP. There is no indication that France will deviate from this trajectory, and further analysis over a longer period is planned to monitor the evolving impact.

The methodology employed in the study involved analyzing data from 963 French domains in Google Search Console, comparing the 28 days before the AI Overview launch with the 9 days after. The reported CTR decline of 23.1% for highly exposed domains is the raw observed change. During the same period, the control group (minimally exposed sites) actually saw a 2.3% increase in CTR. When accounting for this baseline lift, the true impact of AI Overviews on highly exposed sites is calculated to be a -24.8% decline in CTR.

In conclusion, two weeks after their introduction in France, AI Overviews have demonstrably impacted website traffic, with the most exposed sites losing a fifth of their click-through rate, while less exposed sites remained largely unaffected. The relationship between exposure and CTR decline is linear, suggesting a direct trade-off. Three key takeaways emerge from this analysis: Firstly, the risk posed by AI Overviews is quantifiable and can be assessed proactively using tools that identify a website’s exposure rate. Secondly, impressions are an unreliable metric for gauging impact; click-through rate is the critical indicator of traffic loss. Finally, the observed magnitudes of decline align with findings from other studies, confirming a widespread trend of declining organic CTRs in the era of AI-powered search. France’s integration into the AI Overview landscape signifies its participation in the growing trend towards a "zero-click" search environment.