I have found a trend on a number of websites where the prevalence of the nippets presented falls over time, while AI overviews replace it. And this can obviously lead to a decline in traffic, since the click rate from AI overview is naturally lower and sometimes much lower. I haven’t seen this for every vertical, but it seems that the excerpts for a number of them fall as an increase in Aios. In the following I will cover how to check the prevalence of nippets presented for your website and the niche over time to see how bad this is for your website.
The rise of AI overviews:
The prevalence of AI overviews has increased significantly last year and especially in the past six months. We also know that Google is working on bringing the Serps and maybe soon the AI ​​mode. And in my opinion it always felt strange to see both Aios and snippets that rank in the same snake. I’ve already shared it … and I believed that Google could slowly cut out in favor of Aios.
And I have also shared the increase in AI overview prevalence over time (now in almost 19% of the queries).
This is also the reason why it is brilliant (in a bad manner) not to give Site owner no AI overview or to find Snippet data in GSC (broken out). If you cannot filter this data in GSC, you cannot easily see the trend for these SERP functions. And that means that functions could swap over time and that many site owners would have no idea that this would happen. Of course, a decline in Google’s data traffic could be a sign that Aios often contain a number of links to various websites while winning a snippet means that they are the top dog. Here, too, the click rate for Aios can be much lower than the nippets presented.
For example, I covered the gap in the Google search, where websites still rank with manual actions in Aios. That meant that websites could see with a manual action pure AI overview data in GSC. And then CTRs were not good compared to winning a snippet:
Wil Reynolds and his team at Seher also saw Lower traffic levels When Aios were present. You can read more about the study on your blog.
I also recently announced that I showed AI overviews with over 40 quotations and saw Lily Ray similar Aios with many quotations. And all of these lists are technically speaking in GSC #1 because they take over the rank of the block in the SERP (as long as they are scrolled off in sight). But are we with over 40 links how many people actually click on the target website? It is hard to believe that many …
Selected excerpts lose their functions: the evidence:
I checked a number of websites about industries that were stable last year or so. Then I checked the number of snippets presented, which appeared in the Serps based on the queries for which they were classified. I not only checked the excerpts presented for which they rank. Instead, I wanted to see the prevalence of presented snippets on the basis of all the queries for which they were classified. That would give me a feeling for the Snippet prevalence presented for the niche and not just for your specific site.
Here is what I have seen based on Semrush and Ahrefs data:
And here are Ahrefs data that show the number queries that are shown from the course of time. I will give two examples below, but I have looked at this on many websites.
First, March 3, 2025:
Compared to September 2024:
Here is another side. First, March 3, 2025:
And compared to September 2024:
And here are some screenshots based on queries that once gave a equipped snippet, but now only a AI overview.
Note, I just wanted to show a few examples, but I strongly recommend that you go through this process for your website and your niche. Again I didn’t see this for all industries … but I did it for some of them. In the following I will give some tips for carrying out this process.
How to check the prevalence of nippets presented for your website and niche:
- Check when snippets for your website and niche are displayed. Make sure you check websites with stable organic reporting in the course of the time frame. If not, considerable ranking effects due to algorithm updates can drop the number of snippets presented, for which the website (or the number of excerpts displayed in the SERP is displayed) can drop.
- Semrush shows about live diagrams what is great.
- Ahrefs will also specify the number of queries that cut out on the seeds in total (and are not only bound to the website). This is similar to what I have explained about Semrush, but Semrush has Live diagrams that occur over time based on their selection.
- Rank that pursue your top queries can also result in a decline in the snippets presented over time (although this usually applies to a much smaller example than persecution of snippets for all queries for the website). That means it is another data point.
- Based on the data you have collected, check the SERPs for queries that have been cut in the past to determine whether they are still there or whether Aios replaces them.
- You can also export the data per month and then use Vlookup to determine which queries have fallen out of the data set over time. Then check the SERPS and see which SERP functions have a ranking.
Summary: Is Google Swapping Snippets for Aios?
In my opinion, it makes sense that Google would reduce the number of snippets ranking presented if AI overviews are available. And to be crystal clear, I don’t like that at all, but both snippets and Aios seems to be exaggerated. Also add that Google’s “AI mode” will come soon and I can see why Google is preparing the SERPs for the AI ​​overhaul.
In the meantime, I would go through the process listed above and see what you find for your website and niche. The leak of the traffic that some websites see could be the result of the presented snippets that fall for many questions for which they are classified. And if this is the case, it is important to understand that this has happened so that you can communicate it in your organization (and possibly plan a larger switch of nippets presented to AI overviews). Good luck.
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