The news: Google is sending fewer clicks to the open web, changing the value of search marketing, per a report from Datos and SparkToro.

• Traditional search still accounts for a much larger share of desktop activity than AI tools, accounting for 10.52% of all quarterly webpage visits across Datos’ US desktop panel in Q2 2026, compared with 1.83% for AI tool domains.
• But marketers are seeing fewer opportunities to turn that activity into site traffic. US organic click share fell to 40% in June, down from 44.9% in March.
• Clicks to Google-owned properties rose from 14.8% in March to as high as 17.1% in Q2—indicating Google is keeping more users inside its own ecosystem and sending fewer clicks to the open web.

Behind the numbers: AI features facilitate a search experience that sends fewer users off Google.

• A significant portion of Google searches now end without any clicks to external websites, a trend that has accelerated because of AI Overviews. The tool significantly reduces clickthrough rates by providing direct answers within search results: Paid link CTRs drop from 13% to 6% when AI Overviews are present, according to Seer Interactive.

• AI Overviews has decreased some CTRs by as much as 58% on top-ranking search engine result pages (SERPs), per Ahrefs. 2025 Publisher referral traffic decreased as much as 25% due to AI Overviews, according to Digital Content Next.
• A July 2025 Pew Research Center study found that AI summaries nearly halve clicks to traditional search results: Only 8% of searches on pages with summaries lead to a click, versus 15% without them.

Implications for marketers: As Google surfaces more answers directly in results and keeps a larger share of post-search activity, brands that rely heavily on organic search may see fewer clicks even when search usage remains strong. Search isn’t disappearing, but the click path is narrowing, which makes it harder to turn visibility into site traffic.

That makes it important for marketers to diversify acquisition beyond Google, including building audiences on Reddit and other platforms where people increasingly research and discover content. Brands should also adapt to changing SERP components, making sure titles, snippets, links, and other search elements are structured to stand out in both traditional results and AI-generated summaries.

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