AI Overviews: -23,1 % CTR in France across 963 domains
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SEO is no longer about position. It’s about attention.
On July 22, 2026, AI Overviews arrived in France. Nine days later, the Ahrefs study was released: 963 domains screened in GSC. The most exposed sites lose 23,1 % of their CTR.
No drop in positions. No algorithm update. Just an answer overlay that captures attention before the first blue link.
I review 15 sites a week. Same pattern everywhere. Impressions stable, sometimes up. Clicks slipping. A page still ranked first, now invisible. Content has nothing to do with it. Everything hinges on where Google places the answer.
The attention leak described by the DOSE framework, taught by Guillaume Attias at BMO Academy, does not start on your page. It starts on the search results page. The AI Overview captures intent before the click. Your site is there, ranked. The user no longer needs to go there.
In the study, the average loss is 3,4 % CTR across all domains. The average hides a brutal reality. For the most exposed domains, the drop is six times greater. And 82,2 % of these highly exposed domains lost CTR. Exposure weighs more than content.
July 22, 2026 is not just another date. For once, we can compare before and after, with a clear protocol: 28 days before launch, 9 days after. Ahrefs was already tracking 963 French domains in Google Search Console. Xibeijia Guan, data scientist, extracted and analyzed the data. Juliette Begue, France Marketing Manager, coordinated the study. Less than a month after launch, the impact is measurable, clean, isolated.
We have long debated the real share of AI Overviews in traffic drops. In France, we have a dated launch. We have numbers. No more guessing.
The overlay does not remove your page. It makes it redundant within the SERP. The user reads the synthesized answer, sometimes an excerpt from your content, and does not click. You keep the ranking, you lose the action. That’s the « great decoupling » described in the Ahrefs global study from late 2025.
What’s most troubling: pages appear just as often, sometimes more. They simply get fewer clicks. A page can gain theoretical visibility and lose real traffic. Success is no longer measured by rank, but by the attention captured before it.
Attention is a finite resource. Capturing it becomes the number one challenge. Your top position does not protect you if Google places an answer above it.
« This is not an algorithm update. This is AI Overviews. » — Ahrefs study, September 2026
963 domains, 28 days before, 9 days after: the protocol
The Ahrefs study relies on Google Search Console data, not surveys. 963 French domains tracked for 28 days before July 22, 2026, then 9 days after. The scope is tight.
Across the entire panel, CTR dropped by 3,4 % in nine days. For the domains most exposed to AI Overviews, the drop reaches 23,1 %. Six times more. And 82,2 % of highly exposed domains lost CTR. Being spared is the exception.
The panel’s median is -5,7 % CTR and -8,8 % clicks. Reassuring on paper. But the distribution tells another story:
- 48 % of sites lose more than 10 % of daily clicks.
- 19 % lose more than 30 %.
- 5 % lose more than half.
One site out of two. In nine days. The speed surprises more than the direction.
The .fr domains in the panel lost 12,3 % of clicks. The impact concentrates on sites answering informational queries, where the AI Overview synthesizes the most. Geography matters.
Ahrefs isolated exposure. Weakly exposed domains barely moved. Massively exposed domains collapsed. The relationship is linear. Here, no algorithm penalizes: the overlay captures the click.
The median exposure rate is 5,4 % today. 29 % of domains already exceed 10 %. Across all markets since 2024, these numbers have moved only in one direction. Up.
If your site is already above 10 % exposure, you are no longer in a comfort zone. You are in an arbitration zone.
Un chiffre suffit à comprendre. Sur les 963 domaines suivis, 82,2 % des sites les plus exposés aux AI Overviews ont perdu du CTR en neuf jours. Être épargné, c’est l’exception.
82,2 % des domaines exposés perdent du CTR
Sur les 963 domaines français suivis par Ahrefs, l’exposition aux AI Overviews fait basculer la quasi-totalité des sites.
The -0,9 slope: a simple ratio to estimate your losses
Beyond averages, the Ahrefs study gives a concrete number: the -0,9 slope.
Concretely, each additional exposure point to AI Overviews costs about one CTR point. If 15 % of your queries trigger an AI Overview, count roughly 15 % less CTR. Nothing prophetic about it. An order of magnitude. But enough to make trade-offs.
To estimate your own exposure rate, Ahrefs recommends using the « SERP Features » filter in Site Explorer. Open the « Organic Keywords » report, select « AI Overview » under SERP features, and you see exactly which of your positions trigger an AI Overview.
The calculation is simple. Take your exposure rate. Subtract about that percentage from your current CTR. You get a first loss estimate. If you are at 12 %, estimate -12 %. At 25 %, -25 %. Rough, but useful.
Heads-up: a slope is not a verdict. Some highly exposed domains do well. Others, lightly exposed, collapse for reasons that have nothing to do with AI. Your exposure rate is a risk factor, not a condemnation. The study says it in black and white. Ahrefs will come back in a few months to measure the real evolution.
This slope helps move from observation to calculation. Before, we said « AI Overviews hurt us. » Now, we can say « 10 % exposure, about 10 % less CTR, to be verified. » You know where to focus attention.
If you manage a catalog of 800 references, you do not need a 400-page analysis. You need a ratio. The -0,9 slope is that ratio.
Small note: the slope is calculated across 963 domains, not a single sector. It smooths different realities. But it gives you a starting point. That’s already better than flying blind.
Regardez le découplage en action. Sur le domaine le plus touché du panel, les impressions bondissent de 183 % pendant que les clics reculent de 1,9 %. La page est plus visible que jamais, et pourtant plus personne ne clique.
Impressions en hausse, clics en baisse
Le cas extrême du panel : +183 % d’impressions pour -1,9 % de clics, un CTR divisé par trois.
Impressions up, clicks down: the decoupling
Almost no one lost positions at the end of July. Pages continue to appear, as often as before, sometimes more. They just get fewer clicks. Same pattern as the Ahrefs study from late 2025. This is the shape of the « great decoupling »: an AI Overview does not remove you from the SERP, it makes you redundant within it.
The most extreme case in the French panel: +183 % impressions for -1,9 % clicks. CTR divided by more than three. The page is more present than ever. Nobody clicks.
This decoupling is attention capture upstream. The question changes: « Am I visible? » is no longer enough, you have to ask « Does this visibility trigger an action? » The AI Overview answers before the click. Attention stays on the results page, not on your site.
The DOSE framework, as taught by Guillaume Attias, places attention at the heart of the system. A rare resource, and one that moves. AI Overviews do not steal your positions. They shift attention to a space you do not control.
Your content feeds the AI Overview, then the AI Overview digests it. You remain in the engine, but no longer in the click. A substitution rather than an exclusion.
Direct consequence: GSC reports showing rising impressions can be misleading. We celebrate visibility. We forget the click. Decoupling forces a review of how you read your metrics. Impressions no longer measure performance. They measure the raw material provided to AI.
The .fr domains lost 12,3 % of clicks. Impressions often stable, clicks falling. The phenomenon affects the whole market, with violent concentrations in certain sectors.
The good news: this decoupling is measurable. You can track, query by query, whether an AI Overview is present. And isolate the queries where the click remains possible.
The worst sector: health
The Ahrefs study points to health as the most affected sector. Logical. Medical queries are massively informational. You search for a symptom, a dosage, an explanation. Google can synthesize a generic answer without the user needing to open a site.
A health guide is often built on hundreds of pages. Each page answers a question. Each page becomes a source for the AI Overview. The content is good. The ranking is good. But the click no longer follows. The engine aggregates, summarizes, answers. The page stays below, visible but not clicked.
Sites that live off this informational traffic are the most exposed. The -0,9 slope is not a detail: the more your query invites a synthesized answer, the more clicks you lose.
I am not saying to abandon health. It is a market. But first-level informational traffic is shifting. You can still exist, provided you exist where synthesis is not enough: patient expérience, detailed protocol, clinical cases, reviews, comparisons, appointment booking.
The worst is not the loss. It is continuing to invest in content that feeds the AI Overview without bringing visits. If your health page has no other function than answering the question, it becomes a gift to the engine.
The impact will intensify. Today, the median exposure rate is 5,4 %. 29 % of domains exceed 10 %. Since 2024, in all markets, these numbers have only gone up. France will be no exception.
So we must rethink the place of informational content. Not remove it. Reposition it.
For years, health SEO relied on semantic depth. We covered all questions to capture all actions. Today, that depth serves the engine first. The question is no longer « How many questions do I cover? » but « Which questions still bring a visitor? »
You benefit from identifying queries where the AI Overview pushes the user toward an action: appointment booking, purchase, contact. Those queries have a value that does not decouple.
Pas de fatalité, des décisions. Voici les trois actions que j’applique dans cet ordre pour transformer la donnée en arbitrages.
Trois actions pour arbitrer
Mesurer, calculer, segmenter : la méthode pour reprendre la main sur son CTR.
What I’d do in your place: arbitrate, not suffer
First action: measure your exposure. Open your GSC. Cross-reference your queries with the presence of AI Overview. Ahrefs’ SERP features filter does the job. Without Ahrefs, a GSC export and a manual review of the top 200 queries are enough to sort through.
Second action: calculate your slope. 15 % of your queries trigger an AI Overview? Count about -15 % CTR. 25 %? About -25 %. It is approximate. It gives an order of magnitude, and that is enough to arbitrate.
Third action: segment your content. Purely informational queries, where the AI Overview answers in one sentence, are the most threatened. Put your investments where the click remains essential: detailed comparison, price, location, urgency, purchase, appointment booking, reviews.
Fourth action: protect your brand. Brand queries, navigation, strong intent signals keep a high click-through rate. Strengthen your category pages, product pages, contact pages. Generic questions will no longer bring much.
I am not selling you a method. I look at pages. The ones that still convert, that’s the useful info. Not necessarily those with the most traffic. The ones that keep the user after the click.
Don’t chase lost traffic. Go after the clicks that remain. The -0,9 slope is not a condemnation. It’s a signal: shift the budget before the market does it for you.
One number to remember: 48 % of sites in the panel lost more than 10 % of daily clicks in nine days. You are not alone. The next decisions will separate those who suffer from those who adapt.
And you, do you know how many of your queries trigger an AI Overview today?
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Book a strategic call — 45 minFrequently Asked Questions
What are AI Overviews and when did they launch in France?
These are AI-written answers, and Google displays them above classic results. In France, they have been live since July 22, 2026. The Ahrefs study confirms this.
Why is my CTR dropping even though my positions remain stable?
The AI Overview captures attention before the click. Your pages remain ranked, sometimes even more visible. Except that the user has their answer without clicking. We call this the impressions/clicks decoupling.
How do I measure my exposure rate to AI Overviews?
In Site Explorer, I open the « SERP Features » filter and select « AI Overview ». Another option: I export my GSC queries and manually identify AI Overviews on my top 200 queries.
Is the -0,9 slope a reliable prediction?
No, it’s a risk ratio. Each exposure point costs roughly one CTR point. A concrete benchmark, nothing more. I have seen highly exposed sites do very well.
Which content should you prioritize in the face of AI Overviews?
Some queries need a click: comparing, knowing a price, finding an address, an emergency, a purchase, an appointment. There, it’s worth investing. On purely informational generic questions, on the other hand, spend little.
