AI Overviews France: Who Loses the Most CTR?
Summarize this article with AI
The raw data: −23,1 % in nine days
One figure. −23,1 %. That’s what the French domains most exposed to AI Overviews lose. Nine days after launch. The Ahrefs study, published September 16, 2026, tracked 963 domains in Google Search Console: 28 days before July 22, 2026, 9 days after.
The French launch has one merit: we get a clean before/after. Algorithm changes stay silent. Seasonality stays flat over three weeks. Just AI Overviews.
Across all domains, average CTR fell 3,4 % in nine days. The median is harsher: −5,7 % CTR and −8,8 % daily clicks.
The distribution is brutal.
| Daily click loss | Share of panel |
|---|---|
| More than 10 % | 48 % |
| More than 30 % | 19 % |
| More than 50 % | 5 % |
Nearly one in two sites lost more than 10 % of daily clicks. One in twenty lost half. In nine days.
Pages remain ranked. Impressions stay stable, sometimes even rising. Only the click disappears.
AI Overviews alone suffice. Algorithm updates stay out of the picture.
The −23,1 % applies to the whole panel. Among highly exposed domains, 82,2 % lost CTR. At that exposure level, almost everyone takes a hit.
The slope between exposure and CTR loss is −0,9. In other words, each additional point of exposure costs about one point of CTR. If 15 % of your queries trigger an AI Overview, expect to lose about 15 % CTR.
And everyone loses differently. Some sectors take the hit. Others hold steady. Verticals vary sharply.
Quand un site est très exposé à l’AI Overview, l’issue est rarement neutre. Le chiffre est sans appel : 82,2 % des sites les plus exposés encaissent une baisse de CTR.
Qui perd du CTR ? La part des sites exposés
Sur les domaines les plus exposés à l’AI Overview, la très grande majorité encaisse une baisse.
Who takes the hit? Segmenting the 963 domains
The Ahrefs study segments the 963 domains with a finer indicator: exposure rate. That’s the percentage of queries where an AI Overview appears on your SERP.
The higher this rate climbs, the harder CTR falls. The −0,9 slope confirms it. Each exposure point costs about one CTR point.
Who has the most exposure, mechanically? Informational content sites. The ones that answer questions. Symptoms, tutorials, definitions, comparisons.
Health clearly stands out. Ahrefs ranks it as the hardest hit. That’s the clearest signal in the study.
Transactional holds up better. A query like « buy 7 kg washing machine » triggers an AI Overview that kills the click less often. Buying intent calls for a product page, a price, stock.
Brand queries protect. When someone types your name, they want your site. The AI Overview is bypassable. The visitor already knows their destination.
But pay attention.
I’ve observed this with my clients since July. An e-commerce site that lives on buying guides loses more than a site where 80 % of pages are product pages. The losses often cluster on 20 informational pages that carry 70 % of traffic.
Segmentation is granular. It’s a question of search intent. Knowing where each page falls gets you halfway there.
See the trap? The same domain can be a victim on its blog and spared on its sales pages.
Why CTR plummets while rankings hold steady
Pages remain ranked. Ahrefs documents an extreme case: +183 % impressions for −1,9 % clicks. CTR is divided by more than three.
The AI Overview keeps your link. It makes it redundant.
The user has their answer in the snippet. They stop scrolling. Your position 2 or 3 collects zero clicks.
Same pattern as the decorrelation Ahrefs observed in late 2025. Visibility stops turning into clicks.
Why do impressions sometimes rise? The AI Overview appears on queries that lacked a clear answer before. The SERP gets richer, the user stays, the organic page becomes context.
Rankings hold steady.
Answer architecture, however, is the full story.
Three words are enough. The AI answers. The click dies.
For SEO, the reading of positions changes. Being number 1 on an informational query with an AI Overview carries a different revenue than in June 2026.
Direct consequence: steering only with positions stops working. We cross GSC data with AI Overview exposure rate.
Those who wait for a ranking drop will already have lost two months of margin.
Health: the hardest-hit sector, and why it’s logical
Ahrefs isolates the health sector. It’s the worst.
Why? Health queries are mostly informational. « Ophthalmic migraine duration, » « left chest pain, » « baby ear infection 38,5. » Google has trained its models on reliable medical sources. The AI Overview answers quickly, in a reassuring format.
The answer makes clicking unnecessary. It’s complete. For Google, that’s a win: the user stays, the query is resolved.
For the site that wrote the source article, it’s a dry loss. Sometimes it’s cited, but the visitor stays away.
I see it often in audits: health content aimed at snippets is the most exposed. Today, the strategy has two tiers: get cited in the AI Overview, AND give a reason to click.
How?
- Structure the conclusion to leave an open question, a comparison table, an interactive tool.
- Pair the page with a video format or a downloadable file.
- Work on microdata to be eligible for citations.
But let’s be clear-eyed.
If Google answers 95 % of the question, no snippet will save the CTR. The page becomes a brand-awareness asset, not a traffic generator.
Health has company. All encyclopedic content follows the same slope. What happens with symptoms will repeat on legal definitions, technical tutorials, insurance questions.
The dividing line runs on the depth of informational intent, rather than the sector.
How to estimate your own loss — with a clear head
You can skip waiting for the next study. Ahrefs gives the method.
In Site Explorer, filter your keywords by the « AI Overview » SERP feature. You get your exposure rate.
Apply the −0,9 slope. If 15 % of your queries trigger an AI Overview, expect to lose about 15 % CTR.
It’s an order of magnitude. A starting point. Some highly exposed sites hold up well. Ahrefs points this out.
Now compare in Google Search Console the 9 days before July 22 and the 9 days after. You’ll have your own number.
Split your queries into three groups: informational, transactional, brand. See where exposure concentrates.
Measure first. React next.
Keep in mind: your exposure rate is a risk factor. A data point to monitor. Strong brand recognition keeps a highly exposed site standing. A lightly exposed site can still collapse for other reasons.
A client called me last week. « I see impressions rising, but my revenue stays flat. » The diagnosis took 12 minutes. 63 % of his lost clicks came from 11 guide pages. We stopped producing new guides. We restructured. We reallocated.
The result took time. The reading was clear from the first hour.
The data exists. You might as well read it.
Quand l’exposition dépasse 20 % sur des requêtes stratégiques, je structure l’action en trois temps. Voici le pipeline que j’applique, du repérage jusqu’à la cible finale.
Ma méthode en 3 étapes pour sites exposés
Repérer, isoler, suivre : le protocole quand l’exposition dépasse 20 %.
What I put in place for exposed sites
When exposure passes 20 % on strategic queries, I work in three steps.
One: spot pages that answer closed questions. They stop bringing qualified traffic. We turn them into long-form content: expert opinions, case studies, proprietary data.
Two: isolate transactional pages. They suffer less. We consolidate their internal linking to capture the remaining click.
Three: monitor citations in the AI Overview. Being cited with zero clicks is still a presence. We use it for brand awareness.
I change the site step by step. We first target the 20 pages that drive 70 % of informational traffic. It runs like a system.
Every week, I check the exposure rate by query group. The −0,9 slope becomes my compass. If exposure rises on transactional, we anticipate. If informational drops off, we keep a cool head.
I keep informational content. I turn it into a cited asset, dense, impossible to summarize in three lines.
A site that documents real cases, with internal figures and non-copyable tables, keeps a reason to click.
SEO today is about segmenting exposure. Defending positions stops being enough.
Winners will restructure informational content before the AI Overview makes it invisible. The rest will delete it, and lose the citation.
What to take away from the first 9 days
AI Overviews are here. They occupy a growing share of French SERPs. Median exposure reaches 5,4 %, and 29 % of domains pass the 10 % mark.
Health is the hardest hit. Informational content takes the strongest pressure. Transactional and brand hold up better.
Good news: you have levers.
Measure your exposure. Segment your queries. Reallocate your efforts. The −0,9 slope points the way.
The sites that will do best read their data before deciding.
One more thing: the 9 days of observation are only a start. In every market since 2024, exposure rate keeps climbing. France will follow the same curve.
What remains is to know on which queries AI is already present.
AI Overviews exposure audit in 45 minutes
Analysis of your top 50 queries, informational / transactional / brand segmentation, and your real loss slope. Numbers, not fluff.
Book a strategic call — 45 minFrequently Asked Questions
How much CTR do domains exposed to AI Overviews in France lose?
The Ahrefs study of September 16, 2026 shows it: the most exposed domains lose −23,1 % CTR in 9 days on average. Across all domains, the median is −5,7 % CTR.
How do I measure my AI Overviews exposure rate?
In Ahrefs Site Explorer, filter your keywords on « AI Overview ». The displayed percentage is your exposure rate. Multiply by −0,9 and you have your CTR loss.
Which sector is hit hardest in France?
The health sector. On informational queries, symptoms or dosages, the AI Overview answers alone. The click stops there, the visit stays away.
Do pages losing CTR also lose their rankings?
No. Ahrefs shows it: impressions hold, and sometimes they climb. The link stays displayed, we just click less on it. The AI Overview gives the direct answer in the SERP, the page then becomes redundant.
Are transactional sites spared?
They hold up better. On purchase or contact intent, there remains a need for price, product page, form. The AI Overview appears less there: CTR loss is smaller.
