On this page
What did change
Google now puts an AI-written summary above many search results, and people who read it click through less: Pew Research measured in 2025 that the share of searches with a click on an ordinary result nearly halves when such a summary appears. Ahrefs found in early 2026 that the first position then gets on average 58 percent fewer clicks. A top spot is worth less than it was, especially for a simple question with a short answer. Google's AI Mode adds to that; see Google AI Mode after I/O 2026. Searches without a click have a name, zero click search, and they mean measuring impressions next to clicks.
What did not
Nearly everyone who uses ChatGPT also uses Google, and AI answers from Google and other assistants take their sources largely from pages that rank well in ordinary results. Google says the same SEO practices apply to its AI features, with no extra requirements. To be cited, you first need to be found. The difference is explained in our glossary entries for SEO and GEO, and side by side in SEO vs GEO.
Where searches in Europe still go
Searches, September 2026Google's share
- Europe89%
- Belgium88%
- Bing in Belgium9%
A click on an ordinary resultShare of searches
- Without an AI summary15%
- With an AI summary8%
Per type of search: what SEO still brings
| Type of search | Example | Do people still click? | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short fact | opening hours of a museum | little, the answer is shown | not your priority |
| Local service | accountant in a city | yes, to profile and site | profile plus a page per service and city |
| Comparison or price | website cost | yes, people want detail | a guide with real amounts |
| Rule or obligation | is peppol mandatory in belgium | partly, AI cites the source | be the best source, with a date |
| Buying a product | product plus brand | yes, to a shop | product pages with full data |
Fewer clicks per term, more terms
Say a search term gets 1,000 searches a month and the first position used to take a quarter of the clicks: 250. With an AI summary above it and the average 58 percent drop, 105 remain. If the same site also ranks first for thirty smaller questions of 200 searches a month, each brings 21 clicks, 630 together, and the site reaches 735 clicks: three times what the big term ever gave. Fewer clicks per term does not mean fewer visitors, if you are found on more questions.
That is what happened at Business Centrum, a payroll bureau in Ghent: a site with a page per employer question, figures with an official source and a date, and an overview that AI assistants read easily. Within five weeks, non-brand search terms on page 1 went from 13 to 1,593, and the first visitors arrived through Google Gemini. Whether you appear in AI answers now shows in the Search Console AI performance report; how to get there is in how to get found in ChatGPT. You can also take your site out of Google's AI Overviews, as opting out of Google AI Overviews explains, but for a business that wants to be chosen that mostly means disappearing from what people read first.
Old SEO next to SEO with AI answers
- Goal
- Worked beforea few terms in first position
- Works nowhundreds of questions, each with its own answer
- Content
- Worked beforelong text repeating the term
- Works nowthe answer in the first sentence, then the detail
- Proof
- Worked beforeas many links as possible
- Works nowsources, dates and real figures AI can cite
- Measurement
- Worked beforethe position of one term
- Works nowimpressions, clicks and mentions in AI answers
SEO is not dead: the work moved to answers good enough that both Google and an AI assistant choose them.