Most users only read a third of Google’s AI Overviews: Study
Most users skim AI Overviews, rarely click citations, and turn to Reddit for social proof, a new UX study finds.
Most people stop reading a Google AI Overview after skimming the top third of an AI-generated answer – the median scroll depth is just 30%. That’s one of many insights from a new UX study conducted by Kevin Indig and Eric van Buskirk.
By the numbers. The study confirms what many SEOs have suspected and/or feared:
- AI Overview citations get few clicks: Just 19% of mobile searchers and 7.4% of desktop searchers clicked on a citation.
- AI Overviews decrease clicks to websites: Desktop CTR drops in half when an AI Overview is present; mobile clicks fall by a third.
- Skimming rules: The median scroll depth inside AI Overviews is 30%; most users never read past the top third.
- Reddit wins for validation: When users leave the AI Overviews, a third go to Reddit, YouTube, or forums.
Yes, but. The study’s sample size is clearly small compared to Google Search’s massive scale. This study’s insights are super interesting, but hardly enough to make broad, definitive conclusions.
Trust matters. As Indig shared on LinkedIn, SEOs need to think about how to foster trust:
- “It’s -> ‘Do I trust that this domain / brand / company can answer my question truthfully?’
- Not -> ‘Can this result answer my question?'”
Why we care. Google has evolved. Online visibility is increasingly shifting from clicks to visibility. You’re optimizing in the hopes of being seen and trusted – even if no one clicks at all.
About the study. It is based on the screen, scroll, click, and commentary recordings of 70 U.S. searchers (42 mobile, 27 desktop) who completed eight Google queries (six of which triggered an AI Overview and two that did not).
The study. The first-ever UX Study of Google’s AI Overviews: The Data We’ve All Been Waiting For
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