AI Overviews Are Driving More Google Visits But Lower Engagement
Users Are Visiting Google More Often — But Staying for Less Time
A new analysis by Kevin Indig, in collaboration with Similarweb, sheds light on how Google’s AI Overviews are reshaping user behavior. The study draws from 5 billion search queries and 20 million websites across the U.S., UK, and Germany.
🚀 The Big Picture
Since the launch of AI Overviews in May 2024, Google visits in the U.S. have increased by 9%. But while traffic is up, engagement is down — pointing to a shift in how people use search: quicker visits with faster exits, or what Indig calls a “resolve and leave” pattern.
📊 Key Findings
U.S. Google visits rose from 26.9% to 29.1% after AI Overviews launched.
Pageviews from AI Overview-related keywords jumped 22%.
Time-on-site is flat or declining in all three markets. Germany, where AI Overviews launched more recently, saw a sharp drop.
Pages-per-visit is down, suggesting users are getting answers faster.
Query length remains largely unchanged:
U.S.: up slightly (+3%) from 3.27 to 3.37 words.
UK: slight decline.
Germany: +0.4% increase (pre-AI Overview launch).
🤔 Why It Matters
AI Overviews now reach 1.5 billion users monthly and dominate the prime real estate of search results. With Google shaping what users see—and don’t—SEOs and brands must rethink how they capture attention in an increasingly compressed and AI-driven search environment.