Ahrefs says whole-site organic CTR usually sits between 1 and 2 percent

Ahrefs' June 22 benchmark of more than 400,000 websites puts a good click-through rate between 1% and 2%. The benchmark relies on anonymized Google Search Console data and uses the median, not the average, so large properties do not skew the result.

Ahrefs no longer treats CTR as a pure SEO metric. The company ties falling click rates to AI Overviews and AI search, arguing that Google is increasingly answering queries before a user leaves the results page. A declining click rate can mean weaker visibility, but it can also mean the search engine is absorbing more of the decision journey inside the SERP itself.

Google rolled out AI Overviews to all U.S. users in May 2024. Google pegs the feature at 1.5 billion monthly users across 200 countries and territories, and in its biggest markets, including the U.S. and India, queries that show AI Overviews were driving more than a 10% increase in Google usage. Google has also argued that AI in Search is producing more queries and better-quality clicks. Publisher complaints point to shrinking referral traffic.

In an April 2025 analysis of 300,000 keywords, Ahrefs found AI Overviews were associated with a 34.5% lower average CTR for the top-ranking page on informational searches. Ahrefs' later update put the effect at 58% as AI Overviews spread into more countries and languages. Pew Research Center's March 2025 study of 900 U.S. adults found 58% encountered at least one Google search with an AI summary, and users clicked result links less often when the summary appeared. Pew found source links inside the summary were clicked only rarely.

Digital Content Next member publishers recorded Google Search losses of 1% to 25% over an eight-week stretch in May and June 2025. Authoritas, in research submitted to the UK Competition and Markets Authority, found AI Overviews cut publisher click-through rates by 47.5% on desktop and 37.7% on mobile in the United Kingdom.