The AI Overview Problem Nobody's Solving

Are You Still Optimizing For 2023?

The Invisibility Problem

Here's what's driving marketers crazy right now: your SEO metrics look great on paper. Position 3 for a high-volume keyword. Rankings holding steady. CTR... wait, what happened to CTR?

Oh right. The searcher got their answer in an AI-generated box before they ever scrolled down to where your listing lives.

Your content might be informing that AI Overview. Your site might be the source. But if the user gets their answer without clicking? You're producing free content for Google's AI while your traffic disappears.

And here's the kicker: traditional SEO reports don't capture this. You're explaining to stakeholders why everything looks fine while the business results say otherwise.

It's gaslighting, but with algorithms.

What's Actually Happening

Let me break down the mechanics of this disaster.

When someone searches "best CRM for small business" or "how to fix a leaky faucet" or any of the thousands of queries your content ranks for, Google's AI scans the top results, synthesizes the information, and serves up a tidy summary.

That summary sits above the traditional search results. It's the first thing people see. And for a growing number of queries, it's the only thing they need to see.

Your listing still shows up. Your ranking hasn't changed. But nobody clicks because they already got their answer.

The problem compounds: you're not just competing with 9 other sites anymore. You're competing with an AI that's pulling from all 10 sites simultaneously and giving users the TL;DR version.

And Google's data shows they're triggering AI Overviews for more queries every month.

I've watched clients lose 40-50% of their organic traffic on informational content while their rankings barely moved. The metrics say "everything's fine" while revenue says "we have a problem."

The Part Everyone's Missing

Most of the advice out there is some version of "optimize for AI Overviews!" or "create content that can't be summarized!"

Cool. Great. Very helpful.

But let's be honest about what's actually happening: Google is fundamentally changing the value exchange of search. They're taking the information your content provides, using it to keep users on Google, and then... nothing. No click. No traffic. No conversion opportunity for you.

They're not being secretive about it either. Google's entire AI strategy is built around keeping users in their ecosystem longer. AI Overviews, AI Mode, SGE—all of it points in the same direction.

And while everyone's panicking about what to do, here's what I'm not seeing enough of: strategic thinking about which battles to fight.

Where AI Overviews Actually Hurt (And Where They Don't)

Not all traffic is created equal. And not all AI Overview exposure is bad. If you're in B2B SaaS and you rank for "how to calculate customer lifetime value," having your methodology show up in an AI Overview might actually be brand building. People see your approach, remember your name, come back later when they're ready to buy software. But if you're an affiliate site that makes money when people click through to product listings? Or an ad-supported content site that needs pageviews to survive? AI Overviews are an existential threat.

The impact depends entirely on your business model and where you sit in the buyer journey.

Here's the breakdown:

• Informational content for brand building? AI Overviews might help (but you're still giving away free content)

• Transactional content for direct conversions? You're getting killed

• Time-sensitive info that changes? AI can't keep up—you might be okay

• Content that requires trust/expertise? Mixed bag—depends if AI cites you

The strategy can't be one-size-fits-all. But most marketers are treating it that way because the alternative is admitting they need to rebuild their entire content strategy.

What You Can Actually Do About This

Let's get tactical. You have three real options here, and which one you choose depends on your business model, your risk tolerance, and how much you believe Google's going to dial this back (spoiler: they won't).

Option 1: Adapt Your Content Strategy

Stop creating content that AI can easily summarize and move on from. I'm serious about this.

If your entire content strategy is "answer common questions in 800 words," you're building a content library for Google's AI to mine for free. Your ranking might stick around, but your traffic won't.

Instead:

• Create comparison content. "X vs Y" queries still drive clicks because people want to see the full breakdown, not just a summary

• Build tools and calculators. AI can't replace the actual experience of using an ROI calculator or template

• Invest in original research. Data that only exists on your site can't be summarized from 10 other sources

• Go deep on case studies. Specific implementations and real results demand click-through

• Target commercial intent. Queries with buying signals trigger different SERP features

The throughline: create content that requires engagement, not just comprehension.

Option 2: Understand Your (Very Limited) Opt-Out Options

Here's where it gets messy.

You CAN opt out of having your content used to train Google's AI models using Google-Extended in robots.txt. But here's the catch: that doesn't block AI Overviews, it blocks your site altogether.

AI Overviews use Googlebot—the same crawler that indexes your site for regular search. So to actually block your content from appearing in AI Overviews, you'd have to block Googlebot entirely. Which means removing yourself from Google Search completely.

That's not an option. That's self-destruction.

Google even testified in court that they use content from publishers who opted out of AI training to power AI Overviews. They're separate systems with separate rules.

So what CAN you actually do?

You can use snippet controls to limit how your content displays in AI Overviews. It won't remove you entirely, but it might reduce how much gets pulled in.

The brutal truth: Google hasn't given publishers a real way to opt out of AI Overviews without nuking their entire search presence. And they're unlikely to, because AI Overviews need content to function.

This isn't about choosing whether to participate. Google already made that choice for you. The question is how you adapt within a system you didn't agree to.

Option 3: Stop Guessing and Start Measuring

Most marketers are flying blind here because they're still measuring the wrong things.

You need to know:

• Which of your keywords are triggering AI Overviews now

• How that's impacting CTR specifically for those terms

• Whether you're being cited in the AI Overview when it appears

• Which content types are holding traffic vs. bleeding out

• Where you're still getting quality traffic despite AI Overviews

Once you have real data, you can make real decisions. Maybe 20% of your content is getting destroyed while 80% is fine. Maybe certain categories are resistant. Maybe your brand mentions in AI Overviews are actually driving branded search.

You don't know until you measure it.

And then you can actually build a strategy instead of just panicking and rewriting everything.

The Timeline Everyone's Getting Wrong

Here's where I'm going to push back on the doomsday narrative.

Yes, AI Overviews are expanding. Yes, they're impacting traffic. But everyone's acting like traditional search is dead next quarter, and that's not how this plays out.

Google makes $200+ billion a year from search ads. Their entire business model depends on showing ads against search results. AI Overviews that completely eliminate clicks also eliminate ad impressions—and eliminate Google's revenue.

They're not going to kill the golden goose overnight.

What's more likely: Google dials this up slowly, tests different formats, watches what breaks, and adjusts. They'll push AI Overviews in areas where it doesn't destroy their ad business while pulling back in areas where it does.

We're in the experimentation phase. And I'd bet money that five years from now, we still have a mix of traditional results and AI features rather than AI completely taking over.

That doesn't mean you ignore this. It means you adapt strategically instead of burning everything down and rebuilding in a panic.

What I'm Telling Clients Right Now

When CMOs ask me what to do about AI Overviews, here's the honest answer:

First: Audit which content is actually losing traffic to AI Overviews. Not all of it. Probably not even most of it. But some of it—and you need to know which.

Second: Decide what that traffic was worth. If it was low-converting informational traffic that never turned into customers anyway, maybe you're fine. If it was high-intent traffic that directly drove revenue, you have a problem.

Third: Build a diversified content strategy. Some content optimized for AI visibility (brand building, thought leadership). Some content designed to drive clicks no matter what (tools, comparisons, deep research). Some content focused on commercial intent where AI Overviews are less common.

Fourth: Test opting out in low-stakes categories. See what happens. Measure it. Make informed decisions instead of guessing.

Fifth: Stop treating this like an SEO problem and start treating it like a business problem. The question isn't "how do we rank in AI Overviews?" The question is "how do we maintain visibility, traffic, and revenue as search behavior changes?"

Different question. Different answer.

The Real Conversation Nobody's Having

Here's what actually keeps me up at night about AI Overviews:

It's not that they're killing SEO. SEO has survived a dozen "this time it's really dead" predictions. It's that they're changing the fundamental value exchange between content creators and search platforms.

For 25 years, the deal was simple: you create good content, Google sends you traffic, everyone wins. Google gets comprehensive search results, you get customers, users get answers.

AI Overviews break that deal. Now it's: you create good content, Google uses it to train their AI, Google keeps the traffic, you get... exposure? A citation? Nothing?

And unlike previous changes where Google was trying to improve the ecosystem, this one feels extractive. They're taking the value your content creates and keeping it for themselves.

That's the part that doesn't get solved by "optimizing for AI Overviews better."

So What Do You Actually Do?

Look, if your SEO reports are getting harder to explain because your rankings look fine but traffic is down, you're not crazy.

If you're tracking keywords that still rank but don't drive the clicks they used to, you're not missing something.

The game changed. And most marketers are still playing by old rules because nobody's given them a clear playbook for the new ones.

You need clarity on:

• What's actually happening to your specific traffic

• Which keywords are affected and which aren't

• What your content is worth in this new reality

• Whether to adapt, opt out, or double down

And you need to make strategic decisions based on your business model, not based on whatever generic "optimize for AI" advice is making the rounds this week.

The SEO landscape shifted. The fundamentals didn't. Understand the system, adapt your strategy, and focus on what actually drives results for your business.

If you're ready to stop explaining away disappointing traffic numbers and start building a strategy that works in this new reality, let's talk.

Because AI Overviews aren't going away. But neither is search. And the marketers who figure out how to win in this mixed environment are going to have a massive advantage over everyone else who's still trying to optimize for 2023.