Welcome to The Great Decoupling: when showing up in search doesn’t mean getting the click.
Coined by Darwin Santos, and popularised by Barry Schwartz, the separation of Google Search Impressions and Clicks trendlines has become evident for most websites (including this one; see above).
What caused The Great Decoupling?
The Great Decoupling trend started since AI Overviews (AIO) was launched in Google Search results in 2024 (Google, May 2024).
Before AIO, Impressions and Clicks used to rise and fall together, but now they’re drifting apart. And we’ve seen this for most clients, including ecommerce stores, B2B service providers, tourism blogs, and more.
The trend is more search visibility with less engagement. But this is just the beginning…
AIO was simply a test.
It’s no secret that Google is behind the 8-ball for developing AI.
OpenAI, and it’s market leader, ChatGPT, continues to dominate usage with an estimated 80% global AI Chatbot Market Share (Statcounter GlobalStats, June 2025).
But don’t count out this tech giant.
AIO allowed Google to further develop and now rollout AI Mode.
What is AI Mode?
AI Mode is Google’s most powerful AI search experience (currently available in the USA).
This is the future of search, and expect it to be the default option by early 2026 (in my opinion).
How to appear in AI Search
For success in AI search:
- Review your content strategy, including tangential queries, which supports AI’s query-fan out
- Refine your website user-experience, including opportunities for conversion-rate optimisation
- Support Google with information accessibility, via structured data and efficient crawlability
But don’t expect your website Sessions to hit peak-COVID numbers again.
Update your reporting
With these changes in SEO, reporting should be updated too:
- Don’t report on Organic rankings
- Report on AI-citation counts and visibility
- Don’t report on click-through rate
- Report on user-engagement rate
- Don’t report on old SEO metrics
- Report on an omnichannel branding strategy
Is your SEO strategy AI-proof?
Is your SEO strategy prepared for AI and the future of search? If not, act now.
Contact Bliss to ensure your SEO strategy is up-to-date.
