Okay, I need to talk about something that's fundamentally changed about how Google works, and nobody seems to have noticed yet. And no, it's not another "AI Overviews are here, the sky is falling" piece (though the sky is doing something, we'll get to that). It's about what people actually do on a search results page now — and the short version is: they've stopped clicking and started browsing.

New ClickStream research studied 185 high-stakes purchase decisions and found something that basically invalidates twenty years of SEO assumptions. When an AI Overview appears on the page, people don't scan from top to bottom and click the best-looking link anymore. They scroll down, pause, scroll back up, re-read, compare, and then — maybe — click. The average user on an AI Overview page spends nearly half their total scrolling going backwards up the page.

This isn't someone scanning a list. This is someone on Netflix hovering over a title, scrolling past it, then going back to read the description more carefully before committing. Your search listing isn't getting one shot anymore. It's getting two or three. And the second look is where the decision actually happens.

I've been sitting with this data for days and the implications keep getting bigger. (My screen time report this week is going to be devastating.)

Here's the thing. The same study also looked at Google's AI Mode — the conversational interface where you get direct answers instead of a traditional results page. And the contrast is almost comical.

In AI Mode, nearly nine out of ten people just accepted whatever the AI recommended. Three-quarters picked the first item on the list. Almost two-thirds didn't click anything at all. The AI answered, they went with it, end of story.

AI Overviews produce the exact opposite behaviour. People slow down. They read more carefully (researchers could tell because cursors stopped moving — people were actually reading, not scanning, which should probably make us all feel slightly attacked). And then they scroll back up to re-evaluate things they'd already looked at.

So what does this mean practically? These two surfaces need completely different strategies. Getting into an AI Mode recommendation is about whether the AI thinks you're relevant — that's a content and authority problem. Appearing in an AI Overview is about whether your listing can survive a side-by-side comparison with the other results on the page — that's a messaging and differentiation problem.

Most businesses are treating these as the same thing. They're not. Not even close.

For anyone in a space where people research before they buy or enquire — whether that's professional services, SaaS, financial products, health and wellness, or anything with a considered decision behind it — this changes how you need to think about your search presence.

Your listing isn't getting a single glance anymore. It's getting two or three. And the important one isn't the first — that's just orientation, where the user registers what's on the page. The second pass, when they scroll back up, is where they're actively comparing you against the alternatives they just looked at.

An earlier UX study found something similar: nearly four in ten AI Overview sessions included what researchers called "reassurance-seeking clicks" — people opening a second link just to confirm they were making the right choice. The new data suggests people aren't even bothering to leave Google to do that anymore. They're comparing by scrolling back and forth across the results they can already see.

Here's why that matters for what you actually do tomorrow: your title tag and meta description can no longer just be relevant. They need to be better than the one next to them. In the old world, you wrote a title tag to earn a click on first contact. In this new browse-and-compare world, you're writing it to win a side-by-side comparison that happens on the second or third pass.

Think of it this way: it's the difference between writing a dating profile and writing a dating profile that's going to be displayed right next to two other dating profiles. Suddenly "I enjoy long walks" doesn't quite cut it.

The practical move: Look at your top landing pages, search the queries they rank for, and read your title tag and meta description alongside the competition. Ask yourself: if someone read all three listings, scrolled away, and came back, is there a clear reason to pick yours? If the answer is "not really," that's your next optimisation project — and it's probably more impactful right now than any technical SEO work you've got queued up.

If you've ever been told to treat different types of searches differently — write shorter, punchier content for people ready to buy, longer and more detailed content for people just researching — that advice was built on a reliable pattern. People with buying intent moved fast through search results. Information seekers lingered. There was a predictable gap between the two, and you could plan your strategy around it.

That gap has basically vanished when an AI Overview is on the page. Buyers and browsers now spend roughly the same amount of time on the results page — around 21 seconds. The buyer hasn't become less decisive. The AI Overview has just given them more to evaluate before they commit.

What this means in practice is that you can't assume a ready-to-buy searcher is going to grab the first relevant result and go. They're reading. They're comparing. Even when they came to Google with their wallet half-open, the AI Overview is turning their quick decision into a considered one.

The practical move: Stop writing different meta descriptions for "transactional" and "informational" keywords as if those audiences behave differently on the results page. They don't anymore — not when an AIO is present. Write every customer-facing listing as though it needs to survive careful, comparative reading, because that's now what's happening regardless of why someone searched.

I almost feel bad about this one. Almost.

In the old world, when someone typed your brand name into Google, it was basically a done deal. They had the lowest distraction of any search type — they knew where they were going, they found it, they clicked. Only about one in eight were still lingering on the page after 21 seconds. That's what all that brand-building investment was supposed to produce: instant recognition, instant click, no deliberation.

With an AI Overview present, the picture changes dramatically. Distraction on branded searches jumps by 40 per cent. Nearly half of people who searched specifically for a brand name are still lingering at 21 seconds — reading what the AI has surfaced around that brand.

It's the Netflix pattern again. You open a show you've already decided to watch. But you pause to read the synopsis and check the rating before pressing play. The brand recognition got you to the page. The browse decides whether you click.

Earlier research actually found that branded searches with AI Overviews get higher click-through rates than they used to, which sounds like good news — and it is. But the new data adds a crucial wrinkle: even when people do click, they're taking longer and evaluating what the AI has placed around your brand first. If it surfaces a competitor comparison, an alternative, or a review that reframes the decision, that content becomes part of the evaluation. Even for someone who arrived with your name already in mind.

The practical move: Search your own brand name. See what the AI Overview surfaces alongside you. If it's pulling in competitor comparisons or reviews that reframe the decision, you need content that addresses those comparison points directly — on your site, in your structured data, in your broader digital presence. Brand investment doesn't eliminate the need for search optimisation anymore. It creates the conditions under which search optimisation can work.

The SERP is no longer a list. It's a shelf. And like any shelf, what matters isn't just whether you're on it, but whether you look better than the item next to you when someone picks you up, puts you back, and reaches for you a second time.

Twenty years of "win the first click" is being replaced by "survive the second look." Every title tag, every meta description, every piece of structured content now exists in a comparison frame, whether you designed it that way or not.

The good news is that this is completely actionable — you can start auditing your listings against your competitors' today. The bad news is that most of us have been optimising for a version of Google that quietly stopped existing while we weren't looking. Which, when you think about it, is pretty on-brand for Google.

Jo Lambadjieva is an entrepreneur and AI expert in the e-commerce industry. She is the founder and CEO of Amazing Wave, an agency specializing in AI-driven solutions for e-commerce businesses. With over 13 years of experience in digital marketing, agency work, and e-commerce, Joanna has established herself as a thought leader in integrating AI technologies for business growth.

😍It was great, all I needed

🙂Good, not great

🙄It sucked