Google's AI Overviews Cut Website Traffic for NJ Businesses

Google's AI Overviews have become inescapable on the search engine, summarizing search results and potentially reducing website traffic for New Jersey businesses. According to a Pew Research Center report in July 2025, users who saw the AI summary clicked on a link in 8% of all visits, compared to 15% when they didn't encounter it.

Business owners are adapting by creating content that directly answers questions people might ask, as suggested by Timothy Dinan, a personal injury attorney at Laddey, Clark & Ryan. This approach requires time and effort to create accurate information.

The impact on news outlets is more significant, as users may be satisfied with AI-generated answers and not proceed to the website to read the full story, according to Riley Grossman, a researcher at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. However, businesses with Main Street presences have an advantage because customers still need to visit physical locations.

Some business owners feel that Google's AI Overview has been helpful, like Michael Walstedt, a Hoboken-based wealth adviser, who sees it as a self-fulfilling prophecy due to his own online content. However, accuracy issues and the lack of an opt-out for the AI-generated summaries are concerns.

Google launched its AI overview on May 14, 2024, and some users have reported frustration with the sources used by Google. The American Marketing Association defines SEO as optimizing a website to rank higher on search engines like Google, but now businesses must consider more than just ranking well or answering common questions.