Table of Contents
About That Traffic Google Says You Didn't Really Lose
Google Said the Lost Clicks Were Junk. The Data Disagrees.
The rest of the week, in bite-sized pieces
"Our rankings look the same, but our clicks and calls keep dropping. Google's AI is answering right at the top. Can we do anything, or do we just live with it?"
Epic Web Studios
Epic Insights
Edition 28  ·  Jul 14, 2026

About That Traffic Google Says You Didn't Really Lose

Google has a tidy explanation for why its AI answers are pulling traffic off your site: the clicks you lost were low-quality ones you never really wanted. It's a comforting story. This month two researchers ran the first real experiment to test it, and the numbers didn't cooperate.
The Big Story

Google Said the Lost Clicks Were Junk. The Data Disagrees.

Here's the backdrop. When Google shows an AI Overview at the top of the results, fewer people click through to the actual websites below it. Google hasn't denied that. Its explanation, from search VP Liz Reid, is that the clicks you're losing are "bounce clicks," low-quality visits from people who would have left anyway, and that the visits you still get come from more serious buyers. Comforting, if it's true.

This month, researchers Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen, of the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon, put that claim through the first randomized experiment of its kind. When an AI Overview appeared, outbound clicks to websites dropped about 40%, and zero-click searches jumped by roughly a third. Ad clicks, notably, held steady. Then they checked Reid's actual argument: did removing the AI answer change how satisfied people were, or how quickly they found what they needed? It didn't. No measurable difference in quality at all. Search Engine Journal reported the finding this week.

Translation: the clicks weren't low quality. They were just clicks, and the AI box kept them. Not fewer junk visits. Fewer visits.

So what do you do? You stop trying to out-argue the AI box and start becoming the business it names. Picture an AI Overview as a concierge in a hotel lobby, answering a guest's question before they ever reach the elevator. You can't remove the concierge. You can be the place it recommends, by having the clearest, most genuinely useful answer to the exact question your customers ask. That is still the whole game.
What this means for your site
If your Search Console shows rankings holding but clicks sliding, this is very likely why, and it isn't a penalty or a mistake on your end. The fix isn't to fight the AI answer. It's to be the clear, useful source that answer pulls from and points to.

Your move: This week, search your top two or three services the way a customer would and see whether an AI answer appears. If it does, read it: is your business mentioned, and does your own page answer that exact question as clearly as the AI just did? If not, that gap is the work. Reply and we'll take a look with you.
Quick Hits

The rest of the week, in bite-sized pieces
A Popular WordPress Login Plugin Has a Critical Hole
Patchstack disclosed a flaw (CVE-2026-57807) in miniOrange's OAuth Single Sign-On plugin on July 9 that lets an attacker hijack a password reset and take over an account, no login needed. It rates 9.8 out of 10, hits every version up to 38.5.8, and has no official fix yet.
Your move: If you run this plugin, deactivate it until miniOrange ships a patch, or make sure your security layer is virtually patching it. On an Epic-managed site, no worries, we're on it.
That Vanishing-Reviews Scare Is Officially Over
Remember the businesses that watched Google reviews disappear in early July? Google marked the issue resolved on July 9 and said the missing legitimate reviews should be back, though it may take a day or two to fully catch up.
Your move: Check your review count against what you remember. If some are still missing after a few days, report them rather than starting over. Your profile reporting lives in your Client Center.
Fixed Your Duplicate Pages and Nothing Happened? Wait.
Google quietly updated its documentation on July 10 to admit something it had never spelled out: after you fix duplicate or near-identical pages, its systems can take up to two weeks to notice and treat them as separate. A fix that looks like it failed may just be in the waiting room.
Your move: If you recently cleaned up duplicate pages, give it two full weeks before assuming the fix didn't work.
Nearly All Your AI Referral Traffic Comes From One Place
A new study of 6.77 million AI-driven visits across 166 sites found AI referral traffic grew almost tenfold in 19 months, and more than 92% of it came from ChatGPT. Not Google's AI, not Perplexity. If you're going to think about AI visitors at all, that's where they're coming from.
Your move: Ask ChatGPT your main service question and see whether it names you. If not, that's a clue about which pages to sharpen.
Ask Epic

"Our rankings look the same, but our clicks and calls keep dropping. Google's AI is answering right at the top. Can we do anything, or do we just live with it?"

First, breathe, because you're reading this exactly right. When your rankings hold but your clicks fall, it's usually not a penalty. It's the AI answer sitting above you and handing people a response before they ever scroll to your listing. A study this month confirmed those lost clicks weren't low-quality throwaways, whatever Google's official line says. They were real visits the AI box kept.

So no, you don't just live with it, and no, there's no magic switch either. The move is to become the source that AI answer leans on. Think of the AI box like a teacher answering a student's question off the top of her head. She's repeating whatever source she trusts most. Your job is to be that source, by having the clearest, most genuinely useful answer to that exact question sitting on your own page. Do that and two good things happen: you get named inside the AI answer, and you catch the clicks that still come through. We're glad to help you find where those gaps are.
What Epic's doing for you this week
This week the team is watching the AI Overview picture in client reporting, flagging where an AI answer is intercepting clicks so we can sharpen the pages that feed it. We're patching the WordPress login-plugin flaw making the rounds right now, confirming that reviews knocked out by Google's early-July glitch have come back, and double-checking any recent duplicate-page fixes against Google's new two-week timeline. Anything that needs your eyes, you'll hear from us directly. Otherwise it's waiting in your Client Center.
Your 15-minute self-audit

The 15-Minute "Are You in the AI Answer?" Check

1. Search your top two or three services the way a customer would, phone in hand. Does an AI answer appear at the top? Note which searches trigger one.

2. For each AI answer that shows up, read it closely. Is your business named or linked? Does your own page answer that same question as clearly and directly as the AI just did?

3. In Search Console, compare impressions to clicks over the last few months. If impressions held steady while clicks fell, that's the AI box skimming traffic, not a ranking drop, and it points to exactly which pages to strengthen first.

Thanks for reading! Got questions? Ideas? I'm all ears. Share your thoughts with me and help shape future editions of Epic Insights.

— Kristy Freeman
Epic Web Studios
k.freeman@epicwebstudios.com
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