Search Console applies the block flattening to AI Overviews — the concise answers Google shows at the top of the results — and this can make your site look like it's in position 1 when in reality your actual visibility is much lower. The number you see in the report doesn't reflect where you actually appear to the user.
The practical consequence: if you keep using average position as your main KPI for SEO, you're making decisions based on skewed data. A site can show a seemingly great ranking and get very few visits from that SERP.
The right move is to shift the focus to business metrics: actual organic sessions, conversions attributed to the search channel, real clicks. This isn't just a cosmetic change in reporting — it changes how you evaluate campaigns, justify the budget, and measure the work of the agency or the internal team.
The number Search Console shows you isn't what you think
Search Console uses a technique called block flattening to calculate the position in AI Overviews — the summary answers generated by Google that appear above the traditional results. Basically, the whole AI Overview section is treated as a single flattened block, and your site gets a position that doesn't match where it visually appears on the page.
The result: a site cited at the bottom of an AI Overview can receive an average position of 1 or 2 in the report. The data seems excellent. Real traffic, however, is almost zero.
Search Engine Journal reported the problem directly in the analysis on block flattening and AI Overviews : the recommendation is clear — stop measuring position, focus on outcomes.
Why this affects the reports you send to clients (or your board)
If your monthly reporting includes average position as an SEO health indicator, you're probably showing numbers that overestimate your real visibility. It's not a mistake by whoever reads the report — it's a structural limitation of the data.
Three situations where the problem becomes critical:
- You've increased presence in AI Overviews but organic traffic is flat or declining — ranking doesn't tell you that.
- You're comparing periods when Google changed the frequency of AI Overviews: the data isn't comparable.
- You're justifying an SEO budget with an improved average position, but conversions aren't moving.
The topic fits into a broader picture we've already analyzed: Google AI Mode reduces organic clicks and this makes it even more urgent to shift the focus from rankings to real business metrics.
The KPIs to use now, in order of priority
It's not about throwing away Search Console — it remains a useful tool for understanding which queries generate impressions. It's about not stopping there.
Here's the hierarchy of metrics that makes sense to follow:
- Actual clicks from Search Console: not the position, but how many times someone actually clicked on your result.
- Organic sessions in Google Analytics 4: how many real visits come from the search channel, week over week.
- Conversions attributed to the organic channel : leads, purchases, contact requests — it depends on your business model.
- CTR (Click-Through Rate) for strategic queries: if impressions grow but CTR drops, you are appearing in contexts where the user doesn't click — typically within AI Overviews.
We've already addressed this transition in the article on declining SEO traffic and where to invest your budget : the logic is the same — a number in Search Console is worthless if it's not connected to real user behavior.
How to update reporting in four steps
Whether you handle SEO in-house or work with an agency, these are the concrete steps to take over the next few days.
- Remove the average position from the executive report. Keep it as an internal metric for the tech team, not as a KPI to show the board or the client.
- Segment the queries that generate AI Overviews. In Search Console you can filter by result type: compare the CTR of those queries with classic queries. The difference tells you how much you are losing.
- Set up a monthly comparison of organic clicks and sessions , not on position. If clicks drop while impressions grow, the problem is structural — it won't be solved by optimizing content for ranking.
- Connect Search Console to GA4 if you haven't done it yet: it lets you see which queries bring sessions that actually convert, not just sessions.
It's also worth reading our analysis on SEO, metrics, and budget in the AI era to understand how this KPI shift fits into a broader strategy toward 2027.
The mistake you make right after reading this news
Many teams react by stopping the monitoring of AI Overviews altogether. That's the opposite mistake. Appearing in Google's summary answers still has value — for brand awareness, for being cited as an authoritative source, for intercepting users in the early stages of the buying journey.
The point isn't to ignore AI Overviews: it's not to use position as a proxy for their effectiveness. If you really want to understand how AI Overviews impact your visibility, the right approach is the one we describe in the article on how to map AI citations in your industry — understanding who is cited, how often, and in what context.
The SEO in the era of AI visibility requires a change in mindset even before tools: ranking is a means, not an end. If your September report shows better positions but flat conversions, you have the answer you were looking for.
Related articles
Discover more articles exploring similar topics, selected to offer you a more complete and stimulating perspective. Each piece of content is carefully chosen to enrich your experience.
