Google AI Overviews hit France: some sites lost half their clicks, others barely moved

Google launched AI Overviews, AI Mode, Search Live and the new intelligent search box in France on July 22, 2026. Because the rollout had a fixed date, and Search Console now includes a dedicated report for generative AI features, it became possible to measure directly in the dashboard what changed in clicks, impressions, CTR and average position for sites in the country.

That measurement comes from an analysis published by Glenn Gabe on November 9, featuring five examples pulled from the Search Console accounts of sites he works with. In several cases, the metrics shifted on launch day itself. The analysis also shows that not every site lost clicks.

The sites that took a hit

In the clearest example, generative AI impressions spiked on July 22 and kept climbing. Clicks fell from roughly 750 to roughly 400 a day, almost cut in half, while impressions held steady. The site kept ranking, but its CTR went from 2% to 1.1% overnight.

Two YMYL sites, the category of queries Google treats as sensitive, also declined. On one, clicks from France dropped from about 80 to about 25 a day. On the other, CTR fell from 1.2% to 0.4%, followed by a second drop around August 13, roughly two weeks later. Gabe's read is that Google may have been more cautious with these queries at first, then extended AI Overviews to more searches weeks later.

The other two examples stayed stable. Generative AI impressions rose with the launch, but clicks, impressions and CTR held steady throughout the period.

Average position started to fluctuate

For every site with a strong impact, average position began fluctuating on July 22. The proposed explanation: a citation inside an AI Overview only earns an impression when it is visible. Since the summary is collapsed by default, the citation only counts when someone expands it, while the listing in the traditional blue links logs the impression at a lower position. In late August, Google began showing some AI Overviews expanded by default, which take up far more space and push the links further down the page.

For brand and SEO teams, the recommendation is to filter Search Console by France and look closely at July 22. Check the search results pages for the queries that lost clicks and CTR, identify the topics where AI Overviews still doesn't appear, and compare against the previous year so you don't mistake seasonality for stability. Branded and navigational queries tend to have a higher CTR than other searches, so segmenting by query type changes how the data reads.