Google AI Overviews Are Eating YMYL Traffic — Here’s How to Fight Back

Google AI Overviews YMYL sites expansion is no longer a rumour — it is live, it is measurable, and it is cutting organic traffic for health and finance publishers right now.

You are still ranking on page one. Your impressions in Google Search Console look normal. But your click-through rate has quietly dropped 20%, 30%, maybe more. No penalty. No algorithmic warning. Just fewer clicks.

This is the AI Overviews effect hitting YMYL sites directly — and it is accelerating fast inside health and finance niches. This guide breaks down exactly which query categories now show AI summaries, what traffic loss to realistically expect, and how to protect your content strategy before the damage compounds.

What Are Google AI Overviews? (Definition)

Google AI Overviews are AI-generated answer blocks that appear at the very top of Google Search results, above all organic listings and ads. They pull content from multiple web sources, synthesise it into a summary, and display the answer directly to the user — no click required.

First rolled out publicly in the U.S. in May 2024 under Google I/O, AI Overviews replaced the experimental Search Generative Experience (SGE). The key difference now: Google is deploying AI Overviews at scale across YMYL query categories — health, finance, legal, and insurance — where it previously held back due to accuracy concerns.

For YMYL publishers, this matters because your content was built to answer these exact queries. Now, Google answers them before a user ever reaches your page.

Which Query Types Now Trigger AI Overviews in YMYL Niches?

Google does not publish a full list. But based on SERP monitoring and data from tools like Semrush and Ahrefs, these are the confirmed categories now showing AI-generated summaries most often:

Health Queries Showing AI Summaries

• Symptom explanation queries (e.g., “what causes shortness of breath at rest”)
• Medication use and side effect questions
• Mental health condition definitions and treatment comparisons
• Preventive care and screening schedules
• Nutrition and diet science questions
• “Is it normal to…” and “Can I take…” style health queries

Finance Queries Showing AI Summaries

• “How to” investing and savings questions (e.g., “how to open a Roth IRA”)
• Tax strategy and deduction explanations
• Credit score improvement steps
• Loan type comparisons (fixed vs. variable, personal vs. home equity)
• Budgeting frameworks and savings method explainers
• Insurance type definitions and coverage comparisons

Query Formats Most Likely to Trigger an AI Overview

1. Questions using “What is,” “How does,” “Why should,” “Can I,” or “Is it”
2. “X vs. Y” comparison queries
3. Step-by-step process queries (e.g., “how to file taxes if self-employed”)
4. Definition and explanation queries
5. Symptom + cause queries in health

If your site targets any of these formats, your pages are directly inside the AI Overviews expansion zone.

Realistic Traffic Drop: What the Data Shows

Across multiple SEO case studies and SERP tracking reports, here is what YMYL publishers are seeing after AI Overviews appear for their target keywords:

Real example: A personal finance blog tracking rankings for “how to budget on a low income” reported a 38% CTR drop in Q3 2024 after an AI Overview began appearing for that keyword — despite holding the #1 organic position. Impressions stayed flat. Only clicks fell. This is the signature pattern to watch for inside Google Search Console.

The clearest signal: stable impressions + declining CTR = an AI Overview has appeared for that query.

Why YMYL Sites Are the Hardest Hit

Google’s AI was cautious about YMYL topics for the first year. Accuracy risks in health and finance made aggressive AI summarisation too risky. That restraint is now gone.

Google now cites sources inside AI Overviews — which means it feels confident enough to summarise YMYL content at scale. The shift changes your core question from “how do I rank #1?” to “how do I get cited inside the AI Overview — or build content that AI cannot replace?”

Sites demonstrating strong E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) are more likely to be cited as sources within AI Overviews. Being cited does not restore your lost clicks — but it protects brand visibility and can still drive some referral traffic from users who want to verify the source. If your current E-E-A-T foundation is weak, the guide on how to improve E-E-A-T signals and rank higher on Google covers every practical step — from author profile setup to schema markup — without requiring an agency.

Step-by-Step: How to Protect and Rebuild YMYL Traffic

Step 1 — Identify Which Pages Are Now Affected

Open Google Search Console. Filter your top 50 pages by impressions. Look for pages where:

• Impressions are stable or rising
• CTR has dropped by 10% or more in the last 90 days
• The average position has not changed significantly

These pages have been hit by AI Overviews — not by an algorithm update. If you are also seeing ranking position drops on those same pages — not just CTR — it may be a Google core update compounding the AI Overview effect. The two issues often overlap and require separate diagnostic steps to address correctly.

Step 2 — Classify Each Page by Risk Level

• High risk: Short informational pages, definitions, basic how-tos, FAQs
• Medium risk: Listicles, comparison articles, beginner guides
• Low risk: In-depth case studies, data-driven research, expert commentary, proprietary tools and calculators

Step 3 — Upgrade High-Risk Pages with Information Gain

Google’s AI can only summarise what already exists in a readable format online. It cannot summarise what is not there. Add the following to high-risk pages:

• Original data: Conduct a small reader survey. Publish the results. AI cannot scrape data that did not exist before you created it.
• Expert quotes: Include verified statements from licensed professionals — a registered dietitian for a nutrition article, a CPA for a tax strategy piece.
• Experience-based commentary: Add a section on what actually happened when you or your clients tested this advice. Real outcomes cannot be fabricated by AI.
• Case study format: Replace generic how-to sections with documented before-and-after results, even small ones.

Example: A health site writing about intermittent fasting replaced its generic “benefits of fasting” section with a 90-day client case study — including blood glucose readings and meal logs. That page regained 60% of its lost traffic within two months because no AI Overview could replicate the original data.

Step 4 — Shift Content Strategy Toward Transactional and Intent-Rich Queries

AI Overviews rarely show up for bottom-of-funnel queries. These are high-value and still safe:

• “Best health insurance for freelancers under 40 in 2025”
• “Compare Roth IRA providers with no minimum deposit”
• “Top-rated budgeting apps for couples with variable income”

Queries like these require a decision. Users need to act — not just read a summary. They will click through.

Rebuild your content calendar around these intent-rich angles. Use keyword research tools to find commercial investigation queries in your niche with a monthly search volume above 500. These are your safest traffic assets right now.

Step 5 — Optimize for AI Overview Citation Eligibility

If AI Overviews are showing for your keywords regardless, your next goal is to become a cited source. To maximise citation eligibility:

• Add a clear, 50–70-word definition block near the top of each article
• Implement FAQ schema, HowTo schema, and Article schema using a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast SEO
• Add verified author bios with credentials (MD, CFP, JD, CPA)
• Link out to government and institution sources (CDC, IRS, NIH, FDIC)
• Keep your Core Web Vitals score in the “Good” range in PageSpeed Insights

For pages that retain their organic ranking despite an AI Overview appearing above them, optimising your meta descriptions for maximum CTR becomes even more critical — your 160-character copy now competes directly against a full AI-generated answer block for the remaining clicks.

Three Myths About AI Overviews Hurting YMYL Publishers

Myth 1: “Ranking #1 protects me from AI Overviews.” It does not. AI Overviews appear above position #1. Being the top organic result does not shield you from a 30–50% CTR reduction when a full answer sits above your blue link.

Myth 2: “Publishing more content will recover the traffic.” Only if that content is original, experience-backed, and adds something AI cannot replicate. Publishing more generic informational articles will not help. Volume without depth accelerates the decline.

Myth 3: “AI Overviews affect every query now.” False. Complex, nuanced, and multi-variable queries still rarely trigger AI Overviews. A query like “What is a Roth IRA?” will trigger one. A query like “best Roth IRA strategy for a 45-year-old with inconsistent freelance income and existing 401 (k)” likely will not. Depth of query is your shield.

What to Expect Over the Next 6–12 Months

• 10–40% organic traffic decline on informational health and finance pages already targeted by AI Overviews
• Growing value of long-tail, nuanced queries that require expert judgment to answer
• Email and community traffic are becoming more critical as Google search click-throughs decrease
• Rising importance of brand search as users learn to seek out specific trusted publishers rather than generic queries
• More reward for real E-E-A-T as Google becomes more selective about which sources it cites in AI Overviews

Early adopters will consolidate traffic. Late movers will lose ground that becomes very difficult to recover.

Conclusion

Google AI Overviews are not a temporary test. They are Google’s long-term answer to zero-click search behaviour — and they are expanding specifically into the niches where your revenue lives.

The sites that survive this shift are not those that publish more generic content. They are the ones who go deeper, use real data, publish verified expert insights, and target the query types AI cannot easily summarise.

Start today: open Google Search Console, identify your pages with stable impressions but falling CTR, and prioritise those for an information gain upgrade. Then rebuild your content calendar around bottom-of-funnel, intent-rich queries that still drive clicks.

The window to adapt is open. Sites that move in the next 90 days will be positioned to capture the traffic that weaker competitors will lose.

FAQs

What exactly is a YMYL site in Google’s definition?

YMYL means Your Money, Your Life. Google classifies any site covering financial decisions, health advice, legal guidance, or safety information as YMYL. These sites face stricter quality evaluation and are now seeing the fastest expansion of AI Overview coverage.

How do I check if AI Overviews are showing for my keywords?

Search your target keywords while logged out of Google. If a grey-bordered AI summary block appears above the organic results, an AI Overview is active for that query. You can also use Semrush’s AI Overview visibility tracking feature to monitor keywords at scale.

Can I opt my site out of being used in AI Overviews?

There is no direct opt-out for the AI Overview citation. However, you can use the nosnippet meta tag to prevent Google from using your content in any snippet format — including AI Overviews. The trade-off is losing featured snippet visibility as well.

Does being cited in an AI Overview drive any traffic?

Yes, but significantly less than a traditional #1 ranking. Users who click “Learn more” inside an AI Overview visit the cited source. The volume is small, but the brand exposure and trust signal are real benefits.

What content type is most resistant to AI Overview replacement?

Original data, documented case studies, expert interviews, and tool-based content (calculators, quizzes, templates) are the hardest content types for AI to summarise. These require either proprietary data or interactive functionality — neither of which AI Overviews can replicate.