–68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click in the first four months of 2026, up from 60.45% in 2024: the steepest two-year move in the study's history.
–Only 276 of every 1,000 US searches produce a click to the open web, down from 374 in 2024.
–AI Overviews appear on more than 20% of searches and cut click-through by nearly 60% when present (Ahrefs data, cited within the study).
Where CitedScore uses itWhy the shrinking pool of open-web clicks makes every AI answer, and every named recommendation inside one, worth more than the click it replaced.
–In March 2026, traffic from AI sources to US retail sites converted 42% better than non-AI traffic, which covers channels such as paid search and email marketing.
–Based on more than 1 trillion visits to US retail sites, with a companion survey of more than 5,000 US respondents.
–A reversal within twelve months: in March 2025 the same AI-sourced traffic converted 38% worse than non-AI traffic.
Where CitedScore uses itThe conversion figure behind the hero stat rail, and the independent counterweight to a rail that would otherwise cite one publisher throughout.
–61.7% of domain appearances in AI answers were citations that never named the brand: the domain received a source link while the brand name never appeared in the answer.
–3,981 domain appearances analyzed across 115 prompts in 14 countries on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Google AI Mode.
–Comparative content produced 2.4x more brand mentions than informational content.
Where CitedScore uses itThe ghost-citation rate CitedScore's Mentioned, Cited only, or Both classification exists to measure, from the study that named the problem.
–More than half of AI-referred sessions start on a product detail page, versus about 20% for organic search.
–AI-referred sessions convert at nearly 50% higher rates than organic search, holding across 23 of 25 merchant categories.
–Average order values from AI-referred sessions are 14% higher than organic search; AI referral sessions grew more than 8x year over year.
Where CitedScore uses itWhat an AI-referred buyer is worth at checkout: the revenue case for being the name inside the answer.
–Only 15.2% of 1,094 US categories analyzed had a clear AI-visibility owner: 85% remain open to competitors that build consistent visibility.
–The most-cited domains matched the most-mentioned brand in only 21% of cases: being used as a source and being named are separate outcomes.
–Traditional SEO metrics predicted topic ownership only about half the time; consistent depth across related prompts is what holds a category.
Where CitedScore uses itWhy the field is still open for smaller brands, and why mentions rather than citations are the signal that a category has an owner.
–AI Overviews grew an average of 71% across SERPs with commercial intent between November 2025 and April 2026.
–600,000+ keywords analyzed across 10 industries.
–Google Ads and AI Overviews now appear together on the same SERP roughly 2x more often than a year earlier.
Where CitedScore uses itWhy Google AI Overviews carries the weight it does in the blended GEO score: it is the AI layer growing fastest on commercial buying research.
–ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity account for 93.6% of measured AI referral traffic across 101,574 websites analyzed.
–Copilot measured at 3.51% and Claude at 2.62% of AI referral traffic; DeepSeek's referral traffic had dropped to essentially zero and Grok's to near zero.
–Google AI Overviews is absent from referral measurements because Google counts its clicks inside overall Search totals.
Where CitedScore uses itThe coverage decision behind the four platforms every audit tests, cited in the homepage FAQ.
