Here are the headline takeaways from our research:
- Traditional organic results still get the most clicks. Even when they are placed below the AI Overview results, traditional organic results still get a (slight) majority of clicks (51%).
- 45% of people click the AI feature first. Those clicks are distributed relatively evenly among the “See More” button (19%), the AI Citation (15%), and mentions with the AI overviews (11%).
Cyrus Shepard recently asked his twitter followers:
His followers (mostly other SEO professionals) overwhelming chose option 1: the traditional #1 organic ranking:
The obvious follow up question here is: Is this right? Is the #1 traditional organic ranking still the most valuable real estate?
So, we surveyed 140 people to answer the question:
You are searching for a lawyer on Google. Where are you most likely to click first?
We showed them this screenshot of a Google SERP for the keyword “best dui lawyers in chicago”. We asked them where they would click first, and then to explain their choice:
The Results
Click Breakdown
| Source | Clicks | % of total |
| Traditional Organic Result | 71 | 50.71% |
| AI – See More | 26 | 18.57% |
| AI Citation | 21 | 15.00% |
| AI Overview / Mention | 16 | 11.43% |
| Other | 6 | 4.29% |
Heat Map
Click Map
Respondent Comments
Along with asking folks where they would click, we also asked them to provide a short explanation of why they clicked where they did. These comments revealed some interesting insights.
Overall…
- AI clickers tend to use the AI results as a jumping off point from which to get a shortlist and then dig deeper.
- Organic clickers tend to be distrustful of AI and instead to go directly to a brand.
Let’s look at a handful of the most compelling responses for folks who clicked within the AI search layer and also for folks who clicked a traditional organic result:
| Organic Clickers | AI Clickers |
| “Absolutely would not EVER click on an AI summary. Period.” | “while i do believe ai is not 100% right, this would be my starting point… then id move on to check validity.” |
| “Because I ignore the AI overviews and go straight to the real results first.” | “AI has summarized the information on finding a lawyer for me. I clicked see more to view its full results.” |
| “I always skip the top search results by habit because they usually seem like paid for ads.” (organic scanning behavior) | “AI show more. It gives the answer directly” |
| “I still use the top relative google result… probably in 3 out of 10 cases I use the links that are included in the AI responses.” | “AI suggested that he is a top three best rated dui lawyer” |
| “I tend to avoid AI provided or generated links and would prefer to view the actual results of my search.” | “Because I want to know more of what the AI pulled for me.” |
| “I would go to a trusted source, Justia, before I trust AI…” | “Because the AI gathered information from numerous sources…” |
| “I would personally scroll through the results for manual review as I do not trust AI results…” | “I always click show more so I can make sure I dont miss any relevant information.” |
| “i wouldn’t trust AI for this so I’d look at the organic results.” | “I am a fan of the AI search results and would opt to learn more from that section before proceeding.” |
| “I’m familiar with Super lawyers…” | “I can get more quick opinions from the AI” |
| “If I’m looking local, I skip the AI overview because it usually general.” | “I liked seeing the list of AI summaries of these top attorneys, so I wanted to see more bios.” |
| “In general, I ignore AI overview and choose a single source that seems reliable.” | “I steer away from ones that look like ads… most interested in the list AI generated… click Show More.” |
| “It gives me a list within that area… legal website (Justia) so it’s trustworthy.” | “I want to know more about the info the AI is giving me.” |
| “It was a top search result… more legitimate than others.” | “I want to see what lawyers the AI listed so I can build a list of potential lawyers to interview.” |
| “It’s not a sponsored result” | “I want to see where AI got the information it presented to me from.” |
| “It’s the first website that shows up… not AI generated or ad sponsored.” | “I would like to see the entire list from AI first in order to make a decision on what link I should click on.” |
| “It’s the top result that matches my search” | “I would want to see a more extensive list put together by AI.” |
| “This site is a good compilation of attorney listings…” | “Looking for more information. Trusting that AI has distilled the available data…” |
| “Usually after reading the AI text, I’m more inclined to click the link underneath it.” | “Show more because I want to see the whole AI overview” |
| “Website itself seems trustworthy… called Superlawyer.” | “Since AI has become popular. I trust the info that it generates on finding specific services.” |
| “Whenever I’m Google searching, I always immediately skip the sponsored results and the AI overview.” | “These days… I always want to see the complete AI Overview results before I read anything else.” |
What We Learned
Disclaimer: The takeaways in this section were written by AI.
- Traditional organic results still capture the largest share of first clicks (about 51%), but Google’s AI Overview is now a major competing attention layer, driving nearly half of initial engagement through “See more,” citations, and AI-listed lawyer mentions.
- Qualitative responses reveal two clear user mindsets: many searchers use the AI module as a fast way to orient themselves and build a shortlist, often clicking “Show more” or citations to validate sources, while others actively avoid AI due to distrust and instead rely on familiar, third-party directories like Super Lawyers, Justia, and Yelp.
- Across both groups, the dominant intent behind “best DUI lawyers” searches is list-building and comparison rather than immediately choosing a single firm, underscoring that visibility in AI summaries, citations, and trusted aggregator platforms is increasingly as important as ranking in the traditional top organic results.
Questions to Explore Further
- Could we expect similar results for a more informational, higher funnel search, such as “dui penalties in Illinois”?
- There were a ton of clicks on the “See more” button within the AI overview. What actions would those folks subsequently take?
- The 1st and 2nd organic results shown in our screenshot were Justia and SuperLawyers. Would we have seen fewer clicks if those were law firm websites rather than legal directories?
- Our example SERP did not include any ads or local / map pack results. How would these elements influence where folks click?
- Our test asked people to click first – however, we know that many searches don’t actually end with a click, which is something to keep in mind, especially with the AI overview interactions.
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