Google Removed the 'Show More' Button on AI Overviews. Here's What That Means for Every Page You Haven't Refreshed.
Google Removed the "Show More" Button on AI Overviews. Here's What That Means for Every Page You Haven't Refreshed.
Google confirmed on August 28 that AI Overviews now dynamically expand for some queries, showing the full AI answer without a "Show More" click. The company said its systems decide when expansion is "most useful for people." No percentage of queries was disclosed, and no timeline for how far the rollout goes.
That one click mattered more than it looked like it did. It was the last small bit of friction between a searcher and a full answer they never had to leave the page for.
Take it away and the math on organic clicks changes for every page ranking under an AI Overview.
What Actually Changed on August 28
Search Engine Land reported the shift after Google confirmed it directly. For queries where Google's systems judge full expansion useful, the AI Overview now renders open by default.
There's a courtesy built in. If a searcher has already scrolled past the Overview, Google cancels the auto-expansion so they don't lose their place on the page.
Google framed the reasoning around engagement, not clicks. Its stated research found that users "engage deeper in follow-up exploration" with the expanded view, through the "Ask Anything" box that now sits inside it.
That's a real benefit for Google's own product. It says nothing about what happens to the publisher whose content got summarized into that box.
Why "Show More" Was Doing More Work Than It Looked Like
A collapsed AI Overview was still a nudge toward organic results. Plenty of searchers won't click one more thing, even a small "Show More" toggle, and instead scroll straight past to the blue links.
That hesitation was free traffic. It didn't require your content to be exceptional. It just required the searcher to be a little impatient.
Full expansion removes that hesitation entirely. The complete answer is already sitting there, and the follow-up box invites the next question to stay inside Google too.
We've written before about AI Overview citations no longer following rankings, with pages outside the top 100 pulling nearly a third of citations. This is the other half of that story. Getting cited matters less if fewer people ever see past the citation to click through.
What This Means for Refresh Priorities
Thin pages lose their safety net
A page that ranked fine on volume alone, without much depth, used to get a pass. Some of its clicks came from searchers who skipped the AI Overview altogether.
Expanded Overviews shrink that pool. If your content isn't giving readers a reason to click past a complete AI answer, fewer of them will.
Depth becomes the differentiator, not the topic
An AI Overview can summarize a topic. It can't replicate a specific data point, a named example, or a conclusion drawn from doing the work yourself.
Pages built around that kind of specificity give readers something the summary can't fully absorb. That's what still earns the click.
Your CTR baseline just moved
Comparing this month's click-through rate to last quarter's numbers isn't a fair test anymore. The page didn't necessarily get worse. The click it used to earn passively might not exist anymore.
Before assuming a refresh failed, check whether the query it targets now triggers an expanded Overview.
How to Check Your Own Exposure
Pull your top landing pages by organic clicks from Search Console and sort by CTR trend since late August.
Search each page's primary query manually and see whether the AI Overview renders expanded or still shows a "Show More" toggle. Not every query got the change yet, so this varies page by page.
For pages where the Overview is now expanded and CTR is sliding, ask one question. Does this page say something the summary above it couldn't have said for you?
If the honest answer is no, that's your refresh priority. Not a date bump. An actual reason for a reader to keep going.
FAQ
Does the AI Overview expansion affect every search query? No. Google said expansion applies to queries where its systems determine it's most useful, without naming a percentage or a full list of triggers.
Will "Show More" come back for the queries that lost it? Google hasn't said. Given how quickly AI Overviews have expanded in capability this year, expect the rollout to widen rather than reverse.
Should I stop targeting queries that trigger expanded Overviews? Not necessarily. Pages that offer something a summary can't, a specific example, an original data point, still earn clicks. Generic pages built around the same query are the ones losing ground.
How do I know if a CTR drop is from this change or something else? Check whether the AI Overview for that query rendered expanded before assuming the page itself declined. A drop tied to expansion looks different from a ranking loss in Search Console's position data.
Stop Guessing Which Pages Still Earn the Click
Checking whether hundreds of pages still give readers a reason to click past an expanded AI Overview isn't something you can do by memory. SEORefresher tracks which pages are decaying and flags the ones worth prioritizing first, so a change like this doesn't sit unaddressed across your entire archive. Start finding out at seorefresher.com.