Explaining The Great Decoupling To C-Level

Something important is happening in Google Search.

If you’ve looked at your website data in Google Search Console, you may have noticed something odd. Your pages are showing up more often, but fewer people are clicking through.

These two signals – impressions and clicks – are used to rise and fall together. Now, they’re drifting apart.

We call this “The Great Decoupling.”

Screenshot from Jim Thornton (with permission to use), The SEO Community Slack Group, June 2025

And it’s not just your business. This is happening across industries…