It has been almost a year since Google has deployed its research function generated by AI, and publishers still know very little how it has an impact on their reference traffic.
Google last week presented AI mode, an experimental functionality for research, which allows users to ask follow -up questions without leaving the page, as part of a global update of IA previews, which will now be supplied by its gemini 2.0 AI model.
IA’s overviews, which provides summaries generated information from several sources to respond to a user’s search query, will also be available for more people, including adolescents and not connected to Google accounts. AI mode, which resembles the same type of experience provided by Perplexity or Chatgpt Search, is only made available to Google AI One Premium subscribers.
But the impact of this update – and IA previews in general – remains uncertain, according to conversations with Seven media executives. Three of them told Digiday that they had not been able to see a change in reference traffic due to the IA previews. And the continuous lack of transparency of Google makes you more uncomfortable.
Google does not separate AI’s overviews on clicks from regular search reference traffic in Google Analytics or Google Search Console, leaving publishers in darkness and making third -party reports via suppliers like Shape.ly or Chartbeat impossible.
It would help if Google shared this data, “but [I’m] I am not sure that we will like what we see, ”said an executive, who asked to speak anonymously. With “limited award” and responses to user requests displayed directly on the page, the executive said they assume that IA previews are not lending more clicks than regular research results.
“Google makes it impossible to measure,” they added. “But I expect [these updates] be problematic to drive traffic. »»
Naturally, publishers have long been subject to unexpected Google updates, but its SEO updates are historically published at more regular intervals, which means that publishers have been able to develop a play book for the way they adapt to fluctuations. A Google spokesperson noted that last week’s announcement was an overview of the “upgrade” AI, not an update of SEO. »»
But since the AI was in the mixture, the updates and the communications of Google have been more “erratic,” said another executive in the media.
The opacity on AI’s overviews on reference traffic is a big problem, they added, as it puts them back on the back when it comes to preparing the future iterations of Google AI.
A spokesperson for Semrush told Digiday that the software and analysis company could not analyze reference traffic on AI or measure its impact on publishers’ traffic.
But Semrush analysis shows that AI’s overviews are displayed in more search results, in particular in response to requests where users ask questions or are looking for specific information. This means that more content is summarized by Google’s AI functionality.
In September 2024, 6% of these users of “informational keywords” were seized in Google research generated IA previews. This month, it had reached 11.37% – an increase of 91% in six months, according to Semrush. The number of keywords with AI previews also increased from 11.6 million to 18.9 million.
A Google spokesperson said Google had updated, as AI’s overviews were put online last May to add more links and facilitate click for links and visit these links. These modifications include adding online links and a right display on the desktop that displays links while before they would have appeared at the bottom of the OI -viewing function of the AI. The spokesman also said that people who were clicking on the search results with AI previews spent more time on these sites. Google did not provide data to support this.
“AI’s overviews are one of our most popular research features, which allows people to find information more easily and open up new opportunities to connect with creators and companies on the web. Google sends billions of clicks every day to sites on the web; While we are changing our products with new AI experiences, we intend that this long-standing value exchange with continuous websites, “said Google spokesperson.
Some publishers do not see the search for referral to research after previews
Publishers have been concerned about Google’s efforts to add more artificial intelligence to its research experience for some time – at least since AI was deployed last May. The publishers feared that the functionality, which was originally called a generative research experience, would sign the reference traffic (and the income) of Google to the sites of the publishers. AI glimps push links to their sites below on the page and the responses generated by users do not need to click on a link to a site to obtain the information they are looking for.
Although three media leaders told Digiday that they have not noticed any change in Google Discover or seek traffic following the deployment of IA – or updates. Overall, Google Discover and Google are looking for reference traffic to publisher’s sites increased last year, according to data from the Chartbeat publisher’s analysis company.
“We have not detected any significant change in global traffic,” said Paul Banister, director of strategy at Raptive, who sells announcements for independent sites.
In a Q4 2024 CALLAGE On February 25, Ziff Davis CEO, Vivek Shah, said that the results of AI previews were present in only 12% of the company’s best requests. The company’s analysis on click prices from one year to the next – by specifically comparing research requests with similar requests that now include IA previews – have shown that the rate “has remained unchanged”. (Ziff Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comments.)
However, Josh Jaffe, AI and a media consultant and former media president at Ingenio, said that major publishers with inherited publications and the brand’s recognition could be more isolated from the IA impact on their research reference traffic. But some small publishers see “the real annihilation of traffic”.
A JAFFE publisher works to help recover his traffic has seen a drop of more than 50% of his research benchmark traffic since IA previews were deployed last year.
Now that AI’s overviews are extended to more users, it is “common sense” that these summaries generated by AI will appear more often, said Jaffe. “I don’t think portfolio publishers are not affected by this forever,” he said.
