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Google’s AI-generated search, AI Overview, is boosting publisher traffic thanks to a new feature that embeds direct links within the text, according to the tech giant, which held a briefing for the press about new features this week. Google stopped short of giving any more specifics about the increase publishers were seeing.
A query asking about ‘the tallest tree in the world’ now includes an in-line link directing users to the Guinness Book of Records. After initial testing in August, Google is expanding this feature across all seven countries where AI overviews are available, including the UK, India, and Japan.
Google, which has held discussions with publishers about AI Overview and the impact on traffic, said this new format is intended to facilitate diverse content discovery while driving more exposure and traffic to websites.
“This improved experience has driven an increase in traffic to supporting websites compared to the previous design,” said Rhiannon Bell, vp, UX, Google. Bell wouldn’t share any more specifics.
On desktop, the links are displayed on the right side of the page within AI Overview, while mobile users can access them by tapping icons or scrolling to the bottom.
Managing publisher impact
Google’s AI search, launched last May, raised concerns about disrupting organic search traffic for publishers, potentially slashing ad revenue by up to $2 billion annually. Raptive—which runs ad sales for titles like Half Baked Harvest, MacRumors and Stereogum—anticipates at least a 50% reduction in search traffic for publishers by 2025. For example, a publisher earning $75,000 annually could see a $37,500 drop in income due to traffic loss, according to Michael Sanchez, co-founder and CEO.
However, for some, the impact has been less severe than expected.
During a recent earnings call, Vivek Shah, CEO of digital media and internet company Ziff Davis, noted when analyzing thousands of queries across its key domains that generate organic search referrals, AI Overviews appeared in only 8% of the key search queries, with 92% of search results pages remaining unaffected.
“We hypothesize—and Google has confirmed—that links within AI overviews see higher click-through rates compared to traditional web listing links,” Shah said during the call.