Google’s AI Overviews feature has faced a lot of criticism for negatively impacting web traffic. However, a Google executive has denied these claims, arguing that the quality of clicks has actually improved.
“Click Quality Has Increased”
In a blog post, Liz Reid, Google’s VP of Search, responded to a recent report from the Pew Research Center that painted a grim picture for web publishers. Reid argued that traffic coming from the search engine to websites has remained relatively stable and that the quality of clicks has increased. She claims that Google is now sending more “quality clicks” to sites, meaning users are less likely to immediately exit a page after landing on it. Reid also stated that users are more satisfied with their search experience. However, Google has not provided any data to back up these claims.
Reid also said that with AI Overviews, people are performing more searches and asking longer, more complex questions. She also noted that these overviews now contain more links, stating that “more queries and more links mean more opportunities for websites to be seen and clicked.”
Acknowledging Some Traffic Loss
While defending the feature, Reid did admit that the digital landscape is changing, and that some sites are receiving less traffic, while others are getting more. Without naming specific examples, she claimed that content like forums, videos, podcasts, and “content with unique perspectives and original narratives” are thriving. She said that in-depth reviews, original articles, unique opinions, and personal analyses are performing well.
Reid added that for simple, quick-answer questions like “when is the next full moon,” users are more satisfied with the AI Overview and may not click further. However, for more complex queries, users are clicking through to explore a topic more deeply, conduct further research, or make a purchase. According to Reid, this is why they are seeing an increase in click quality.
Conflicting Reports and Data
Reid’s claims stand in stark contrast to the Pew Research Center report, which found that users click on a traditional search result only 8% of the time for searches with an AI summary, compared to 15% for searches without one. The click-through rate for source links within the summaries was even lower, at just 1%. The report also noted that users often end their search journey after visiting a page from an AI summary.
These findings align with statements made by Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince in June. Prince stated that traffic referrals from search engines are steadily decreasing. He noted that a decade ago, Google would send one visitor for every two pages it crawled. Earlier this year, that number had dropped to one visitor for every six pages, and by June, it had plummeted to one visitor for every 18 pages.
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