Google denies AI search features are killing website traffic

Several studies indicate that the shift to artificial intelligence search features and the use of AI’s boutees kills traffic to publishers. But Google on Wednesday denied this was the case, at least in the total. Instead, the search giant says that the total organic clicks volume from its search engine to the websites were “relatively stable” on an annual basis and that the average quality of the clicks has increased slightly.

“This data contradicts the third-party reports, which are inaccurately indicating dramatic declines in the total traffic-often based on defective methodologies, isolated examples or traffic changes that have occurred before offering artificial intelligence features in the research,” writes Google Vice president and head of research, Liz Reed, in a new blog post.

Although Google has not shared any specific data to support its conclusions, even if we assume that Google’s claims are correct, this does not necessarily mean that artificial intelligence has no effect.

Even Google should recognize this, as ReID acknowledges that “user trends convert traffic to different sites, which leads to a decrease in traffic to some sites and increased traffic to others.”

This “some” word raises heavy here, as Google does not share data about the number of sites you earn or lose. While Chatbots, such as ChatGPT, has an increase in traffic in recent months, this does not mean that online publishers do not suffer.

Google renews its search engine for years to answer more questions directly on the search results page, and now you do this with AI through a “artificial intelligence overview” that appears at the highest search results. Google also allows users to interact with Chatbot Amnesty International for some queries. However, Google denies that this reshapes the search scene significantly. Instead, it indicates that users turn their attention to other sites to start their inquiries.

“People are increasingly looking and clicking on sites with forums, videos, podcasts and posts that can hear original sounds and direct views,” Reid explains.

When reading between the lines, Google.com appears not necessarily the first web station on the web these days. But this is something we knew for some time. In 2022, one of the Google EXEC sites said that social sites like Tiktok and Instagram were eating in the basic Google products, such as search and maps.

“In our studies, approximately 40 % of young people, when they are looking for a place to have lunch, they do not go to Google Maps or search,” said Google Svp Prabhakar Raghavan, who was running the company’s knowledge and information institution at that time. “They go to Tiktok or Instagram.”

Google has long been concerned that Amazon.com has become the first people to search for online shopping, and Reddit.com became the first station to search for important topics.

For many years, the company has tried to reach convincing features for both consumers and retail dealers that attract more users to Google Shopping. These efforts included comprehensive shopping vehicles, local stock checks, detectors, and shopping from product photos on web sites, and more. They even made free shopping lists for merchants in 2020.

Meanwhile, users complained about the low Google search quality, the search giant was witnessing a lot of demand for Reddit to the extent that he finally added a “Reddit” candidate to allow users to narrow the results on relevant search quotes. (Now this filter simply reads “forums”.)

So there may be some truth in Google’s denial – it’s not completely responsible for killing the research. The search was already dying.

The new blog post from Google is also trying to move the goals slightly about what the web sites that receive Google’s clicks mean. Now, instead of calculating clicks, publishers want to think about the quality of click.

The company says the average click quality has increased, and that Google sends “a little more quality clicks” to web sites more than last year. (Google shows that the click of the quality is one in which users do not click quickly – they stay and read.) How much is the increase, though, Google does not say. The company only indicates that when people click on Amnesty International’s response to the source, they are more likely to dive in a deeper diving, so these clicks are more valuable.

Moreover, Google Prayts AI is an opportunity for web publishers to gain increased exposure, saying that “with an artificial intelligence overview, people see more bonds on the page more than before.” “More inquiries and more links mean more opportunities for surface websites and click.”

But Amnesty International, although the growth source of referral is not yet compensated for the difference in terms of clicks, as reports have shown. One recent study indicates that the number of searches for news on the Internet, which led to zero clicks to news sites, has grown from 56 % (when Google launched an artificial intelligence overview in May 2024) to 69 % of May 2025.

Google seems to know that this is also a trend, as it recently launched a producer for publishers that helps them to liquefy the hashing traffic in other ways not only dependent on ads, such as small notebooks or news recordings.

The fact that Google pays this “Amnesty International is not the end of the research movement! “Public relations now make the situation look more amazing.