• by Laurie Sullivan , August 6, 2025

Recent data and reports suggest Google AI features are destroying traffic to publishers and websites, but Liz Reid, vice president and head of Google Search, says click volume data from the company tells a different story.

Click volume from Google has remained “relatively stable” when compared with the same time last year, but for a few exceptions. Some types of websites are getting more clicks and others are getting less, according to Reid’s Wednesday blog post.

Reid explained how some users might not click citations in AI Overviews, but people who do may spend longer on the website to learn more about a topic.

“An AI response might provide the lay of the land, but people click to dive deeper and learn more, and when they do, these clicks are more valuable,” Reid wrote.

BrightEdge AI Catalyst analyzed thousands of prompts across Google's AI Mode and AI Overview. Patterns emerged to better understand how these platforms reveal Google's AI evolution.

The data from BrightEdge August 1 analysis showed AI Mode includes brands in 90% of responses vs AI Overviews 43%. AI Mode surfaced 3.8x more unique brands, and when citations appeared, AI Mode served between five and seven source cards vs AI Overviews 20 inline citations.

Reid wrote that with AI Overviews, people ask longer and more complex questions. They see more links on the page than before. More queries and more links mean more opportunities for websites to surface and gain traffic.

For some questions where people are looking for a quick answer, like “when is the next full moon,” people may be satisfied with the initial response and not click further. This has also been true for other answer features added, like the Knowledge Graph or sports scores.

This is why Google is seeing click quality increasing — an AI response might provide top-level information, but people click through to learn more, and when they do, these clicks are more valuable.

She explained how user trends are shifting traffic to different sites, resulting in decreased traffic to some sites and increased traffic to others.

“People are increasingly seeking out and clicking on sites with forums, videos, podcasts, and posts where they can hear authentic voices and first-hand perspectives,” she wrote. “People are also more likely to click into web content that helps them learn more — such as an in-depth review, an original post, a unique perspective or a thoughtful first-person analysis.”

Despite Reid’s assertions that publishers are not losing web traffic, many assert they have. In May, Jim Yu, founder and CEO of BrightEdge, said clickthrough rates to publishers and marketers has significantly declined, but AI has overall “turbocharged” the use of Google search.

Brands and publishers are competing for attention across fragmented landscapes. In June, The Wall Street Journal reported that The Washington Post, and Huffington Post, among others, have experienced traffic declines.

Pew Research Center report also suggested that Google AI Overviews (AIOs) reduced clicks to all types of websites such as news and retail. The data combined survey and behavioral data, along with purchases from Ipsos.

About 900 study participants in March 2025 agreed to allow third parties to study on-device behavior for a month, with 58% of Google searches serving up at least one AIO.

Clicks are rare in AIO, according to the Pew study. About 8% of searches with an AI summary led to clicks on traditional links, compared with 15% without summaries, according to the research.