Google says AI not causing traffic declines & that it cares more about web’s health than competition

Google is out with a blog post today rebutting recent reports that its AI features are causing traffic declines.

The extended response comes from VP and Head of Search Liz Reid. At a high level, Google says that Search — with features like AI Overviews and AI Mode — continues to drive traffic to the web.

The company did not provide specific internal figures, but shared that:

• “…total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been relatively stable year-over-year.” 

Google’s premise is that people are asking more questions given that AI can answer more types of questions. In turn, they are “seeing more links on the page than before.” It also views AI Overviews as an evolution of other “answer features” like Knowledge Graph and sports scores. 

• “…average click quality has increased and we’re actually sending slightly more quality clicks to websites than a year ago (by quality clicks, we mean those where users don’t quickly click back – typically a signal that a user is interested in the website).”

Specifically, Google’s view is that “an Al 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.” 

“This data is in contrast to third-party reports that inaccurately suggest dramatic declines in aggregate traffic – often based on flawed methodologies, isolated examples, or traffic changes that occurred prior to the roll out of Al features in Search.”

In responses to previous reports, Google has argued that their methodologies are flawed, while the latter point about traffic changes happening before AI is notable. Additionally, Google says that drops can be explained by how “user trends are shifting traffic to different sites, resulting in decreased traffic to some sites and increased traffic to others.” Specifically:

• “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.”
• “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.”

Sites that meet these evolving user needs are benefiting from this shift and are generally seeing an increase in traffic.

Finally, Google’s last point today is that it “care[s] passionately – perhaps more than any other company – about the health of the web ecosystem.”

We continue to send billions of clicks to websites every day and believe that Search’s value exchange with the web remains strong.

From a business standpoint, that is true. While other AI companies have an interest to keep the web strong and generating data to learn from, Google has an added financial incentive since that is how it makes the majority of its revenue (advertising).