Google has often bristled at the implication that its obsession with AI search is harming web traffic, and now search head Liz Reid has penned a blog post on the topic. According to Reid, clicks aren't declining, AI is driving more searches, and everything is fine on the Internet. But despite the optimistic tone, the post stops short of providing any actual data to back up those claims.
This statement feels like a direct response to a recent Pew Research Center analysis that showed searches with AI Overviews resulted in lower click-through rates. Google objected to the conclusions and methodology of that study, and the new blog post expands on its rationale.
The banner claim in this post is that Google is not sending fewer clicks to websites. According to Reid, "total organic click volume" has remained "relatively stable year-over-year." Meanwhile, Google is seeing more searches on its end, which is the most important metric for the company. Google's blog also notes (fairly) that the web is unfathomably vast, and it's common for trends to shift.
Google apparently sees AI Overviews as an evolution of what it has done in the past with Knowledge Graph or sports scores. Reid says those features didn't reduce clicks, either. In fact, Google sees higher-quality clicks in search results, which it identifies as people clicking on links without immediately backing out. However, the company isn't providing any numbers, which does undercut the argument.
Uneven benefits
Google's meaning comes partially into focus when Reid discusses some broad trends the company has seen. She says search users are increasingly looking for "authentic voices and first-hand perspectives," which sounds like code for "Reddit." Google partnered with Reddit in early 2024, gaining access to its wealth of authentic voices (except when they're trolling) for AI training, and you'd have to be blind not to notice how Google has increasingly surfaced Reddit links in search results ever since.
Reddit's traffic has more than doubled since 2021, and growth has significantly accelerated in the 18 months since the companies announced their deal. According to Reddit, which is one of the biggest sites on the Internet, it has seen daily active users grow by a whopping 21 percent in just the past year. More than 110 million people use the site every day.
So it can be true that Google is sending a similar number of clicks to websites in aggregate, but more of those clicks could be going to sites favored in both organic results and AI answers. This isn't even an unfamiliar problem with Google search. Several years ago, niche review sites began to see their search clicks cannibalized by big brands generating SEO spam to take the top of the search results page. In short, growth is not always shared equally or fairly on Google.
Reid closes with the eyebrow-raising claim that Google may care more than any other company in the world about "the health of the web ecosystem." New products like AI Overviews are designed to highlight the web, not replace the need to click, according to Reid. But at the same time, the post acknowledges that sometimes people get what they need from the AI answer and will "not click further." Can both be true?
If we're to take anything from Google's explanation, it's that the benefits of AI search are not being shared evenly. Google is still cruising along, seeing record profit and increasing searches, but many site operators have seen clicks stagnate as impressions go up. Until Google can provide metrics to back its claims, it's impossible to say exactly what is happening.
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