TECH NEWS – Alphabet’s subsidiary claims that the AI Overview function doesn’t negatively impact traffic, though publishers and content creators claim otherwise.

AI Overviews were a bold move by the company in the field of generative search results, but they have been criticized for destroying the web. Since the introduction of AI search, publishers have sounded the alarm about the decline of their websites’ traffic. Recognizing the controversy surrounding this change, Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, recently addressed the situation in a statement. She clarified that, despite the introduction of AI Overview, overall search traffic has remained relatively stable compared to last year. In the blog post, Reid addressed traffic trends:

“Overall, total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been relatively stable year-over-year. Additionally, average click quality has increased, and we’re sending slightly more quality clicks to websites than a year ago. By quality clicks, we mean those where users don’t quickly click back, which is typically a signal that a user is interested in the website.” This data contrasts with third-party reports that inaccurately suggest dramatic declines in aggregate traffic, which are often based on flawed methodologies, isolated examples, or traffic changes that occurred prior to the rollout of AI features in Search,” Reid says.

Google claims the panic is exaggerated and unjustified, citing internal data showing steady search volumes and increasing impression numbers. Google also claims that overall web traffic is stable, but user behavior is changing. This results in some types of content being advantaged while others are relatively disadvantaged. By shifting traffic to other types of content, Google is diverting attention away from blaming AI Overviews and encouraging companies to focus on providing valuable information and real insights. As the web evolves, users prefer content that is more human and experiential over information focused on keywords and search engine rankings because these are becoming less popular.

However, Google’s notion of stability is not reflected in news reports that AI Overviews have caused website traffic to drop by nearly 70%, posing an existential threat to content creators and journalists. Although the tech giant made this claim confidently, it did not provide detailed metrics to support it.

Source: WCCFTech, Google