Google has taken a stand in defense of the artificial intelligence (AI) features integrated into its search engine amid escalating concerns regarding their influence on the decline of website traffic worldwide. On Wednesday, the Mountain View-based company refuted third-party claims that purported a significant decrease in search traffic, calling these reports “inaccurate” and founded on “flawed methodologies.” The tech giant emphasized that features such as AI Overviews and the newly launched AI Mode are designed to provide websites with “more quality clicks.”
Google Critiques Third-Party Reports on Search Traffic Declines
In a recent blog post, Elizabeth Reid, Vice President and Head of Google Search, addressed user inquiries concerning the potential negative impacts of the company’s AI features on website traffic. She dismissed these worries, asserting that “overall, total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been relatively stable year-over-year.”
Reid further asserted that the launch of AI features has led to an increase in the quality of clicks received by websites. She defined “quality clicks” as those that do not result in quick click-backs, suggesting a genuine interest in the content.
Critiquing third-party analyses that highlight drops in search traffic for employing “flawed methodologies, isolated examples, or traffic changes that occurred prior to the rollout of AI features in Search,” Reid remarked that AI Overviews are now displaying more links than previously on the search results page.
She specifically pointed to the small chain-link icon adjacent to sentences and paragraphs, which, when clicked, reveals multiple source URLs on the right side of the page.
Additionally, Reid noted that while overall search traffic remains stable, fluctuations in user preferences contribute to varying traffic levels for different websites. “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 explained, implying that sites struggling with traffic may not be adapting to evolving user behavior.
Despite Google’s ongoing defense of its AI features and the suggestion that websites must adapt, the impact on the ground has been palpable since the global rollout of AI Overviews. For instance, Business Insider reported that its decision to reduce its workforce by 21 percent was driven by its struggle with “extreme traffic drops outside of our control.”
This concern is not isolated to Business Insider; data from Similarweb indicates that other news platforms, such as HuffPost and Washington Post, have experienced up to 50 percent declines in traffic between April 2022 and April 2025.
According to Similarweb statistics (via The Economist), global search traffic has fallen by 15 percent year-over-year as of June. The report also highlighted an increase in zero-clicks to news websites, which grew from 56 percent in May 2024 to nearly 69 percent in May 2025. However, Google disputes the accuracy of this data.
In closing, Reid emphasized, “As a search company, we care 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.”
