Google's AI Overviews Show More Links, But Not All Lead to the Web

The chart does not specify the number of queries or AI Overviews sampled, the markets or devices involved, how frequently queries ran, or how Peec determines whether a link is part of the answer text, a citation card, or an end-of-response suggestion. Asked in the replies whether the query set stayed the same over time, Landwehr said that if any prompts changed, "it was a small percentage."

A jump within a single day could stem from a change on Google's end or from a change in data collection methods. The chart alone cannot distinguish between the two. Landwehr's reading, posted in the thread, is that Google may be training people to click links in AI Overviews and that "over time more and more links will become links redirecting users to AI Mode." He labeled that as speculation and noted the AI Overview-to-AI-Mode links "already exist today."

Ghotra's recording shows him clicking bold, underlined text within an AI Overview that looks like a link. Clicking it opens a query in AI Mode instead of a webpage. He said Google "is now testing" these anchor links and described them as "another tactic" to move users from search results to AI Mode. The recording establishes what happened in one search. It does not say how widely the element appears, whether it replaced any external link, or what happened to clicks. The path itself has existed on mobile since January's follow-up feature.

How Search Console counts them

Search Console's rules for AI Overviews depend on where a click goes. The help page states that "clicking a link to an external page in the AI Overview counts as a click." All links within an AI Overview share the same position. In AI Mode, asking a follow-up question counts as a new query, and all impression, position, and click data for the new response attach to that query.

The same page defines a query refinement as a link within results that performs a new Google query. "If a link is a query refinement link, clicks and impressions are not counted for that link." A person who follows one "is essentially performing the new query shown in the search terms box."

It is not clear from the material reviewed whether the element in Ghotra's recording counts as a query refinement. The help page does not address underlined text inside an AI Overview that opens AI Mode.

Google's generative AI performance report, rolled out to all sites worldwide on August 31 after a test that began in June, covers impressions only. It shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode grouped by page, country, date, or device. It does not list clicks or click-through rate.

The report's totals matter for interpretation. The chart sums impressions by property, so if two results from the same site appear in a generative AI feature, they count as one impression in the chart total. The Pages table would show one impression for each page.

One number cannot be built from these reports. Web search performance includes clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode alongside other Web search clicks, and the generative AI report has impressions only. Dividing overall clicks by AI-only impressions does not produce a click-through rate for AI features.

What remains unknown

Peec's chart covers one display: links embedded in answer text, ranging from almost none to about a quarter of the AI Overviews observed. Without sample context, markets, devices, and rules for what qualifies as a link, it cannot be read as a share of all AI Overviews. The September 11 step is not specifically linked to Google or to data collection.

Google's May post said users would see more links next to relevant text but gave no quantities, markets, or timeline. It is uncertain whether the display Peec measures is part of that update, a subsequent change, or something else. Google's help page also claims that with AI Overviews, "people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions," without providing supporting figures.

For marketers, the gap between the reports matters. A site with rising AI impressions cannot confirm whether clicks from AI features rose with them, because those clicks sit unlabeled inside the total Web search count. And when a link opens AI Mode, as in Ghotra's recording, Search Console may not count it as a click or impression for any outside site if Google treats it as a query refinement. Until Google clarifies, teams cannot assume every underlined phrase in an AI Overview links to a website — or that it doesn't.

The next data point for in-text links is a longer series from Peec, or a second tracker publishing the same measure with its methodology attached. Google has said the list of covered features in the generative AI report will grow, and in June it promised additional metrics over time, without naming them.