Pew Analysis Middle tracked actual internet searching habits and confirmed what many publishers and SEOs have claimed: AI Overviews doesn’t ship visitors again to web sites. The outcomes present that the harm brought on by AI summaries to the online ecosystem is as unhealthy as or worse than is usually understood.
Methodology
The Pew Analysis examine tracked over 900 adults who consented to putting in a web based searching tracker to document their searching habits within the month of March 2025. The dataset accommodates 68,879 distinctive Google search queries, and a complete of 12,593 queries triggered an AI abstract.
Confirmed: Google AI Search Is Eroding Referral Visitors
The tracked person information confirms writer complaints a couple of drop in referral visitors brought on by AI search outcomes. Google customers who encounter an AI search consequence are much less prone to click on on a hyperlink and go to a web site than customers who see solely a normal search consequence.
Solely 8% of customers who encountered an AI abstract clicked a hyperlink (within the AI abstract or the usual search outcomes) to go to a web site. Customers who solely noticed a normal search consequence tended to click on to go to a web site 15% of the time, practically twice as many as customers who considered an AI abstract.
Customers not often click on a hyperlink inside an AI abstract. Just one% of customers clicked an AI abstract hyperlink and visited a web site.
AI Summaries Trigger Much less Internet Engagement
In a latest interview, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai pushed again on the notion that AI summaries have a adverse impression on the net ecosystem. He stated that the truth that there may be extra content material being created on the net than at another time is proof that the online ecosystem is flourishing. He stated that
“So, usually there are extra internet pages… I feel individuals are producing numerous content material, and I see customers consuming numerous content material. We see it in our merchandise.”
Pichai additionally insisted that individuals are consuming content material throughout a number of types of content material (video, photos, textual content) and that publishers at present needs to be presenting content material inside greater than only one format.
Nonetheless, opposite to what Google’s CEO stated, AI is just not encouraging customers to devour extra content material, it’s having the alternative impact. The Pew analysis information exhibits that AI summaries trigger customers to have interaction much less with internet content material.
In line with the analysis findings:
Customers Finish Their Searching Session
“Google customers usually tend to finish their searching session fully after visiting a search web page with an AI abstract than on pages and not using a abstract.
This occurred on 26% of pages with an AI abstract, in contrast with 16% of pages with solely conventional search outcomes.”
Customers Chorus From Clicking On Conventional Search Hyperlinks
It additionally says that customers tended to not click on on a conventional search consequence when confronted with an AI abstract:
“Customers who encountered an AI abstract clicked on a conventional search consequence hyperlink in 8% of all visits. Those that didn’t encounter an AI abstract clicked on a search consequence practically twice as typically (15% of visits).”
Just one% Click on Quotation Hyperlinks In AI Summaries
Customers who see an AI abstract overwhelmingly don’t click on the citations to the web sites that the AI abstract hyperlinks to.
The report exhibits:
“Google customers who encountered an AI abstract additionally not often clicked on a hyperlink within the abstract itself. This occurred in simply 1% of all visits to pages with such a abstract.”
This confirms what publishers and SEOs have been saying to Google time and again: Google AI Overviews robs publishers of referral visitors. Rob is a powerful phrase however given the context that Google is utilizing internet content material to “synthesize” a solution to a search question that doesn’t lead to a referral click on, the phrase “rob” is what inevitably involves thoughts to a writer or search engine optimisation who labored onerous to create the content material.
One other startling reality shared in analysis is that just about 66% of customers both browsed some other place on Google or utterly bailed on Google with out clicking a hyperlink to go to a web site. In different phrases, practically 66% of Google’s customers don’t click on a hyperlink to go to the online ecosystem.
The report explains:
“…the most important share of Google searches in our examine resulted within the person both searching elsewhere on Google or leaving the positioning fully with out clicking a hyperlink within the search outcomes. Round two-thirds of all searches resulted in certainly one of these actions.”
Wikipedia, YouTube And Reddit Dominate Google Searches
Google has been holding writer occasions and Search Central Reside occasions all around the globe to take heed to writer suggestions and to vow that Google will work tougher to floor a better number of content material. I do know that the Googlers at these occasions will not be mendacity, however these guarantees of surfacing extra high-quality content material are subverted by the grim info introduced within the Pew analysis of precise customers.
One of many largest complaints is that Reddit and Wikipedia dominate the search outcomes. The analysis validates writer and search engine optimisation considerations as a result of it exhibits that not solely are Reddit and Wikipedia probably the most generally cited web sites, however Google’s personal YouTube ranks among the many prime three most cited internet locations.
The report explains:
“Essentially the most continuously cited sources in each Google AI summaries and commonplace search outcomes are Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit. These three websites are probably the most generally linked sources in AI summaries and commonplace search outcomes alike.
Collectively, they accounted for 15% of the sources that have been listed within the AI summaries we examined. They made up an identical share (17%) of the sources listed in commonplace search outcomes.”
The report additionally exhibits:
- “Wikipedia hyperlinks are considerably extra widespread in AI summaries than in commonplace search pages”
- “YouTube hyperlinks are considerably extra widespread in commonplace search outcomes than in AI summaries.”
These Are The Info
Pew Analysis’s examine of over 68,000 search queries from the searching habits of over 900 adults reveals that Google’s AI summaries sharply cut back clicks to web sites, with simply 8% of customers clicking any hyperlink and only one% participating with citations in AI solutions.
Customers encountering AI summaries usually tend to finish their classes or keep inside Google’s ecosystem moderately than visiting unbiased web sites. This confirms writer and search engine optimisation considerations that AI-driven search erodes internet visitors and concentrates consideration on a number of dominant platforms like Wikipedia, Reddit, and YouTube.
These are the info. They present that SEOs and publishers are proper that AI Overviews is siphoning visitors out of the online ecosystem.
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Asier Romero
