Google to change AI search results after publishers complain about traffic decline
Google has announced changes to the way its search engine works with artificial intelligence. Links to websites and news articles will become more visible in AI Mode and AI Overviews responses. The decision comes amid criticism from publishers and website owners, who complain about reduced traffic due to the spread of automatically generated AI answers.
This is stated in a Google announcement from October 15. Details are also provided by The Verge and Folha de S.Paulo.
The main change concerns the placement of links directly inside artificial intelligence answers. Google intends to show them more often and higher in the text, so that users can go to original sources without scrolling through long answers.
According to Google Vice President of Product Management Hema Budaraju, the company has already increased the number of links in AI answers and continues to improve their display.
The updates will affect two main tools of the search engine: AI Overviews, which generates brief answers above regular search results, and AI Mode — a separate mode for receiving detailed answers with the help of artificial intelligence.
Google to change display of news and sources
In addition to more visible links in the text, the company introduced several changes aimed at increasing the visibility of websites.
In particular, Google is starting to expand the geography and language support of news carousels that appear in search results with AI. In these blocks, users will be able to see headlines and go to publisher websites.
Special attention will be given to the Preferred Sources feature. It allows users to independently choose the sites whose publications they want to see more often in news results.
Such publications will be additionally highlighted in news carousels. According to Google, since the beginning of 2026, the number of people who used the option to choose preferred sources has increased more than sevenfold.
The company has also started testing a new format for displaying official websites. For queries that imply going to a specific resource, a separate block with one or two most relevant links will appear at the top of the answer.
Next to them, Google will explain why the corresponding site is useful for fulfilling the query.
Another change concerns the links at the end of AI answers. Their styling will become more noticeable: image thumbnails and additional visual elements will appear, making it easier to go to the publications.
In addition, Google is testing clickable author and publisher names in video search results. Clicking on a name will open the author's search profile and show their other materials.
Publishers complain about reduced traffic from search
Google's changes come amid growing discontent among news organizations and other website owners.
After the introduction of generative artificial intelligence, the search engine began providing ready-made answers to many queries for which users previously had to follow links.
Publishers claim that this model reduces traffic to their resources, since users get the necessary information directly on the Google page.
These concerns are supported by user behavior research.
According to a study by Pew Research Center published in July 2025, users clicked on regular search links in 8% of cases when Google showed an AI overview. In the absence of such an overview, the figure was 15%.
At the same time, users clicked directly on links placed inside artificial intelligence answers only in 1% of cases.
The study was conducted based on the activity of 900 adult users in the US in March 2025. These results do not reflect current website traffic, but they show why the spread of AI search is causing concern among publishers.
Reduced clicks can affect advertising revenue of news sites, online stores, and other companies whose businesses depend on search traffic.
Will the changes help website owners?
Google expects that more visible placement of links will allow users to more often refer to original materials and independently explore additional information.
However, the company did not provide quantitative forecasts on how much the new changes will increase clicks to third-party sites.
Moreover, some of the announced features are still in testing, and the expansion of news carousels will happen gradually.
Thus, the changes are about the design and placement of links in search results, not about Google abandoning AI-generated answers.
For publishers and internet businesses, the key question remains whether the updates can compensate for the traffic decline that they attribute to the spread of AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Based on materials from: Google, The Verge, Folha de S.Paulo, Pew Research Center.