Google AI Overviews Have More Links, But Not All Reach The Web via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Not every link inside an AI Overview is the same. Google’s posts describe links placed next to the answer text, article suggestions at the end of a response, previews of online discussions with links to the thread, and, since January on mobile, a follow-up question that opens a conversation in AI Mode. In Search Console, clicking on a link to an external page in an AI Overview counts as a click, and a link that runs a new Google query doesn’t count as either a click or an impression.

This week, two posts describe what people are observing in that space. Peec AI shared a chart on September 21, showing the percentage of AI Overviews that contain an external link within the answer text, based on a daily average from August 25 to September 20. Earlier that same day, Gagan Ghotra shared a recording where he clicks on underlined text inside an AI Overview and is taken to an AI Mode conversation instead of a website. The first post highlights the presence of links, not clicks. The second demonstrates where one link led during a single search.

What Google Says These Links Show And Where They Lead

Google has updated the way links appear in its AI answers a few times, with each update describing a different display.

In August 2025, Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search, stated that the company’s main goal for AI Mode was to display more inline links, and it added link carousels on desktop. I reported on this development at that time.

On Jan. 27, Stein wrote that people can “ask a follow-up question right from an AI Overview, and jump into a conversational back and forth with AI Mode.” He called it “one fluid experience with prominent links to continue exploring.” The post says the follow-up is available on mobile, globally.

On Feb. 17, Stein said groups of links would appear in a pop-up on desktop when a user hovers over them in AI Overviews and AI Mode, with more descriptive link icons on desktop and mobile. Google’s testing, he wrote, showed the new interface was “more engaging, making it easier to get to great content across the web.”

On May 6, Hema Budaraju, Vice President of Product Management for Search, described five updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews. Suggestions for where to go next appear at the end of many AI responses and link to articles or in-depth analyses. Links from a person’s news subscriptions carry a label. AI responses include a preview of perspectives from public discussions and social media, with clickable links that show the community name. Google mentioned that users will see additional links alongside relevant text in AI responses. On desktop, hovering over an inline link displays a preview showing the site name or page title.

Those are Google’s descriptions of what users see and where their taps or clicks will take them. The May post doesn’t include any counts for the five aspects, nor does it specify, for the inline-link change, which markets are affected or when it will be completed. Google shared that early testing showed people were “significantly more likely to click links that were labeled as their subscriptions,” although no specific numbers were given. The displays can also overlap; for example, a subscription link might appear next to the answer text and show a hover preview at the same time.

On June 3, Google said it had increased the number of inline links within AI responses and was continuing to experiment with a range of new link designs in its AI experiences.

What Two Posts Described This Week

Malte Landwehr of Peec AI, an AI search analytics company, posted a chart on Sept. 21 with the line “Google massively increased the number of external links within AI Overview answers.”

Google massively increased the number of external links within AI Overview answers. pic.twitter.com/tHEkfahpW0

The chart titled “External links in AI Overviews rise to 26%” shows how often AI Overviews include external links within their answers. The subtitle explains that this data represents the share of AI Overviews with an external link inside the answer text, averaged over each day from August 25 to September 20, 2026. The data starts near zero from August 25 to September 10, then rises sharply at a point marked “11 Sep,” remains in the low to mid-20s, and finally reaches 26.2% on September 20.

The chart doesn’t specify the number of queries or AI Overviews sampled, nor does it detail which markets or devices were involved, how frequently the queries were run, or how Peec determines whether a link is part of the text itself, a citation card, or an end-of-response suggestion. When asked in the replies whether the query set remained the same over time, Landwehr mentioned that if any prompts changed, “it was a small percentage.”

That kind of change within a day could be due to a modification on Google’s end or a change in data collection methods. The chart alone isn’t enough to tell which one caused it. 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.” That is his speculation, and he labeled the current AI Overview to AI Mode links as something that “already exist today.”

Ghotra’s post is an 18-second recording showing him clicking on bold, underlined text within an AI Overview that appears as a link. Clicking it opens a query in AI Mode instead of a webpage. He mentioned that 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 on that one search. It doesn’t say how widely the element appears, whether it took the place of any external link, or what happened to clicks. The path itself has existed on mobile since January’s follow-up feature. What Ghotra recorded is text inside the answer that looks like a link and does what that follow-up does, which is open a query in AI Mode.

How Search Console Counts Them

Search Console’s rules for AI Overviews turn on where a click goes.

For AI Overviews, the help page explains that “Clicking a link to an external page in the AI Overview counts as a click.” The same impression rules are in effect, and all links within an AI Overview share the same position. AI Mode also follows the same click rules, and when you ask a follow-up question within AI Mode, it’s regarded as a new query. This means all impression, position, and click data for the new response are counted as part of that specific 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,” and everything on the new results page is counted from that query.

It’s not clear from the material reviewed whether the element in Ghotra’s recording is considered a query refinement. The help page explains the general rule and how the AI Mode follow-up works. However, it doesn’t specify anything about the underlined text inside an AI Overview that opens AI Mode.

Search Console’s generative AI performance report covers the impression side. Google rolled it out to all sites worldwide on Aug. 31, after a test that began in June, which I covered when it was limited to UK sites. The report shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by page, country, date, or device. It doesn’t list clicks or click-through rate.

The help page explains that the report “includes data from the Web search type in the Performance report.” Google’s June announcement echoed this, mentioning that generative AI impressions are already part of the overall performance report, with the new view just separating them out. The AI report is a part of the whole, not an addition to it.

The way the report totals impressions matters for reading it. The chart sums up impressions by property, so if two results from the same site show up in a generative AI search results feature, they are only counted as one impression in the chart total. Data grouped by page is simply combined by page. For example, suppose one AI response links to two different pages on your site, and each link qualifies as an impression. Without a URL filter, the chart would show one property impression. The Pages table would show one impression for each page.

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

Open Questions

Peec’s chart and Ghotra’s recording provide insights, but they only cover specific parts of what a site owner needs to know.

Peec’s chart shows a single step in one display, with links embedded within the answer text, ranging from almost none to about a quarter of the AI Overviews observed. Without the sample context, markets, devices, and rules for what qualifies as a link, it can’t be read as a share of all AI Overviews. Also, the September 11 step isn’t specifically linked to Google or data collection.

Google’s May post stated that users would notice more links next to relevant text. However, it didn’t provide details about the quantities, affected markets, or the timeline for this change. It’s also uncertain whether the display Peec measures is part of that May update, a subsequent change, or something different. 

Ghotra’s recording focuses on one element in a single search. The help pages don’t clarify how often it appears or whether Search Console sees it as a refinement.

Google’s AI features help page also makes a claim about where people go. It says that with AI Overviews, “people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions.” The page does not provide supporting figures for that statement.

Why This Matters

The generative AI report addresses a specific question, how often links to a site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. The overall Performance report focuses on a different one, the number of clicks the site received in Web search, including AI features. When viewed together, these two reports can show different trends, as one tracks AI impressions while the other counts total Search clicks.

A news or content site that has seen more AI impressions since the report was released can’t be sure whether clicks from AI features increased along with them, nor can it confirm they didn’t. Any clicks generated by those impressions are part of the total Web search click count, but they aren’t separately labeled.

A tracker’s link count measures something different from either report. Peec’s chart shows whether an AI Overview in its sample contains an external link in its text, but not whether anyone clicked it or if the link took users to the tracked site. When that share rises, it simply means one display became more common in the sample. Still, it doesn’t tell the team what happened to their traffic, and the chart never says it does.

When a link opens AI Mode, like in Ghotra’s recording, Search Console might not count it as a click or impression for any outside site, if Google interprets it as a query refinement. The current information doesn’t clarify this. Until it does, teams can’t assume that every underlined phrase in an AI Overview links to a website, nor that it doesn’t.

Looking Ahead

The generative AI report shows impressions today. Google’s help page says the list of covered features will be updated over time, and in June the company said it would introduce additional metrics over time, without naming which.

For the in-text link display, the next data point is Peec’s series, or a second tracker publishing the same measure with its method attached. A longer series would show whether the higher share holds in Peec’s observations. You can check where the links go directly. How often people follow them takes click data tied to those links, which the reports covered here don’t provide.

Regarding the AI Mode element Ghotra recorded, what’s unknown is how Google classifies this interaction. According to the general refinement rule, the internal link itself doesn’t generate a click or an impression. However, external links in the original overview or later responses can still earn their own. The help pages reviewed here don’t clarify how this recorded element is classified.

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