Optimixed Search News

Google's AI Overviews route links to both websites and AI Mode, tracked separately in Search Console

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TLDR

Google's AI Overview links lead either to external websites or to its own AI Mode feature, and Search Console tracks these two traffic sources separately.

Optimixed Overview

Optimixed's original report on this story.

Search Engine Journal reports that AI Overview links don't all direct to external websites — some route to Google's AI Mode instead — and Search Console measures clicks to websites and AI Mode as distinct interactions. This distinction matters for SEO practitioners tracking traffic and performance from AI Overviews, as the split routing means not all link clicks from these features reach actual web properties.

Topics:AI & Machine Learning in SEOSEO News & Algorithm Updates
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