Google improves the visibility of links in AI results

Google has rolled out a new display of source links in AI Overviews and in the AI Mode of its search functions, which is intended to improve the user experience and increase traffic to external sites again. The changes were announced by Robby Stein, Vice President of Product at Google Search, and affect both desktop and mobile users.

What exactly is changing?

In AI-powered search responses, links to the original sources are now more prominent and interactive. When users hover over a link icon on desktop, a pop-up opens that groups several linked websites together. In addition to the link, this pop-up also displays short text excerpts from the pages to provide orientation and context.

The adjustment is part of a larger design and usability strategy with which Google aims to make links in AI responses more visible and user-friendly. Observers expect that the new display formats could, at least in part, help to boost traffic to publisher sites again. However, the extent of this effect will only become clearer in the coming weeks when more data from real search environments is available.

Why is this important?

Since the introduction of AI summaries such as AI Overviews, the click-through rate on classic search results and external websites has fallen sharply in some cases. This has led to criticism in the industry, as many users are served directly by the integrated answers without clicking on the linked content.

Google argues that the new approach makes the user experience “more engaging” and facilitates access to further content on the web. According to the company, test data indicates that engagement is increasing, but Google has not yet published specific figures on the actual increase in click-through rates.

Analyses show that, especially for high positions in organic results, the click-through rate fell by up to 58% when an AI overview was displayed.