Google’s AI Is Eating Your Clicks for Breakfast.

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SEO + GEO

Insights From 55.8M AI Overviews Across 590M Searches

Patrick Stox shares Ahrefs’ largest AI Overviews study to date, he analyzed 55.8 million AI Overviews across 590 million search terms. The results show who’s gaining visibility, what types of content AIOs prefer, and why most brands are likely to lose clicks, not gain them. Some of the takeaways:

• AIOs show for 9.46% of all keywords but appear in 54.61% of search volume

• They are dominated by informational queries - 97.7% of AIOs fall in this category

• Top 50 domains (like Wikipedia, Reddit, Quora) account for 28.9% of AIO mentions

• Local and branded queries are underrepresented in AIOs

• Longer search queries trigger more AIOs than short ones

• 80% of AIOs show for non-branded terms

• 71.67% of AIO queries have no CPC data, meaning they aren't monetized

• AIOs are reducing clicks by 34.5% on average

• Most AIO visibility goes to content-rich, trusted sites - not ad-driven pages

How to Get Cited by AI: SEO Insights From 8,000 AI Citations

AI citations aren’t random. James Allen shares his research on how ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews choose what to cite and who. Foundational SEO still rules. AI engines reward authority, visibility, and credible placement across the web. Some of the key insights:

• Wikipedia dominates ChatGPT citations at 27%

• Gemini favors YouTube (3%), blogs (39%), and news (26%)

• Perplexity loves expert reviews like NerdWallet and Investopedia

• Reddit is the top source for Google AI Overviews

• Blog-style content makes up 46% of AI Overview citations

• “Product blogs” account for 7% of citations in Gemini and Perplexity

• B2B queries earn more citations from vendor blogs and LinkedIn

• High E-E-A-T pages rank and get cited more often

• Deep URLs (not homepages) are favored by AI Overviews

• AI citation visibility correlates directly with broad organic SEO authority

John Mueller also shares a blog post on creating content that thrives in an AI-first search experience. The advice is “refreshingly” simple (and awfully familiar): focus on users, not algorithms. If you’ve read or heard anything in the last 5 years from him or other Googlers, then it’s just a rehash of all that.

Google also published a couple docs:

• Guidance on using generative AI content - “if you’re automatically generating content, [say how the] content was created…”

• Appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode - the blog post above has more info, even though both aren’t really helpful.

How To Measure Topical Authority [In 2025]

Kevin Indig delivers a playbook to measure and grow your site’s authority the right way. From calculating Topic Share to pruning underperforming content, this guide shows you exactly how Google and AI systems assess topical strength across entities, backlinks, and content depth. Some of the key insights:

• Pages with high topical authority grow traffic 57% faster.

• “Topic Share” is the most practical way to measure topical authority.

• Google documents confirm use of site-level authority and topic coverage.

• Use Ahrefs to analyze Topic Share with head terms and traffic data.

• Depth + breadth of content remains the top signal.

• Smart internal linking strengthens semantic connections.

• Topical backlinks outperform general ones.

• Prune irrelevant pages to tighten authority focus.

• Use Floyi to help you build topical authority

My Take: Ok, I may have added that last one myself - but it’s because everyone needs Floyi in their workflows! 😁 

Engineering Relevant Content: Tips to Get Your Content Into LLMs

Francine Monahan discusses how to engineer content that large language models actually use. No fluff, just a clear, modern roadmap to semantic visibility. She covers how to align your site structure, UX, and strategy so your content shows up not only in Google but in the responses AI gives users. Some of the tips include:

• Follow semantic structure using headings, subheadings, and short paragraphs.

• Create “semantic triples” to boost retrieval accuracy.

• Use topical clustering to demonstrate depth and relevance.

• Structure content around user intent and AI comprehension.

• Add a table of contents and anchor links to improve scannability and SEO.

• Treat author bylines as assets for establishing topic authority.

AI Search: Where Are We & What Can We Do About It?

AI search isn't the future. It's here. In this punchy guide, Aleyda Solis breaks down how SEOs should adapt to Google’s AI Overviews, LLM-driven search behavior, and the shifting definition of visibility. Some of the takeaways:

• AI traffic makes up just 1–2% of site referrals today

• 80% of commercial query users still click traditional results

• Google citations do not always match top-ranking pages

• Each LLM favors different content types and sources

• Use GA4 and pixel tracking to measure AIO impact

• Brand visibility and citations are the new KPIs

• Server-side rendering matters more for non-Google LLMs

Google Made It So You Can’t Track Clicks From AI Mode

Patrick Stox uncovers a major blind spot in SEO analytics: Google’s new AI Mode is sending traffic you can’t track. Links in AI results don’t pass referrer data and aren’t recorded in Search Console. That means clicks look like Direct or Unknown in your reports. Ahrefs Web Analytics shows visits as Unknown. This all affects SEO reporting and ROI tracking because you can’t segment or measure performance from AI Mode.

Update: Google (John Mueller) later says it was a bug and was unintentional…

Google Expands Ads in AI Overviews, AI Mode to Desktop

Anu Adegbola shares that ads are now rolling out across AI Overviews and AI Mode for desktop users. Global rollout for English queries is coming later this year. AI Mode surfaces contextual ads during follow-up-heavy searches. Ads integrate with AI-generated step-by-step responses. Placement is automatic for Search, Shopping, and PMax campaigns. Relevance and user journey context guide ad visibility.

And if you’re an advertiser, sorry to say that you cannot opt out of serving ads in AIO. You also won’t be able to get segmented reporting - why help you budget your ad spends? That’s less money for Google I saw this in one of the recently released USA v Google trial exhibit documents:

Google Begins Rolling Out Discover on Desktop

After years of being mobile-only, Google Discover is finally making its way to desktop. Barry Schwartz reports the rollout is already live in select countries, with wider access expected soon. Discover is driven by AI-powered interest signals, not queries, making visibility here more about relevance than rankings. Performance data briefly appeared in Search Console, hinting at upcoming tracking features. Discover can be disabled in desktop settings if you don’t like it.

SEO + GEO Ripples

• The News/Media Alliance accused Google’s new AI Mode of stripping news publishers of traffic and revenue by serving AI summaries instead of driving clicks. Emma Roth reports that AI Mode pulls directly from publisher content without consent and offers minimal referral value in return.

AI

Google I/O 2025: 100 Things Google Announced

Google just dropped a firehose of updates at I/O 2025, and it’s all about AI-powered everything. From smarter search and agents that book your dinner, to tools for filmmakers, developers, and students, this update was a show of force for Google (Search aside 😉 ). Some of the highlights they announced:

• AI Overviews now reach 1.5B monthly users across 200+ regions

• Gemini 2.5 Pro outperforms on learning and coding benchmarks

• AI Mode in Search can now talk, see, shop, and book for you - including a “try it on” feature

• Project Astra brings real-time, camera-powered conversation to Search

• Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite promises 10x faster performance

• Flow lets you create full cinematic videos with just a prompt

• Imagen 4 upgrades for photorealism, typography, and abstract art

• Lyria 2 powers music creation with AI vocal arrangements

• Google AI Ultra ($249.99/month) offers top-tier access and perks like early access to Mariner

AI Ripples

• Anthropic just raised the bar for AI with the launch of Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4. They’re purpose-built for coding, reasoning, and AI agent tasks. Claude Opus 4 is already being called the best coding model in the world, while Sonnet 4 brings upgrades to free and Pro users alike. They are definitely very impressive in my early testing.

• OpenAI Responses API now supports remote MCP servers, in-tool image generation, the Code Interpreter, and enhanced file search. These additions make it easier to build faster, smarter AI agents. With background processing, reasoning summaries, and encrypted task memory, agents built on GPT-4o and the o-series are now leaner and more context-aware.

• Klarna and Zoom just redefined the executive flex. Instead of delivering their quarterly earnings updates in person, their CEOs sent AI avatars. Jay Peters reports how Klarna’s Sebastian Siemiatkowski and Zoom’s Eric Yuan let synthetic versions of themselves read the results, with Yuan proudly proclaiming his love for his own avatar.

• OpenAI buys Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup, io, for $6.5 billion. They’re building a pocket-sized AI device with no screen, no glasses, and no phone tether. Jess Weatherbed reveals leaked details from an internal OpenAI call that hints at a context-aware companion designed to blend into your life and desk setup as a “third core device,” right after your MacBook Pro and iPhone.

• Google unveiled the new SynthID Detector tool to spot whether text, images, audio, or video were created using its own AI models like Gemini, Imagen, Lyria, or Veo. The verification portal can flag specific sections of content with invisible SynthID watermarks. It’s still in early testing.

• Mia Sato reveals a summer reading list disaster that’s part comedy, part cautionary tale. The Chicago Sun-Times printed AI-generated content packed with imaginary books and experts - complete with fake authors, fictional professors, and quotes that never existed. The paper says it came from a third-party provider and wasn’t vetted by the newsroom. I wonder if Google’s SynthID Detector caught it and if Google AIO, AI Mode, and Search are sharing it.

LINK BUILDING

Follow-Up Emails in Digital PR: What the Data Tells Us [Study]

Follow-ups in PR can double your reply rate - but there's a catch. Vince Nero dug into 8 million emails across 65,000 campaigns to answer a pressing question: do follow-up emails actually work? Turns out, they do, but only the first one. Beyond that, response rates nosedive. Some of the takeaways from the study:

• Follow-ups increase reply rates by 85 percent

• The first follow-up is the most effective

• Sending follow-ups one day after the first email gets the best results

• Open rates actually drop slightly when using follow-ups

• Second follow-up emails get 66 percent fewer replies

• Journalists say one follow-up is ideal. More can lead to blocks

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