Google is making AI Overviews more link-heavy. But not every underlined phrase sends a user to your site. Some links are owned referrals, some are suggestions, and some simply run another Google query.
What changed this week
Peec AI shared a chart on September 21 showing that external links inside AI Overview answer text climbed from near zero in late August to 26.2% on September 20, with a sharp step around September 11. The metric is specific: the share of AI Overviews in the sample that contain an external link in the answer text itself. It does not measure clicks.
In a separate 18-second recording, Gagan Ghotra clicked bold underlined text inside an AI Overview and landed in AI Mode instead of a webpage. That was a single query, not evidence of scale, but it fits a pattern Google has been building since January: a follow-up prompt can open a conversational search.
The link formats are not equal
Google has described several link types in AI Overviews and AI Mode:
- Inline links next to answer text that can open an external page.
- Suggestions at the end of a response that link to articles or analyses.
- Discussion previews linking to community threads and social perspectives.
- Follow-up anchors that open a new query in AI Mode.
The company has iterated quickly: link carousels on desktop in August 2025, hover previews in February 2026, subscription labels and extra link treatments in May, and more inline links announced in June. Google said early testing showed people were significantly more likely to click links labeled as their subscriptions, without sharing numbers.
Search Console sees clicks, not curiosity
The click rules are binary. A link to an external page in an AI Overview counts as a click. A query refinement that runs a new Google query does not count as a click or an impression. If the anchor link Ghotra recorded is treated as a query refinement, it would disappear from a site’s AI click story.
The generative AI performance report adds another twist: it tracks impressions only, not clicks or CTR. Since web search clicks include AI features but are not separately labeled, you cannot divide total clicks by AI impressions to recover a real CTR.
For D2C and content teams, the practical frame is a link mix: some units are acquisition, some are platform retention. Treat AI Overview real estate as two surfaces, not one. A link that keeps users inside Google is not a traffic win.
What to do this week
Audit your core queries manually. Click every underlined phrase in AI Overviews and record whether it opens a site or AI Mode. Then use the generative AI report for impressions and keep total web clicks separate. If you see a jump in AI impressions, do not assume referrals moved with it.
Watch for two signals: a longer tracker series confirming the link increase holds, and Google clarifying how these anchor links are classified in Search Console. Until then, more links is not the same as more reach.
Source: Search Engine Journal
