Google’s own website has become one of the most-cited nodes within its AI Mode. According to newly published research from Profound – an AI visibility analysis platform – google.com is now the second most-cited domain in AI Mode results, directly after the collective set of independent sites. For brands, publishers, and local business owners, this has significant implications for what it means to “win” within a search result.
According to the findings published on Profound’s blog, google.com’s citation share within AI Mode jumped 8.4x from April 15 to June 30, 2026. This increase was driven almost entirely by two subpaths belonging to Google, responsible for rendering Business Profile cards and Product Knowledge Panels in AI Mode responses.
Search Engine Journal was among the first to comment on the finding, observing that the increase appears to be driven predominantly by particular industries and categories of search queries.
What The Data Actually Shows
Citation share is a metric that reflects the share of domains that appear as sources of information behind AI Mode results. This statistic does not take into consideration traffic or engagement but rather indicates how many times a particular domain has been referenced as a source behind an answer generated by an AI.
As noted by Profound in its latest publication, between mid-April and the end of June, google.com climbed up the ranks to position itself as the second most-cited domain in AI Mode results. Remarkably, this jump was driven almost entirely by two subpaths belonging to Google, which were responsible for generating Business Profile cards and Product Knowledge Panels.
For queries that express an intent to find a local business, such as where to eat nearby, the Business Profile card now appears more prominently in AI Mode rather than a direct deep link to a business’s website. Profound analyzed over 32 million observations of this particular Business Profile subpath and observed that the jump in citation share was driven predominantly by five industries: hospitality and travel, home services, restaurants and dining, real estate, and healthcare.
Similarly, for product-related queries, queries that seek to compare items or find out more about their qualities and compatibility, the Knowledge Panel has gained significantly in prominence over direct deep links to retailers and their product catalogs.
A Pattern That Has Been Building For A While
Google’s own properties dominating AI Mode results is not exactly a novelty – Search Engine Journal has been chronicling these developments throughout the year. In March 2026, SE Ranking published a post that demonstrated Google was among the most-cited domains in content generated by AI Mode. Specifically, Google accounted for 17% of 1.3 million cited domains in AI Mode, and with YouTube included, the share climbed to 20%.
As early as May 2025, Search Engine Journal ran a similar article about the dominance of Google in AI Overview results, demonstrating 43% of all sources cited in AI Overviews belonged to Google’s results pages, an early iteration of AI Mode. It is evident that while this trend has been developing for some time, the latest data from Profound demonstrates a dramatic increase across the board in mentions of Google across AI Mode results.
What stands out in the latest data is that the citation growth now appears to be driven predominantly by two card formats, Business Profile and Product Knowledge Panel.
A Possible Link To Google’s Commerce Plans
According to Profound, the surge in citation share that it observed for the Product Knowledge Panel subpath may be an early sign of Google’s proposed Universal Commerce Protocol, a standard for AI Mode and Gemini that allows end-users to make direct purchases via an AI chat, while still designating the purchasing platform as the merchant of record.
It is important to note that Profound itself describes this potential connection to Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol as an “early signal,” and one should be careful not to draw definite conclusions about the connection between the two based on this data alone. Namely, the connection between the two appears to be largely speculative, as the findings from Profound do not demonstrate that the Google panels observed actually belong to the Universal Commerce Protocol, only that they appear to be related to commerce in general. With that being said, the timing of the announcement does appear to suggest that Google is preparing to announce something major around commerce in the near future.
Why This Matters For Businesses And Publishers
While the increase in citation share does not directly point to a decrease in traffic, it nonetheless creates real challenges for content publishers and local businesses that rely on traditional search results. Specifically, the rise in prominence of Google’s own results means that for certain categories of queries, users are far more likely to encounter a Google-hosted card rather than a deep link to an external website.
For local searches, this means that a user who wishes to find a local restaurant, for example, may see the Google Business Profile card first, which contains the information about the establishment’s operating hours, media, and reviews. This information has been provided by the business itself, but a potential customer would not necessarily visit the business’s website directly – they would interact with Google’s card directly.
What Businesses Can Actually Do About It
This presents a unique twist on the competitive landscape local businesses and content publishers operate in. Rather than simply vying to appear in the traditional search results, local businesses and content creators must also ensure they do everything possible to make their data attractive and competitive within the Google Business Profile card format. Specifically, businesses should make sure that the data they provide to Google is up-to-date, relevant, and comprehensive to the extent allowed by the platform’s parameters. Similarly, product sellers should ensure they enter all pertinent information about their goods so that the Knowledge Panel that appears in the search results is informative and accurate.
The same applies to businesses in other industries not related to local searches or product selling. While businesses in the hospitality, home services, restaurants, real-estate, and healthcare sectors have been demonstrated to benefit most from the changes in local search results, other industries are likely to find themselves in a similar position vis-a-vis product searches and the Knowledge Panel.
The Bigger Picture
Google’s AI Mode is a constantly evolving space, and the data described above reflects a state of the system approximately two and a half months into its launch. There is no doubt that in a year, the trends described above will no longer apply. Nevertheless, the current data paints a clear picture of Google’s increasing desire to promote its own properties over those of its competitors. For businesses in the local and product search spaces, this serves as a useful lesson: the information they provide to Google will ultimately determine the extent to which they can benefit from appearing in the Google Business Profile and Knowledge Panel cards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: What does it mean that google.com is AI Mode’s number two cited domain?
It means that when AI Mode builds a response, google.com is now the second most common source it references, behind only the combined pool of independent websites. This is measured by citation share, not by clicks or visits.
Q 2: Which two parts of Google’s site are driving this increase?
Almost all of the growth comes from two subpaths, Business Profile cards for local searches and Product Knowledge Panels for product searches. Other parts of Google’s site, including its standard organic search pages, are not driving the increase.
Q 3: Which industries are most affected by this shift?
Five sectors saw the largest share of the change in local search citations, hospitality and travel, home services, restaurants and dining, real estate, and healthcare.
Q 4: Does a higher citation share mean businesses are losing website traffic?
Not necessarily. Citation share measures what AI Mode references when forming an answer, not whether a user later clicks through to a business’s own site. It shows where the answer lives, not the full picture of resulting traffic.
Q 5: Is this related to Google’s plans for AI-powered shopping?
Profound’s researchers see a possible connection to Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, an emerging standard for completing purchases inside AI Mode and Gemini. However, this link is Profound’s interpretation and has not been confirmed by Google.
Q 6: Has Google favored its own content in AI answers before?
Yes. Search Engine Journal reported in March 2026 that Google made up 17 percent of citations in AI Mode, based on SE Ranking data, and reported in May 2025 that 43 percent of AI Overview responses pointed back to Google’s own pages.
Q 7: What can local businesses do in response to this trend?
Keeping a Google Business Profile accurate and complete, with current hours, photos, and active review responses, gives a business the best chance of being represented well inside these cards.
Q 8: What can product sellers do in response to this trend?
Maintaining a complete and accurate product feed increases the likelihood that a Product Knowledge Panel reflects a business’s offerings correctly when it appears for comparison or specification searches.
Q 9: Does optimizing for these cards guarantee more website visits?
No. Optimizing a Business Profile or product feed can improve how a business appears inside these Google-hosted cards, but it does not guarantee that a user will click through to the business’s own website afterward.
Q 10: How long did the data in this study cover?
The Profound research tracked citation share changes between April 15 and June 30, 2026, a period of roughly two and a half months.
