Not every link within a Google AI Overview directs a person to a site. As Search Engine Journal, Google outlines that there are a few link lineups with different locations, and Search Console counts them in various methods.
Two more posts from 21 September brought the story back to SEOs. Peec AI shared a chart showing a spike in AI Overviews that include an external link inside the answer text, while independently, Gagan Ghotra posted a recording of an underlined phrase in an AI Overview that opened AI Mode instead of a webpage. Both posts show something specific, and neither shows how clicks fared.
The Link Displays Google Describes
Google’s own posts describe links that appear alongside the answer text, suggestions for related articles at the end of the answer, and previews of discussions with links to the discussion thread. On mobile, and from January, a follow-up question that opens a conversation in AI Mode also appears. The various elements may overlap on the page; a subscription link, for example, could appear next to the answer text and have a hover preview at the same time.
How Google Has Changed Links This Year
In August 2025, Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search, mentioned that the central premise behind AI Mode was to offer more inline links, and Google began testing link carousels on desktop.
On January 27, Stein announced that users could ask a follow-up question directly from an AI Overview and enter a conversation with AI Mode. The post noted that the feature was available on mobile, worldwide.
On February 17, Stein suggested that sets of links would appear in a pop-up on desktop in response to hovering over them in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google’s experimentation showed that the new interface was more engaging, Stein wrote.
On May 6, Hema Budaraju, Vice President of Product Management for Search, outlined five enhancements. Suggestions for where to navigate next appeared at the end of a number of AI responses and linked to articles or in-depth analyses. Links in a user’s news subscriptions included a label. Some AI responses previewed public conversations and social media, with clickable links indicating the community name. Google also announced that users would see more links alongside relevant text.
On June 3, Google announced that it had increased the number of inline links within AI responses and would continue to test new link designs. The May post offers no figures for any of the updates and does not state what markets are impacted by the inline link change or when the rollout will complete.
The Peec AI Chart
Malte Landwehr of Peec AI – an AI search analytics company – shared a chart on September 21 with the line “Google massively increased the number of external links within AI Overview answers.”
The chart shows the share of AI Overviews containing an external link within the text of the answer – averaged per day – from August 25th to September 20th, 2026. The curve remains close to zero up to September 10th, rises more sharply from there (the jump occurs around September 11th), and peaks at 26.2% on September 20th.
It does not give any information about the proportion of queries/AI Overviews sampled (presumably, it is the same for all days) nor about the markets and devices queried, the frequency of queries, nor, most importantly, the criteria by which the links embedded in the text of the AI Overviews are considered part of the response – in contrast to links in citation cards or end-of-response suggestions. When asked if the set of queries used for analysis remained the same throughout the observation period, Landwehr replied that potential prompt variations accounted for only a small percentage.
Such a curve could have been obtained either by actual traffic shifts on Google’s side or by differences in measurement practices, and it is impossible to tell which of the two based on the chart. According to Landwehr’s hypothesis, Google is training users to click on links within AI Overviews, and such links are increasingly likely to send users away from the AI Overview into AI Mode – this is his personal guess.
The AI Mode Recording
Ghotra’s post features an 18-second recording. In the latter, he demonstrates clicking over bold, underlined text in an AI Overview that acts as a link but leads to a query result in AI Mode instead of a web page. His on-screen note reads: Google is now experimenting with anchor links which they believe is another tactic to drive users from search results to AI Mode.
The latter recording only shows one search. It is unclear how widespread the element was or whether it replaced an external link as a result or affected the click rate. The feature itself has existed on the mobile from the January follow-up.
How Search Console Counts These Links
A click on a link to an external page in the AI overview is counted as a click. Impressions rules remain the same with all the links in the AI Overview having the same position. The AI mode follows the same rules for clicks. A question asked within the AI mode is a separate query, and therefore, impressions, position, and clicks for the new response will apply to the query.
The same page states that query refinement can be described as a link, which triggers a new Google query. The link’s clicks and impressions would not be counted, and the entire results page, which appears after clicking on the link, will be attributed to the new query. It remains unclear based on the given material whether the particular element within Ghotra’s recording would be considered as query refinement. The Google help page does not state underlined text within the AI Overview, which opens the AI mode.
What the Generative AI Report Shows
Search Console’s generative AI performance report provides information on the impression side. Google rolled out this performance report to all websites worldwide on August 31, after a test that started in June and was initially limited to UK sites. The report displays impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by page, country, date or device, but it does not list clicks or click-through rate.
The data comes from the Web search type in the Performance report, so the AI report is part of the whole and not an addition to it. The chart sums up the impressions by property, which means that two results from the same site in one AI feature are counted as one impression in the chart. The Pages table counts the page separately.
One number can’t be built from these reports. Web search performance includes clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode plus other Web search clicks, and the generative AI report has impressions only. Dividing overall clicks by AI-only impressions doesn’t give you a click-through rate for AI features.
What Remains Unclear
Peec’s chart only covers one step of one display, and without the qualifying data it cannot be extrapolated, and therefore read, as a fraction of the entirety of AI Overviews. The jump on 9/11 is unrelated to any specific Google change or Peec’s data capture, and it is also unknown if the display in question is part of the May “update”, or another change, entirely.
Google’s AI features help page touts increased variety in the domains receiving AI Overviews for more complex queries, but offers no supporting figures.
A content site that has seen increased AI impressions since the report’s launch date cannot assess if the traffic has increased alongside AI features or not due to both reports being unable to capture the same data, as clicking on the links in an AI Overview does not result in an impression or click for any external domains for Search Console, if Google considers it a query refinement, which is stated as a possibility in Ghotra’s article, and is entirely unproven in this one.
If a link in an AI Overview leads to AI Mode, like in the example from Ghotra’s post, Search Console would not register it as an impression or click for any external domains, if Google considers it a query refinement. The provided information does not specify if this is the case.
FAQs
Q 1: Do all links in Google AI Overviews lead to websites?
No. Google describes several link displays, one of which is a follow-up question that opens AI Mode. Ghotra also recorded underlined text in an AI Overview that opened AI Mode, not a webpage.
Q 2: Does Search Console count clicks on AI Overview links?
Yes, when the link is to an external page. A link that runs a new Google query is a query refinement, and clicks and impressions are not counted for it.
Q 3: What did the Peec AI chart reveal?
It revealed what percentage of AI Overviews had an external link in the answer text, on average, each day, between August 25 and September 20, 2026. The line hovered around zero until September 10 and reached 26.2% on September 20.
Q 4: Does the Peec chart reveal how many people clicked those links?
No. It reveals how often an AI Overview in Peec’s sample has an external link in its text, but not what percentage of people who saw it clicked on them or where they led.
Q 5: Does the generative AI report in Search Console reveal clicks?
No. It reveals impressions of AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by page, country, date or device. Clicks on those features are included in the overall Web search data.
Q 6: When was the generative AI report launched worldwide?
Google launched it to all sites worldwide on August 31. It followed a test begun in June and initially limited to UK sites
Q 7: Can I calculate click-through rate for AI features?
Not from these reports. Web search clicks include AI features and other results, while the generative AI report has impressions only.
Q 8: Is the AI Mode link in Ghotra’s recording a refinement?
The help pages examined do not say. They describe the general refinement rule, but do not mention an underlined text within an AI Overview that opens AI Mode.
