Not all nexus inner an AI Overview is the same. Google’s posts depict links placed next to the answer text, part suggestions at the end of a response, previews of online discussions alongside links to the thread, and, since January on mobile, a follow-up inquiry that opens a conversation in AI Mode. In Search Console, clicking on a nexus to an external leaf in an AI Overview counts as a click, and a nexus that runs a new Google query doesn’t figure as either a click or an impression.
This week, two posts depict what group are observing in that space. Peec AI shared a chart on September 21, showing the percent of AI Overviews that merge an external nexus inside the answer text, according to a regular average from August 25 to September 20. Earlier that identical day, Gagan Ghotra shared a recording anywhere he clicks on underlined content inner an AI Overview and is taken to an AI Mode conversation alternatively of a website. The archetypal article highlights the existence of links, not clicks. The second demonstrates anywhere one nexus led during a sole search.
What Google Says These Links Show And Where They Lead
Google has updated the way links appear in its AI answers a few times, alongside all update describing a distinct display.
In August 2025, Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search, stated that the company’s chief goal for AI Mode was to display additional inline links, and it added nexus carousels on desktop. I reported on this development at that time.
On Jan. 27, Stein wrote that group can “ask a follow-up inquiry correct from an AI Overview, and jump into a conversational rear and onward alongside AI Mode.” He called it “one fluid cognition alongside notable links to continue exploring.” The article says the follow-up is accessible on mobile, globally.
On Feb. 17, Stein said groups of links would appear in a pop-up on desktop whenever a person hovers complete them in AI Overviews and AI Mode, alongside additional descriptive nexus icons on desktop and mobile. Google’s testing, he wrote, showed the new interface was “more engaging, making it easier to get to awesome satisfied throughout the web.”
On May 6, Hema Budaraju, Vice President of Product Management for Search, described five updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews. Suggestions for anywhere to go next appear at the end of many AI responses and nexus to articles or in-depth analyses. Links from a person’s news subscriptions transport a label. AI responses contain a preview of perspectives from community discussions and social media, alongside clickable links that display the community name. Google mentioned that users volition see additional links alongside applicable content in AI responses. On desktop, hovering complete an inline nexus displays a preview showing the location name or leaf title.
Those are Google’s descriptions of what users see and anywhere their taps or clicks volition obtain them. The May article doesn’t contain any counts for the five aspects, nor does it specify, for the inline-link change, which markets are affected or whenever it volition be completed. Google shared that first evaluation showed group were “significantly additional apt to click links that were tagged as their subscriptions,” although no particular numbers were given. The displays can additionally overlap; for example, a subscription nexus power appear next to the answer content and display a hover preview at the identical time.
On June 3, Google said it had risen the figure of inline links inside AI responses and was continuing to test alongside a range of new nexus designs in its AI experiences.
What Two Posts Described This Week
Malte Landwehr of Peec AI, an AI hunt analytics company, posted a chart on Sept. 21 alongside the row “Google massively risen the figure of external links inside AI Overview answers.”
Google massively risen the figure of external links inside AI Overview answers. pic.twitter.com/tHEkfahpW0
— Malte Landwehr (@MalteLandwehr) September 21, 2026
The diagram titled “External links in AI Overviews increase to 26%” shows how frequently AI Overviews contain external links inside their answers. The subtitle explains that this data represents the portion of AI Overviews alongside an external nexus inner the answer text, averaged complete all day from August 25 to September 20, 2026. The data starts near zero from August 25 to September 10, afterward rises sharply at a item marked “11 Sep,” remains in the low to mid-20s, and eventually reaches 26.2% on September 20.
The diagram doesn’t define the figure of queries or AI Overviews sampled, nor does it item which markets or devices were involved, how frequently the queries were run, or how Peec determines whether a nexus is part of the content itself, a citation card, or an end-of-response suggestion. When asked in the replies whether the query set remained the identical complete time, Landwehr mentioned that if any prompts changed, “it was a small percentage.”
That benevolent of alter inside a day could be because of a modification on Google’s end or a alter in data gathering methods. The diagram solitary isn’t adequate to inform which one caused it. Landwehr’s reading, posted in the thread, is that Google may be training group to click links in AI Overviews and that “over period additional and additional links volition rotate into links redirecting users to AI Mode.” That is his speculation, and he tagged the current AI Overview to AI Mode links as item that “already be today.”
Ghotra’s article is an 18-second recording showing him clicking on bold, underlined content inside an AI Overview that appears as a link. Clicking it opens a query in AI Mode alternatively of a webpage. He mentioned that Google “is now testing” these anchor links and described them as “another tactic” to move users from hunt results to AI Mode.
🆕 in AI Overviews answers Google is now evaluation showing anchor links which alternatively of taking to a webpage takes to AI Mode.
— Gagan Ghotra (@gaganghotra_) September 21, 2026
Another day – Another Tactic!
from Google to shove users from customary hunt results to AI Mode #SEO pic.twitter.com/2Vpp0V8EoR
The record establishes what happened on that one search. It doesn’t say how extensively the component appears, whether it took the location of any external link, or what happened to clicks. The way itself has existed on mobile since January’s follow-up feature. What Ghotra recorded is content inner the answer that looks akin a nexus and does what that follow-up does, which is open a query in AI Mode.
How Search Console Counts Them
Search Console’s rules for AI Overviews rotate on anywhere a click goes.
For AI Overviews, the help page explains that “Clicking a nexus to an external leaf in the AI Overview counts as a click.” The identical belief rules are in effect, and all links inside an AI Overview portion the identical position. AI Mode additionally follows the identical click rules, and whenever you ask a follow-up inquiry inside AI Mode, it’s regarded as a new query. This method all impression, position, and click data for the new reply are counted as part of that particular query.
The identical leaf defines a query refinement as a nexus inside results that performs a new Google query. “If a nexus is a query refinement link, clicks and impressions are not counted for that link.” A individual who follows one “is basically performing the new query shown in the hunt conditions box,” and everything on the new results leaf is counted from that query.
It’s not apparent from the matter reviewed whether the component in Ghotra’s record is considered a query refinement. The assistance leaf explains the broad regulation and how the AI Mode follow-up works. However, it doesn’t define item concerning the underlined content inner an AI Overview that opens AI Mode.
Search Console’s generative AI achievement study covers the belief side. Google rolled it out to all sites worldwide on Aug. 31, following a test that began in June, which I covered whenever it was constricted to UK sites. The study shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, grouped by page, country, date, or device. It doesn’t catalog clicks or click-through rate.
The assistance leaf explains that the study “includes data from the Web hunt category in the Performance report.” Google’s June announcement echoed this, mentioning that generative AI impressions are already part of the general achievement report, alongside the new perspective fair separating them out. The AI study is a part of the whole, not an supplement to it.
The way the study totals impressions matters for study it. The diagram sums up impressions by property, so if two results from the identical location display up in a generative AI hunt results feature, they are lone counted as one belief in the diagram total. Data grouped by leaf is merely blended by page. For example, assume one AI reply links to two distinct pages on your site, and all nexus qualifies as an impression. Without a URL filter, the diagram would display one asset impression. The Pages array would display one belief for all page.
One figure can’t be built from these reports. Web hunt achievement includes clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode alongside its another Web hunt clicks, and the generative AI study has impressions only. Dividing general clicks by AI-only impressions doesn’t create a click-through charge for AI features.
Open Questions
Peec’s diagram and Ghotra’s record provision insights, but they lone shield particular parts of what a location owner needs to know.
Peec’s diagram shows a sole stage in one display, alongside links embedded inside the answer text, ranging from nearly none to concerning a fourth of the AI Overviews observed. Without the example context, markets, devices, and rules for what qualifies as a link, it can’t be peruse as a portion of all AI Overviews. Also, the September 11 stage isn’t specifically connected to Google or data collection.
Google’s May post stated that users would notice additional links next to applicable text. However, it didn’t provision particulars concerning the quantities, affected markets, or the timeline for this change. It’s additionally uncertain whether the display Peec measures is part of that May update, a consequent change, or item different.
Ghotra’s record focuses on one component in a sole search. The assistance pages don’t explain how frequently it appears or whether Search Console sees it as a refinement.
Google’s AI features assistance page additionally makes a assertion concerning anywhere group go. It says that alongside AI Overviews, “people have been visiting a greater assortment of websites for assistance alongside additional complex questions.” The leaf does not provision supporting figures for that statement.
Why This Matters
The generative AI study addresses a particular question, how frequently links to a location appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. The general Performance study focuses on a distinct one, the figure of clicks the location received in Web search, including AI features. When viewed together, these two reports can display distinct trends, as one tracks AI impressions during the another counts total Search clicks.
A news or satisfied location that has seen additional AI impressions since the study was released can’t be certain whether clicks from AI features risen alongside alongside them, nor can it verify they didn’t. Any clicks generated by those impressions are part of the total Web hunt click count, but they aren’t separately labeled.
A tracker’s nexus figure measures item distinct from either report. Peec’s diagram shows whether an AI Overview in its example contains an external nexus in its text, but not whether anyone clicked it or if the nexus took users to the tracked site. When that portion rises, it merely method one display became additional average in the sample. Still, it doesn’t inform the squad what happened to their traffic, and the diagram never says it does.
When a nexus opens AI Mode, akin in Ghotra’s recording, Search Console power not figure it as a click or belief for any exterior site, if Google interprets it as a query refinement. The current data doesn’t explain this. Until it does, teams can’t assume that all underlined expression in an AI Overview links to a website, nor that it doesn’t.
Looking Ahead
The generative AI study shows impressions today. Google’s help page says the catalog of covered features volition be updated complete time, and in June the business said it would current additional metrics complete time, without naming which.
For the in-text nexus display, the next data item is Peec’s series, or a second tracker publishing the identical measure alongside its method attached. A longer sequence would display whether the higher portion holds in Peec’s observations. You can inspect anywhere the links go directly. How frequently group prosecute them takes click data tied to those links, which the reports covered current don’t provide.
Regarding the AI Mode component Ghotra recorded, what’s unidentified is how Google classifies this interaction. According to the broad refinement rule, the inner nexus itself doesn’t create a click or an impression. However, external links in the first overview or afterward responses can motionless acquire their own. The assistance pages reviewed current don’t explain how this recorded component is classified.
More resources:
- AI Overviews Now Answer Most Local Searches
- How Do I Know If AI Overviews Are Taking Clicks From My Site And What Can I Do About It?
- 846,000 Google Searches Reveal How AI Overviews Are Changing User Behavior
Featured Image: Remo_Designer/Shutterstock
