Two tendencies are rising on the planet of AI and search: AI platforms are sending extra site visitors to publishers’ websites, whereas Google’s AI Overviews is lowering click-throughs throughout extra search queries.
Current knowledge helps to indicate the influence of AI instruments and options on the search panorama and on referral site visitors. And whereas it appears the proportion of queries triggering Google’s AI Overviews plateaued final month, “zero-click” searches are nonetheless on the rise.
Nonetheless, the referral site visitors from AI platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Perplexity nonetheless isn’t sufficient to offset the decline in search-driven visits. Common search referral site visitors to 1,000 net domains dipped from 12 billion world visits in June 2024 to 11.2 billion in June 2025 — a couple of 6.7% decline 12 months over 12 months, in line with knowledge from analytics firm Similarweb.
Proportion of queries triggering Google AI Overviews has plateaued
MonthProportion of queries with AI OverviewsJanuary 20256.49percentFebruary 20257.64percentMarch 202513.14percentApril 202520.22percentMay 202519.88%Supply: Semrush
The proportion of Google search queries that present an AI Overview has steadily elevated this 12 months. However that quantity plateaued in Could to about 20% of U.S. desktop searches, in line with Semrush knowledge shared with Digiday.
Mark Traphagen, vp of product advertising and coaching at search engine optimization and content material optimization platform SEOClarity, stated it is going to be value watching over time, to see whether or not the share of AI Overviews holds regular at round 20%. SEOClarity knowledge additionally exhibits AI Overviews appeared in about 19% of the over 100 million key phrases from U.S. searches key phrases it tracked in June 2025.
“Sooner or later this may attain an equilibrium, the place Google will see from person habits and know what queries [AI Overviews] are helpful for, and know the place customers don’t need them to be,” Traphagen stated.
After all, all of that is occurring whereas Google continues to develop its generative AI search expertise, AI Mode. “The long run is an expertise that’s far more centered round conversational interactions, [instead of] placing in a question and getting a bunch of hyperlinks,” Traphagen stated.
Google’s AI Overviews slip in search rankings
Supply: SEOClarity
In Could, AI Overviews appeared on the high of U.S. desktop search outcomes 98% of the time, in line with seoClarity. However new knowledge exhibits that AI Overviews appeared first in search rankings 87.6% of the time in June — a ten.4 share level drop.
The proportion of AI Overviews displaying under that first place elevated almost 600% from Could to June of this 12 months, from 0.4% of all AI Overviews to 2.4%, in line with Traphagen.
“It’s nonetheless a really small quantity, but it surely’s a lot greater than it was,” Traphagen stated. “This implies [publishers] can now outrank an AIO, which is important.”
Nonetheless, Traphagen stated he couldn’t discover a sample within the sorts of Google search queries the place this was occurring, though queries with transactional intent — searches geared toward buying a services or products — have been shifting larger up in Google search rankings.
Google makes use of aggregated person habits as a think about figuring out natural search outcomes. “In the event that they see over time [users are] ignoring [AI Overviews] or search for one thing else [with certain search queries], it’d get demoted,” Traphagen stated.
However zero-click searches are additionally rising
Supply: Similarweb
Because the U.S. launch of Google’s AI Overviews in Could 2024, the variety of searches for information that end in no click-throughs to information web sites has grown from 56% to just about 69% by Could 2025, in line with Similarweb knowledge.
So whereas Google AI Overviews will not be increasing exponentially this summer season — they aren’t showing in considerably extra queries or snagging the highest search end result spot — however the function remains to be reducing into publishers’ click-through charges.
It’s essential to take all of this knowledge with a grain (or a tablespoon) of salt. The surroundings is shifting so quickly that one month’s pattern could also be subsequent month’s previous information. “A one-month change could not essentially signify that a lot,” stated David Carr, senior insights supervisor at Similarweb.
Natural search referral site visitors has additionally declined, from over 2.3 billion U.S. visits in July 2024 to 1.8 billion in June this 12 months, per Similarweb.
Some publishers have been hit more durable than others. Websites like Each day Mail and Folks have been among the many hardest hit by the arrival of Google AI Overviews. Of the highest 100 search key phrases driving site visitors to Folks’s website, 40 triggered AI Overviews in Could 2025. That quantity was 32 for the Each day Mail, 21 for The Washington Submit and 20 for the New York Submit.
However the true influence is the proportion of these key phrases that triggered AI Overviews and resulted in no click-throughs to a writer’s website. For some, the proportion of “zero clicks” has grown since AI Overviews was rolled out on Google search.
For instance, 75% of the highest 100 search key phrases driving site visitors to CBS Information’ website that triggered an AI Overviews resulted in no click-throughs to its website in Could 2025, in comparison with 54% of searches with no click-throughs when trying on the website’s high 100 search phrases. That’s a 21% distinction in share factors, in line with Similarweb.
Yahoo Information had a 20% share level distinction (with 75.1% of AI Overviews key phrases triggering no click-throughs), and a 17% distinction for Substack.
For Folks, the proportion of zero clicks from AI Overviews key phrases was 71.2%. And it was 69% for MSN and Google Information.
AI referral site visitors to information publishers’ websites continues to develop
Supply: Similarweb
One other pattern that hasn’t modified — no less than in line with current knowledge — is that AI referral site visitors to publishers’ websites continues to develop.
AI referral site visitors to information and media websites from AI platforms aside from Google grew from 35.3 million world visits in Could 2025 to 35.9 million in June (and grew 5.6 million in Could to six.1 million in June, within the U.S.), in line with Similarweb knowledge shared with Digiday.
The majority of that world site visitors in June went to Yahoo (2.3 million), Reuters (1.8 million), the Guardian (1.7 million) and Enterprise Insider (1 million), in line with Similarweb. Referral site visitors was primarily pushed by ChatGPT, adopted by Perplexity.
Digiday reported in Could that referral site visitors from ChatGPT to publishers’ websites had doubled this 12 months (even when the amount of site visitors was small).
ChatGPT nonetheless the AI platform sending the majority of referrals to publishers
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the largest referral channel for publishers, when AI platforms.
For instance, ChatGPT referrals made up 78.5% of the whole AI referral site visitors that Yahoo obtained in June. ChatGPT referrals made up 95.4% of Reuters’ whole AI referral site visitors, 99.4% of the Guardian’s AI referrals site visitors, and 95.9% of Enterprise Insider’s site visitors.
ChatGPT despatched 396.8 million referral visits to 1,000 websites in Similarweb’s knowledge set, representing 81.7% of the AI site visitors that went to these websites in June 2025.
Multiple-third of the US inhabitants now makes use of generative AI
On the root of all of this knowledge is the truth that extra individuals are utilizing generative AI instruments.
In accordance with eMarketer’s newest forecast on AI, greater than 120 million Individuals will use the expertise by the top of the 12 months. Greater than 35% of the whole U.S. inhabitants is utilizing generative AI in 2025.
Firms like Apple and Samsung built-in generative AI expertise into their software program. Google is including its Gemini chatbot to Android smartphones, and Workspace, which incorporates functions like Gmail, Google Drive, Docs and Meet.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is probably the most extensively used generative AI platform, with 88.6 million U.S. customers in 2025, in line with eMarketer’s knowledge. Google Gemini, in the meantime, is the fastest-growing competitor to ChatGPT. Its share of whole generative AI customers greater than tripled between 2023 and 2025, rising from 16.9% to 46%.
The rise within the adoption of generative AI instruments is pushed by younger folks. This 12 months, the 18–24 age section at present exhibits a 55% generative AI web penetration, intently trailed by 25–34 (older Gen Z/youthful millennials) at 55.2%, in line with the eMarketer knowledge.
Dave Maney, founder and CEO of The Knowledgeable Press, stated, “I don’t assume this wave will be stopped or turned again.”
