Google Refutes Claims of Traffic Decline Due to ChatGPT

Google has denied claims that the use of AI-based chatbots has led to a decrease in traffic to publishers’ websites.

Liz Reid, Google’s Vice President and head of the search division, emphasized in a blog post that the overall volume of organic clicks from the search engine to websites remains “relatively stable” compared to last year, with the quality of these clicks even slightly improving.

“These data contradict external reports that mistakenly point to a sharp decline in overall traffic—often based on incorrect methodologies, isolated examples, or changes that occurred before the introduction of AI features in search,” she wrote.

The company did not provide specific data to support its conclusions. However, Reid noted that AI does have an impact. According to her, “user trends are shifting traffic to different sites, resulting in some resources losing audience while others gain.”

Google did not disclose how many sites are gaining or losing traffic.

A Long-standing Shift in Trends

The move away from traditional “Googling” has been observed for some time and began before the explosive growth in popularity of AI-based chatbots.

In 2022, one of the company’s top executives, Prabhakar Raghavan, noted that social networks like TikTok and Instagram are drawing users away from the company’s core products—Search and Maps.

“According to our research, almost 40% of young people, when looking for a place to eat, do not use Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” said the senior vice president of Google, who then headed the knowledge and information direction [now he is the company’s chief technologist].

For several years, the corporation has been trying to restructure its search system, aiming to provide as many answers as possible directly on the results page. Currently, artificial intelligence and the AI Overviews mode are used for this. For some queries, a chatbot can be used.

Google has also long been concerned that Amazon has become the first site for many to search for products, while Reddit is the main source of information on topics of interest.

The company regularly offers new features to bring the audience back to Google Shopping. These include universal carts, checking product availability in local stores, searching for discounts, purchasing products by images, and more. In 2020, listing products on the platform became free for sellers.

Among the latest innovations: an AI feature for automatically calling companies to check prices and availability of goods and a virtual fitting room.

Amid user complaints about declining search quality, interest in Reddit was so great that Google eventually added a “Reddit” filter to narrow results for relevant queries. It is now called “forums.”

Quality Over Quantity

Google appears to be shifting its focus: in the blog, the company suggests focusing not on the number of clicks, but on their quality.

The company claims that the volume of quality clicks has increased, and now the search engine directs more such visits to sites than a year ago. These are understood as instances where the user stays on the page and examines its content, rather than leaving immediately after clicking.

It is noted that if a click is made on a link from an AI response, the user is more likely to delve into the material. Accordingly, such a click is more valuable.

“In the case of simple questions, such as ‘when is the next full moon,’ the user may be satisfied with the AI’s answer and not click further. But this was also the case before—with other answer features, such as the Knowledge Graph or sports match results. At the same time, for more complex queries, people continue to click on links to delve deeper into the topic, explore it, or buy something. That’s why we are seeing an increase in the quality of clicks—AI can provide an overview, but the user still clicks to learn more, and such transitions are especially valuable,” the blog states.

Google presents AI as an opportunity for web publishers to increase their visibility.

“With AI Overviews, people see more links on the page than before. More queries and more links mean more opportunities for sites to appear in the results and get clicks,” Reid claims.

Traffic Decline

A recent study by Similarweb showed that the number of referral clicks from ChatGPT to news resources is growing, but this is not enough to compensate for the decline in “traditional” reach.

Since May 2024, when Google introduced the AI Overviews summary feature, the share of news queries without site visits increased from 56% to 69%.

Organic traffic decreased from over 2.3 billion visits in mid-2024 to less than 1.7 billion. The number of news queries in ChatGPT grew by 212% from January 2024 to May 2025.

Google seems to recognize changes in user behavior. The company introduced a tool that helps website owners earn not only through advertising. Alternatives include micropayments and paid newsletter subscriptions.

Back in July, Cloudflare launched the Pay per Crawl service, which creates a content marketplace for authors and AI companies.