AI answer links get about 1% of clicks
Reddit's stock closed down 29.27% on Friday, partly because the AI translated pages it called Google-approved were not. Meanwhile, a new study puts the click rate on links inside Google's AI answers at about 0.9%.
Getting into AI answers
One setting will soon block all AI training at once
Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic have agreed on a shared way for site owners to say no to AI training on their content, planned for 2027. Instead of blocking each company's bot separately, you would add one token to robots.txt (a file that tells bots what they may do).
Instead of managing separate instructions for every AI developer, website owners will be able to use a shared 'policy token' within robots.txt to set broad preferences across participating AI providers.
Who this affects: Anyone who does not want AI companies training on their site's content.
- Do nothing yet, the control does not exist until 2027.
Turning off AI answers can cost you normal clicks too
A small new study says links inside Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode (AI written answers at the top of results) get roughly a 0.9% click rate. The same study found sites that opted out of those answers lost up to 20% of clicks, including regular organic ones, which the author calls a halo effect.
Who this affects: Anyone thinking about blocking their pages from Google's AI answers.
- Our take: leave AI answers switched on rather than opting out.
- Compare clicks month over month in Search Console before changing anything.
Do not do this
Bulk machine translated pages just cost one site 29% of its value
Reddit's stock closed down 29.27% on Friday, its worst day since going public in 2024, after it forecast weak revenue. Glenn Gabe lists three causes: AI translations hit by Google's algorithm updates, AI Overviews eating clicks, and a plan to force users to log in. Reddit had described those translations as Google-approved, and now says they were not.
Every SEO on the planet knew this would happen eventually
Who this affects: Anyone publishing machine translated or bulk generated pages across many languages.
- Do not mass translate pages with AI and publish them unreviewed.