Google's AI answers now link out in over a quarter of cases
Google keeps adding outbound links to its AI answers, and SEOs disagree about whether that helps your site.
Google has sharply increased the number of links to outside websites inside AI Overviews, the AI written answer that sits at the top of many search results. Malte Landwehr posted that Google "massively increased the number of external links within AI Overview answers". Connor Showler put a number on it, saying AI Overviews started including direct links in more than 25% of answers.
This follows the same pattern we covered earlier in September, when the first jump in outbound links from AI answers showed up.
Not everyone thinks the links help
The extra links do not automatically mean extra visitors. Patrick Stox was blunt about it, saying "Oh look, more links that no one will click on." Lily Ray's reply to the change was one word, "Good!". So one well known SEO thinks the links are close to worthless and another thinks the shift is welcome. Nobody has published click data on the new links yet, so this is opinion on both sides.
Oh look, more links that no one will click on.
What it means for your site
If your pages are the kind Google pulls into AI answers, there is now a better chance your name and a clickable link sit inside that answer rather than being buried below it. That is worth something even if the click rate is low, because people see where the answer came from.
There is nothing to change on your site because of this. You cannot opt into AI Overview links, and you cannot make Google pick you by adding markup or tweaking a setting. The pages that get pulled into these answers are the ones that answer a real question clearly.
The one practical step is to watch whether any of this reaches you. Open Google Search Console, click Performance, and check your clicks and impressions over the last month against the month before. If clicks are flat while impressions climb, you are being shown in more answers without people coming through. That is the pattern to keep an eye on over the next few weeks as Google keeps adjusting how many links it shows.
Google massively increased the number of external links within AI Overview answers.
AI Overviews just started including direct links in +25% of its answers..