Google Is Steering Searchers Into AI Mode
Google spent Friday (November 6) trying to keep people inside its AI search tab. Google is now asking searchers to "continue with this search" when they go to AI Mode, a way to encourage those who started there to keep searching. At the same time, Google is showing pop-up notifications in AI Mode to encourage searchers to turn on Personal Intelligence. The money motive is plain: Search Engine Journal reports that search revenue grew 12% while queries hit a five-year high. Google needs AI Mode to earn more, and the more time people spend there, the fewer clicks go out to regular websites.
The Election Day numbers show what that costs publishers. U.S. news publishers received 44 million Google Search clicks on Election Day, eight times their normal weekday traffic, and for major election searches, Google displayed live results and news coverage instead of AI Overviews. When Google shows classic results instead of AI summaries, sites get far more traffic.
Rankings Have Been Restless for a Month
Our tracker shows a month of steady moderate-high turbulence. Scores peaked near 7.9 in early October and dipped to 6.2 around October 26. They have eased slightly this week. Today's early reading of about 7 is split: some trackers show near-maximum movement and others show calm. October produced several unconfirmed volatility spikes, and industry watchers say we wait for Google to roll out the next core update.
Two Technical Notes Worth Knowing
- Accidental errors: Gary Illyes said that when important URLs serve a 4xx status code, Google can "temporarily protect the URL from falling out of the index right away," so it still shows for a short while. A 4xx is an error such as "page not found."
- Bot clicks: A sudden jump in clicks in Search Console this month may not be real visitors. Search Engine Journal warns that November click spikes in Google Search Console are bot traffic.
What to Do
- Fix broken key pages quickly. Google only gives you a short grace period.
- Before you celebrate a traffic jump, check whether it shows up in your analytics as real visitors.
- Track how much of your traffic comes from AI search features compared with regular results.
