Barry spotted a post by Lily Ray on X that Google has started adding more Google Spam Search links in AI Overviews.
The problems with the notoriously bad AI Overviews is well documented. People have gone to great lengths to get away from them. They suck – always – and people just bypass them by anyway they can.
When you have a monopoly at 89% market share – you can do whatever you want without regard for users. Glen Gabe accurately called it “Serp Inception” with Google referencing itself several dozen more times on each Serp. The behavior-driven ranking system behind NavBoost will be crunching those interaction patterns to refine what results (and features) users see next.
If Google is going to pepper AI overviews with extra search links, make sure you’re ready to capture their value – those highlight snippet visits (with Google’s #text fragment in the URL) tell you a user saw your content through an AI overview and clicked through.
Here is the thing I wonder about though: is this sustainable? Does this really lead to higher ad click rates for Google, or does it just lead to more searching without finding what they are looking for? I’d guess Google does have data to suggest that it does lead to higher click rates on ads, but not sure I see how that works.
As the CEO and founder of Pubcon and WebmasterWorld., Brett Tabke has been instrumental in shaping the landscape of online marketing and search engine optimization. His journey in the computer industry has spanned over three decades and has made him a pioneering force behind digital evolution. Full Bio
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