Reddit Climbs, Clicks Drop, GBP Comes To GA4 – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how you read post-update rankings, what new click data says about Google traffic, and where your local reporting lives.

Here’s what matters for you and your work.

Reddit Gained Top Positions In Every Niche After The May Core Update

SE Ranking analyzed 100,000 keywords and found Reddit grew its top 3 presence in all 20 niches it tracks.

Key facts: Reddit ranked first for 13,872 keywords after May, up 54% from 8,993 in March. Gains were strongest in experience-led niches, with Reddit holding 18% of top 3 in pets. YMYL categories saw less change, healthcare rising from 0.93% to 1.33%. Two-thirds of domains dropped in March didn’t recover in May.

Why This Matters

The niche-level split changes how you interpret “Reddit is growing” headlines. An 18% top 3 share in pets is a different competitive picture than 1.33% in healthcare.

The direction also reversed from March, when Amsive’s analysis found Reddit and similar platforms losing visibility. Core updates have moved the same platforms in different directions, which makes it risky to draw conclusions from a single update.

Most domains that lost visibility after the March update didn’t gain it back after the May update. For websites waiting on a rebound, the data shows another core update doesn’t guarantee one.

Read our full coverage: Reddit Gained Top Positions In Every Niche After May Core Update

SparkToro Data Shows 68% Of Google Searches End Without A Click

SparkToro co-founder Rand Fishkin published new U.S. zero-click data drawn from Similarweb’s clickstream panel, covering January through April.

Key facts: In the panel, 68% of Google searches ended without a click. For every 1,000 searches, 232 clicks reached the open web. Of all clicks, 66% went to the open web, 27% to Alphabet properties, and 6% to ads.

Why This Matters

When stakeholders expect click rates from a few years ago, this gives you something concrete to point to.

The measurement angle matters as much as the traffic angle. Google’s new AI performance reports in Search Console show impressions, and independent data keeps showing fewer clicks. Visibility tracking now means watching where you appear, not just what arrives in your analytics.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

In a comment on Fishkin’s LinkedIn post, Darren Shaw, founder of Whitespark, connected the data to Google’s new Search Console reports:

“I shared a post recently talking about how Google will be showing impression data from Ai overviews and AI mode in search console. Lots of people complaining in the comments that there was no click data. I thought, “you don’t get it”.”

Andre Alpar, board member and advisor at Alpar Ventures, questioned whether searches that lead to follow-up searches should count in another comment:

“A portion of the 29% that do “another search” do a click afterwards on thair next search. So they are not 100% “zero click” imho.”

The reactions split between accepting the click decline and debating how to count it.

Read our full coverage: Google Search Sends 23% Of Queries To The Open Web

Google Updates Its SEO Documentation

Google published a new Search Central page covering third-party SEO tools, services, and advice. It also updated its “Do you need an SEO?” page with about seven changes.

Key facts: The new page advises businesses to check SEO advice, including AEO and GEO, against Google’s documentation. The updated hiring guidance warns about third-party tools, mentions AEO and GEO services, and now encourages business owners to contact the FTC about fraudulent SEO services, a first for this page.

Why This Matters

The guidance splits SEO information into two categories. One is third-party opinion based on data or experience. The other is Google’s documentation, which the page recommends for weighing everything else.

Roger Montti’s analysis reads the wording as aimed at agencies and people selling SEO services, which puts you on the receiving end.

The “Do you need an SEO?” page is what business owners find when they look into getting help. It tells them to weigh your recommendations, and your tools, against Google’s documentation.

The AEO and GEO mentions give the terminology debate an official anchor. When a client asks whether they need a separate AEO strategy, Google’s answer is now on the record.

Read our full coverage: Google’s New Guidance Claims Authority Over SEO, Tools, And AEO/GEO and Google’s Updated Guidance Urges FTC Complaints Against Shady SEOs

Google Business Profile Data Connects To Analytics & Gemini

Two updates put Google Business Profile data in new places. Google documented a native Business Profile link in Google Analytics and announced a Business Profile connection for the Gemini app.

Key facts: The Analytics link brings seven Business Profile metrics into reports, including calls, directions, and bookings. Once connected, Gemini can draft review replies, edit profiles, and answer performance questions. The Gemini features begin rolling out this month, the Business Profile connection follows in the coming weeks.

Why This Matters

Local reporting has lived in separate places for years. Website data sits in Analytics, while calls and direction requests sit in the Business Profile dashboard. The Analytics link closes part of that gap.

Whether it helps you depends on your setup. Analytics combines metrics across linked profiles, so multi-location reporting still needs the Business Profile dashboard or the API.

What Local SEO Professionals Are Saying

Darren Shaw welcomed the Analytics link in a LinkedIn post:

“Google Business Profile data is coming to Google Analytics.

You’ll soon be able to connect your Google Business Profile directly to GA4 and see local performance data inside Google Analytics. This means you’ll be able to report on things like:

• Calls
• Bookings
• Direction requests
• Website clicks
• Total interactions

And this is great because local SEO reporting has always been messy.

Your website data is in one place, your GBP data is somewhere else, and you have to piece it all together manually.

Now you’ll be able to see more of that data in one place and get a clearer picture of how your Business Profile is helping people find you, contact you, and visit your website.”

In a comment on Shaw’s post, Kaycie Mandour-Smith, managing director at Infinity Dental Web, a digital marketing firm for dentists, described a restriction she ran into:

“Was so excited for this and then…. if you have your listings in a manager acct group, you can’t connect them. Have to ungroup them in order to be able to link. Hoping newer iterations will allow you to select a group and then a profile.”

Read our full coverage: Google Analytics Is Adding Google Business Profile Data and Google Is Adding Business Profile Tools To The Gemini App

Theme Of The Week: Search Work Keeps Moving Onto The Big Platforms

Each story this week shows more of the search workflow moving onto large platforms.

SparkToro’s data measures fewer clicks reaching independent websites. SE Ranking’s numbers show top positions collecting on Reddit across every niche it tracks. The Business Profile connections move local reporting and management into Google Analytics and Gemini.

This week is less about any single feature and more about where the work gets done. The data, reporting, tools, and advice all sit closer to the big platforms than they did a month ago.

Top Stories Of The Week:

More Resources:

Featured Image: Shutterstock

Preferred Sources Expand, Gmail Brand Lift, Pichai On AI Overviews via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Welcome to the week’s Pulse. Each update this week influences what can appear inside Google’s AI answers, and why.

Google brought Preferred Sources into AI Overviews and AI Mode, new data looks at how personal data changes which brands appear in AI Mode, and Google’s CEO discussed AI Overview quality.

Here’s what matters for you and your work.

Preferred Sources In AI Overviews & AI Mode

Google has expanded Preferred Sources beyond Top Stories in regular search results. It’s now rolling out inside AI Overviews and AI Mode responses.

Key facts: Readers pick the sites they want to see more of, and those choices now carry a visible label when the site appears in an AI Overview or AI Mode answer. Sites can prompt their own readers to add them. More than 345,000 sources have been selected so far, up from roughly 90,000 at December’s global rollout.

Why This Matters

Preferred Sources status now shapes your link labels in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Top Stories. As more search activity moves into AI answers, that label becomes a clearer visibility signal tied to reader loyalty.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Marie Haynes, Founder of Marie Haynes Consulting, noted that:

“Google just made so that any website can invite their readers to add them as a preferred source, making it more likely for that site to be seen in AI Overviews and AI Mode.”

Glenn Gabe, President of G-Squared Interactive, called it a strong addition for publishers who have built that audience loyalty, and pointed to the action it creates:

“Like I’ve shared before, make sure your audience knows how to add you as a preferred source. Google even provides instructions on how to add a button that drives users to adding you as a preferred sources.”

Geertrui Laleman, Senior AI Search Optimization Specialist at Semrush, connected the update to brand recognition:

“Google personalization is becoming part of AI visibility. With Preferred Sources in AI Overviews and AI Mode, users can now choose the websites they trust most. Google says people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source. The part I find interesting is what this means for brand visibility. AI visibility is no longer only about being mentioned or being cited. It is also about becoming a source people recognize, trust, and actively want to see in their results.”

Read our full coverage: Google Preferred Sources Hit 345K, Expand Into AI Search

Gmail Content Linked To Higher Brand Visibility In AI Mode

iPullRank published a report on how Google’s Personal Intelligence feature changes which brands appear in AI Mode. The findings point to email as the strongest signal.

Key facts: In the test, brands linked to a user’s own data appeared more often in AI Mode once Personal Intelligence was switched on, with Gmail being the strongest signal.

Why This Matters

Brands users interact with via email can influence AI Mode recommendations once Personal Intelligence is active. The numbers are approximate; the test used a small sample and measured outputs, not Google’s internal systems.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Jacques Corby-Tuech, Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Trade Nation, saw an upside in the Gmail finding for email teams. “It’s not all doom and gloom for email marketers,” he wrote.

Read our full coverage: Gmail Content Shows Brand Visibility Boost In AI Mode

Google’s CEO Calls An AI Overview ‘More Opinionated Than It Should Be’

Pichai discussed the state of AI Overviews in an interview on The Verge’s Decoder podcast. He said one AI Overview answer was “more opinionated than it should be.”

Key facts: The interview was recorded after Google I/O. Pichai presented the result as room for improvement in how AI Overviews answer some queries.

Why This Matters

Subscriptions counting toward preferred-source status means your off-platform audience can feed a signal that now appears in AI answers. Google is still tuning AI Overviews, by Pichai’s own account, so the summaries above your links can change.

Read our full coverage: Google CEO On AI Overviews: ‘More Opinionated Than It Should Be’

Theme Of The Week: The AI Answer Is The Surface That Counts

Each story this week comes back to Google’s AI answers. Preferred Sources lets readers pick the sites they want to see in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Personal Intelligence shows personal data, especially email, moving brands up in AI Mode. Pichai admitted those same answers can be more opinionated than they should be. Earning a place in the AI answer is one job, and trusting what it says is becoming another.

Top Stories Of The Week:

More Resources:

Featured Image: PeopleImages/Shutterstock

Google Launches Core Update Amid I/O AI Search Overhaul – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: This week’s updates touch rankings, the Search interface, AI Mode behavior, and Google’s guidance around AI agents.

Google launched a core update, announced what it called the biggest upgrade to the Search box in over 25 years, released first-party AI Mode usage data, and sent mixed signals on llms.txt from two different product teams.

Here’s what matters for you and your work.

Google Begins Rolling Out The May 2026 Core Update

Google began rolling out the May core update on the 21st, per a message on the Google Search Status Dashboard.

Key facts: This is the second Search core update of 2026 and the fourth confirmed ranking update this year. The rollout may take up to two weeks. Google hasn’t published a companion blog post or shared goals for the update.

Why This Matters

The timing puts this update in the middle of Google I/O week. Ranking movement over the next two weeks will overlap with other changes Google announced, which could make it harder to isolate what caused any shifts you see in Search Console.

Your baseline should be the weeks before May 21, compared against performance after the rollout finishes. Wait at least one full week after completion before reviewing data.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Marie Haynes, founder of Marie Haynes Consulting Inc., connected the timing to I/O:

“Makes sense seeing as Gemini 3.5 Flash is now powering the AI features of Search.”

Harpreet Singh Chatha, SEO & AI Search Consultant, suggested this update could be targeting websites that are over-optimizing for AI citations:

“Calling it now. If you’ve been doing dumb [things] to show up in AI answers this one’s coming for you.”

Read our full coverage: Google Begins Rolling Out May 2026 Core Update

Google Redesigns Search Box, Upgrades AI Mode & Previews Search Agents At I/O

Google announced Gemini 3.5 Flash as the new default model in AI Mode, redesigned the Search box with AI capabilities, and previewed information agents coming this summer.

Key facts: Google described the redesigned Search box as its biggest upgrade in over 25 years. It expands dynamically, supports multimodal inputs like images and files, and provides AI-powered suggestions beyond autocomplete. Information agents will monitor the web and deliver updates. New features include agentic booking, generative UI, and Personal Intelligence expansion to nearly 200 countries.

Why This Matters

The Search box redesign prompts users to describe needs in longer, conversational queries. Paired with Gemini 3.5 Flash in AI Mode, responses mostly come from AI rather than traditional pages.

Information agents continuously search and synthesize updates, raising questions about whether your content is cited or overlooked in those summaries.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Jake Ward, SEO/content entrepreneur building Mentions, wrote:

“My feed is full of ‘SEO is dead’ posts today. But none of this should be a surprise. Every platform we use is moving towards AI-first, agentic, proactive experiences like this. And clicks were already dying. We’ve watched CTR decline for 2-3 years straight now. However, search is very much alive, just different. We’re moving further into a world of visibility > clicks.”

Read our full coverage: Google’s New Search Box Hands Queries To AI Agents, I/O Reveals

Google Releases First AI Mode Usage Data After One Year

Google published a report on how people use AI Mode in the U.S., drawing on internal Search data and Google Trends one year after launch.

Key facts: AI Mode has over 1 billion monthly users, with queries doubling each quarter. Searches are thrice as long as traditional ones, and follow-up queries increase 40% monthly in the U.S. Over 16% of searches are multimodal, using voice, images, or video. Planning queries grow at 80% the rate of overall usage. Trends data isn’t publicly available.

Why This Matters

The key insight is the behavioral data, not milestone numbers. Users write longer queries, follow up more, and use multiple input types, changing content and how it surfaces.

Pages with short keywords may not match AI Mode’s conversational patterns. Growth in planning queries is significant; when users ask AI Mode to compare products, evaluate services, or research, that content has commercial value, even without clicks.

Google’s report is based on internal, unverifiable data, and AI Mode search trends aren’t available publicly.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Jeffrey Cohen, chief business development officer at Skai, wrote:

“Shoppers aren’t typing ‘running shoes.’ They’re asking ‘what are the best running shoes for a wide foot that I can wear for a half marathon training on pavement under $150.’ That’s not a keyword. That’s a brief. Planning queries grew 80% faster than AI Mode overall in the last 6 months. That means shoppers are using AI as a research partner long before they hit buy. The brand that shows up during research owns the consideration phase. The transition from keyword to conversation has been talked about for years. The data says it’s already here.”

Alisa Scharf, CAIO at Seer, pointed to the measurement gap:

“For those of us who weren’t yet investing in tracking visibility in AI Mode, we’ve gotta bug our product or procurement teams to get more tracking established. Can’t optimize what you can’t measure. If anyone from Google follows me — It’s really pretty wild that none of these metrics are available for free in Google Webmaster tools. I so rarely shake my fist in the general direction of Palo Alto, but this is becoming obscene. Big props to the team at Bing who’s investing in a real control center of information with their Webmaster Tools.”

Read our full coverage: Google Reveals First AI Mode Usage Numbers After One Year

Google’s Llms.txt Guidance Splits Between Search & Lighthouse

Google’s Search team and its Lighthouse team are giving different guidance on llms.txt. Meanwhile, Mueller clarified where markdown pages for LLMs do and don’t help.

Key facts: Google’s AI guide states llms.txt isn’t needed for AI Search. Lighthouse 13.3 checks for llms.txt by default, flagging sites with errors. Mueller said markdown pages are useful for documentation but not for most websites. He differentiated discovery (search visibility) from on-page tasks, advising sites to focus on being found.

Why This Matters

The answer depends on your traffic. If agentic tools visit and complete tasks, markdown versions of your docs may help those tools. If you’re planning for the future, Mueller recommends prioritizing current needs first, saying, “Prioritize needs before dreams.”

The conflict between the Search and Lighthouse teams exists, and Google hasn’t resolved it. Search Central offers guidance for Search visibility, while Lighthouse assesses agentic browsing readiness, not ranking or AI Mode eligibility.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Chris Long, co-founder of Nectiv, wrote:

“Chrome just released documentation on their new Agentic Browsing audits. Somewhat buried in there, they reference how the audit will check for the LLMs.txt file. It mentions how it ‘checks for the presence of a machine-readable summary at the domain root.’ This is less than a week after their documentation talking about how SEOs don’t need to worry about additional files + markup. I’m starting to turn around on the LLMs.txt a bit. Some seriously smart people including Crystal Carter, John-Henry Scherck, Joost de Valk are turning me around on it a bit. It also seems very clear that Google doesn’t want us to test this stuff. To just keep doing SEO as we’ve normally done it without looking behind the scenes and waiting for their guidance.”

Read our full coverage: Mueller Explains Why Google Uses Markdown On Dev Docs | Google’s llms.txt Guidance Depends On Which Product You Ask

Theme Of The Week: The Quiet Rebuild

Google is rebuilding Search around AI while telling everyone the fundamentals still apply.

The optimization guide published last week says AEO and GEO are “still SEO.” Mueller says to focus on current needs. The core update rollout looks like any other. But the same week, Google announced what it called the biggest upgrade to the Search box in over 25 years, reported that AI Mode has surpassed 1 billion monthly users, announced always-on information agents, and released data showing user behavior is already shifting toward longer, multimodal, follow-up-heavy queries.

The gap between Google’s public guidance and its product roadmap keeps widening. The infrastructure is changing faster than the guidance.

Top Stories Of The Week:

More Resources:

Featured Image: PeopleImages/Shutterstock

New AI Search Links, Core Update Winners And Losers – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how links appear inside AI search results, which types of sites gained or lost visibility in the March core update, and how Google’s Preferred Sources feature works across new markets.

Here’s what matters for you and your work.

Google Adds More Links And Link Context To AI Search

Google announced five updates to how links appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Key facts: The updates add more inline links, more links at the end of some AI responses, previews from public forum discussions, and desktop hover previews.

Why This Matters

Inline links placed next to the text they support could change the click math for pages cited in AI results. Until now, most AI Overview citations have clustered at the bottom of the response, where they compete with one another and are easy to skip. Placing them closer to the relevant sentence gives each link more context.

Previews from public discussions add a new surface for content from Reddit, forums, and similar platforms. If your brand or product is discussed on those platforms, that content may now appear alongside AI-generated answers with your name attached.

Read our full coverage: Google Adds More Links & Link Context To AI Search

Core Update Data Shows Aggregators Losing Ground

An analysis from Amsive found that aggregators and user-generated content platforms lost US search visibility after Google’s recent core update, while first-party brand sites and government domains gained. Lily Ray, VP of SEO and AI Search at Amsive, examined over 2,000 domains using SISTRIX Visibility Index data.

Key facts: YouTube lost 567 SISTRIX visibility points, the largest single-domain drop in the dataset, and roughly 30% larger than Wikipedia’s December decline. Reddit lost 64 points, Instagram 48, and X 46. In travel, OTAs such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Expedia declined, while hotel chains gained. Ray notes that some losers, including Reddit and Indeed, rebounded shortly after the rollout window closed.

Why This Matters

Benchmark these category breakdowns against your vertical. If you work in travel, health, finance, or jobs, Amsive shows which sites gained or lost. This helps distinguish whether the update affected your vertical overall or your site specifically.

The YouTube number is the headline, but it has returned to pre-March levels, making it a correction rather than a new low. The pattern across verticals is more telling. Domains owning the product or service tended to gain, while aggregators or discussion platforms tended to lose.

Amsive interprets Google as favoring “the company that owns the thing” over “the platform to discuss it.” This aligns with the data, but it’s Amsive’s view, not Google’s.

What SEO Professionals Are Saying

Lily Ray, VP of SEO and AI Search at Amsive, wrote on LinkedIn:

“This was a weird core update, but I think the main takeaways are consistent with broader trends we are seeing in Google search: the push toward elevating the actual companies selling the product/service, not the companies ‘writing about them.’”

Read our full coverage: Google’s March Core Update Shifted Visibility Away From Aggregators

Google Preferred Sources Feature Expands To All Languages

Google updated its Search Central documentation to reflect that the Preferred Sources feature is now available in all languages supported by Google Search.

Key facts: Preferred Sources lets users choose publishers they want to see more often in Top Stories and Google Discover. It’s available in all languages supported by Google Search and has added translated downloadable button assets for publishers. The feature works as a user-controlled signal alongside Google’s ranking systems.

Why This Matters

You can use the Preferred Sources button on your site to influence how your site appears in Discover. This expansion is especially important for non-English markets, as the feature was previously English-only, limiting multilingual publishers.

Read our full coverage: Google’s Preferred Sources Is Now A Global SEO Signal

Mueller Says Vibe Coding Won’t Handle Your SEO For You

Google Search Relations team members John Mueller and Martin Splitt discussed vibe-coding websites in a recent episode of Search Off The Record. Both found that AI coding tools could produce functional sites quickly, but getting SEO right still required specific technical direction.

Key facts: Mueller said vague prompts like “add some SEO” lead to vague results. He compared vibe coding to working with a developer who does not specialize in search. The sites he built produced reasonable HTML that would not stand out as vibe-coded. Mueller named Claude Code and Gemini CLI as his current tools.

Why This Matters

Mueller’s experience suggests these tools handle HTML structure and layout well enough, but they don’t make informed choices about canonicals, sitemaps, or crawlability without specific instructions.

Mueller flagged similar gaps in vibe-coded sites before. He reviewed a vibe-coded Bento Grid Generator on Reddit and found issues with crawlability, obsolete meta tags, and content stored in JavaScript files that search engines couldn’t access.

Read our full coverage: Google’s Mueller: Vibe Coding Won’t Handle Your SEO For You

Ask Jeeves Is Gone After Nearly 30 Years Of Search

Ask.com, the search engine that started as Ask Jeeves, shut down. Parent company IAC discontinued its search business as part of a broader refocus.

Key facts: Ask Jeeves was founded in 1996 with a natural-language question format and a cartoon butler mascot. IAC acquired the company in 2005, dropped the Jeeves branding, and by 2010 had shut down the web crawler and outsourced core search. The farewell message on Ask.com closed with: “Jeeves’ spirit endures.”

Why This Matters

Ask Jeeves was the first search engine built on the premise that people should be able to type full questions instead of keywords. That idea did not save the company, but it describes what Google is now building with AI Mode and AI Overviews. The search engine that pioneered conversational search closed the same year conversational search became the industry’s direction.

The closure marks the end of one of the last recognizable consumer search brands from the pre-Google era.

Read our full coverage: Ask Jeeves Is Gone After Nearly 30 Years Of Search

Theme Of The Week: Source Identity Matters More

Every story this week comes back to source identity.

Google adds labels, previews, and signals to links. Amsive’s analysis shows visibility shifting toward brands owning the products or services. Preferred Sources allow users to tell Google which publishers they trust.

If your site is the original source, this week’s signals all point the same way. Google is building more paths back to you. If your site summarizes what others produce, the math is getting harder.

Top Stories Of The Week:

AI Overviews Clicks Get Tested, Earnings Tell Two Stories – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

This week’s Pulse covers how AI Overviews affect click behavior, what independent research shows, and what earnings reports from Google and Microsoft reveal about search revenue.

Here’s what matters for you and your work.

Reid Repeats “Bounce Clicks” Argument On Bloomberg

Google’s head of Search, Liz Reid, told Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast that AI Overviews are reducing “bounce clicks” from publisher pages. She has made versions of this argument in public appearances since last year.

Key facts: Reid described bounce clicks as visits where users quickly click a page, get a fact, and leave, noting AI Overviews remove such visits rather than deeper ones. Google hasn’t provided data to verify this, and third-party analyses show lower click-through rates when AI Overviews are present.

Why This Matters

Reid’s explanation has stayed consistent across at least three public appearances over the past year. The argument is that lost clicks were low-value to begin with, so publishers aren’t losing the visits that matter. The problem is that Google still hasn’t shared the data behind that claim.

Until Google publishes traffic or engagement metrics that separate bounce clicks from deeper visits, the explanation is a narrative, not a finding.

Read our full coverage: Google Pushes “Bounce Clicks” Explanation For AI Overview Traffic Loss

Field Experiment Finds AI Overviews Cut Organic Clicks 38%

Researchers at the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University published a working paper, which tests the effects of AI Overviews on user behavior in a randomized field experiment.

Key facts: The study used a Chrome extension to assign 1,065 U.S. participants to three groups: normal Search, Search without AI Overviews, and AI Mode. When AI Overviews appeared, organic clicks dropped 38%, and zero-clicks rose 33%. Removing AI Overviews did not affect satisfaction, perceived quality, or ease of finding information.

Why This Matters

The authors describe their work as the first randomized experiment to isolate the causal effect of AI Overviews on clicks. Prior studies from Seer, Chartbeat, and Pew were observational or correlational. The randomized design allows the researchers to say that AI Overviews caused the click reduction, not just that the two appeared together.

The satisfaction finding puts pressure on Reid’s argument. If removing AI Overviews doesn’t reduce user satisfaction, it’s harder to argue that the lost clicks were primarily low-value visits.

Read our full coverage: Google’s AI Overviews Cut Clicks Without Satisfaction Gain: Report

Google Search Revenue Grew 19% In Q1

Alphabet reported Q1 2026 revenue of $109.9 billion. Google Search revenue hit $60.4 billion, up 19% year over year, accelerating from 17% growth in Q4 2025.

Key facts: CEO Sundar Pichai said queries are at an all-time high and that AI experiences are tied to increased Search usage. Google Cloud crossed the $20 billion quarterly revenue mark, up 63%. Pichai told analysts that more information about Search will come at Google I/O in May.

Why This Matters

The revenue growth doesn’t settle the click-impact question. Google reported higher Search revenue and more queries, but those numbers describe the ad business, not the publisher traffic side. Higher revenue is consistent with both “clicks are fine” and “clicks are down, but ad yield per query is up.”

Google’s AI features may be creating new ad opportunities, but the earnings data doesn’t show whether your pages are getting more or fewer clicks from AI-influenced results.

What People Are Saying

Matthew Scott Goldstein, Independent Analyst/Advisor/Consultant at .msg, wrote on LinkedIn:

“This is what extraction at scale looks like dressed up as innovation. The same content fueling AI Overviews, Gemini answers, and enterprise token volume is the content publishers have sued over, lost referral traffic over, and watched get re-monetized inside a closed product.”

Read our full coverage: Google Search Revenue Grew 19% In Q1, Pichai Cites AI

Microsoft Says Bing Reached 1 Billion Monthly Active Users

Microsoft announced during its Q3 FY2026 earnings call that Bing has reached 1 billion monthly active users for the first time. CEO Satya Nadella revealed the figure alongside an 18% overall revenue increase to $82.9 billion.

Key facts: Search ad revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, grew 12% year over year. Edge maintained browser market share gains for the 20th straight quarter. The segment that includes Bing was down 1% overall at $13.2 billion.

Why This Matters

The 1 billion MAU milestone is notable, but Bing’s global search share sits at about 5% per StatCounter’s March 2026 data. That gap suggests the MAU figure needs context. Microsoft hasn’t defined frequency, overlap, or how AI-related Bing usage is counted.

On the AI search measurement side, Microsoft previewed Citation Share and three other Bing Webmaster Tools features at SEO Week earlier this month. When those ship, they could give Bing Webmaster Tools users a clearer way to compare AI citation visibility against competitors on Bing.

Read our full coverage: Microsoft Says Bing Reached 1B Monthly Active Users

Theme Of The Week: Everyone Is Measuring A Different Part Of Search

Every story this week is about the same question asked from a different angle: What is AI doing to search traffic?

Reid says the lost clicks were low-value. The field experiment shows that the lost clicks came without any trade-off in user satisfaction. Google’s earnings say revenue is up 19%. Microsoft’s earnings say Bing hit a user milestone, but it still holds a 5% share. Each one measures something real, and none of them measure the same thing.

The gap between what platforms report and what publishers experience doesn’t appear to be closing. The public data needed to answer the click question directly still isn’t available. Per-query click behavior segmented by AI feature presence isn’t in any tool that Google or Microsoft has shipped.

Top Stories Of The Week:

More Resources:

Featured Image: PeopleImages/Shutterstock; Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Google’s Robots.txt Docs Expand, Deep Links Get Rules, EU Steps In – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how deep links appear in your snippets, how your robots.txt gets parsed, how agentic features work in Search, and how the EU’s data-sharing rules apply to AI chatbots.

Here’s what matters for you and your work.

Google Lists Best Practices For Read More Deep Links

Google updated its snippet documentation with a new section on “Read more” deep links in Search results. The documentation lists three best practices that can increase the likelihood of these links appearing.

Key facts: Content must be immediately visible to a human on page load, and content hidden behind expandable sections or tabbed interfaces can reduce the likelihood of these links appearing. Sections should use H2 or H3 headings. The snippet text needs to match the content that appears on the page, and pages with content loaded after scrolling or interaction may further reduce the likelihood.

Why This Matters

The three practices are the first specific guidance Google has published on this feature. Sites using expandable FAQ sections, tabbed product detail areas, or scroll-triggered content for core information may see fewer deep links in their snippets compared with sites that render the same content on page load.

The guidance matches a pattern Google has applied to other Search features. Content that renders without user interaction is more likely to appear in enhanced display.

Slobodan Manić, founder of No Hacks, made a related observation on LinkedIn:

“The documentation is framed around one snippet behavior (read more deep links in search results), but the language Google chose reads as a general preference. ‘Content immediately visible to a human’ is the structural instruction, not a read-more-specific tip.”

Manić’s point extends his April 16 IMHO interview with Managing Editor Shelley Walsh, where he argued that most websites are structurally broken for AI agents. He argues that search crawlers and AI agents now face the same structural problem, and the audit is the same for both.

For existing pages, the audit question is whether key information is contained within a click-to-expand element. If a page already has a “Read more” deep link for one section, that section’s structure serves as a guide to what works. For other sections on the same page, replicating that structure may also improve their chances.

Google describes the guidance as best practices that can “increase the likelihood” of deep links appearing. That hedging matters because this is not a list of requirements, and following all three may not guarantee the links appear.

Read our full coverage: Google Lists Best Practices For Read More Deep Links

Google May Expand Its Robots.txt Unsupported Rules List

Google may add rules to its robots.txt documentation based on analysis of real-world data collected through HTTP Archive. Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt described the project on the latest Search Off the Record podcast.

Key facts: Google’s team analyzed the most frequently unsupported rules in robots.txt files across millions of URLs indexed by the HTTP Archive. Illyes said the team plans to document the top 10 to 15 most-used unsupported rules beyond user-agent, allow, disallow, and sitemap. He also said the parser may expand the typos it accepts for disallow, though he did not commit to a timeline or name specific typos.

Why This Matters

If Google documents more unsupported directives, sites using custom or third-party rules will have clearer guidance on what Google ignores.

Anyone maintaining a robots.txt file with rules beyond user-agent, allow, disallow, and sitemap should audit for directives that have never worked for Google. The HTTP Archive data is publicly queryable on BigQuery, so the same distribution Google used is available to anyone who wants to examine it.

The typo tolerance is the more speculative part. Illyes’ phrasing implies that the parser already accepts some misspellings of “disallow,” and more may be honored over time. Audit any spelling variants now and correct them, rather than assuming they will be ignored.

Read our full coverage: Google May Expand Unsupported Robots.txt Rules List

EU Proposes Google Share Search Data With Rivals And AI Chatbots

The European Commission sent preliminary findings proposing that Google share search data with rival search engines across the EU and EEA, including AI chatbots that qualify as online search engines under the DMA. The measures are not yet binding, with a public consultation open until May 1 and a final decision due by July 27.

Key facts: The proposal covers four data categories shared on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. The categories are ranking, query, click, and view data. Eligibility extends to AI chatbot providers that meet the DMA’s definition of online search engines. If the Commission maintains eligibility through the final decision, qualifying providers could gain access to anonymized Google Search data under the Commission’s proposed terms.

Why This Matters

This proposal explicitly extends search-engine data-sharing eligibility to AI chatbots under the DMA. If the eligibility survives the consultation, the regulatory category of “search engine” now includes products that most search marketing work has treated as a separate category.

The consequences vary depending on where you operate. For sites optimizing for EU/EEA visibility, the change could broaden the scope of where anonymized search signals flow. AI products competing with Google in that market could use the data to improve their retrieval and ranking systems, which could, in turn, affect which content they cite.

Outside the EU, the direct regulatory effect is zero. The category definition is a different matter. How the Commission draws the line between “AI chatbot” and “AI chatbot that qualifies as a search engine” is likely to be cited in future proceedings.

The eligibility question is the story to watch through May 1. If the Commission narrows the AI chatbot criteria in response to consultation feedback, the implications stay regulatory. If it holds the line, that would set a material precedent for how AI search is classified.

Read our full coverage: Google May Have To Share Search Data With Rivals

Google Adds New Task-Based Search Features

Google introduced new Search features that continue its evolution toward task completion. Users can now track individual hotel price drops via a new toggle in Search, and Google is adding the ability to launch AI agents directly from AI Mode.

Key facts: Hotel price tracking is available globally through a toggle in the search bar. When prices drop for a tracked hotel, Google sends an email alert. The AI agent launched from AI Mode allows users to initiate tasks handled by AI within the search interface. Rose Yao, a Google Search product leader, posted about the features on X.

Why This Matters

Each task-based feature moves a process that previously started on another site into Google’s own surface. Hotel price tracking has existed at the city level for months. Expansion to individual hotels adds a new signal that users can set inside Google rather than on hotel or aggregator sites.

Direct-booking visibility depends on being inside Google’s ecosystem. Sites relying on price-drop alerts as a return-trigger for users may see some of that engagement reallocated to Google’s tracking UI. For hotel brands, this raises the stakes for ensuring individual hotel pages are fully populated in Google Business Profile and hotel feeds.

On LinkedIn, Daniel Foley Carter connected the feature to a broader pattern:

“Google’s AI overviews, AI mode and now in-frame functionality for SERP + SITE is just Google eating more and more into traffic opportunities. Everything Google told US not to do its doing itself. SPAM / LOW VALUE CONTENT – don’t resummarise other peoples content – Google does it.”

The AI agent launch is more speculative. Google has not published detailed documentation explaining what kinds of tasks users can delegate or how sources get cited. The feature confirms that agentic search, described by Sundar Pichai as “search as an agent manager,” is appearing incrementally in Search rather than as a single launch.

Read Roger Montti’s full coverage: Google Adds New Tasked-Based Search Features

Theme Of The Week: The Rules Are Getting Written

Each story this week spells out something that was previously implicit or underway.

Google signaled plans to expand what its robots.txt documentation covers. The company listed specific practices that can increase the likelihood of “Read more” deep links appearing. The European Commission proposed measures that extend search-engine data-sharing eligibility to AI chatbots under the DMA. And task-based features that Sundar Pichai described in interviews are rolling out as toggles in the search bar.

For your day-to-day, the ground gets firmer. Fewer questions are judgment calls. What does and doesn’t qualify, what Google supports, and what counts as a search engine to a regulator are all getting written down. That works to your advantage when it means clearer audit criteria, and against you when “we weren’t sure” is no longer a defensible answer.

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