Google has made a significant and controversial change to its Search Console service that will directly affect all website owners and SEO specialists. As confirmed on June 17, 2025, by leading industry experts like Barry Schwartz (of SERoundtable) and Brodie Clark, as well as the specialized publication Search Engine Land, Google quietly updated its official documentation. According to the changes, traffic from links within AI-generated answers (AI Overviews, formerly known as SGE) will now be counted in the standard "Web" search report. Crucially, Google has not provided a separate filter or segment to isolate this "AI traffic." This means that website owners and analysts will no longer be able to distinguish in Search Console reports between traffic from traditional "blue links" and traffic from AI-generated answers. This decision has sparked a wave of disappointment and criticism within the SEO community, which has long awaited more transparency from Google to analyze how AI Overviews impact their site traffic. The lack of separate segmentation makes it nearly impossible to accurately measure content effectiveness in the new AI-powered search, evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of SEO strategies, and understand shifts in user behavior. This move by Google significantly complicates the adaptation of publishers and businesses to the new search reality, where the role of traditional organic results may change substantially, and the data to analyze this shift is now obscured.
Google Merges AI Overview Traffic with Web Search in Search Console, Sparking Criticism
