Google’s AI search results love to refer you back to Google

Apparently Google You have a Google addiction. If you click on a hyperlink in Google’s chatbot-style search tool, AI Mode, you’ll likely be taken to another Google search, according to a new study by SE Ranking, an SEO company. Currently, Google.com is the most connected site in AI mode.

Many website owners and publishers have relied heavily on Google Search as their main source of visitors, and have complained of declining traffic over the past few years as the tech giant prominently displayed Creative AI Briefs in search results, through AI Overview and AI Mode. Liz Read, Google’s head of search, has previously disputed reports of low traffic and described AI tools as leading to “higher quality clicks” on these sites.

“Even if you say people click on those citations all the time, well, there’s nothing to click on, because it takes you to another result on Google,” says Mordy Oberstein, SEO expert and head of branding at SE Ranking. Currently, an estimated 17 percent of all AI-mode citations go back to Google. This is a three-fold increase compared to last year. The second most cited website overall in AI mode? YouTube, another Google company.

Google’s presence in AI mode citations is more pronounced in some areas. In the links analyzed by SE Ranking, about half of the citations in the entertainment and travel AI mode returned to the Google search result.

For example, AI Mode asked what to watch out for during the 2026 Academy Awards, and embedded hyperlinks to the most competitive films, e.g. Sinners and Battle after battleleads to Google results. In fact, all 17 hyperlinks in the AI ​​mode output lead to Google results that appear in the sidebar. In addition to the Google links, the output included three buttons linking to external sources at the end of paragraphs.

“Some of the links highlighted in the report are more like shortcuts to help people explore potential follow-up questions and thus find additional web links,” a Google spokesperson told WIRED. “It is not intended to replace links to the web.” The spokesperson compared these links in AI mode to other search features, such as “People Also Ask.”

The disruptive rise of social media in the past has sparked heated debates between Silicon Valley companies seeking to profit from new technologies and publishers concerned about a potential decline in traffic. Partnership deals between technology companies, such as Google, and publishers were an attempt to adapt to this seismic change.

The idea that Google is favored for its output and features is not new to the SEO experts WIRED spoke to for the report. “It’s an ongoing trend with Google,” says Danny Goodwin, managing editor at Search Engine Land. He noticed Google linking to its search results more often in AI Overviews last year and wasn’t surprised by the news that AI Mode now includes additional self-citations.

Goodwin has experienced “rings” firsthand before. “Google might think this is great, but I get into those loops where I’m trying to find an answer, and the only option is to click on a Google search result that takes me to another search result,” he says. “But it still doesn’t answer my question.” The circular experience of these AI tools is very frustrating for users and publishers who put content online, Goodwin says.

“The biggest beneficiary of Google traffic these days is Google,” says Rand Fishkin, co-founder of audience research firm SparkToro and a digital marketing expert. He sees this as part of an overall trend where less traffic from search tools and social media sites is going to external sources. “This is the big shift. Basically, from the web that sends traffic, to the web that keeps it and doesn’t click on it.”