Has AI Search taken over in July 2025? Is Google still important or should you just focus on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI search platforms? In this video, I explain how to set up AI Search tracking in Google Analytics 4 to view the difference between AI Search traffic compared to Google Search and organic search overall. After setting this up across many accounts, AI search accounts for under 1% of traffic, and under .5% for most sites I checked.I’ll also explain how ignoring Google Search could lead to a drop in quality, which could cause problems with Google’s broad core updates (as core updates can impact all areas of Google including AI Overviews and AI Mode).Blog post covering the topic: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ai-search-traffic-compared-to-google/

Chapters:00:00 AI Search versus Google Search in 2025

00:46 A conversation with an IT executive about AI Search and the demise of Google.

02:20 How to set up AI search tracking in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

03:45 What I found when analyzing AI Search traffic compared to Google.

05:15 AI Search example: B2C

06:16 AI Search example: Niche news publisher

06:42 AI Search example: Health and medical

07:18 AI Search example: Smaller publisher

07:41 Google organic drives the most traffic (by a mile).

08:33 AEO, GEO versus SEO - Be careful.

09:40 Google broad core updates and the danger of ignoring Google search.

10:12 A strong SEO strategy covers most of what you need for AI Search.

11:10 All Google surfaces that can be impacted by broad core udpates.

12:18 AIOs and AI Mode can be impacted by Google's broad core updates.

12:50 Wrapping up - AI Search is important, but don't ignore Google.Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

I'm on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glenngabe.bsky.social

Have you read AI Overview studies and wondered how *your own site* is being impacted? I got you covered. This video covers my blog post that walks you step-by-step through combining third-party AIO data with Google Search Console performance data (via the Search Console API) and using vlookup magic to see the change in clicks and CTR when AIOs are ranking for your queries.

Note, this definitely works best for sites with a lot of search visibility and traffic from Google. So if your site doesn't have a ton of visibility, this process might not yield great results. BTW, having to write a 14-step process using multiple third-party tools, the GSC API, etc., to TRY to analyze AIO impact is RIDICULOUS, but that's exactly what Google wants unfortunately. And no, I don't think we will get AIO or AI Mode data broken out, so this may be the best approach for site owners trying to gauge the impact of AIOs on clicks and CTR.

Note, AIOs officially rolled out in May of 2024, so you can definitely compare to pre-AIO SERPs if you want (or any timeframe you want to compare to). I've been running this for several clients and it works pretty well (especially for larger-scale sites with a lot of search visibility and traffic from Google). So watch this video and read my blog post, walk through the steps, run the numbers, and analyze the impact of AIOs for your own site. You might be surprised with what you find -- or not. :) Have fun.

Blog post:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/how-to-measure-the-impact-of-google-ai-overviews/

Chapters:

00:00 Tracking the impact of AI Overviews on CTR and clicks.

01:01 Combining third-party AIO data and GSC performance data.

03:00 Exporting all AIO data via third-party visibility tools.

04:08 Export GSC data via the Search Console API (for two timeframes).

05:40 Apply vlookup magic in Excel.

07:31 An example of CTR and clicks impact based on AIOs ranking.

08:41 Recommendations and tips for site owners.

11:08 My thoughts about why Google isn't breaking out AIO data in GSC.

13:07 Summary: Tell me how this goes for you!

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

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If you earn a powerful link, you should receive that link. Unfortunately, many news and media publishers are nofollowing those links, which tells Google to not pass signals, including PageRank, downstream to the pages that earned those links.

I cover the situation, including examples of that happening, why it’s happening, how Google’s view of nofollow has changed over the years, and even include an example of it happening to me! In addition, I cover important FAQs for news and media publishers that might be nofollowing links now (in order to clear up any confusion about when to link normally versus using nofollow).

A link is a terrible thing to waste, so please link out normally. Site owners will appreciate it, Google will appreciate, and the entire web ecosystem will appreciate it.

Blog post covering the topic:

https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/news-media-publishers-link-out-ditch-nofollow/

Chapters:

00:00 When links go wrong. Why some news and media publishers are nofollowing links.

02:08 Examples of news and media publishers nofollowing earned links.

03:30 Link Madness Inception: When it happened to me recently!

04:47 But wait, nofollow is just a hint to Google now.

06:00 Help me, help you. FAQs for news and media publishers.

08:57 Just link out normally. It’s the way the web works.

Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

Find me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glenngabe.bsky.social