Visits to main US information web sites have plummeted since Google rolled out its synthetic intelligence search function final yr – with some plunging 40%, in response to troubling new knowledge.
Of the highest 50 information domains, 37 suffered year-over-year visitors declines after the launch of Google’s AI Overviews final Might, in response to SimilarWeb.
The drastic dropoff comes regardless of headline-grabbing occasions that included the assassination try on Donald Trump final summer season, his gorgeous election victory over Kamala Harris a number of months later and the turmoil over the brand new president’s tariff insurance policies.
“The data absolutely shows the new AI products Google has announced are affecting news publishers’ traffic,” Danielle Coffey, President and CEO of Information/Media Alliance, informed The Put up on Tuesday.
“On top of all the SEO changes that have decreased traffic recently in traditional search, this is certain to negatively impact our ability to invest in quality journalism,” added Coffey, whose nonprofit commerce affiliation represents greater than 2,200 information organizations.
Forbes and HuffPost had been the toughest hit, every shedding 40% of their visitors, whereas DailyMail.com plunged 32% and CNN.com fell 28%, in response to SimilarWeb.
The Put up and sister publication Wall Avenue Journal suffered declines of 27% and 17%, respectively, the information confirmed. Fox Information.com fell 24%.
Fox Information dad or mum Fox Corp. and The Put up dad or mum Information Corp share frequent possession.
ComScore, which makes use of a unique methodology from SimilarWeb to trace visitors, discovered that NYPost Community — which incorporates nypost.com and affiliated properties similar to Decider and Web page Six — drew 433 million web page views in June 2024 earlier than falling to 381 million for Might 2025, a lack of 12%.
In the meantime, WSJ.com — a part of Information Corp-owned Dow Jones — and Fox Information.com each posted slight will increase over the identical timeframe, one of many few publications to achieve visitors, in response to ComScore.
Left-leaning rivals the New York Occasions and The Washington Put up dipped 0.7% and 6%, respectively, ComScore discovered.
Publication that noticed the most important positive aspects, in response to SimilarWeb, included MensJournal.com (+415%), CoolDown.com (+96%) and Indiatimes.com (+77%).
A Google spokesperson denied that AI push was guilty for the cratering visitors.
“More than any other company, Google prioritizes sending traffic to the web, and we continue to send billions of clicks to websites every day,” the rep informed The Put up on Tuesday.
“We’ve seen many inaccurate claims about traffic from Search, often based on speculative or incomplete information, questionable methodology, or data that predates AI Overviews. New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for businesses and content to be discovered.”
The corporate added that there are recognized limitations to SimilarWeb’s dataset because it solely appears at desktop and cell net, not app exercise.
Google’s AI Overviews — automated summaries powered by its Gemini mannequin — seem on the high of outcomes pages and immediately reply person queries, typically preempting the necessity for customers to go to the supply of the knowledge.
Because the rollout of AI Overviews, many publishers have reported steep declines in each visitors and click-through charges (CTR). In line with a number of research, the typical CTR for the highest natural outcome on queries that set off AI Overviews plummeted from 7.3% in March 2024 to only 2.6% by March 2025.
Google additionally not too long ago rolled out AI Mode — a complicated search expertise that delivers detailed, conversational solutions to complicated queries.
Regardless of beforehand stating that AI Overviews wouldn’t seem for “hard news topics” on account of issues over freshness and factuality, an AIO field appeared atop search outcomes for “anne burrell death” shortly after the story broke.
A current Google doc now states that AI Overviews will seem once they add worth and the system has excessive confidence within the response, although efforts are being made to exclude delicate or harmful subjects.
The corporate famous that SimilarWeb knowledge additionally reveals that general visits to the net and visitors from natural search have elevated year-over-year in combination and that AI Overviews are designed to boost the person expertise by surfacing extra hyperlinks from a broader vary of sources.
Google added that publishers can expertise visitors fluctuations for a lot of causes unrelated to AI — together with seasonal demand, shifting person preferences and common algorithm updates.
