Google is refining its approach: AI Overviews now show links to... its own results. A seemingly minor change that could nevertheless disrupt how traffic flows on the web.
Key takeaways:
- Google integrates internal links into AI Overviews, pointing to its own search results.
- This closed-loop navigation limits the visibility of third-party sites in the user experience.
- The stated goal: make it easier to explore topics without additional queries.
Links in AI Overviews? Not where we expected them
The famous AI Overviews, those AI-generated summaries at the top of Google’s results pages, now include a new feature: some words in the text are clickable. But surprise: those links don’t lead to third-party sites; they point to... other Google searches.
You read that right. By clicking an underlined term, you don’t go to an article or an external source, but to a new Google query. In other words, you remain inside Google’s ecosystem, again and again. A kind of closed-loop navigation where each click brings you back to square one, or nearly so.
A real convenience for the user?
On paper, it seems convenient. You read a summary about solar energy, a word piques your interest, click, and you get a more targeted query. It’s fast, smooth, frictionless. From a UX standpoint, hard to criticize.
But the real question is the one that isn’t asked enough: who captures the attention? And above all, who gets the click?
That’s where it hurts. Because every internal link replaces an external one. Translation: fewer visits for sites that publish quality content. Less organic traffic. Less revenue, over time.
Some would call it cannibalization. Others, algorithmic inwardness. And frankly, it’s hard to blame them.
A trend that's being confirmed
For several months, Google has been testing this self-referencing logic. It’s not entirely new. We were already familiar with “People also ask,” YouTube video carousels, or well-stocked local packs.
But this is a step change. Because AI no longer just summarizes: it guides, directs, suggests… all without leaving Google's fold.
The official line is clear: it's aboutimproving topic explorationAllowing the user to go further, faster. And avoiding manually repeated queries.
In practice? The engine captures more and more interactions. And it delays — sometimes indefinitely — the moment when the user clicks through to an external site.
What options for sites?
Let's be honest: this kind of change is hard to work around. So we need to adapt, again. A few instincts to keep in mind:
- Target long-tail queries. More precise, less prone to AI summaries.
- Optimize structured data. To appear in the "secondary links" that are sometimes shown.
- Work on brand awareness. If people search for you directly, Google won't be able to intercept everything.
The article "Why do these links in AI Overviews worry SEOs?" was published on the site Abondance.
