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Every link inside an AI Overview used to be, at least in theory, a possible path off of Google. That may no longer be true for the follow-up links Google has started testing. According to reporting from Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable on September 22, 2026, Google has begun embedding follow-up-question links at the bottom of AI Overview answers that route searchers deeper into AI Mode rather than out to the external websites that supplied the underlying information. The change was first documented by independent SEO researcher Gagan Ghotra on X the day before, and as of publication, Google has not officially confirmed or commented on it.
Executive Summary
Here’s what you need to know before diving in:
- Google is testing anchor links at the bottom of AI Overviews that send searchers into AI Mode for follow-up questions instead of linking out to publisher websites.
- The behavior was first documented by independent SEO researcher Gagan Ghotra on X on September 21, 2026, and reported by Search Engine Roundtable the following day.
- Google has not issued an official statement or documentation confirming the change as of this post’s publication.
- The change arrives as AI Overviews already reach 39.4% of U.S. desktop searches, up from 25.8% a year earlier, according to separate Comscore data, meaning any reduction in outbound links compounds across a rapidly growing share of search traffic.
What was observed, and why it matters even without official confirmation
Gagan Ghotra’s discovery, described in a video posted to X and summarized by Search Engine Roundtable, shows follow-up-question links appearing at the bottom of an AI Overview answer. Historically, links inside an AI Overview that pointed a user toward more information were a mechanism, however limited, for sending traffic to the publisher sites whose content Google had summarized. What Ghotra documented instead is that these particular follow-up links keep the user inside Google’s own AI Mode experience, prompting a continued conversation rather than a visit to an external site. Ghotra’s own framing of the discovery was blunt: “Another day, another tactic from Google to push users from usual search results to AI Mode.”
It is worth being direct about the evidentiary status of this story. This is a single-source discovery, documented with video and screenshot evidence but without an accompanying Google statement, official changelog entry, or documentation update. That does not make it unimportant, publishers and SEOs have learned to take Google behavior changes seriously well before an official acknowledgment arrives, but it does mean this should be read as an early, observed pattern rather than a confirmed, permanent policy.
Context helps explain why this particular change lands as significant. Comscore’s Q2 2026 AI Intelligence Report, covered separately by Search Engine Land, found that AI Overviews already appear in 39.4% of U.S. desktop searches, up from 25.8% a year earlier. That statistic is not directly about this specific link-routing behavior, but it establishes the scale at which any change to how AI Overviews handle outbound links now operates. A tweak that keeps a small percentage of follow-up clicks inside Google, multiplied across a surface that now touches roughly four in ten desktop searches, is a meaningfully larger shift than the same tweak would have been a year ago when AI Overviews were a smaller fraction of search traffic.
ARC Marketing’s Take
“Publishers have spent two years watching Google narrow the path between a search result and their own website, and this is the same story with a new mechanism,” said ARC Marketing. “The fact that Google hasn’t confirmed it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It means publishers should assume it’s real and plan accordingly, because Google rarely walks these things back once they’ve shipped quietly.”
For content-heavy clients, our specific recommendation right now is to stop treating “getting cited in an AI Overview” as the finish line and start building a parallel content strategy aimed at channels where Google cannot intercept the click at all, meaning owned email lists, branded newsletters, and direct-navigation destinations that don’t depend on a search engine choosing to send someone your way. We are also advising clients to track branded search volume as a leading indicator of AI Overview-driven brand awareness that isn’t converting into referral traffic, since a rise in branded queries without a matching rise in site sessions is itself a measurable symptom of exactly this kind of click rerouting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly did Google change?
Google is testing follow-up-question links at the bottom of AI Overview answers that keep searchers inside its own AI Mode experience rather than linking out to the external publisher websites that supplied the underlying content.
Who discovered this change, and how?
Independent SEO researcher Gagan Ghotra documented the behavior on X on September 21, 2026, with video and screenshot evidence. Search Engine Roundtable reported on the discovery the following day.
Has Google officially confirmed this change?
No. As of publication, Google has not issued an official statement, changelog entry, or documentation update confirming the behavior. It should be treated as an observed, early-stage pattern rather than a confirmed permanent feature.
How does this affect publishers and content creators?
If the pattern holds and expands, it would mean fewer follow-up clicks from AI Overviews reach publisher websites, since users are kept inside Google’s AI Mode instead of being routed externally. This compounds the existing concern that AI Overviews already reduce the traditional click-through rate to organic results.
Is this related to the growth of AI Overviews generally?
It is related in scale, though not necessarily in mechanism. Separate Comscore data shows AI Overviews grew from 25.8% to 39.4% of U.S. desktop searches over the past year, meaning any change to how AI Overviews handle outbound links now affects a much larger share of total search traffic than it would have a year ago.
What should publishers do in response?
Since the change is unconfirmed and its scope is not yet clear, publishers should monitor their own referral traffic from Google search for anomalies, continue building direct-audience channels such as email and app notifications that do not depend on search referral clicks, and watch for further official commentary from Google.
Sources
- Barry Schwartz, “Google AI Overview Links Pushing To AI Mode,” Search Engine Roundtable, September 22, 2026: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overview-links-to-ai-mode-42132.html
- Gagan Ghotra, original discovery posted on X, September 21, 2026 (as cited by Search Engine Roundtable)
- Danny Goodwin, “Google AI Overviews now appear in 39% of U.S. desktop searches,” Search Engine Land, September 22, 2026 (supporting context statistic): https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-share-us-comscore-490381