For many years, news publishers relied on “search engine optimization” techniques to get their articles to rank highly on Google search to drive traffic to their websites. But recent changes at Google have slashed traffic to news publishers. And it’s only going to get worse with AI.
With Google Gemini artificial intelligence, the company’s search engine has become an answer engine. It doesn’t lead with links to websites or news articles where individuals can find relevant information. It cuts to the chase and provides answers to questions that web surfers are asking. Except AI has been known to confidently give incorrect information.
With AI-generated summaries, web users don’t need to click through to suggested webpages to find information. Google just presents it to them on the Google search page. While it provides links as footnotes, most users aren’t going to check out the source material.
News publishers big and small are seeing their web traffic (and related advertising revenue) from search dry up. The biggest publishers are better positioned to find ways to weather the changes, but the little guys are getting squashed.
Google is no longer primarily about referring traffic to publishers – it has become the destination for information, leeching off the work of others. Google’s AI-generated summaries have replaced the “10 blue links” it used to provide.
Google launched its AI Overviews in May 2024 and has since upgraded its search page to an “AI Mode” with chatbot-style answers provided by Google Gemini. And the negative impact to news publishers and other websites has been dramatic.
One website that I’ve used for following news on streaming video services, The TV Answerman, recently announced that it is ending its daily/regular coverage of the TV industry because of the loss of revenue from the Google changes.
“There’s no way to continue due to Google Search’s decision in 2023 to promote large sites (and marketing partners) over small ones such as this,” TV Answerman publisher Phillip Swann said in an April 17 post. “Google has 90 percent of the Search market; if it decides to bury your stories, you’re pretty much history.”
Swann provided more commentary in an April 28 post.
“Like many other small publishers, I have seen my site traffic plummet over the last few years due to Google Search’s algorithm change that elevated larger sites and marketing partners such as Reddit,” he said.
And his problems occurred before Google announced on May 19 its latest big search changes that would focus on AI answers.
Some publishers are preparing for “Google zero,” the point at which they receive zero click-throughs from the search platform.
Related articles:
Top 50 US news websites: Half of sites see traffic fall 20% or more in a year. (Press Gazette; May 8, 2026)
Exclusive: Small publishers hit hardest by search traffic declines (Axios; March 17, 2026)
AI surfacing is messy: Data shows publisher visibility and traffic often misalign (Digiday; March 11, 2026)
The Internet's Most-Read Tech Publications Have Lost 58% of Their Google Traffic Since 2024 (Growtika; Feb. 26, 2026)
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