Google tests AI Overview links that redirect to AI Mode
What this answers
- Do AI Overview links ever lead into AI Mode instead of a website?
- Google is testing anchor links at the bottom of some AI Overviews that look like normal links but open AI Mode with a follow-up question, rather than taking the user to a web page, per SEO consultant Gagan Ghotra's screenshots shared with Search Engine Roundtable.
Google is testing anchor links inside AI Overviews that look like normal web links but instead open AI Mode with a follow-up question, rather than taking users to an external page. SEO consultant Gagan Ghotra spotted the links on September 21 and shared video and screenshots on X; Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz said Google had not responded to a request for comment. The links appear at the bottom of some AI Overview responses, in place of the outbound citations that normally sit there.
Why it matters: If a link inside an AI Overview can route to AI Mode instead of a publisher's page, the click Google already discloses as \"organic\" is doing less to send traffic than the same-looking link did before.
The record: Google AI OverviewsGoogle AI ModeGoogle
Glossary: SEOAI OverviewsAI Mode
Via Search Engine Roundtable ↗
Posted to the wire September 22, 2026. Edited by Joe Balewski.