Alright, buckle up. Just when you thought you had a handle on keywords, backlinks, and the last five algorithm updates, Google has decided to change the entire game. Again. As of June 2025, Google AI Mode has started its official rollout to all users in the U.S., and the SEO world is collectively holding its breath.

You might have seen it already—a new tab in your search results, or maybe you’ve only spotted it in the wild when using incognito mode (in classic Google fashion). According to Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land, this is the real deal and a massive step in the evolution of search. So, what is this new AI-powered beast, and how worried should you be about your website’s traffic? Let’s get into it.

So, What Exactly Is Google AI Mode?

Google AI Mode is now available in incognito browsers in the U.S., at least it is for me and my team. It will continue to roll out and is likely to appear on the front page of Google’s site soon. 

Think of AI Mode as a supercharged conversational search engine living inside of Google. It’s designed for those big, messy, complex questions where you’d normally have to open 15 different tabs to piece together an answer. Instead of just giving you a list of blue links, AI Mode uses its Gemini AI model to synthesize information from across the web and present it in a comprehensive, summarized answer.

The goal? To handle queries like “find the best marketing automation platforms that integrate with Salesforce and Shopify for a team of under 10” without you having to do all the heavy lifting. It’s a more exploratory, all-in-one experience.

And… What is ‘Query Fan-Out’?

This is the big, scary, and technically fascinating part. The core of AI Mode runs on a technique that Google calls “query fan-out.” And thanks to a fantastic deep dive by Sara Guaglione at Digiday, we can actually understand what that means.

Here’s the breakdown: When you ask AI Mode a question, it secretly breaks your query down into a bunch of smaller, related sub-questions. This all happens behind the scenes.

For example, if a user searches for something like “best CRM for a small business,” the query fan-out might simultaneously search for:

• Free CRM software for startups
• CRMs with the best email marketing tools
• HubSpot vs Salesforce comparison
• Easy-to-use CRMs for non-technical teams

The AI then pulls “chunks” of relevant information from pages that answer those sub-queries and stitches it all together into one tidy summary for you. It’s predicting what you might ask next and just giving it to you upfront, effectively saving you from those additional searches. Good for users, maybeeee bad for SEOs.

Anddddd Now It Can Talk Back: Meet ‘Search Live’

As if that wasn’t enough, on June 18th, Google announced it’s rolling out “Search Live,” a new feature within AI Mode that lets you have a full-on, back-and-forth voice conversation with the AI.

As reported by TechCrunch and detailed on the official Google Blog, you can now tap a “Live” icon, ask a question out loud, and get an audio response. You can then ask follow-up questions conversationally while you’re multitasking or walking down the street. It’s designed to be a free-flowing dialogue, complete with on-screen links if you want to dig deeper. Yes, it also uses that same “query fan-out” technique to gather its answers.

What The New Google AI Mode Means for SEO (Brace Yourselves)

I wish I could see into our SEO future, but like everyone else, the best I can do is analyze the situation and speculate. And right now, the speculation is… intense.

The “Good” News: How You Can Maybe Benefit

The new game isn’t about ranking #1 for a single keyword anymore. It’s about becoming the definitive, most comprehensive resource on a topic. The goal is to have your content be so good, so thorough, and so trustworthy that Google’s AI has no choice but to cite you in its answers.

This means your strategy should be to anticipate the “query fan-out.” If you’re writing about “Denver travel,” your page also needs to answer questions about flights, hotels, transport from the airport, best restaurants, etc. You have to cover the entire user journey in one authoritative place. 

Hello, longform content! Goodbye, short blog posts. 

The Bad News: Let’s Talk About Clicks (or Lack Thereof)

Let’s not sugarcoat it. The Digiday article puts it bluntly: AI Mode is designed to discourage external linking. By answering the initial query and all the potential follow-up questions in one go, Google is drastically reducing the user’s need to click on any of those traditional blue links.

For publishers and businesses who rely on search for referral traffic, this is a problem. The consensus is that SEO is shifting from a direct performance channel (clicks, conversions) to more of a brand performance channel (visibility, authority). Being mentioned or cited by the AI might become the new “ranking.”

Okay… But Can SEOs Track this Data in GSC and GA4?

Great question. Because our team asked the same one! 

Tracking in Google Search Console (GSC)

This is where you’ll get the most direct (though still imperfect) data.

The Short Answer: Yes, traffic from AI Mode is tracked in GSC, but it is not separated out. 

• It’s All “Web” Traffic: Google’s John Mueller (The Google King) has confirmed that as of mid-June 2025, all clicks, impressions, and position data from AI Mode are lumped together with your standard web search data in the Performance report. There is no special “AI Mode” filter or search type.
• How It’s Counted:
  • Impressions: A link to your site gets an impression when it appears and is viewable within the AI Mode response.
  • Clicks: A click is counted when a user clicks a link that leads to your site.
  • Position: This is where it gets tricky. Unlike ranking in AI Overviews, where all links share the #1 position, in AI Mode, the position is calculated similarly to a standard search results page. If your link is the 7th one shown, it’s position 7.
  • Follow-up Questions are New Queries: If a user asks a follow-up question, it’s treated as a brand new search. If your site appears again, it gets a new set of impressions and potential clicks for that new query.

The Bottom Line for GSC: You will see the impact of AI Mode reflected in your overall numbers, but you can’t isolate it. If you see a sudden, unexplainable spike in impressions for a query known to trigger complex AI answers, AI Mode is likely the cause. However, you can’t prove it with a simple filter.

Tracking in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Tracking in GA4 is much less direct and requires manual setup to get any real insight.

The Short Answer: No, GA4 does not automatically identify or label traffic from AI Mode. To GA4, it just looks like organic search traffic.

• No Special Referral Source: When a user clicks a link from within an AI Mode response or an AI Overview, GA4 sees it as coming from “Google” and classifies it under the “Organic Search” default channel grouping. There is no ai.google.com or similar referrer that separates it from standard search.
• How You Can Track It (The Workaround): While you can’t track AI Mode specifically, you can track referral traffic from other AI chatbots (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.). This is a good practice to adopt now as it shows how your content is being used in the broader AI ecosystem. The process involves:
  1. Going to your Traffic Acquisition report in GA4.
  2. Filtering by “Session source” to look for domains like chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com, etc.
  3. Creating a Custom Channel Group: You can create a new channel called “AI Referral” and use a regular expression (RegEx) to group all known AI chatbot domains together. This separates them from your general “Referral” traffic for cleaner reporting.

The Bottom Line for GA4: You can’t track Google’s AI Mode/Overview traffic separately from regular organic search traffic. Any claims you see about tracking “AI Traffic” in GA4 are referring to traffic from other third-party AI tools, not from Google’s native AI search features. Your best bet is to watch for changes in user behavior (like higher engagement rates) on landing pages that you suspect are being surfaced frequently in AI Mode.

So… How the Heck Do We Optimize for This?

This is the million-dollar question, and here’s the honest answer: No one is 100% sure yet. The SEOs interviewed by Digiday are all in the early stages of testing. Google isn’t sharing data on which sub-queries are being used in the fan-out, so we’re optimizing for the unknown. Super fun, right!? 

However, I think a clear strategy is emerging:

1. Double Down on Fundamentals: E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is no longer just a guideline; it’s the price of entry.
2. Structure is Everything: Content needs to be incredibly easy for an AI to read. Use clear headings, short paragraphs (2-4 sentences), bullet points, and specific language. Make your content “chunkable.”
3. Think Like the Fan-Out: Brainstorm every possible sub-topic related to your main keyword. Use tools like Google’s “People Also Ask,” Reddit, and TikTok to see what real questions people are asking around a topic.
4. Get Granular: Instead of competing for huge, high-volume keywords, focus on the specific, nuanced journeys your customers are on.

Why Work With Holistic SEO Professionals During These Trying Times?

Let’s be clear: while the days of hiring an “SEO guy” just to stuff keywords into your website have been over for years, AI Mode is the final, definitive nail in that coffin.

This new AI-driven world makes a narrow, one-trick approach completely obsolete. You can’t just “do keyword research” or “build some links” and expect to succeed anymore. AI Mode and query fan-out demand a much bigger, more integrated strategy. That’s where holistic SEO comes in.

A holistic SEO professional doesn’t just look at one piece of the puzzle. They understand that to win now, everything has to work together:

• Technical SEO: Is your site fast, secure, and easy for Google to crawl? If not, the AI won’t even bother with your brilliant content.
• Content Strategy: Are you creating comprehensive, long-form content that covers entire topics and anticipates the fan-out? (Brilliant!) Or are you still churning out short posts about single keywords? (Naughty, naughty) 
• User Experience (UX): Is your site easy to navigate? Does it provide a great experience for users? The AI looks at these signals to determine if your site is trustworthy.
• Authority & E-E-A-T: A holistic pro knows how to build real authority, not just through links, but through brand mentions, consistent messaging, and showcasing genuine expertise.

In short, your 2022 SEO playbook is not going to cut it. A holistic professional (hey! That’s me and my team!) is the only one who can look at the entire machine—your content, your site’s tech, your brand authority—and tune it all to work together in this new, frankly terrifying, innovation.

The Bottom Line: Don’t Panic (Maybe a Little)

The arrival of a fully public AI Mode is a seismic shift. While it feels like the sky is falling for traditional SEO, the core principle remains surprisingly stable: create the best, most helpful, most authoritative content on the web for your specific niche. The challenge is that the definition of “best” now means being so comprehensive that you answer questions the user hasn’t even thought to ask yet.

Good luck out there, kids!!

And if you’d rather not face the new world of search alone, that’s what we’re here for. Contact us today to talk about how a real, holistic SEO strategy can help you navigate the chaos.