Google is making it harder and harder for anyone to leave its results page, and your informational content is the first to feel it. The strange part is that almost nobody is measuring what happens inside those answers.
Here you’ll see what’s changing in AI Mode, why your traffic reports tell only half the story, and how to monitor your visibility with a short routine. At the end there’s a 15-minute audit.
If Your Business Depends on Informational Content
You publish guides, tutorials, or analyses. The traffic that used to arrive on its own now fluctuates, and when you open Analytics there’s no clear way to know how many people saw your content inside an AI answer without clicking. That feeling of “something’s going on, but I don’t know what” is what many publishers describe right now.
What Google Is Doing
According to Semrush’s trend note of September 28, 2026, Google is quietly expanding AI Mode in informational searches: it removes the “Show more” button, opens the prompt box automatically, and adds interactive quizzes and visual tools directly on the results page.
The numbers back this up. Another Semrush note indicates that AI Overviews are associated with a 58% reduction in clicks to top-ranking content, compared with the 34.5% recorded a few months earlier.
There’s one more effect: a study of 1.3 million AI Mode citations, according to another Semrush note, puts Google as the most-cited source and YouTube in second place. In other words, Google itself and its platforms absorb part of the visibility.
The Measurement Problem
In May 2026, Google improved tracking of some AI-driven traffic, but at the same time reduced visibility into AI Overviews. The result: there’s a gap between what happens and what your reports show. That’s why it pays to track mentions and citations, not just visits.
The Solution: Monitor Your Key Questions
The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is built for this gap. For this scenario, three pieces matter:
- Prompt Tracking: monitors daily the visibility and mentions for the questions you care about, in both Google’s AI Mode and ChatGPT.
- AI Search Site Audit: checks whether your site can be crawled by AI engines and detects issues such as blocked bots.
- My Reports: adds AI search metrics and AI referral traffic coming through Google Analytics to your automated PDF reports.
If you want to try it with your domain, go here: see the AI Visibility Toolkit.
A word of caution: the toolkit lists the llms.txt file among its checks, but according to another Semrush note, Google has questioned shortcuts like that. My advice is to start with the basics: make sure you’re not blocking bots by mistake and that your content is clear and verifiable.
My AI Mode Test
[WRITE YOUR REAL EXPERIENCE HERE: which informational searches in your niche you tried, whether an AI Overview or AI Mode appeared, and which sources it cited. Add your own screenshot. This is the part that gives the article its originality.]
Why Looking at Analytics Isn’t Enough
Analytics tells you who arrived, not who saw you cited and stayed on Google. Measuring only clicks is like counting customers who walk into the store without knowing how many stopped at the window. With dedicated tracking, you stop deciding by gut feeling and save weeks of trial and error.
How to Learn It Without Overspending
Semrush offers a free lesson, Quick Onboarding: AI Visibility Toolkit, and the AI Visibility Essentials course. With one afternoon of training, you’ll understand what to look at before paying anything.
A 15-Minute Audit
- Pick 5 informational searches from your niche and run them on Google.
- Note whether an AI Overview appears or AI Mode opens.
- Check which sources it cites and whether you’re among them.
- Review your robots.txt file to confirm you’re not blocking important bots.
- In Google Analytics, look for traffic arriving from AI assistants and record it as a starting point.
Pricing
The AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99 per month for one domain, according to Semrush’s product page (confirm the current price before signing up). It has no free trial of its own, but you can explore it with the Semrush One trial.
Conclusion: Measure Before It Changes Again
Google keeps moving pieces around, and every change alters what your audience sees. Starting to record your mentions today gives you a baseline to understand the next move. If you want to do it, here’s the access: go to the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit.
Disclosure: this article contains Semrush affiliate links. If you sign up for a tool through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.