Publishers Can Exclude Their Websites from Google's AI Search: A Risky Choice?

The integration of artificial intelligence into Google's search engine is revolutionizing the online publishing industry, with features like AI Overview (which still makes many errors) and AI Mode, on which the American company is heavily relying to maintain its industry dominance. For publishers, this represents a new challenge. Several updates are on the way regarding this issue. Here are the latest details:

More Control (But Less Traffic) for Publishers

Following a regulation introduced in the United Kingdom, Google will allow publishers to have greater control over the visibility of their websites in the online search results managed by artificial intelligence. In particular, publishers will have the option to exclude their content from AI Overview and will be able to prevent it from being used to train the AI. It's important to note that many users do not want AI-generated searches, and for this reason, alternative services are experiencing significant growth.

Such a choice could have a significant impact on the traffic generated from searches conducted through Google, and each publisher will need to decide what actions to take to best position themselves online. Disabling visibility in search results where AI is involved will lead to a complete drop in traffic from AI-based generative search functionalities.

Google clarifies, however, that the decision to block AI will not impact a website's ranking in traditional search results, which do not involve artificial intelligence. The situation will need to be monitored closely to understand how most publishers will behave and how online search will change (once again) with these new systems.