In this article I will explain how the KI search tracking is set up in Google Analytics 4 to display the difference between AI search traffic compared to Google Search and the organic search as a whole. I will also explain how ignoring Google search can lead to a decline in quality, which can lead to problems with Google’s broad core updates (since core updates can affect all areas of Google, including AI overviews and AI mode).
The AI search is here, it grows and you cannot miss an article after the article about the death of SEO, organic search, Google search traffic, etc. It is a little out of control at the moment. Safe, AI search traffic from tools such as chatt, confusion, confusion, gemini, etc., will continue to grow, but if you look at the actual data, organic search (and especially Google search).
Although this has been documented, I think that many people either believe something else or concentrate on AI search at short notice (and ignore Google). I think this is a big mistake and wanted to quickly cover the differences in traffic now and the long -term risks associated with Google’s ignition.
And if you are new to my blog, I reported two years ago how the AI search will lead to Jarvis at some point-a personal AI assistant who knows everything about you, your preferences, dislikes, your health, your trips and much more and can give you tailor-made recommendations for you in real time. Jarvis will be surrounding, see what you see, experience what you experience and will always try to help. But … we are not there yet and site owners should not ignore important channels at short notice.
A current AI search with an IT manager:
I was at a party last weekend and had a conversation with an IT manager on the subject of AI search, the future of Google search, the great decoupling of clicks and impressions and much more. I could see that he had read some articles about the search, but he wasn’t too close what was going on in front of the field. His view was a bit extreme, strong ‘doom and darkness’ and without data to secure it. It was a great conversation, but I had the feeling that he was not completely informed about how most websites received traffic (and how much of every source).
About ten minutes after the conversation, I asked how much traffic he believed that the AI search now led to websites in June 2025. For example, combined traffic of chatt, confusion, gemini, Claude etc. He took a few seconds and came with “30-40%?” I immediately explained that it was. Less than 1%And for many websites I actually have access to that under 0.5%. He was surprised and said: “Well, maybe things in the news were a little exaggerated …”
You can say that again!
After this conversation, I thought that it would be helpful for site owners and marketers to ensure that she would go to her own websites in June 2025. And in addition, they understand how this compared to the Google and the organic search as a whole. Then ensure that you do not ignore important sources of traffic (which is for many Google Search).
The risk of ignoring Google could affect the ranking of search functions such as AIOS, the 10-blue links, the equipped excerpts, the image search, video mode, Google messages, the discovery and even AI mode (which is the future of the search for Google). I’ll cover more about it soon.
Persecution of the AI search in GA4, tiny numbers and a large SEO risk:
The conversation that I treated earlier and some others I liked led me to set up better GA4 tracking for the KI search via even more websites. In the end I found one Excellent tutorial by Dana Ditomaso This explains step by step how to set up a custom channel group for the AI search. After the setup, it was easy to compare the AI search channel with other key channels for your website. In addition, Dana explains how to quickly set up a custom report that shows the traffic and the trend from the channel as a whole, but also from every AI search tool such as chatt, confusion, gemini, etc.
Here is Danas tutorial:
And the more I checked, the more I saw tiny numbers (under 1% with many under 0.5%). Here, too, I know that the AI search traffic will grow, and I do not say that looking for AI is not important, but I think that site owners take the risk of missing the forest for the trees by currently concentrating on AI search and ignoring the Google search. And maybe not just the ignoring of Google Search, but the implementation of tactics that SEO (and even difficult) could actually harm. I will come back on it later in the post.
At the moment you will find various websites about industries and sizes. In the following you can see data traffic from the AI search compared to other channels. I think you will make the picture very quickly. And it fits a Recent study This explained the AI search less than 1% of traffic on most websites on the Internet (at least now).
In the following you will first see the traffic volume per channel. The AI search is a very small percentage at every location.
Location 1: B2C
Ki search trend (up, but still a small piece of traffic):
Organic search trend (the top driver for the website):
Site 2: News publisher (niche)
AI search trend (again, but still a very small percentage of traffic):
Organic search trend (the leading traffic driver for the website):
Location 3: Health/Medicine
AI search trend (not really like the others and still a small percentage of traffic for the website):
Google Organic Search Trending (the vast majority of traffic for the website):
Location 4: And finally how about a smaller side that focuses on a niche vertical?
AI search trend (up, but a very small percentage of overall traffic):
Organic search trend (stable and the largest traffic driver on the website):
As you can see on websites and vertical, the AI search in June 2025 is a tiny data traffic. Yes, it will grow, but Google search and the organic search as a whole is a large part of the traffic for most websites. I will cover the risk of ignoring this next.
Ignore Google search at your own risk: Broad Core updates can affect the entire search, including AIOS, AI mode and much more:
I like to write a contribution that deals with this topic more precisely, but I wanted to cover it quickly at first. Due to AI overviews (and soon KI mode), a lot is talked about the great decoupling and the drop in traffic for websites. The fact is, however, that Google still drives the greatest traffic on websites by a mile. If the site owners concentrate on the AI search and ignoring Google, potential problems can be related to quality.
Incidentally, a strong and balanced SEO strategy should have covered a lot of what you need for the AI search. Edge wrote a great article recently. And Lily Ray followed yesterday with one Great own contribution If you discuss why the rise in AI search does not mean SEO’s death. She also treats why the recommendations she sees for the AI search are exactly what many SEOs have recommended for years.
Here is a great section from Lily’s Post:
Afterwards, based on the articles that were written about the AI search, as you can manage in LLMS etc., some site owners may completely change their content. Some may use content with AI-generated to close gaps based on LLM visibility tracking tools. And for websites that are on the road and ignore Google, they introduce the risk of penetrating quality problems. If this happens over time, you will be susceptible to affect you by a wide core update across the board.
In this case, AI overviews can be influenced, rankings in the 10-blue links can be influenced, can be affected that can be grounded, the image and video search can be influenced. All of these are search functions that can be influenced by large algorithm updates such as broad core updates. And if you ask yourself whether AI overviews and the AI mode can actually be influenced by broad core updates, the answer is. Google confirmed that Aios can be affected After shaping it last year.
And for the AI mode Google, Google also explained This AI mode is based in its core quality and ranking systems. Yes, core updates can affect the results of the AI mode. Google’s fan -out approach in AI mode triggers several queries, so that the results for the queries that the AI mode is called up are absolutely influenced by core updates.
In this way, location owners can follow in LLMS rankings and now ignore the top driver of the traffic. In this case, Site owners may want to complain again for these ranking lists in AIOS or AI mode.
Set up the AI search tracking and refer to your own GA4 data to see what I am talking about.
And if you are affected by a wide core update, you may have renovation work for months to improve the “quality”, and then Google must be in the long term. Only then and normally do you have a chance of recovery during a subsequent broad core update. So you can enter the 10 blue links, Aios, selected snippets, image search, video mode, top stories, Google messages, discover and even AI mode if this is done.
Unfortunately, I have the feeling that we will see this with websites that ignore the Google search at short notice and instead implement unproven tactics, in the hope of improving visibility in AI search such as chatt, confusion, gemini, copilot and more. And again, again Read Rands Post And Lily’s post about how your SEO strategy should already cover the AI search.
The AI search is growing, but Google search is still incredibly important for traffic and income -at least until Jarvis arrives.
In the future, I strongly recommend that I set up the GA4 tracking for the KI search, to look at the amount of data traffic from the AI search and to compare this with other traffic sources such as Google search and organic search as a whole. Then make sure that you do not miss the forest for the trees by excessively concentrating on AI search on other important sources of traffic such as Google. Remember that switching on quality problems can cost the site owners expensive if broad core updates are committed.
By the way, definitely ping it on social media or send me an e -mail as soon as you have set up the GA4 tracking for the AI search. Most websites that I check are below 1% below 1.5% below 1% when searching for AI. I would like to hear what you see!
Gg