Welcome to this week’s Pulse. The updates impact how you measure traffic from AI assistants, the impact structured data has on visibility, and how a major publisher plans for life after search.
Here you will find out what is important for you and your work.
Google Analytics adds a native AI Assistant channel
Google Analytics now assigns traffic from detected AI chatbots to a dedicated default AI Assistant channel group. Custom channel groups with regex patterns are no longer the only way to separate AI assistant visits from recommendations.
Important facts
Approved AI Assistant sessions now receive “ai-assistant” as the medium, are routed to a new default “AI Assistant” channel, and receive a reserved campaign label “(ai-assistant)”. Google cited ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude as examples, but has not published the full list of recognized referrers. All three changes occur automatically.
Why this is important
Anyone running a custom channel group to isolate AI chatbot traffic can now compare their setup to Google’s native version. The custom regex patterns that Google recommended last August still cover platforms outside of the recognized referrer list. Both can run next to each other.
The bigger question is what you do with the data once it’s visible. AI Assistant traffic is now a standalone line item in acquisition, user, and channel reports. This makes it easier to compare conversion behavior, session quality, and volume with organic search, without filters or manual workarounds.
Google hasn’t said how quickly it will expand its list of approved referrers as new platforms roll out. If you pursue AI assistants beyond the three examples mentioned, keep your custom groups.
What industry professionals say
Kevin Indig, growth consultant at Growth Memo, commented on LinkedIn:
“About time! I literally complained about it on stage yesterday.”
Johan Strand, Senior Digital Analyst and Partner at Ctrl Digital, wrote on LinkedIn:
“If you already have a custom channel group set up to check AI traffic, it’s probably a good idea to customize it now.”
Read our full coverage: Google Analytics adds AI Assistant as a default channel group
Google is finalizing the discontinuation of FAQ Rich search results
Google has discontinued FAQ Rich Search Results, completing a removal that began several years ago. The company added a note to its structured data FAQ documentation without a blog post or separate explanation.
Important facts
FAQ Rich search results will no longer appear in search results. Google will remove the FAQ search appearance filter in Search Console, the rich results report, and support for the rich results test in June. API support ends in August.
Why this is important
If your reporting pipelines pull FAQ-specific data from the API, these API calls must be updated before the August deadline.
Leaving the markup in place shouldn’t cause any problems, but it no longer produces this visible result. Whether the FAQ schema supports AI search is a separate question, and downvoting it doesn’t answer it.
Read our full coverage: Google is removing FAQs about rich results from search
Ahrefs report: Adding a schema did not increase AI citations
An Ahrefs report tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD schema and found no significant increase in AI citations in Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, or ChatGPT.
Important facts
Ahrefs compared each treated page against controls that never added a schema and measured changes over a 30-day period. AI overviews showed a 4.6% decrease compared to controls, while AI Mode (+2.4%) and ChatGPT (+2.2%) showed changes too small to be distinguished from noise.
Why this is important
The correlation between schema and AI citations is often cited as evidence that structured data improves AI visibility. Ahrefs tested whether the connection appeared to be causal and found no evidence of a meaningful increase, at least not for pages already cited. Websites with Schema also tend to invest in better content, stronger authority, and more links. These factors may explain the correlation better than the markup itself.
The report cannot say whether the scheme supports pages that are not yet visible to AI systems. That’s a different population that needs its own test. However, for pages that already receive citations, adding JSON-LD is probably not a solution.
What SEO experts say
Nectiv co-founder Chris Long wrote on LinkedIn:
“This data changes my perspective a little bit about how effectively it actually influences AI citations.”
Read our full coverage: Schema markup didn’t move AI citations in Ahrefs test
Condé Nast CEO: Plan as if search traffic is zero
Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast, said he told corporate teams to plan their stores as if search traffic was zero. Lynch made the comments in an interview on TBPN, a tech talk show that OpenAI acquired in April.
Important facts
Lynch described three consecutive years in which internal forecasts underestimated the actual decline in search traffic. He expects search to settle at a single-digit percentage of total traffic, not literally zero.
Lynch pointed to a “barbell effect,” where large, authoritative brands and small, niche publications do well, while brands in the middle are most exposed. Condé Nast’s digital subscription revenue grew 29% last year.
Why this is important
Lynch describes what third-party data has been showing for months. Chartbeat reported a 60% decline in search recommendations for small publishers in two years. The Reuters Institute found that media leaders expect search traffic to fall by more than 40% within three years. The difference is that a CEO who runs Vogue, The New Yorker and GQ now bases his budgets on those numbers.
It’s worth testing Barbell observation on your own customer portfolio or publishing operation. Lynch’s argument is that without deep category expertise or a strong niche focus, brands have no clear path forward. AI overviews, trading links, and sponsored results populate the page before organic listings appear.
What SEO experts say
Kevin Indig, growth consultant at Growth Memo, commented on LinkedIn:
“Makes sense, there is no way out for publishers at AEO.”
Read our full coverage: Condé Nast CEO: Plan as if search traffic is zero
Topic of the week: Measurement catches up with the problem
The tools and signals that have defined search visibility for years are being frowned upon, questioned or abandoned by the publishers who relied on them.
The rich search results for frequently asked questions have disappeared. The role of schema in AI citations is weaker than the suggested correlation. A major publisher believes search traffic will not recover. Each story is about an environment in which the old measurement infrastructure no longer fits the landscape.
The GA4 update is the other side of this coin. Google builds native tracking for the traffic source that is growing while the traditional source is shrinking.
AI assistant traffic is only a fraction of what search delivers. But it is now visible by default in the same reports alongside the channels it is measured against.
Top stories of the week:
Additional resources:
Featured Image: PeopleImages/Shutterstock; Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
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