The Clickless Udaan: How Google’s AI Flew Off With Our Traffic, Leaving Indian Publishers at the Terminal

Taking the Q&A google did Google Search Central Live 2025 – Warszawa Google HUB. Thanks Galus for Capturing the same in detail.

Welcome to 2025, where the content is yours, the answer is Google’s, and the user… never leaves the departure gate.

Indian publishers have long mastered the art of survival from pageview farming during Bigg Boss, to cricket match live blogs written in advance, to auto-refreshing slideshows with 15 ads per click. But nothing prepared us for this:

AI Overviews — Google’s new trick where your headline flies, your byline floats, and your traffic crashes.

No “sponsored post,” no “next page,” no exit button. Just an elegant summary, machine-generated, using your content… with their branding… and no real click-through.

Swad anusar.

“You’ll Get More Impressions” – Google

Thank you, sir. Can I pay my Ad Ops team in impressions now?

Google’s big reveal (from their official spokesperson in the West Coast Googleplex who probably doesn’t know what RPM means in Dainik Bhaskar’s monetization dashboard) is this:

“Don’t worry. AI Overviews give you more visibility. You may not get clicks, but the clicks you do get are better.”

That’s like Zomato saying, “We won’t deliver your biryani anymore but imagine how tasty the next bite will be… when it eventually comes.”

Let’s Talk Business, Not Biryani

Here’s how this “Clickless Udaan” actually works:

• Google shows an AI-generated answer pulled from your website.
• User gets satisfied on Google itself.
• Your ad never loads.
• Your affiliate link never fires.
• Your AMP page gets lonely.
• Your editor blames SEO.
• Your CEO blames everyone.
• Your CMO asks, “Why is CTR zero but impressions 1 crore?”

Welcome to the new “visibility without value” economy.

“But the Conversions Are Higher” – Google (Again)

Yes, maybe someone who lands on your page through AI Overviews is super high-intent.
But for most Indian publishers – news, entertainment, cricket, astrology, Tollywood, tech reviews, beauty tips, politics, pani puri benefits – that’s not how it works.

We don’t sell shoes. We sell sessions. We monetize eyeballs. Our currency is clicks not hope.

You show our content. We show you the bounce rate. Fair deal?

India’s Digital Reality: You Can’t Do “Zero Clicks” on ₹0.25 – ₹3 RPM

Let’s get real.

• Indian traffic is volume-driven.
• Most publishers run on programmatic ad revenue.
• CPMs are low. Conversion rates lower.
• The entire model depends on millions of visits a day, not “a few qualified users” Google decides to send over.

When AI Overviews hijack the query and slap your answer right below the search bar your CMS might still show you impressions, but your finance team is looking at last rites for the next payroll cycle.

From No-Click to No-Publish?

This isn’t just about one traffic dip.

This is about a future where:

• Publishers are content donors to the Google machine
• Users never need to visit your site
• And Google sells ads on top of your hard work, while you get… “more visibility”

You are, in startup lingo, being open-sourced without consent.

Don’t Give Gyan, Give Revenue

So here’s the satya:

We earn money for every click you send — not for every answer you generate.

If Google wants to play AI god using our writing, reviews, ratings, and recipes, we need:

1. A share of the revenue – like YouTube’s partner model
2. The right to opt out – without being buried in rankings
3. Transparency – tell us how much traffic is being rerouted

Else, don’t call this progress. Call it what it is:

The Clickless Udaan.
Our stories flew. Our revenue didn’t.