SEO news: May 2025

1. Google launches AI Overviews for CZ and SK market

The first users in the Czech Republic and Slovakia noticed AI Overviews in search results on 11 May 2025 (see image below).

Official confirmation from Google came less than a week later, on May 20, during the annual Google I/O 2025 conference.

AI reports have been available in the US for over a year, so their arrival here was only a matter of time.

2. Will there be a drop in clicks?

What does this mean for us?

According to initial international research by Ahrefs, AI summaries can reduce click-through rates by up to 34.5%. Another study from Ahrefs shows that AI-generated overviews appear for up to 97.7% of informational queries, such as “how,” “what,” “why,” and similar question-based searches.

The biggest drop in click-through rates is thus threatened by websites that target informative queries. But that doesn't mean you can't get to the sources that AIOs cite. On the contrary.

3. AI Overviews grew the most in the science sector

According to Semrush data, between September 2024 and March 2025, the science sector experienced the largest increase in AI-generated summaries, rising by 22.27%. Scientific content is typically well-structured and well-supported, making it easier for AI to process and summarize effectively.

Right after science, topics related to health, society, law, and government ranked highly, which I find to be a rather surprising outcome. These fall under the so-called YMYL (Your Money Your Life) categories, where accuracy, timeliness, and trustworthiness of information are especially critical.

These topics are also vulnerable to the risk of misinformation.

The decline in traffic will depend not only on your industry type but also on user behavior in the Czech market. This behavior may - or may not - be more conservative than in other markets. It is now particularly important to carefully monitor and evaluate these differences.

How to become a resource for AI?

The basis remains the same. Create quality and comprehensive content that meets the principles of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Be an authority in your industry and build your brand.

Generative AI prefers well-structured content. Write concise, clear answers, use FAQs and clear bullet point or number lists.

Don't forget about technical SEO. The need to get the basics right still applies. To become a resource for AI, AI crawlers must have access to your site. Without that, you simply won't get into sourcing.

You don't have to worry about SEO changing dramatically. The principles remain, just a new level is added. Want to know more? Check out our article on AI in SEO.

4. Google launches AI Mode in the US

At Google I/O 2025, Google introduced a new feature called AI Mode. After testing in Google Labs, this mode has now become a core part of US search that users can switch to.

Google AI Mode uses Gemini 2.5 technology to deliver advanced AI capabilities, including logical reasoning and interactive conversation. Search results are completely AI-generated. Users can:

• ask follow-up questions and have a smooth dialogue with the AI,
• upload images and ask for visual content.

What does this mean for SEO?

Although Google provides links to sources in AI Mode, users may have less reason to click through to the original articles. This is because they get the answers straight away, including additional information. This makes it all the more important to address how to become one of the sources from which AI draws.

This mode is only available in the US for now, but testing in the European market is probably only a matter of time.

5. How Google assesses AI-Generated content

Google has confirmed that quality raters are assessing whether content was created using automation or AI. As a result, non-value-added generated content may now receive a lower rating.

It might seem like an automatic measure against AI, but that’s not necessarily the case. Pay particular attention to templated AI-generated content within various automation processes. Such texts often appear unnatural and easily recognizable.

For us, this makes a clear recommendation. Don't generate quantum of text (with or without AI) without human intervention. Quality, relevance and human oversight remain indispensable.

6. There are organic product snippets in ChatGPT

ChatGPT introduces a new feature that allows you to browse products from e-shops, compare their prices and ratings. It selects results based on relevance, not as paid ads. We are now testing this new feature extensively as it may affect the way we organically search and shop.

7. Model "ABC"

Previous leaks have shown that Google uses the so-called ABC model to rank sites. This relies on three basic signals:

• A - Anchor links: links from other sites help Google determine what queries the site is relevant for.
• B - Body of document: the content of the page itself must be of high quality and meet the user's intent.
• C - Clicks (Dwell time): user behaviour is also important. In particular, how much time a visitor spends on a page and whether they click on it at all.

Together, these factors form a metric referred to as T(thematic relevance). This is complemented by a Q(quality) rating, i.e. the overall quality and credibility of the site.

8. ChatGPT is among the top five most visited sites in the world

According to Similarweb data, ChatGPT is among the top five most visited websites in the world for the first time. In April 2025, it was visited by 4.7 billion users.

Google continues to dominate the rankings, recording 81.31 billion visits per month over the same period.

Resources used:

JARTYM, Pavel. Since yesterday, AI Overviews started to appear on some queries in Czech Google... [online]. LinkedIn, 2024-05-19 [cited 2025-05-21]. Dostupné z: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pavel-jartym60_od-v%C4%8Derej%C5%A1ka-se-na-n%C4%9Bkter%C3%A9-dotazy-v-%C4%8Desk%C3%A9m-activity-7327331174073122816-VCJa/

DZIUDA, Mateusz. AI Overviews in Google Search reduce clicks by 60% [Study]. [online]. Ahrefs Blog, 2024-05-15 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks/

DZIUDA, Mateusz. Insights from 56 million AI Overviews. [online]. Ahrefs Blog, 2024-05-20 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://ahrefs.com/blog/insights-from-56-million-ai-overviews/

SEMRUSH. SEMrush Study: Google's AI Overviews Appear in 16% of US Searches. [online]. SEMrush Blog, 2024-05-16 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://www.semrush.com/blog/semrush-ai-overviews-study/

SCHWARTZ, Barry. Google Adds Image Search To AI Mode. [online]. Search Engine Journal, 2024-05-14 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-adds-image-search-to-ai-mode/543802/

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BARRY, Greg. Google's quality raters told to consider if content is AI-generated. [online]. Search Engine Land, 2024-04-18 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://searchengineland.com/google-quality-raters-content-ai-generated-454161

BARRY, Greg. YouTube testing AI Overviews in search results. [online]. Search Engine Land, 2024-05-20 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://searchengineland.com/youtube-ai-overviews-search-results-test-454595

OPEN. Search and product discovery, reimagined. [online]. OpenAI, 2024-05-13 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://openai.com/chatgpt/search-product-discovery/

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ANADOLU AGENCY. ChatGPT becomes world's 5th most visited website. [online]. AA.com.tr, 2024-05-17 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/science-technology/chatgpt-becomes-worlds-5th-most-visited-website/3566346

OPEN. Improved shopping results from ChatGPT Search. [online]. OpenAI Help Center, 2024-05 [cited 2025-05-21]. Available from: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11128490-improved-shopping-results-from-chatgpt-search

NOVÁK, Jiří. ChatGPT is among the top 5 most visited websites in the world for the first time. [online]. LinkedIn, 2024-05-21 [cited 2025-05-21]. Dostupné z: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/novakjir_chatgpt-se-poprv%C3%A9-dostal-mezi-5-nejnav%C5%A1t%C4%9Bvovan%C4%9Bj%C5%A1%C3%ADch-activity-7330453478202372096-DWbX/

GOOGLE. AI Mode: Search like never before. [online]. Blog.google, 2025-05-14 [cited 2025-05-26]. Available from: https://blog.google/products/search/ai-mode-search/

GOOGLE. Discover the new AI Overviews in Search. [online]. Search.google, 2025 [cited 2025-05-26]. Available from: https://search.google/ways-to-search/ai-mode/GIZCHINA.Google AI Mode officially launched. [online]. gizchina.com, 2025-05-23 [cited 2025-05-26]. Available from: https://gizchina.cz/2025/05/23/google-ai-mode-oficialne-spusten/