Google Fixes AI Mode Traffic Bug

Google has resolved a tracking issue that affected its AI Mode feature, where website traffic was mistakenly labelled as “direct” instead of “organic” in analytics reports.

This bug led to some confusion among marketers and website owners, as it obscured the true source of their web traffic. Instead of seeing visits accurately attributed to search, the system categorised them as direct visits, making performance analysis more difficult.

The company has confirmed that this was a technical error on their end. Following the discovery, a fix was implemented to correct the reporting issue.

As of now, traffic coming from AI Mode is properly tracked and listed as organic in analytics tools. This correction should help businesses regain clarity on how users are reaching their websites through Google Search.

Google has now addressed a technical issue that was mislabelling traffic from its AI Mode search as “direct” rather than “organic” in Google Analytics.

The problem began the previous week when Google started including a specific piece of code—rel=”noopener noreferrer”—in links shown within AI Mode search results. This attribute unintentionally prevented Google Analytics from recognising that users were arriving from a Google search, leading to inaccurate traffic reporting.

The issue caught the attention of SEO professionals, including Aleyda Solis, the Founder of Orainti, who, along with others in the SEO community, confirmed that the bug has since been fixed.

Thanks to the correction, search traffic from AI Mode is once again being properly tracked as organic, restoring accuracy for website performance metrics.

Discovery of the Attribution Problem

Maga Sikora, an SEO director with a focus on AI-powered search, was the first to spot the issue. She alerted fellow marketers to the problem, noting that traffic from Google’s AI Mode was being incorrectly recorded as direct in Google Analytics.

She explained that this misattribution was due to Google adding a rel=’noopener noreferrer’ tag to the links. This meant the traffic source wasn’t being properly recognised as organic.

The noreferrer tag is commonly used to enhance security and privacy. However, in this particular situation, it had the unintended effect of preventing Google Analytics from accurately identifying where the traffic was coming from.

Google Acknowledges the Bug

John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google, responded promptly to concerns about the issue. He acknowledged that the mislabelling of traffic appeared to be an error on Google’s part.

Mueller commented that he believed the problem would be corrected, describing it as “a bug on our side”.

He also addressed the current absence of AI Mode data in Google Search Console. While it’s not yet available, Mueller confirmed that this information would be included shortly as part of the AI Mode rollout.

He further mentioned that Google was in the process of updating its documentation to reflect this upcoming change.

Rapid Resolution & Current Status

Your traffic data may have been affected for several days due to the recent tracking bug in Google’s AI Mode. If your website received traffic through AI Mode during that time, some of it might have been wrongly classified as “direct” instead of “organic”.

This type of mislabelling can have a few consequences. It could have thrown off your conversion tracking, influenced your budget decisions, and made your SEO performance appear weaker than it actually was. More importantly, it might have hidden the real impact that AI Mode traffic was having on your site.

What You Should Do Now

To stay on top of things, here’s a simple action plan:

Review recent traffic trends – Look closely at any unusual increases in direct traffic over the past week.
Record the incident – Make a note of the dates affected so you can refer back to them later.
Update your reports – If you manage client reports, consider adding a note to explain the tracking issue.
Get ready for AI Mode tracking – Start thinking about how you’ll measure and monitor this new source of traffic going forward.