SHOMEDIAUS news publishers saw a dramatic Google Search traffic spike on November 3, the day of the midterm elections. A Define Media Group analysis reported on November 5 found that 44 publishers received 44 million search clicks, roughly eight times their typical weekday volume.
Search Engine Land reported 711 million impressions, or 3.5 times the normal daily average. Click-through rate rose from 2.6% to 6.3%. The busiest period was between 8 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time, when polls closed and election results became available.
Shahzad Abbas's team examined 14 of the most-clicked election queries the following day. All returned Top Stories, and none displayed an AI Overview. Google also presented live election-result modules using Associated Press data for some searches.
The figures do not prove that removing AI Overviews increases publisher traffic eightfold. Election-related demand also rose sharply, while the structure of search results changed with the story. The researchers did not isolate the causal effect of AI Overviews from the increase in news-search demand.
For digital publishers, the finding highlights how breaking news differs from evergreen informational content. During major events, people need timely updates, verified facts and regional context. But results from 44 US general-news publishers should not be used as a direct traffic forecast for a specialist marketing or iGaming publication.
Editorial teams should separate breaking-news content from evergreen articles when reviewing Search Console. Track impressions, clicks, CTR, Top Stories visibility and the first hours after publication. That provides a more useful explanation of acquisition performance than a single monthly average.
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