Media

Report: 60% of UK News Sites See Google Search Visibility Drop in 2025

Published OCT 9 2025

Story

Above: Copies of The Guardian newspaper displayed at a newspaper stand in Bath, England, on Nov. 12, 2024. Image credit: Anna Barclay/Getty Images

The Facts

According to a report by the Press Gazette, roughly 60% of the U.K.'s most prominent news websites have experienced a drop in their visibility in Google search results so far in 2025, with 42 of 73 sites showing lower visibility compared to 10 months ago. The findings are based on data from Sistrix’s Visibility Index.
Press Gazette
SISTRIX
The Guardian maintained the highest search visibility score at 223.76 as of Monday despite a 10% overall drop since Dec. 30, 2024, while GB News saw the steepest decline, falling 75% from 4.7 to 1.1 on the index.
Press Gazette
SISTRIX
Google's June 2025 Core Update — rolled out between June 30 and July 17 — represented one of the larger core updates seen in recent years and affected website visibility across multiple sectors.
Search Engine Land
SISTRIX
Exposure Ninja
Between March and June, analysis by Enders found that the likelihood of publisher keywords triggering an AI Overview increased by 3.5 times, with some outlets seeing over one-third of their keywords now generating AI summaries.
Enders Analysis
Press Gazette
These developments build on a longer-term decline as major U.K. publishers including The Mirror, Daily Mail, The Sun, Financial Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian have reportedly seen visibility drops of up to 80% since 2019, with the trend said to be accelerating since April.
Enders Analysis
Prolificnorth
Press Gazette
"Zero-click" searches — when users find answers directly without visiting a website — have also grown from 56% to 69% since Google AI Overviews launched a year ago, with over a third of Google searches in Australia, for example, now resulting in AI-generated summaries that reduce website click-through rates.
Exposure Ninja
ABC News

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

Google is systematically destroying the news industry by stealing journalists' work to power AI Overviews that devastate website traffic and revenue. The tech giant deliberately chose to force publishers into this exploitative system, knowing it would harm their business while boosting Google's own profits. With 60% of U.K. news sites losing search visibility and clickthrough rates plummeting by over 50%, this monopolistic abuse threatens press freedom itself.

Press Gazette

Android Headlines

Pro-establishment narrative

Google's AI Overviews represent a revolutionary leap forward that's transforming search into something far more intelligent and useful. Users are absolutely loving these AI-powered responses, with satisfaction rates soaring and search usage jumping over 10% in major markets. The technology delivers lightning-fast, comprehensive answers while still providing helpful links to websites, creating a win-win scenario for everyone involved.