Google.com has become the second most-cited domain in Google’s AI Mode, according to a new report from Profound, an AI-visibility platform that sells tools for tracking brand presence in AI search.

The report shows citation share for google.com rose 8.4x between April 15 and June 30, with almost all of that increase going to two Google-hosted surfaces, Business Profile cards and Product Knowledge Panels.

What The Data Shows

Citation share indicates how frequently a domain appears as a citation in responses generated by AI Mode. Data shows that google.com moved to second place from April to June, mainly due to two subpaths: the one delivering Business Profiles and the other providing Product Knowledge Panels. The increase in citations for google.com is most notable in two types of queries: local searches and product searches.

For local searches, citations come from the Business Profile card, and analysis found five sectors that experienced the most change: hospitality and travel, home services, restaurants and dining, real estate, and healthcare. In product searches, the Product Knowledge Panel performs a similar function. Queries that compare products, check compatibility, or seek specifications often display the panel instead of a link to a retailer or brand website.

A Pattern SEJ Has Tracked

Google’s AI responses have consistently cited its own pages for over a year. In March, SE Ranking data, reported by SEJ, showed that Google made up 17% of 1.3 million citations in AI Mode, increasing to about 20% when including YouTube. Profound uses a similar citation-share metric, but analyzed different datasets and timeframes. Both found that Google properties frequently appear in AI Mode citations.

In May 2025, SEJ reported that 43% of AI Overview responses referenced Google’s own results, an earlier form of self-citation. These are recorded as google.com citations at the domain level, even if the card displays information about other businesses or products. The data indicates that growth mostly occurs in these two card types, rather than in links to Google’s organic results pages.

Product Panels And Google’s Checkout Plans

Profound sees the rise in Product Knowledge Panel citations as an initial indication of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, but it stops short of confirming that the panels in its dataset are UCP-enabled. Google describes UCP as an open standard allowing direct purchases across AI Mode and Gemini, with retailers acting as the Merchant of Record. The connection between the panels in the data and Google’s UCP buying process is Profound’s interpretation, not an official confirmation from Google.

Why This Matters

Citation share indicates what AI Mode links to, not where traffic goes. An increase in Google.com citations doesn’t necessarily mean a visit to your site was replaced. It shows that for local or product queries, AI Mode might cite a Google-hosted card with your hours, photos, reviews, or product details instead of your own page.

Looking Ahead

Much of what AI Mode cites for local and product queries is Google’s own properties, not independent websites. That squeezes publishers and brands the way every self-citation pattern does, the citation lands on Google’s own surface instead of an outside site. But these cards are a lever built from data you control, like your Business Profile for local results and product feed for shopping.

This makes optimizing for these queries more manageable than sitewide efforts, as you influence data inputs directly. However, it only secures presence in the cited card, which reflects citations, not subsequent clicks or sales.

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