Key Takeaways
- Google just had its strongest search growth in five years. Websites are still getting fewer clicks from it.
- AI Overviews now show up on over 80% of Google searches, so a lot of questions get answered before anyone reaches a website.
- Being in AI answers still pays off. When one site left Google’s AI features, its regular organic clicks dropped too.
- AI isn’t the only thing taking clicks. Paid ads and Google Shopping are taking a share as well.
- For local businesses, the action usually happens on the Google Business Profile: a call, a direction request or a message.
If you run a business in Calgary or Cochrane, your analytics might look a bit odd this fall. Your rankings haven’t moved. Your impressions in Search Console are up. So why are website visits flat?
Google gave a big part of the answer in late October. People are searching more than ever, and more of those searches now end on Google’s own pages. Your customers haven’t gone anywhere. They’re just making their choice in a different spot, and you can show up there too.
Google Has Never Been Busier
On its third-quarter earnings call, Google said search query growth is the highest it’s been in five years. It gave AI Mode a lot of the credit. Search revenue grew 12% to $63 billion. There was a catch. Google admitted that AI Mode searches earn less from ads right now. Search Engine Journal pointed out that the web is also seeing the lowest levels of referrals from Google.
Google also said where Search is going next. CEO Sundar Pichai talked about helping people get things done, like booking reservations, filling in forms, scheduling appointments and making purchases. If that’s where Search is headed, more tasks will start and finish on Google.
Where the Clicks Are Going
When a search doesn’t end on your website, the click usually goes to one of four places:
- AI answers. Google’s AI Overviews are now on over 80% of searches, and that number is still climbing.
- Paid ads. A Search Engine Land look at Similarweb data found U.S. organic visits fell 13.2% from August 2024 to August 2026. Paid search traffic grew over the same stretch.
- Google Shopping. One study found 57% of links in AI Mode product answers went to Google Shopping instead of a retailer’s own site.
- Maps and Business Profiles. For a local search, the answer is often a map and three businesses.
Search still works for small businesses. It’s just that more of the journey now happens right on Google’s results page.
Most Small Sites Held Their Ground
That same Search Engine Land piece had some good news. The typical small site was roughly flat over those two years (up 2.7% in the U.S.). A handful of sites made big gains and pulled the averages around.
The author also thinks ads take more clicks than people give them credit for. A lot of the drop blamed on AI Overviews may come from paid placements. AI tools still send only about one in every 200 website visits.
So we wouldn’t drop SEO or chase every new AI trick. We made that case in Why Chase a Moving Target? Show up wherever your customer is making a choice, and keep doing the basics well.
Should You Block Google’s AI Features?
Some owners ask us whether they should opt out of AI Overviews. One recent test says probably not.
SEO consultant Cyrus Shepard took a site out of AI Overviews and AI Mode using Google’s new controls. He estimated that AI impressions had been getting about a 0.9% click-through rate. Then came the surprise. Regular organic clicks dropped too while the site was out.
Shepard calls it a halo effect. The more places your brand shows up on a results page, the more likely someone clicks one of them. Greg Sterling of Near Media added that AI Overviews often build brand awareness that turns into later searches and clicks.
It was a small test, so we’d treat it as a hint. Still, it lines up with everything else we’ve seen this year. Every spot on the results page counts now, from the AI answer down to the blue links.
That’s the Visibility and Traffic pillar of the OWM framework at work. We covered how to measure it in How Calgary and Cochrane Businesses Earn Visibility in 2026.
What This Means for Local Businesses
Local searches act differently. Someone searching for a plumber or an accountant in Cochrane usually wants help soon, and they often act right on the Business Profile.
They tap to call. They ask for directions. They send a message. Your website might never see the visit, but you still get the customer.
So it’s good to check a few different numbers each month:
- Profile actions. Calls, direction requests, website clicks and messages from your Google Business Profile.
- Impressions next to clicks. If impressions are up and clicks are flat, you’re probably being seen in AI answers and map results.
- Leads over time. Look at calls, quotes and sales over a few months. Weekly traffic swings won’t tell you much.
If your rankings look fine but the phone’s gone quiet, check out Your Google Ranking Looks Fine. So Why Has the Phone Gone Quiet? It goes deeper on the local side. Our local SEO services are built around these same numbers.
The OWM View: Show Up Where People Decide
Optimized Web Marketing has three pillars, and each one has a job when clicks are scarce. Visibility and Traffic gets you into AI answers, the map and the organic results. Experience and Conversion turns that attention into calls. Data and Technology makes sure you’re counting calls and messages, and website visits too.
Google keeps more of the journey on its own pages every year. We think the businesses that grow will be the ones treating the whole results page as their storefront.
Next week we’ll look at why Google says solid foundations still beat shortcuts in AI search: Shortcuts Expire: Why Google Says Foundations Still Win in AI Search. After that, it’s your Google Business Profile’s turn: Your Google Business Profile Is Becoming Your Front Desk.
For most Calgary and Cochrane businesses, a local customer’s first move happens on your Google Business Profile. BlindDrop’s Google Business Profile Management keeps yours accurate, active and ready for every search, map view and AI answer, with a plain-language report each month. Book a free GBP check and we’ll show you what your profile is doing for you today.
About the author: Lucas Arnatt is the founder and CEO of BlindDrop Design Inc. He started designing websites in Calgary in 1998 and founded BlindDrop in Calgary in 2001, settling back in his hometown of Cochrane in 2003. In 2025, he created the Optimized Web Marketing (OWM) framework that guides all of BlindDrop’s web, SEO and local search work.
