Google says AI answers are changing how search pays. Here's how to check what it means for your website.

What happened

On October 28, 2026, Alphabet reported its third-quarter results. Google Search and other revenue grew 12% to $63.35 billion, and Google said its year-over-year growth in search queries was the highest in five years.

On the earnings call the same day, Google's Chief Business Officer, Philipp Schindler, explained why search revenue grew more slowly than in the second quarter. He said currency exchange rates were the biggest reason, and added: "it's worth noting that the strong growth in AI Mode queries had an impact because of the lower monetization we were seeing in AI Mode." In plain terms, people are searching more in AI Mode, but Google is earning less per search there, for now. Google didn't say how much less.

Google's answer is more ads inside AI answers. Schindler said Google is "now scaling ads within both AI Overviews and AI Mode to more users and more queries," including international markets and "multiturn" ads in AI Mode in the U.S. CEO Sundar Pichai also said AI Mode searches are on average three times longer than traditional searches, and that Google is bringing agent features to Search to help people book reservations, fill in forms, schedule appointments and make purchases.

The other side of the story came on October 29, 2026, when Reddit reported its own results. CEO Steve Huffman said Reddit's search referral traffic "was down meaningfully in Q3," and that in October it dropped by more than 1 million referrals a week on average. His main explanation was Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Reddit's stock fell 29.22% on October 30, 2026, its worst day since going public, after a weaker-than-expected sales forecast.

Two things are worth keeping in mind:

This is one company's experience. Reddit is a huge site that relied heavily on Google traffic. Your site may see a different pattern.
Google sees it differently. Google's guidance for site owners says AI Overviews and AI Mode show links to a "wider and more diverse set" of sites, and that clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are "higher quality," meaning people tend to spend more time on the site. Google hasn't published numbers on how many clicks AI answers send.

Who it helps

Owners who get customers from Google: service businesses, local shops, clinics, contractors, professional firms and online stores.
Teams that publish guides, FAQs or blog posts to bring people in. These informational pages are the kind of content AI answers summarize.
Anyone running Google Ads, since ads are now spreading into AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Anyone being pitched "AI SEO" services, so you know what Google itself says is and isn't needed.

How to apply

Make sure you have Search Console (10 minutes). If you or your web person haven't verified your site in Google Search Console, do that first. It's free.
Open the generative AI performance report. Since August 31, 2026, every site can see a report of how often its pages appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date. Note that it counts appearances (impressions), not clicks. If you don't see the report, Google says your site may not have enough AI impressions yet, or it may be excluded from AI features in your settings.
Compare clicks, not just rankings. In the regular Performance report, compare the last three months with the same three months last year. Look for pages where impressions held steady but clicks dropped. That's the pattern you'd expect if AI answers are satisfying the search before people click.
Check the pages that bring in leads. Your service, pricing, location and contact pages matter more than blog traffic. Make sure each one plainly says what you do, where, and how to reach you, in text on the page (not only in images).
Keep your business info current. Google's guidance lists the basics: allow Google to crawl your site, link your important pages to each other, keep structured data matching what's on the page, and keep your Google Business Profile and Merchant Center details up to date. With Google adding booking and form-filling features to Search, accurate hours, services and booking links matter more.
Don't pay for magic files. Google says there are "no additional requirements" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that you don't need "new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup" for them. Be wary of anyone selling a special AI fix.
If you run Google Ads, watch the reports. As ads expand into AI Overviews and AI Mode, check where your ads appear and your cost per lead month to month, rather than assuming last year's results still hold.
Think before you opt out. Search Console also has a setting to keep your site out of Google's AI features. Google says sites that opt out "will not receive traffic or impressions" from those features, but it won't affect regular search rankings. For most businesses that want to be found, staying in is the safer default.

How CerpaMedia can help

If you'd rather not dig through Search Console yourself, we can do it with you. We'll set up or check Search Console, pull your AI and regular search reports, compare this year with last, and show you in plain language which pages are gaining or losing visits from Google. Then we fix the pages that matter most for leads and set up a simple monthly snapshot, so you see changes from Google before they show up in your sales. To talk it through, Book a call.