# Your traffic is down, but your SEO isn't broken: Google's AI search in Australia > Rankings holding but clicks falling? Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are answering more questions directly. Here is what the data really shows, why local service businesses are less exposed than you might think, and what to measure instead. - Source: https://webdivine.agency/insights/google-ai-search-traffic-australia - Author: Fady Ilias, Director, Web Divine - Published: 2026-10-05 - Updated: 2026-10-07 --- A conversation we are having more and more with Australian business owners goes like this: our rankings look fine, Search Console says we are being seen as much as ever, but fewer people are clicking through to the website. Has something gone wrong with our SEO? Usually, no. What has changed is the search results page itself. Google now answers a growing share of questions directly, with AI-written summaries at the top of the page and a separate conversational AI Mode, and fewer people need to visit a website to get what they came for. That shift is real and it is not going away. But it affects some businesses far more than others, and for most local service businesses it is much less dramatic than the headlines suggest. *Checked against Google's own announcements and the studies cited below as at 6 October 2026.* ## What has changed in Australian search - **29 October 2024:** AI Overviews, the AI-written summaries above the normal results, launched across Australia. - **8 October 2025:** AI Mode arrived in Australia as a separate tab for longer, conversational questions by text, voice or image. Google said early users asked questions nearly three times longer than typical searches. - **Ads now appear in AI Overviews** in Australia, on mobile and desktop. - **January 2026:** Google made it possible on mobile to ask a follow-up question from an AI Overview, which opens AI Mode. - **May 2026:** Google said AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users worldwide. - **31 August 2026:** Search Console added a **Generative AI performance report** worldwide, showing how often your pages appear in AI features, plus a setting to opt your site out of AI features. Google still handles the overwhelming majority of Australian searches: around 94% in 2024 according to the ACCC, and close to 88% in September 2026 according to Statcounter. When Google's results page changes, Australian websites feel it. ## What the data says about clicks The most widely cited study comes from Pew Research Center, which tracked the real browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. ![When an AI summary appears, people click less: 15% clicked a result without a summary, 8% with one, and 1% clicked a link inside the summary](https://vtsswbfzioalwmcwkzbo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portfolio/blog-diagrams/ai-summary-clicks.jpg) When an AI summary appeared, people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there was no summary. Only 1% clicked a link inside the summary itself, and people were more likely to end their browsing session altogether. Industry studies point the same way. Ahrefs found that, across 300,000 informational keywords, the top-ranking page received about 58% fewer clicks when an AI Overview was present. Seer Interactive measured a 61% fall in organic click-through rate on queries showing an AI Overview between mid-2024 and late 2025, but also found that brands **cited inside** the AI Overview earned 35% more organic clicks than those that were not. Google disputes the gloomier readings. It says total organic clicks have been relatively stable year on year, and that the clicks it does send are higher quality, though it has not published data to support that. Australian examples are mostly from news publishers, several of whom have reported steep falls in referral traffic. The ABC also reported on local businesses hit hard, including a marketing consultancy that lost most of its referral traffic and an accounting firm whose organic traffic fell by a quarter. ## Why most local businesses are less exposed Here is the part that rarely makes the headlines. AI Overviews do not appear evenly across all searches. ![AI Overviews mostly appear on information-seeking searches: 21.4% of informational searches compared with 7.9% of local and 2.1% of transactional searches](https://vtsswbfzioalwmcwkzbo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portfolio/blog-diagrams/ai-overview-by-intent.jpg) In Ahrefs' analysis of 146 million results pages, AI Overviews appeared on about 21% of informational searches, but on only around 8% of local searches and 2% of transactional ones. The person asking "why is my hot water cold?" is likely to get an AI answer. The person searching "plumber near me" is still mostly shown a map pack, reviews and websites. Local research backs this up. A September 2026 BrightLocal study of more than 200,000 local searches found Google Maps listed the tracked business in 66% of searches, compared with 32 to 38% for AI tools, and that Google Business Profile was the single most-cited source in AI answers. A separate BrightLocal survey of US consumers found only 18% would contact a business based on an AI recommendation alone, and many who started with AI went on to check Google. So if most of your lost traffic was to blog posts answering general questions, that is the AI shift. If enquiries and calls are holding up, your SEO is very likely doing its job. ![AI answers increasingly sit between your customer and your website](https://webdivine.agency/images/insights/1706466614967-f4f14a3d9d08.jpg) ## How to tell what is happening to your site 1. **Compare impressions with clicks in Search Console.** Rising or steady impressions alongside falling clicks is the classic AI signature. Falling impressions is a different problem, possibly a ranking issue or an algorithm update such as [Google's September 2026 spam update](https://webdivine.agency/insights/google-september-2026-spam-update). 2. **Check the new Generative AI report** in Search Console. It shows impressions only (no clicks or queries), but it tells you which pages are appearing in AI features. 3. **Split branded from non-branded searches.** If searches for your business name are steady or growing, demand for you is intact even if general informational clicks fall. 4. **Look at which pages lost clicks.** Informational blog content is the most exposed. Service, location and contact pages usually hold up far better. 5. **Measure what actually matters:** enquiries, calls, bookings and sales. Google itself now encourages site owners to judge the full value of visits rather than raw click counts. ## What to do about it - **Track leads, not just sessions.** Set up proper conversion tracking for forms, calls and bookings, so you can see whether fewer visits actually means fewer customers. - **Treat your Google Business Profile as a second homepage.** Keep it complete and current, add real photos, and keep collecting reviews. It feeds both the map pack and AI answers. - **Publish what an AI cannot make up.** First-hand, specific content performs best: real projects, local pricing guidance, photos of your work, and answers drawn from actual customer questions. Generic articles are the content most easily replaced by an AI summary. - **Aim to be the source AI cites.** Clear, well-structured pages that answer questions directly are more likely to be referenced, and Seer's data suggests citations bring clicks. - **Use structured data honestly.** LocalBusiness, Service and FAQ markup help Google understand your pages, provided they match what is visible on the page. Google says there is no special optimisation needed for AI features beyond normal SEO best practice. - **Think twice before opting out.** Search Console's AI opt-out removes your site from AI answers without affecting normal rankings, but for most businesses being cited is better than being absent. ## Our take The businesses most affected by AI search are those whose websites mainly existed to answer general questions. The businesses least affected are the ones people search for when they are ready to act: a local clinic, a trusted tradie, a specialist firm, a store with the exact product they want. That is why our [SEO](https://webdivine.agency/services/seo) work focuses on the searches that lead to enquiries rather than vanity traffic, and if you would like a second opinion on your own Search Console data, we are happy to look at it with you. **Seeing fewer clicks and not sure why?** Start with our free [website health check](https://webdivine.agency/resources/website-health-check), or [talk to us](https://webdivine.agency/lets-talk). We will look at your Search Console data and tell you honestly whether it is AI search, an algorithm update or something on your site. ## Sources - [AI Overviews launch in Australia](https://blog.google/intl/en-au/company-news/outreach-initiatives/ai-overviews-australia/) and [AI Mode in Australia](https://blog.google/intl/en-au/products/explore-get-answers/ai-mode-in-australia/), Google Australia - [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features), Google Search Central - [Generative AI performance report](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16984139), Search Console Help - [Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/), Pew Research Center - [AI Overviews and clicks](https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/) and [what triggers AI Overviews](https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-triggers/), Ahrefs - [AI Overview impact on Google CTR](https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/aio-impact-on-google-ctr-september-2025-update), Seer Interactive - [Local AI visibility study](https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-ai-visibility-study/), BrightLocal - [How Australian businesses are adapting to AI in search](https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-10-15/how-business-adapt-google-pivot-ai-in-search/105867240), ABC News - [Search engine market share, Australia](https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/australia), Statcounter --- Web Divine is a web design and development studio in Melbourne, Australia. 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