Google made $63 billion from Search. So why are you getting fewer clicks?

In the third quarter of 2026, Google's Search and other services generated $63.35 billion in revenue, marking a 12% increase compared to the same period in 2025. This equates to approximately $690 million per day. However, the money derived from these clicks is primarily from advertisers, while the clicks you are missing are the free ones.

When Google's AI Overview provides an answer to a user's query on the results page, people are less likely to click on the organic search results. Although ranking in Google's search results remains essential, being mentioned in AI's responses does not necessarily correlate with increased clicks.

To improve your site's performance in Google Search, focus on three key areas: answering real customer questions on your website, keeping your Google Business Profile up to date, and requesting reviews from satisfied customers. Google's Search revenue increased by 12% in Q3 2026, and Google reported a record query growth rate, the highest in five years. However, Google's search results do not include clicks to websites, making it difficult to directly correlate query growth with click-through rates.

Independent studies and experiments have found that the presence of AI Overviews in search results can significantly reduce the number of clicks on organic search results. A Pew Research Center study in March 2025 showed that when an AI summary appeared on a search results page, users were 8% more likely to click on an organic result compared to 15% when the AI summary was absent.

Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen conducted a randomized experiment with 1,065 US users and found that searches with an AI Overview resulted in 38% fewer clicks, while searches that ended without a click increased from 54% to 72%.

In your case, you can observe the impact of AI Overviews on your site's performance by monitoring your Google Search Console data. Compare your site's performance over the last three months with the previous three months, focusing on impressions, positions, and clicks. If you notice a decline in clicks while the impressions and positions remain stable, it is likely that AI Overviews are the cause.

Remember that AI Overviews may appear or disappear from search results daily, and a single check may not provide a complete picture of the situation. By monitoring your performance and staying informed about AI's role in search results, you can better understand and adapt to changes in your site's clicks.