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

Key takeaways

• Google's Search revenue is up 12%, and Google says query growth is the highest in five years. Its results do not mention clicks to websites at all.
• Two independent studies, one of them a randomised experiment, found people click ordinary results far less when an AI summary appears.
• On my site, one search had me ranked second without being cited, and another had me cited without being in the top eight.
• The same search can show an AI Overview one day and none the next, so one check tells you little.
• You need no special file or markup. Google says so itself. The basics decide it.

Play the reel Loads Instagram's player

How much did Google make from Search in Q3 2026?

From Alphabet's Q3 2026 earnings release, for the three months to 30 September 2026:

Search alone was about half of everything Alphabet earned. Cloud grew much faster, but Search is still about twice its size. In the same release, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai says the year-over-year query growth rate is the highest it has been in five years.

Why are clicks going down if Google is earning more?

Lately I keep hearing the same thing from business owners: "Why are my clicks going down?" I run BlackRevo, an SEO agency in Petaling Jaya, so I see why it feels strange. If Search is doing so well, should the websites in it not be doing well too?

They are two different things. That $63.35 billion line is advertising money. It tells you what businesses paid Google. It does not tell you how many people went on to a website without an advert. More searches can bring Google more money while each search sends fewer free visitors out.

Here is the part I find most useful. Search "click" in Alphabet's release and you get no result. Pichai's remarks on the earnings call talk about queries, AI Overviews and AI Mode, and say nothing about clicks or traffic to websites either. That does not prove clicks fell. It does mean these results cannot tell you they did not. Google reports what it earns, and your clicks are not part of that report.

Do AI Overviews really reduce clicks?

Yes, on the best evidence I could find, though not all of it is final and none of it is from Malaysia.

• Pew Research Center tracked 900 US adults in March 2025. They clicked a normal result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared and on 15% when none did. They clicked a link inside the summary on 1%.
• Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen ran a randomised experiment with 1,065 US users on desktop Chrome in early 2026, using an extension that hid AI Overviews for some of them. Organic clicks were 38% lower on searches with an AI Overview, as Search Engine Journal reports, and searches ending with no click rose from 54% to 72%. It is a working paper and has not been peer reviewed.

I could not find a study of Malaysian searches. So treat these as the direction, not as your number.

What does my own site show?

My site is small, which is the honest limit on everything below. In the 28 days to 28 October 2026, Google showed it 381 times and it got 16 clicks, according to my Search Console.

I also checked three searches by hand, in my own browser with Google set to Malaysia:

Three things stand out.

Rank and being mentioned are different. I was second and not visibly cited for one search. I was outside the top eight, and the next day off page 1, and still a source for another. So "being number one is not enough" is not just a line from my reel. I can see it on my own pages.

It changes daily. One search lost its AI Overview in a day and my post moved up. Perplexity did the same kind of thing with my study of Malaysian websites blocking AI crawlers, naming 9 of the 13 sites on 30 October and all 13 on 31 October. A single check tells you very little.

Being the source did not show up as visits. Search Console gives that post 23 impressions at an average position of 7 and no clicks, in data that ends two days before I saw the Overview. That is far too few to prove anything, so I am not claiming AI took those clicks. I will read it again as the data catches up.

How can you tell if AI is the reason your clicks fell?

Not every drop is AI. Before you blame it, take ten minutes in Google Search Console, under Performance, and compare the last 3 months with the 3 months before, page by page.

1. Impressions steady, position steady, clicks down. People still see you and click less. This is the pattern that fits AI answers.
2. Impressions down. Fewer people see you at all. Look at your rankings, your indexing and the season first.
3. Position down. Someone is beating you. This is ordinary SEO work.

Then search your top five customer questions yourself and note whether an AI Overview appears and who it names. Do it again next week, because of what I found above.

What should a small business in Malaysia do first?

These are the three things from my reel, with the reason for each.

1. Answer real customer questions on your website. Use the words customers use, and put the answer first. Google says there are no special requirements for AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. So make sure AI and Google can read your site, then write the answer they are looking for.
2. Keep your Google Business Profile updated. Google says complete and accurate information makes a business more likely to show in local results. Hours, address and category are cheap to fix.
3. Ask happy customers for reviews. On the same page, Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and that replying shows you value the feedback.

What you can skip: paying for a special AI file. I counted who reads mine, and the AI crawlers fetched it zero times in 30 days.

What this cannot tell you

Pew and the randomised experiment measure US users, and the experiment is desktop only. My hand checks were done while signed in, on a small site, over two days. Alphabet's release says nothing about individual websites. And your clicks may have fallen for a reason that has nothing to do with AI, which is why the Search Console check comes first.

FAQ

How much revenue did Google Search make in Q3 2026?

$63.35 billion for Google Search and other, up 12% from $56.57 billion a year earlier, according to Alphabet's release of 28 October 2026. Alphabet's total was $127.58 billion.

Does higher Google revenue mean websites are getting more traffic?

No. That revenue is what advertisers pay Google. Alphabet's release does not report clicks to websites, so it cannot tell you what happened to your traffic.

Do AI Overviews reduce clicks to websites?

The evidence says yes. Pew found 8% of visits with an AI summary led to a click on a normal result, against 15% without one. A randomised working paper found 38% fewer organic clicks. Both measured US users.

Is ranking number one on Google still worth it?

Yes, because a page must be indexed and eligible for Search before it can be used, and many searches still show no AI Overview. It is just no longer the whole job. I have ranked second without being cited.

Do I need special code or a special file to appear in AI Overviews?

No. Google says no special optimisation or structured data is needed. The page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.