Google Is Putting More Links in AI Answers. Here Is How to Catch the Clicks

On October 15, Google said it is putting more links inside AI Mode and AI Overviews, and showing them higher up in the answer more often, per Google's announcement and The Verge. In the same days, Ask Maps, the Gemini chat inside Google Maps, began appearing on the desktop version of Maps, per Jetstream and MEO Prime. And many ChatGPT links went out without their tracking tag from October 8 until a fix landed on October 15 and 16, per Profound and Search Engine Roundtable.

Here is the short answer. AI answers are starting to send people to websites on purpose. More people will ask Maps a full question instead of typing two words. And if your October website report shows ChatGPT visits falling off a cliff, that was mostly a tracking bug, not lost customers.

What happened, in order

Six facts from October.

1. ChatGPT links lost their tracking tag on October 8. ChatGPT normally adds a short tag, utm_source=chatgpt.com, to the links it shows. That tag is how Google Analytics knows a visitor came from ChatGPT. Starting October 8, many links in ChatGPT's new answer layout went out without it, so those visits could land in reports as Direct, per Profound and Search Engine Roundtable.
2. It got much worse before it got better. Profound tracks how many ChatGPT answers with cited links carry at least one tagged link. For about a day starting the evening of October 14, only about 1 in 10 did, per Profound and AnswerHalo.
3. It was a bug, and the tags are back. The Adobe analyst who first flagged the drop updated his post on October 15 to say it was a bug, per Search Engine Roundtable and AnswerHalo. OpenAI has made no public statement. By the morning of October 16, about 99 percent of answers with cited links carried a tagged link again, per Profound and AnswerHalo.
4. Google put more links into AI answers. On October 15, Google said AI Mode and AI Overviews now carry more inline links, meaning links built into the words of the answer, and that those links will show up higher in the answer more often, per Google and The Verge.
5. Google is testing a top section for official sites. When only one or two official pages can finish a task, Google will test showing those links in their own section at the top of the AI answer, with a line on why each one is useful, per Google and The Verge.
6. Ask Maps reached desktop. Ask Maps launched on Android and iPhone in the US and India on March 12, with desktop promised later, per Google's March post and MEO Prime. In mid October it started showing on desktop Google Maps, per Jetstream and MEO Prime, and Google Maps Help now has steps for using it on a computer. It is rolling out in stages, so not everyone sees it yet.

Why this matters for a trades shop

Start with the ChatGPT piece, because it can fool you. If you or someone on your team checks website traffic each month, October will look odd. ChatGPT visits may look like they dropped and Direct visits may look like they jumped. Profound's advice is to read those dates carefully and not change your plan on that one number. I agree. A homeowner who found you through ChatGPT and called you still called. The phone log and the booked jobs are the truth. The website report is a count with gaps in it.

The Google piece is the hopeful one. For two years the worry has been that AI answers keep people on Google and nobody clicks through. Now Google says it wants more clicks into the sources. It shared no click numbers, so whether people actually click is still open. But a link inside the answer is a better deal than no link. Whether that link is yours depends on whether your page answers the question better than the next shop's page.

The official sites test matters in a narrow way. Google built it for tasks where only one or two pages can do the job, and the example image Google shared was an airline refund, per The Verge. For most service searches, like "plumber near me," there is no single official page, there is a list of options. But when someone searches your business by name to book, pay or check your hours, your own site should be the obvious official page. If your booking page is buried, or the hours on your site differ from your Google profile, you give Google a reason to pick something else. That last part is my read, not something Google said.

Ask Maps on desktop matters because of how people ask. In the Maps search box, people type "electrician near me." In Ask Maps, they type a sentence. One of Google's own examples is "Is there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?" A homeowner version might be "Who can fix a breaker that keeps tripping, open Saturday, with good reviews?" To answer that, Maps has to read your hours, your services, your attributes and your reviews. A thin profile gives it little to work with. Google has not said how Ask Maps picks or orders the places it names, per Relevant Audience.

Desktop is worth a second look for trades. Bigger jobs, like a full repaint or a panel upgrade, often get researched at a desk in the evening, not on a phone in a parking lot. That is my read too, not a study.

What I would do now

One hour, five steps.

1. Mark October 8 to 16 in your website reports. If you use Google Analytics, add a note on those dates that says ChatGPT tracking broke. Anyone comparing October to September will need it.
2. Count calls, not just clicks. Ask every new caller how they found you, and write it down. If "I asked ChatGPT" or "Google's AI answer" shows up, you have your own numbers that no tracking bug can erase.
3. Fill in every field on your Google Business Profile. Hours, holiday hours, services, service area, attributes and photos. Ask Maps answers full sentences, and these fields are what it has to answer from.
4. Make one clear page per real question. Pick the three questions callers ask most, like whether you do same day service or which towns you cover. Answer each one on your site in plain words near the top of the page. That gives an AI answer something worth linking to.
5. Ask Maps about your own trade. Open Google Maps and type the question your best customer would ask. See who shows up and what it says about them, then check your profile against theirs. Ask more than one way and compare.

Related: AI Search Visibility for Small Business and How to Test Google Ads Conversion Tracking.

To be fair

None of this proves more customers. Google's October 15 post shared no click numbers. The official sites section is a test, and a test can change or disappear. Ask Maps on desktop has no announcement from Google behind it yet, only a help page and reports of it appearing, per MEO Prime. And Profound, which measured the ChatGPT bug, sells AI visibility tracking, so it has a stake in the story. Its figures line up with what Search Engine Roundtable and AnswerHalo reported, but they are still one company's sample.

My take

The direction is clear even if the numbers are not. Customers are asking AI tools full questions, and those tools point to a short list of sources. The shops that come out ahead will have a complete profile, a site that answers real questions, and a habit of asking callers how they found them. None of that needs new software. It needs an hour now and a few minutes each month after that.

Related: Google Opens Business Home, and Text Opt Out Rules Get a Date covers the next round of Google tests and the FCC deadline.