“Google Search is dead”, the panic misses who it actually hurts (probably not you).

Every few months a headline declares Google Search dead. Edward Sturm cut through the latest round with the nuance nobody's saying out loud: AI Overviews hurt some businesses badly, and barely touch others.

Who actually gets hurt

The data he cites is real: AI Overviews cut clicks by about 58% for informational queries. If your business lives on “what is X” traffic, that hurts. But Google itself pushed back on the death narrative, blue links aren't going away, and AI Mode isn't the default search experience.

Why a service business is largely fine

Here's the part that matters for you: Google's AI can't fulfill transactional intent. It can't fix your roof, hem your pants, or run your books. For those, it has to hand the user to a real business. Targeting commercial, “I'm ready to hire” searches doesn't just insulate you from the AI click-loss, it positions you to be the one the AI recommends. That's why we point clients at commercial intent and AI-search visibility, not vanity informational traffic. The panic is real for content farms. For a business that does actual work, it's an opportunity, and our SEO is built around it.

AI can answer a question. It can't do the job. That's where you win, and that's marketing made with love.