Phil RisherPhlash Consulting · No. 1 Digital Marketing Consulting Company For $1m-10m Home Service Businesses 🚀

If your website traffic or leads dipped over the last few months, you’re not alone.

20 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this short monologue, Phil Risher warns home‑service business owners that a recent, unprecedented change to Google’s search homepage—shifting from a traditional list of ten blue links to an AI‑driven Gemini/AI mode—intentionally reduces external website traffic. He explains that the new interface prioritizes on‑platform recommendations rather than clicks, rendering decades‑old SEO and advertising playbooks obsolete for home‑service firms. Risher emphasizes that this trend will worsen, urging viewers to adapt by seeking a guide he has prepared, which can be received by commenting “video.”

Chapters

You may have noticed a drop in traffic or leads from your website over the last couple months, and it's not by accident. It's intentional by Google to keep traffic on their website. They made one huge change that is the biggest change they've ever made in 25 years because it's a change to their search homepage. You can see it right here. It used to say search on that button, and it used to go to the 10 blue links specifically for home service businesses. We had Google Local Service Ads, Google Search Ads, the GBPs, the websites. Now it goes to AI mode. It goes to Gemini. It goes to the interaction on their platform. And the goal now is not to be the click, it's to be the recommendation. And it's why the whole strategy, the whole playbook that we've been running for the past 20, 25 years is dust. It's gone. And it's only going to get worse and worse and worse. The new strategy, it's not to be the click, it's to be the recommendation. I made a whole video about how you need to prepare your home service business. If you want it, comment video and I'll send it over to you.