Ontario Restaurant Equipment Supplier
When the clicks stop growing and the citations do not
The situation
A three-showroom supplier with an online catalogue, serving restaurants, hotels, caterers and institutions. Classic SEO had plateaued at about 10,000 estimated organic visits a month.
What we did
- City and segment pages that answer the buyer’s actual question: restaurant supply by city, and deli, catering, cafeteria and banquet-hall supply by segment.
- The February 2026 structured data rollout and consistent entity descriptions across the catalogue and Business Profiles.
What moved
Keywords cited inside AI Overviews went from 4 in October 2025 to 51 in April 2026 and 63 in October 2026. The share of AI Overview answers citing the supplier rose from 3.0% to 4.0% between February and October 2026. Top-3 rankings rose 37%, from 127 to 174. Estimated organic traffic stayed flat at about 10,500 a month, and total ranking keywords fell 10% as catalogue pages were consolidated.
What we would do differently
Measure AI referral sessions from day one. The citations are visible in Semrush; the clicks they send are only visible in analytics once the channel exists.
When the click disappears, the citation is the visit.
Source: Semrush, Canadian database, monthly, as of October 15, 2026, Google only. Estimated visits are estimates. Leads come from client call tracking and Search Console. [Screenshots of the real AI answers naming this client go here.]
Written by Michael Landry, Founder and Head of AEO.