Why a Malaysian SME website still matters in the age of AI

Does an SME website still matter when AI answers questions directly? Google says its AI features link only to pages it has indexed. So the SME website is still what AI search points to.

Clicks are falling, though. Pew Research Center found that users clicked a result link on 8 per cent of visits with an AI summary. Without one, they clicked on 15 per cent.

This article explains what AI search changes, what it does not, and what a small business can do. CJ.MY also designs websites for SMEs, so read it with that in mind.

What AI search changes for small businesses

Pew tracked the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. When an AI summary appeared, people clicked a link inside it on just 1 per cent of visits. Their browsing session also ended after the search page more often. That happened 26 per cent of the time with a summary, against 16 per cent without.

A 2026 working paper points the same way. Researchers at the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University ran an experiment with 1,065 US participants. Search Engine Journal reports that AI Overviews cut organic clicks by 38 per cent on queries where they appeared. The paper is not peer-reviewed.

Both studies use US data, and we found no Malaysian equivalent. Still, the pattern matters here. Pew also found that AI summaries appeared on 18 per cent of searches overall. Short searches of one or two words produced them only 8 per cent of the time.

So AI has not replaced search for every need. Longer, question-style searches trigger summaries far more often. Pew found that 53 per cent of searches of ten words or more produced one.

Why a website still earns its place

Google’s own guidance is direct. Google sets one condition for appearing as a supporting link. A page “must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet”. Google adds that there are no additional technical requirements.

Google also says clicks from AI Overviews are “higher quality”. It says users are more likely to spend more time on the site. However, the page gives no data to back that claim, so treat it with care.

The local picture has gaps. The Department of Statistics Malaysia says 74.4 per cent of establishments had a web presence in 2024. A year earlier, it was 72.7 per cent. That figure does not separate websites from social media pages, so it cannot show how many SMEs own a website.

The Khazanah Research Institute and MDEC reached a similar view in May. Their paper says adoption is widespread in areas such as online presence and digital payments. Yet it calls that adoption “broad but shallow”, with back-end processes still manual.

What your SME website needs to do

Google says there is no special AI optimisation to buy. Its guidance says you do not need new markup, AI text files or special schema. That matters if an agency pitches you “AI-ready” extras.

What Google does list is basic. Let its crawlers reach your pages, and link your pages together. Keep important content in text form, with quality images and video. Also keep your Business Profile and Merchant Center details up to date.

Google also asks for people-first content. Its checklist asks whether content shows first-hand expertise and whether readers leave with what they came for. For a small firm, that means plain facts about what you sell, where you are and how to reach you.

CJ.MY builds websites on these basics. You can now get one for RM1,500. That includes a free domain name, one year of hosting, free SSL and tech support. Message CJ.MY on WhatsApp to get started.