What your customers Google before they book with you
Nobody wakes up and books a rafting trip. There’s a search journey that happens first, spread across days or weeks, bouncing between Google, review sites, maybe ChatGPT now, and your booking page is only the last stop. If it’s a stop at all.
That journey has changed since we first wrote about it. AI answers now sit on top of Google results for roughly 30% of travel-related searches. ChatGPT went from a novelty to the third most popular source of local business recommendations in a single year, jumping from 6% to 45% usage according to BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey. And nearly 60% of all Google searches end without anyone clicking a single link.
Your customers still search before they book. But where those searches happen, what they look like, and who answers them has shifted. Here’s what the journey looks like now and what content you need at each stage.
The idea stage hasn’t changed much
It starts the same way it always has. Someone sees a friend’s Instagram from a river trip. A coworker mentions fly fishing in Montana. A parent types “fun things to do near Yellowstone with kids” into Google while pretending to work.
These broad, dreamy searches are still mostly happening on Google. “Best kayaking in Bend Oregon.” “Summer adventure trips Colorado.” “Things to do Gatlinburg outdoors.” The person doesn’t know your company exists. They’re browsing.
The content that captures these searches is area-focused blog posts. “Best kayaking spots near Bend.” “Top family adventures in the New River Gorge.” Pages like these position you as the local authority before the visitor knows they need a guide.
Most outfitters skip this entirely. Their website starts at the trip page, which means they’re invisible for the whole inspiration phase. Someone else’s blog introduces the activity, someone else’s list ranks for the destination, and your potential customer discovers the idea through a competitor. You missed the cheapest chance to build trust.
The research stage is where AI showed up
Once someone decides they want to go kayaking in Bend or rafting in West Virginia, the searches get specific. “What to expect on a whitewater rafting trip.” “Is Class III safe for kids.” “What to wear fly fishing in July.” “How cold is the Deschutes River in summer.”
This stage got disrupted harder than any other in the past year.
Google now answers many of these questions directly with AI Overviews. A searcher types “is whitewater rafting safe for beginners” and gets a synthesized paragraph at the top of the page before any blue links. Studies from late 2025 show organic click-through rates dropped 61% on queries where AI Overviews appear. That’s a real number from Seer Interactive’s analysis, not a scare tactic.
But here’s what matters for you: AI Overviews pull their answers from pages that already rank well. If your site has a detailed page answering “Is Class III rafting safe for kids” with specifics about age requirements, life jacket sizing, and what guides do to keep families safe, Google’s AI will likely cite you. If you don’t have that page, it cites someone else.
The same logic applies to ChatGPT and Perplexity. When a traveler asks ChatGPT “what should I know before my first rafting trip,” it pulls from high-authority sources, review sites, and well-structured pages. Write trip guides that answer real questions with specific details. Not a brochure that says “join us for the adventure of a lifetime.” A page that says the water temperature is 55 degrees in June, your 10-year-old will wear a Type III PFD, and the whole trip takes about three hours including shuttle time.
The operator who answers the real questions gets cited by AI and gets the booking. The one who wrote “world-class adventure awaits” gets neither.
Comparison searches got pickier
They’ve decided on the activity and roughly where. Now they’re choosing who to go with. “Best rafting companies Moab.” “[Company name] reviews.” “How much does a guided fishing trip cost in Montana.” “[Company name] cancellation policy.”
Two things changed here.
First, review expectations inflated fast. BrightLocal’s 2026 data shows 31% of consumers now require a 4.5-star rating or higher before they’ll consider a business. That’s up from 17% just one year earlier. If you’re sitting at 4.2 stars with 40 reviews while your competitor has 4.7 with 200 reviews, you’re not even in the running for almost a third of potential customers.
Second, people are comparison-shopping on AI platforms. Someone types “best rafting outfitters near Royal Gorge Colorado” into ChatGPT, and it returns a list with descriptions pulled from review sites, your website, and your Google Business Profile. If your GBP is thin, your website doesn’t mention pricing, and your TripAdvisor page has cobwebs, you won’t make that list.
At this stage you need strong reviews and pricing transparency. Don’t make people hunt for what a half-day trip costs. A fishing guide in Bozeman charging $550 for a full-day float who lists that price clearly on the trip page will outperform the guide who says “call for pricing” every single time. People don’t call anymore. They move on to the next result.
The booking stage is leaking money
The final searches are the simplest. “[Company name] book online.” “Half-day rafting trip Buena Vista this Saturday.” “Kayak tour availability.”
If someone searches your company name plus “book” and can’t immediately complete a reservation on a fast, mobile-friendly page, you’re losing people who already decided to give you money. That sounds obvious. We’ve audited dozens of outdoor business websites and the same problems keep showing up. The booking flow takes six clicks. The page doesn’t load on a phone. The calendar shows availability from last season.
This is also where branded search matters. If someone Googles your business name and the first result is your TripAdvisor page instead of your own website, you’re sending a warm lead through a middleman who takes 20-25% of the booking. Your site should rank first for your own name. It almost always will if your SEO basics are in order, but check. Search your business name right now in an incognito window. If you don’t like what you see, fix it before peak season.
AI didn’t replace the search journey, it added a layer
The four stages still exist. People still dream, research, compare, and book. What changed is that AI answers now sit on top of stages two and three like a filter, giving some searchers what they need without clicking through to any website.
Gartner predicted traditional search volume would drop 25% by 2026 due to AI chatbots, and the data is trending that direction. Nearly 60% of Google searches already end without a click. On mobile, that number is closer to 77%.
If someone tells you SEO is dead because of this, they’re selling you something. The rules shifted, not the game.
AI Overviews only appear on about 7% of local queries. Your “rafting near me” and “book fishing guide Bozeman” searches are largely untouched. The queries getting eaten are informational ones, the same ones where your blog content lives. But those blog pages are also what AI pulls from when it generates answers. So the content still matters. It just works differently now.
Your trip guides and FAQ pages might generate fewer direct clicks than they did two years ago, but they’re feeding the AI systems that recommend businesses. A well-structured page about what to expect on your first rafting trip is now doing double duty: ranking in organic results and getting cited in AI answers.
What to do with all this
Look at the whole journey. A customer might search a dozen times over three weeks before booking a half-day trip with you. If your website only exists at the booking stage, you’re relying on every other search to somehow lead them your way. That’s a lot of hope and not much strategy.
The operators who own their search journey have content at every stage. Area guides for the dreamers. Detailed trip pages for the planners. Reviews and clear pricing for the comparison shoppers. A fast booking page for the people ready to pay.
Each page fills a gap. Each gap you leave open is a spot where a competitor steps in, or where a platform that takes 20-25% of the booking does it for you.
You already know what your customers ask before they book. You hear it on the phone, in emails, at the put-in. The only question is whether those answers live on your website where Google and ChatGPT and Perplexity can find them, or only in your head where nobody can.
Pick one stage where you’re weakest. Write one page this week that fills that gap. That’s how the journey starts working for you instead of against you.
