The Great Google Search Shakeup: Can It Adapt to the AI Age? - Part 1

“Google’s future appears increasingly uncertain. As the use of large language models (LLMs) grows, the internet audience continues to shrink. To make matters worse, Google seems to be ‘enshittifying’ its search engine with short-term revenue-driven changes.”

This statement by a developer of an adtech company in an online forum encapsulates a growing sentiment within the tech community about the future of traditional online search. ‘Enshittify’ – a colloquial term frequently used in tech and internet culture – describes the gradual degradation of a product or service.

Google Search has come a long way since its launch in 1998. Back then, it was a basic tool. Today, thanks to continuous improvements, innovative thinking, algorithm updates, and embracing new technologies, it's become a powerful and user-friendly tool. With the explosion of AI and the increasing use of LLMs, an interesting question arises: Will Google Search need to fundamentally change its approach to stay relevant? Will it have to become more AI-powered to compete?

In 2023, Google introduced generative AI features in its search engine to enhance information and context for users. This year, it launched ‘AI Overviews’ in the US, leveraging Gemini to provide AI-generated summaries and answers based on live search data. The company promised that “Google will do the googling for you”. Instead of listing web links, these overviews display a summary answer to users’ queries, condensing information from multiple sources.

But the Google Search AI Overviews has made news for giving bizarre and incorrect answers, such as:

• Advising users to eat one small rock per day or apply glue to pizza.
• Stating an unsafe cooking temperature for chicken.
• Perpetuating a myth about “blinker fluid”.
• Offering misleading fire safety advice for oil fires.
• Incorrectly claiming there are no African countries starting with “K”.

Additionally, some users have expressed worries that AI Overviews might be reusing content from websites without proper attribution.

Following these reports, Google scaled back the AI search tool. Liz Reid, Google’s Head of Search, blogged that the peculiar results “highlighted specific areas needing improvement”. She mentioned that these areas included the tool’s handling of “nonsensical queries and satirical content”.

Will Google wither under the AI wilt, relinquishing its 25 years of search dominance? Or will it be able to continue its dominance, reimagining and repacking for a brand-new AI era? Can Google effectively integrate AI while ensuring a quality user experience and a fair playing field for publishers?

In this three-party series, Adgully seeks answers to these questions, and more.

Impact on SEO

How will AI Overviews impact the SEO landscape?

Google’s algorithm changes and advancements in AI are set to significantly transform the SEO landscape, reckons Ranjit Thind, Director of Media and Tech, Asymmetrique. According to him, as algorithms become more sophisticated, traditional SEO tactics will need to evolve.

“Emphasis will likely shift towards creating high-quality, user-focused content rather than relying on keyword optimization and backlink strategies alone. Agencies will need to stay updated with these changes, ensuring that their strategies align with Google’s focus on delivering the most relevant and valuable content to users. The use of AI in search, such as Google’s BERT and MUM models, will further enhance the understanding of user intent, requiring more nuanced and contextually rich content,” says Thind.

He feels that small and independent online publishers might face both challenges and opportunities due to these changes. “On the one hand, algorithm updates could level the playing field by prioritizing quality over scale, giving smaller publishers a better chance to rank higher if they produce exceptional content. On the other hand, the complexity of staying ahead of these changes could be daunting for those without significant SEO resources. Agencies will play a crucial role in supporting these publishers by providing expertise and strategies tailored to maximize their visibility and reach within the new algorithmic framework,” he adds.

The visibility of high-quality content, according to Ranjit Thind, is expected to improve as Google continues to refine its algorithms and leverage AI to better discern content quality. “Google aims to surface content that is relevant as well as authoritative and trustworthy. This shift underscores the importance of creating content that meets high editorial standards, provides genuine value, and engages users effectively. Agencies will need to guide clients in producing such content, emphasizing comprehensive, well-researched, and user-centric material that aligns with Google’s quality criteria.”

For end-users, points out Ranjit Thind, these changes promise a more intuitive and satisfying search experience. “Google’s AI advancements are designed to understand and anticipate user needs more accurately, delivering results that are contextually relevant and high in quality. This means users are more likely to find exactly what they are looking for, faster and with fewer clicks. From an agency perspective, this reinforces the importance of focusing on user experience (UX) in all aspects of digital strategy, ensuring that the content we help create is not only discoverable but also highly engaging and useful to the target audience.”

In summary, he adds, Google’s algorithm changes and AI developments are poised to make the digital landscape more competitive and user-focused. Agencies must adapt by emphasizing high-quality content creation, supporting smaller publishers, and continually optimizing for an enhanced user experience to stay ahead in the evolving SEO environment.

Google’s AI Overviews represent an inflection point in the history of SEO, says Siddharth Devnani, Co-Founder & Director, SoCheers. “SEO has so far focused on optimizing websites to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs). With AI Overviews, the end game moves from merely ranking high to creating high-quality content that gets selected by Google’s AI to populate these snippets, and further leads to traffic on the website to see the entire content. This two-pronged approach demands expertise in content creation, as well as crafting compelling calls to action (CTAs) that entice users to visit your website despite having most of the answer available upfront on the search results page. A bunch of SEO strategies might move away from having traffic as the end game, to having content consumption as the end game,” says Devnani.

Regarding the impact on online publishers, especially small and independent ones, Devnani points out that Google’s core objectives always align with a high priority to user experience, in this case, even if this comes at the cost of publishers. Drop in traffic is already a reality. If the publisher looks at traffic via Google SEPRs as a key source of revenue, they need to diversify fast. Unfortunately, publishers, big and small, are dependent on it today.

According to him, the visibility of high-quality content is dependent on how well the AI tunes over time.

“Can Google really distinguish between high-quality content and low-quality content? Until now, Google’s search role was to direct users to answers on publishers’ pages. Now, it needs to understand the tone, sarcasm, real-world usability, and more in the content it provides. In my personal experience, it’s been okay so far, but inaccuracies remain an issue. I hope these get fixed over time,” adds Devnani.

The overall end-user experiences a mixed bag, says Sidharth Devnani. “But I see a future where question-answers or task requests merge with or even replace traditional search. The next generation might not experience having pages and pages of search results. What will this mean for the overall end-user experience?”

Right now, this is not easy to predict the impact on the SEO landscape because the AI Overviews change daily and Google has been dialing up and down the extent to which they appear, says Lily Ray, Vice President, SEO Strategy & Research, Amsive. “Google has told us they lead to more clicks for websites but we have no evidence or data to support this claim just yet. I imagine they’ll be a bit like featured snippets – in some cases they can drive more traffic to sites but I think in many cases, the user will get what they need from the AI Overview when it appears, and likely won’t need to click to further websites. Our industry will continue using as much data as possible to try to answer these questions more precisely,” says the New York-based SEO expert.

Regarding the impact on online publishers, especially small and independent ones, Ray says that right now AIO does not show for many topics, including news, but this will likely change over time. As Google scales up the visibility of the product, it is quite likely it will take away traffic from smaller publishers, especially those who focus on evergreen, informational topics.

Regarding AIO’s effect on the visibility of high-quality content, Ray says that this depends on the topic itself; regardless of how high-quality the content is, AI Overviews still present a risk of losing traffic if Google displays the answer to the question itself. However, high-quality pages are more likely to be cited within the overview, so this could potentially lead to more traffic for those sites, Ray adds.

“The overall end-user experience is also something we don’t know the answer to yet because the product continues to evolve. In the first weeks of its launch, there were significant UX and quality issues, but Google is obviously addressing those as quickly as possible. I believe the lack of in-line links often leads to a poor user experience, but for many queries, the AI Overview can provide a helpful response. So, it very much depends on the query, the answer, and whether and how Google chooses to show AIO,” Ray says.

The AI evolution is pushing SEO beyond just keywords to crafting quality, nuanced content experiences, says Russhabh R Thakkar, Founder and CEO, Frodoh World. As the algorithms get smarter at understanding context and intent, brands that are adept at weaving authentic narratives tailored to user journeys will gain visibility over those just checking boxes.

According to Thakkar, for independent voices, (online publishers, especially small and independent ones) this presents both challenges and opportunities. They’ll need to reinforce their unique editorial identities and niche expertise to stand out.

He adds that impactful long-form storytelling and nuanced analysis exploring issues in-depth could finally get the audience they deserve as AI models prioritize substance over fluff. “AI allows for more seamless, customized user journeys stitching together relevant content trails mapped to multi-dimensional interests and preferences. This enables a richer, more engaging experience for users seeking information,” he adds.

As the AI Overview evolves, mastering new strategies to make page content preferred by the AI Overview will become a priority for all SEO activities, says Darshil Shah, Director, ChtrSocial. “Smaller publishers and standalone blogs will find it increasingly tough to attain domain authority unless they understand how their content contributes to the AI Overview. Organic listings will be pushed further down the scroll on the SERP. Previously, being in the top ten was the goal, but now it’s the top three. While it is beneficial for users to get quick answers to their queries, this currently comes with the downside of inconsistencies, as the AI Overview often hallucinates and provides imperfect results. Over time, as these issues are resolved, users will find the AI Overview more reliable for their search queries,” Shah adds.

(Tomorrow in Part 2 of the report will focus on:

• The main objectives behind algorithm changes:Adgully will delve into the primary goals driving the changes to Google’s search algorithms.
• Ensuring fairness for small creators:The report will also explore how Google plans to implement AI updates that enhance the search experience without unfairly disadvantaging smaller, high-quality content creators.)