Google just changed the search game forever. My 6 predictions for the future of Search

Something big is about to happen.

Google Search is possibly facing its biggest evolution yet.

During its I/O Conference on May 10th, Google revealed what the new Search experience will look like.

Many people are underestimating how crucial the impending changes could be and how they might impact numerous businesses in many ways.

After extensive research and pondering, here are 6 predictions on what we might anticipate in the future of Search*:

*Note: I have not had access to the new experience yet. The following post is based on information shared by Google.

#1 The battle for attention

In the new experience, organic search results appear to be pushed far down in favour of curated AI results. And that’s is a big deal.

SEO experts have been swift to highlight the potential negative impact on organic click-through rate, and therefore, traffic.

Informational searches & long-tail queries that Google can answer automatically are now at risk (unless already ranking in top positions and being listed as a source in the AI answer).

I suspect some brands will lose some portion of their traffic as a result, and it will become harder to compete on the first page.

Improving the probability of a user choosing your listings through correct optimisation will become increasingly important to stand out in a crowded space.

Factors like having an optimised title, meta description, compelling thumbnail, and leveraging the right structured data could help maximise your visibility.

But the ultimate goal will now be to get featured in the AI answer.

How does Google choose its sources? That's unclear.

How does optimising for AI answers looks like? We don't know yet.

It won't likely be anything new but it will be interesting to see how much we can influence that.

If I had to guess, entity-based SEO and semantic experiments will be the new hot topics in SEO.

Many people rely on online traffic to generate revenue, and this single change could harm many businesses.

#2 The rise of editorial content

Google will now be answering most awareness and consideration queries with their AI responses.

However, we know this won't affect industries with sensitive content like finance, health, news, government sectors (YMYL queries = your money your life).

For other industries, traditional “SEO content” won’t be enough to maintain visibility in Search.?

Brands will need to expand the type of content they create, building a comprehensive resource hub in various formats to not only attract but also retain users on site.

Unique content like in-depths guides, videos, reports with unique data, interactive content, etc. will be crucial to keep users engaged. Leveraging blog content to showcase your expertise on a wide breadth and depth of topics related to your industry will reduce the chance of them leaving to find superior content elsewhere.

Authority signals will still be significant in determining popularity, and Social might become a growing ally with the possibility to have content featured in Google's new Perspectives.

Editorial content can be an excellent way for brands to gain coverage (and links, hello digi PR folks!) in national press and other relevant industry publications to help brands stand out.

Content strategies will need to evolve and incorporate the new AI-powered search features and will rely less on targeting keywords and more about building trusted brands online.

Brands that consistently showcase their expertise and authority through their content and those that build a strong community of advocates will stand out in search.

In a world filled with AI content, brands that prioritize high-quality, engaging, and useful content will maintain a competitive edge in Search.

#3 Entering the Dark Search era

(not to confuse with black hat SEO, which involves using unethical tactics to outplay Google)

Admittedly, this is a somewhat dark scenario, but bear with me...

With Google now providing comprehensive and useful answers directly in the search results, users won't need to click through to websites for their information, and their data won't be tracked as it used to be.

This makes it more difficult to attribute SEO activities to revenue because we're missing all the relevant data points to demonstrate it.

I would argue that the role SEO isn't primarily about driving sales (debate me in the comments!), but proving the value of SEO is already a tough job for most, and this change won't make it easier.

SEO professionals will need to rethink success metrics such as rankings and traffic to evaluate SEO efforts.

People will still request information and use keywords through prompts so it will be interesting to see how this will be incorporated in analytics tools.

There might be an increased focus on impressions as a new metric to measure SEO impact, especially as we don't yet know how ranking in AI answers is being tracked and reported.

SEOs will need to work even harder with brands to keep them informed and expand KPIs beyond the traditional list to maintain a shared understanding in the Dark Search era.

#4 Perspectives will struggle to gain momentum

The newly introduced feed, supposedly designed to attract a younger demographic and facilitate easier connections with content creators, is a direct competitor to TikTok and Reddit.

And it's not really attractive.

TikTok has been announcing many search updates recently (TikTok Ads, Shops and featured snippets for how to content) and is getting serious about getting a piece of the Search pie.

I question whether Gen Z will abandon their favorite social media platforms for Google’s Perspectives.

After the recent survey that Google itself released showing 40% of Gen Z preferred to use Instagram & TikTok as a search engine rather than Google, I'm not surprised Google launched this in an attempt to preserve market share.

I genuinely like the concept. I often search with +reddit, and the ease of connecting with authentic individuals in this AI-dominated world is refreshing, making the initiative quite appealing.

If the mobile experience is positive, having an aggregator of content creators could also be successful.

Time will tell!

#5 Google will lose ad revenue?

Google is likely to lose ad revenue.

In all the demonstrations I’ve seen, I haven't noticed any ads in AI answers.

Google’s business relies heavily on ad revenue ($162B in 2022 from Google Search), so it's almost inevitable that we'll see ads incorporated sooner rather than later.

But where? How? And how many?

It will probably take some time for Google and publishers to adapt, and I doubt they'll be able to maintain last year's revenue levels.

Paid search CTR may decline as people start to prefer AI or organic answers and content.

Google faces a tough challenge: sustaining Search revenue while competing with Microsoft, and introducing features that could potentially impact their business negatively, at least in the short term.

I anticipate a lot of updates and changes from Google to fine-tune their engine and maintain their search dominance in the face of the competition they're experiencing.

#6 Increased use of AI

This one is a no-brainer.

The SGE (Search Generative Experience) leverages artificial intelligence to personalize search results for each user. SEO professionals will need to understand how AI works and how to optimize websites and content accordingly.

Fortunately, SEOs have been familiar with the concept for over five years, as AI has been an integral part of search engines since the arrival of RankBrain in 2015.?

Understanding key disciplines within AI, including Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and other technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs) or Entities could make you a better-equipped marketer.

Google is heavily investing in AI with the introduction of the new GA4 and its predictive analytics capabilities. AI is also being integrated into Google Workspace with Duet AI, making apps much more efficient (and fun!) to use.

Knowing how to exploit this technology using the correct prompts will help unlock infinite knowledge and automate many tedious parts of the SEO process.

Unfortunately, with the rise in popularity of AI, we will likely also see a surge of poorly written AI-generated content, some of which may end up on page one.

Content farms will become the new link farms.

In an AI-dominated world, the human will become even more significant.

People will be looking for human expertise, trust and connections more than ever.

Brands that leverage AI to improve efficiency & output quality will have a competitive advantage over those who don't.

There you have it, 6 predictions that might be completely wrong:

#1 The organic traffic avalanche & the battle for attention

#2 The rise of editorial content

#3 Entering the Dark Search era

#4 Perspectives will struggle to gain momentum

#5 Google will lose ad revenue?

#6 Increased use of AI

The most crucial task right now is to stay informed, but ensure you're following the right sources and experts.

95% of the content you see online is regurgitated content from people with no experience on these new platforms and with little to no understanding of the fundamentals of artificial intelligence (nor search).

The new Search Generative Experience (SGE) Google showcased is still new for everyone.

Google has only released a first version to a limited number of users in the US. Google will be collecting feedback and making improvements before rolling it out in Australia, which is at least 4-6 weeks away.

SEO pros have yet to figure out the specifics of optimizing for AI answers, and users will need time to adapt to this new way of searching.

However, eventually (perhaps 2-3 years from now), we will all use AI daily.

It will be similar to the way it felt when the internet was first introduced. And we will never look back.

Luckily we are still in the early stages, so there is no need to panic!

But what is certain is whatever is coming has the potential to transform the way we search and will surely impact not just the SEO but the whole advertising industry.

Keep an eye on how both Google and Microsoft evolve through this AI revolution!

Fascinating times ahead.

Images: MidJourney (v5)

Sources: Supercharging Search with generative AI, Google Keynote (Google I/O ‘23), 100 things we announced at I/O 2023