Author: Ryan Walsh
Date: 23/05/2025

Google is changing

Google is constantly changing and improving. Its algorithm, which runs search, undergoes hundreds of improvements per year. However, this article discusses something more crucial, significant, and potentially impactful, how Google works and how shoppers globally interact with it.

Google Search Bar and “AI mode”

So, in a nutshell, shoppers have been used to seeing your “10 blue links”- that’s the organic links, well, for what feels like eternity. Ever since the early days of Google, PageRank has powered the algorithm.

However, an AI mode now brings a different angle to SEO and the shopping experience. This means, rather than the user say “pogo-sticking” around finding what they want, it’s more conversational, more like chatting to a chatbot, and more customised, tailored responses.

The effect is that shoppers could well grow used to that. They may prefer a tailored answer, and the impact on SEO could be profound. More zero-click searches, less organic traffic to websites. Businesses then want to be seen as the source, the author of that work, so if a shopper wants to find out more, they can. However, we don’t know yet, well, are the same ranking factors that powered Google to date, links, etc, what’s their role in this new era of AI mode.

 

Google Gemini

You may well be familiar with Google Gemini? Well, if not, it’s a chatbot, an assistant, a helpful hand when you have any questions. For example, you could wonder how to make a homemade apple pie or question which career move would best suit you.
Google Gemini is like having a friend in your pocket, ready to help you anytime. However, this Gemini generative AI mode, offering more conversational responses, is now thought to be integrated into traditional search, giving the shoppers the option of AI mode.

 

What are the benefits of using Google’s AI mode?

Time saving

Our most precious asset is time.
We often wade through many pages with a traditional search to get the desired answer, whether that’s how to change the oil on our car or perhaps which firework display would be best at your 2025 wedding.

If the content marketing is good, the dwell time is high; often, Google moves the page up.

If the content marketing is sloppy, in terms of how it has been written, content-thin, or off topic, this will often be of little interest to a reader.

Therefore, the reader may just read the article for a few seconds, demonstrating to Google that the work is of little interest. (high bounce rate).

Globally, SEO agencies have become obsessed with user engagement metrics.

Low bounce rates and high dwell times were the golden tickets to moving up Google’s ranks. They are still important, however, with Google

AI Overviews, plus AI mode launching, the answers that Google offers are now different.

So, what do we mean by different?

Well, what we mean is, instead of a shopper, or someone who has a question, having to browse various pages to get the answer they want, perhaps to find that “needle in the haystack” just one paragraph in a long page of text, Google does the work for you.

It may blend sources and show an exact answer, saving time. In just a few lines of text, give you a precise answer, and present it in the SERP’s.

 

Google is moving from an information engine to a general intelligence engine.

This is a statement we read online from people who attended the Google I/O conference, which we find very interesting.
Google is an information engine.

Since Google PageRank, it has generated answers by indexing content marketing.

Good quality content marketing was indexed and ranked according to ranking factors.

Don’t get us wrong; this system hasn’t changed, and Google still uses traditional search powered by ranking factors.

However, AI mode is different; we are entering an era of “general intelligence”, it’s exciting, worrying and perplexing at the same time.

Exciting as Google’s Willow shows us how Quantum computing can move us forward. It even predicted how the universe was formed before being shut down.

Then we have AI mode, the rise of LLMs, large language models.

So, from an SEO consultant’s perspective, it’s worrying as to how we adapt to such changes.

It’s exciting because SEO is changing.

How the world’s population finds answers to questions is changing regarding how search engine results pages (SERPs) work and look to a shopper.

How marketing companies get shoppers onto websites to find and buy products seems to change. Everything’s changing is good; no one wants to stand still for long.

 

Query fan-out technique

Perhaps the most significant change to Google is this, the “query fan out technique”- so what is this?

Let’s say you were shopping for a new kettle using traditional 10 blue links (organic links on Google).

You may have searched “kitchen kettles” on Google.

However, now Google will become more like ChatGPT- more conversational, like you having an honest conversation with a real person. (If AI mode is used)

 

So, instead of a kitchen kettle, you may follow this up with:

– Which model kettle is the most energy efficient
– Then, well, is there any with a built-in water filter?
– Okay, so which one is BPA-free
And so, and so on.

This means search is changing, and shoppers’ buying habits may change. Instead of going for the first website, sorting by price, etc and buying, Google is now acting like their personal shopping assistant, providing much more exact product suggestions, based on the shopper asking perhaps more queries to refine the product selection down.

 

Google’s artificial intelligence- where do SEO consultants fit in?

Are we resigned to the scrap heap?

No.

Is SEO dead?

Nope.

So, how do we adapt in this era of general intelligence?

Information needs to come from somewhere.

Therefore, content marketing needs to be written; a human perspective is required.

Therefore, elevating content marketing is crucial, and so is quality. More than ever, it’s essential that the content marketing is the best it can be, and here’s the irony: we predict that the content marketing that will win is the human-written and crafted SEO that shows real expertise (Google E-EAT) in this era of AI.

So, stop using AI tools to write your content marketing. If there’s anything we can learn from the countless Google updates, lazy approaches to SEO always tend not to work.

Be the best at answering the question.

Google has always been excellent at precisely answering a query. Google Hummingbird, for example, allowed the search engine to understand better “search intent”.

 

Yet, AI will take things, well, to a different level.

For example, a “synthesised” or blended answer can be provided to a complex “search string” or a layman ‘s query.
Seen the advertisements of the person using Google Gemini?

The person adds too much sugar to a recipe; instead of throwing the ingredients in the bin, he asks Google for a suggestion on what he can do next.

Google recommends that he abort his previous cooking plans, making what we wanted, and instead make cookies, as this would be fine due to the amount of excess sugar added.

There, you have one neat example of how search is changing. Before, we may have just wanted Google to start giving us instructions on how to make sourdough bread, and we found a website and started cooking.

Well, when things don’t go to plan, we don’t have the ingredients, we don’t have a specific piece of equipment in the kitchen, or we add too much of something, Google knows our situation, and can advise (Google Gemini and AI mode).

We are therefore changing, evolving from an information retrieval engine to almost sentient, living general intelligence that is here to offer more personalised, more customised responses.

It’s time to evolve, evolve with us.

Who has the wealth of SEO knowledge in Cardiff that we have?

Very few.

Ryan Walsh manages us.

Ryan has 11 years of experience in SEO. Industry-leading publishers, such as Search Engine Land, have cited and linked articles. We are one of the best in the business, therefore if your business is looking for help in improving your company’s SEO, do not hesitate to contact us.