Did you know Google Shifts Search Strategy, Prioritizing User Retention Over Website Traffic

 

Google’s former Search chief just confirmed that the company is taking a new approach from its classic model of sending users to websites.

A former Google executive described giving traffic to publisher sites as a ‘necessary evil,’ emphasizing Google’s priority of retaining users within its ecosystem. But don’t worry, the famous Google Search Bar isn’t going away, but its prominence may decline as voice and visual search gain traction.

For years, Google has stayed true to its focus of staying inside Google Properties and eliminating the need to click on external sites. One former Google senior executive shared with Bloomberg that putting out support for publishers was actually very incidental to the company’s bigger aims.

The executive didn’t hold back in adding how Google gives traffic to publishers, but the main thing they’re trying to do is make people consume its services. This way, there’s an urge to stay on the company’s page, which does not diminish the deal between Google and publishers.

We’ve already seen the CEO share how the tech giant is spending a lot of time thinking about traffic being sent out. However, lately Google has almost stopped sending more traffic to blogs and publishers, and there is a good reason for this.

AI Overviews are increasingly shaping Google Search, but rather than reducing searches, Google suggests they may drive more usage.

Google processes over 5 trillion searches yearly. However, in the U.S., only 360 clicks occur for every 1,000 searches. Google knows that search can never stay stagnant as it constantly evolves with time. Things begin to slow and then, with time, pick up the pace. A lot of the changes on Google are related to modern tech evolving, which was not the case before AI came into the picture.

Google’s generative AI offerings still come with disclaimers about the technology being in the experimental phase. Plenty of testing tools are up for grabs, and they keep getting better. Google is convinced that alongside other changes for Search, AI will have more people using Search than what was seen before.

Remember, many pages continue to lose traffic when Google shared AI Overviews last year in May. As time went on, the feature underwent an expansion, and people started to accept it. The company has been a great source of organic search traffic for the past 20 years. However, we must remember that rules continue to change.

Does this mean SEO is dead? The answer is no, but ancient SEO strategies and tactics will have to evolve while playbooks get rewritten.