Google just blew up the search box (and our traffic with it)

SEO
1

So Google announced something pretty wild at I/O, that they’re going to remove the traditional search results.

No more “here are the top ranking blog posts about XYZ”.

Starting next week, the search box is being replaced with what they’re calling an “intelligent search box.” You type your question, and instead of getting a list of websites to click through, Google just… answers you.

We’ve already seen this already, the thing is that it’s just going to be more of this then less moving forward.

AI Overviews already reportedly has 2.5 billion monthly users. And out of all those users, they’re actually not clicking through anymore (as much), so this new search box is going to make it 10x worse.

The folks who win this next chapter are the ones with their own audience and pivot to other channels - FB, Pinterest, email lists. That and make sure they build a brand, and not just a niche site.

So if you’ve been putting off building your email list or your Pinterest account… this is your sign. Don’t wait until your traffic falls off a cliff to start.

Exciting times. Scary times. Both at once.

Full article here: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/

Curious what y’all are doing to get ahead of this!

2 Likes
I decided to try RedditGrow ... here's what NOT to do :)
2

Hey Andy,

Well … this is a bit of a shocker, but not entirely unexpected. Google search has been moving in this direction for a while now, as we know.

Google-twists-the-knife
Google-twists-the-knife1536×1024 332 KB

One little clarification - the traditional blue links are not being retired. It’s more that ‘AI mode’ becomes the default search experience more often.

Regardless, there’s a genuine panic setting in amongst affiliate marketers and smaller publishers. We’ve all seen how the AI overviews have stolen our clicks … this move is only going to compound that problem.

Users do seem to be blindly trusting AI overviews more and more. Even when the models hallucinate, which I’m not sure is a great direction to be travelling in. Misinformation and inaccurate information is already everywhere online. I feel this will only amplify that problem.

I’d like to think that this will result in humans seeking out real human content more and more as the bots take over. If people start making important life decisions based on AI overviews and the info they based that decision on turns out to be wrong then Google quickly loses trust.

I actually think this could be the beginning of the end for Google.

Even if you manage to achieve that coveted position where the AI cites your content, the clicks still don’t arrive because the user already has their answer - which is often just a slightly reworded version of the content you worked so hard to create.

The symbiotic relationship between publishers and the biggest search engine on the planet is already broken and Google appears to be doubling down. What’s the point of publishing unique, original content when Google just hoovers it up, rewrites it slightly and regurgitates it in an overview?

Mass-produced AI spam content will increase as a result (ehem!) and as the AIs recycle all this junk, the overviews become less and less useful. Google could very well be shooting themselves in the foot with this move.

This is it Andy. Adapt or die. Building an email list is more important than ever. Local lead gen will probably ride this out. Reddit and other forums (DMC :slight_smile: ) will likely benefit because of the real human element.

But informational style “SEO blogs” have probably had their day … (does someone want to let Lyle and Charson know over at Wealthy Affiliate … ha ha ha)

It’s going to be very interesting watching how this plays out!

2 Likes
3

Something similar is happening on YouTube, with Google’s new conversational search layer. Called Ask YouTube, it pulls the answer out of your video and shows it to the viewer in a tidy comparison table. The pros, the cons, the verdict. They never need to press play!

3 Likes
4

Well… That’s good and bad. I think I would like that feature, but at the same time, Google is just profiting off of my hard work.

It’s sort of like a catch-22: I want Google to index my content so that I can rank, but at the same time, I don’t want them to share the info I created in an AI search result, so that the person doesn’t go through my site.

2 Likes
5

I’m almost more intrigued by this move!

It’s not enough to own the search engine and every publisher’s content (in effect) … they want to destroy the YouTube creator ecosystem as well … what the … ???

I think the YT ecosystem will be more resilient though. People love watching videos.

1 Like
6

It was a long time coming though, glad as ever that I still have Pinterest (although I lost traffic there too), and that I’m back on Facebook, not just for linking to my website, but to monetize the fb content ànd to get more subsrcribers to my newsletters.

Reddit is still on the agenda, but it is delicat. No spamming links in other subreddits of my niche, no AI for my niche, and only place links on my OWN subreddit or maybe sometimes on others who explicitly allow promotion on days like the weekends or on a Tuesday, for example. Being very careful with guidelines and rules, and no 10 posts a day all of a sudden. It’s the last thing that could work for me. Tried TikTok, have a small Instagram account and Threads, but these are not worth much.
hard times though!

Lizzy

2 Likes
7

Yes, but I’ve gotten to the point where I just have time to consume the entire video content. So if it’s how-to, or “learn this” type video, I’m going to be more inclined to just chat quickly with it, get the info that I need and then move on with my life. Things that are visual (like when I was learning how to hang drywall) would be something that I’d watch. But I think my whole ‘watch’ time would go down significantly.

Reddit is good, though the reason I think it’s good is because it’s community based/person-to-person. You go there because you just want to hear other people’s experiences (usually, among other things). That is partially why I actually created this forum, since I thought back in 2023 that community was the way to go, lol.

3 Likes
8

Hard times indeed Lizzy.

This does feel a bit like a seminal moment. Maybe I’m getting too emotional … lol

I’m looking at trying out RedditGrow … they’re a fairly new startup I found here. Looks interesting. I’ll keep you all posted :slight_smile:

This is a really good point! It could lay waste to vast swathes of ‘how-to’ type content … and review content too.

Wow!

“The Times They Are a-Changin’”

1 Like
9

Yeah, Youtube, I’m not demonitazid, but for a long time now, I do get the views rising and subscribers, but the engagment is gone. Its weird. So about 30 bucks per month for my whole channel isn’t worth it, I might as well get demonitized, wouldnt make much difference!
But even when a channel gets demonitezed, they STILL make money from you, because they keep ads on them. How the f*¨*k even, right?

So I am seeing people all over putting their videos in private, so that only who know the link, can watch them, so that youtube earns less money.

Also, the ‘subscribed to’ tab, or whatever it’s called, is now dissapearead, youtube just wants you to go back to their homepage with AI slob and not have you view the channels you liked, thus, you get less viewers yet again.

I wonder how google in the end is still going to make money with these 2 products.

2 Likes
10

Hmmmm … I think you could be on to something there :100:

3 Likes
11

is that from , whats his name lol, someone who automazid reddit? Aarrgh,what’s he called again? lol

1 Like
12

Lol!

Gotta pay the bonuses somehow :rofl:

2 Likes
13

Not sure Lizzy … there was the video game guy? I forget his name.

14

By the way, even if I do end up in the Serps and not in AI overview, it still happens, because some if it is still ‘AI proof’, for the time being. It can get me some WEIRD results. Like my blog post, with my own views and pictures and videos and such: Bot Verification (lol this forum makes a bot from my blog post lol ) , competes with this blog post in the serps : CraftsAndKits | Miniature Guides & Reviews , which is purely AI, look at those images! aaargggh

1 Like
15

Ha ha ha … it’s even got the Grok watermark bottom right :rofl:

1 Like
16

aaargggh lol, hideous!

1 Like
17

Pretty sure Google were supposed to have made the change this week just gone (on Tuesday) but I haven’t seen any significant changes in the SERP ‘experience’ yet.

Then again, most of the SERPs I monitor are already burying the ten blue links way down the page - sometimes 3 or 4 full-page scrolls before you get to ‘#1’ … lol

18

I mean, I don’t think I’ve gone through an actual Google link in several months now anyways, hahaha.

Though I did see that supposedly DuckDuckGo is getting more search traffic now, interestingly enough: https://cybernews.com/ai-news/duckduckgo-user-surge-google-ai-search-overhaul/

2 Likes
19

That is interesting. Especially if it is a backlash against the unstoppable march of an AI SERP!

A lot of people really don’t like the AI search experience. Now … if we could just figure out how to tap into that and build the next search engine that humans actually want to use.

Or maybe we’ll all just be asking AI agents to crawl the web for us.

1 Like
20

could be good news for small sites, if more people switch to DDG, but not hoping on it!

1 Like