I can’t resist a bit of alliteration!
We’re all trying to work this out as we go and frankly, just keeping up with the pace of it all can be super challenging!
After the last post, something kept nagging at me. Something that didn’t quite sit right with the overall picture.
Then … it clicked (pun intended!).
I’d framed certain pages as “exposed” because they’re easy for Google to summarise. That’s true, but it’s also incomplete. Because here’s the nuance: some pages are easy to summarise and still valuable to Google.
That sounds contradictory until you look at what Google is actually trying to do.
So before moving on to what to change or fix, it helps to clear up one thing first. There’s a difference between pages that AI replaces and pages that AI borrows from.
Pages AI Can Fully Resolve on Its Own
These are the pages that tend to feel the most painful when you see your traffic drop.
If Google can answer the question cleanly and completely without sending the user anywhere else, it often will. It’s nothing personal. Just cold, hard machine efficiency.
Think of questions people ask when they’re in the middle of something, like some DIY task and checking a quick detail. How long does that undercoat take to dry, what size screw is best for the job, you get the idea. Once the answer is clear, the search journey is basically over.
If your page exists mainly to deliver that final answer, AI doesn’t need much help. It summarises, moves on, and the click never even comes close to the content you spent time perfecting.
That’s replacement.
Pages AI Summarises but Still Needs
This is where I realised I had to adjust my thinking.
Some pages are clean, clear, and easy to summarise, yet they still get referenced or cited. The difference is that they don’t end the journey. They support it.
Key difference.
If a topic involves trust, comparison, or real-world implications, Google still wants backing. That’s where pages with strong coverage still matter, even if the click-through rate changes.
Health guidance, financial rules, product trade-offs. These aren’t one-line answers, even when AI gives a summary. Google wants credible material underneath and that’s where your content can still play a role.
That’s borrowing, not replacing.
The Question That Helps You Tell the Difference
This is the filter I wish I’d used sooner.
Ask yourself: If Google summarised this page perfectly, would the user still need to click?
If the honest answer is no, the page is exposed. If the answer is yes, the page is likely supporting the result, even if the interaction looks different than it used to.
That one question can help you avoid rewriting pages that don’t need touching.
(if you’re unsure how to answer that question, paste the article into your favourite AI and ask it the question 
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Why This Distinction Matters Before You Act
Without this clarity, it’s easy to make the wrong moves.
And there remains a huge contradiction here …
The general advice for niche websites is still to identify a question, ask that question in the H1 and answer it fully, early on in the piece, ideally at the very top. But surely that means AI will just replace it.
Truth is, there’s no easy answers here and we can only test, analyse, refine and test again.
Top SEOs are really struggling to understand whether a page is being replaced or referenced and whether that changes how it is treated.
Before you even start thinking about fixing things, the challenge is deciding which pages deserve attention and which ones are doing their job quietly in the background.
We’ll really nail that down in the next post, moving from theory to taking action. Go ahead and post your questions or your own observations in the replies … we’ll do our best to make sense of it all for you 
Cheers! Rohan