Why Organic Search Is Declining For Site Owners

AI is changing how people search. In response Google is filtering AI Slop and prioritizing the organic (human made) content.

This is not new. But if you’re generating your brand’s content and marketing strategy solely with AI then you’ll take a hit. Organic content is dropping in results for many websites.

In this article Google’s Head of Search, Liz Reid, just revealed what’s actually happening to organic traffic.

source: https://searchengineland.com/liz-reid-google-ai-behavior-shift-463444

Liz said:

“We have to respond to who users want to hear from. We are in the business of both giving them high-quality information, but information that they seek out.”

Build brand recognition and trust. Being known matters more when users can’t distinguish between sources in AI responses.

“One of the things that’s always true about Google Search is that you make changes and there are winners and losers. That’s true on any ranking update. That doesn’t, in any way, discount what it means for those individual publishers that are losers.”

She goes on:

“But the other thing that’s going on is there’s a behavioral shift that is happening in conjunction with the move to AI, and that is a shift of who people are going to for a set of questions. And they are going to short-form video. They are going to forums. They are going to user-generated content a lot more than traditional sites. This is particularly true with younger users. They’re going to podcasts rather than reading a long article…”

Isn’t that interesting?

I got into podcasting because writing for me was enjoyable. But I found it easier to talk and record. I’m not a fan of podcasts myself. Ironic. I’m just saying that if you’re interested in knowing what I think about something. You can listen or read. But you’ll catch my tone better through our podcast.

It’s not high quality production and audio only. But works for us better than I expected.

AI is becoming more controversial as it gets better. Data centers are being built, but not 100% clear on how they’ll affect our neighbors they are built near. Or how they’ll solve their energy problems.

I digress.

The Crossroads We’re At

There’s a cross roads for what’s called “white collar jobs”. I’m convinced it’ll hurt. We’ll see more layoffs. But then people will realize. I’m a business owner. I’m not a marketing expert. I don’t have time to build a campaign to help sell my products. AI isn’t as time saving as I thought, and it’s not working as well to differentiate me from competition.

I’m just worried that by the time this epiphany comes around that it’ll be too late.

Revenue will be low and businesses won’t be able to afford the entry capital needed to break through a market economy that is already saturated by others.

Plainly. You’ll be so far behind on product development and cashflow that you can’t afford the services for marketing and advertising. As a result your product will be unmarketable.