Google’s AI Search Switch Leaves Indie Websites Unmoored

Google’s AI-generated search answers have reportedly not been good for independent websites.

Those answers, along with Google’s alterations to its search algorithm in support of them, have caused traffic to those websites to plunge, Bloomberg News reported Monday (April 7), citing interviews with 25 publishers and people working with them.

The changes, Bloomberg said, threaten a “delicate symbiotic relationship” between businesses and Google: they generate good content, and the tech giant sends them traffic.

According to the report, many publishers said they either need to shut down or revamp their distribution strategy. Experts this effort could ultimately reduce the quality of information Google can access for its search results and AI answers.

And those answers, the report added, can sometimes still contain inaccuracies, making them an inferior substitute for publishers’ content.

For example, Morgan McBride, who runs a DIY home improvement website, said that Google’s AI can offer up advice that’s unsafe or inaccurate, like recommending nonexistent products.

Google told Bloomberg that there was no evidence the launch of AI Overviews had hindered websites’ traffic, saying it was “misleading to make generalizations about the causes” of declining traffic “based on individual examples.”

A company spokesperson added that traffic can shift for a variety of reasons, such as seasonal demand, users’ interests and regular algorithmic updates to search.

As PYMNTS wrote last year, the shift toward AI search has caused observers to emphasize the urgency of  optimizing for AI algorithms and anticipating shifts in digital engagement to maintain a competitive edge.

“It’s important for businesses to think of more than just pure on-page SEO optimization,” Ben Poulton, founder of the SEO agency Intellar, told PYMNTS.

“AI overviews tend to try and showcase the whole experience. That means additional content, more FAQs answered, customer feedback addressed on the page, details about walking distance and return policies for brands with a brick-and-mortar, all need to be readily available, as that will give you the best shot of being featured,” Poulton said.

AI, that report added, is transforming how users search the web and shop online, making the experience more personalized and intuitive.

“AI-powered search goes beyond simple keyword matching and can interpret the meaning and context of a query to locate the most useful information,” Arsalan Vossough, CTO and co-founder of VinoVoss, an AI-driven wine search engine, told PYMNTS.