Google is now an LLM
Google has been quietly killing off organic SEO for years.
With the AI overviews and now the AI mode it’s clear that they are changing their business model to adapt to modern reality and new consumer habits.
Google’s roadmap is to become an LLM (= “AI assistant”) with ads.
The zero-click experience they’ve prepared for you will only let you click the ads and maybe a couple of the highest authority sources.
Most of the organic search will be buried deep in the AI answer wraps.
The organic search is getting wrapped in the AI mode Large Language Model assistant.
Rankings don’t cut it anymore.
You can’t just keep fighting for rankings anymore and think they are the ultimate KPI.
Even if you’re at #1,
even if your target market prefers to not use the AI mode,
being #1 means you’re under the
- AI overview,
- Google-native blocks like “shopping” and “sources across the web”
- “people also ask” block
- Reddit results, and so on.
The CTR has rebalanced drastically. It was a gradual process, but there was no way back.
Your main goal is now to have your brand come up in replies to AI answers.
Here’s how you work on that:
You still have time.
Don’t panic, you’re not late.
LLMs still don’t index live search and URL results instantly, there is a certain delay before the best online sources get into their training data:
SEO still matters for AI search because it builds an index of results that LLMs build upon while looking for answers:
It’s just that not everything gets included into the training data for AI answers.
Generic secondary content gets discarded right away.
There’s an opportunity for you right now, but the window is getting narrow because the industry direction is clear.
Embrace the change.
Just don’t try to swim upstream and stick to dinosaur SEO focused on rankings and filler content generation. Don’t try to narrow down even further to occupy the niches where organic results still matter — they will be gradually disappearing.
Some of the SEOs and agencies will try to mislead you by selling rankings and clicks.
Work with those who want to help you become an authority brand that’s used in LLM training data.
Want to future-proof your online presence? Let’s talk.
