Everyone is wrong about AI disrupting SEO.

Yes, SEO is about to get disrupted, but not in the way most people think.

A great backlash is coming — here’s what will happen and why 👇

Part 1 — Some context

Long before ChatGPT took AI mainstream, people were already losing faith in Google.

Google’s results increasingly felt like they were written entirely by robots, for robots.

We’ve all had the experience of searching for a simple pasta recipe, only to drudge through 10,000 words on “the history of tomatoes” just to get to a simple ingredients list.

So what did most people do in response to these lackluster Search results?

They kept using Google.

What other options were there? Bing!?  

But then, last year, the tides of Search began to change direction…  

Part 2 — A new era of Search begins in 2022.

Last year, nearly 40% of Gen Z replaced Google with TikTok for their search needs.  

Why?  

Aside from cringy haircuts and 2000s-era fashion, Gen Z is obsessed with three things:

1. Being “authentic.”

2. Turning everything into video content.

3. Breaking the outdated norms of the past.

In other words: Gen Z, like the rest of us, grew tired of Google’s robot-first search results.

The difference is: being young and not-yet-so-resistent to change, they actually did something about it.

They switched to TikTok.

Part 3 — As long as humans still exist, robot content will never win.

Why?

Simple: People hate communicating with robots.

Just think about how angry you get when you call your bank and are forced to talk to an automated multiple-choice robot.

What do you always scream into the phone?

“CONNECT ME TO A HUMAN!”

So what do you do in a world dominated by lifeless, robotic content?

Part 4 — Enter the least robotic content on Earth.

Short form vertical video.

What started with TikTok has now expanded to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

This candid, often selfie-style, mobile-first content feels like talking to a close friend on FaceTime.

No wonder Gen Z is turning to TikTok for its search needs!

But it isn’t just Gen Z: the average person now watches 19 hours of online video per week.

So what is Google doing in response to the rising popularity of video?

Part 5 — The evolution of Google.  

Google must adapt or die if it wants to maintain its monopoly on Search.  

This means giving more airtime to the most consumed medium on the internet: video.

Google’s first act of war: releasing YouTube shorts.

But it didn’t take long before Google realized they didn’t have to beat TikTok at its own game…

They just had to become better at helping users find TikTok content than TikTok itself.

If you haven’t seen Google’s new Search feature, do me a favor and take out your phone.

Now go to Google and try searching things like “viral hairstyle,” “easy makeup tutorial,” or “new dance trend.”

Notice something different about the search results as you scroll down?

Not only are YouTube videos often the first results to show up, but Google has also started including a “Short videos” section in its search results.

In some cases, this “short videos” section—containing TikToks and YouTube shorts—are among the first results to show up.

Part 6 — What does this mean for Google, AI, and the future of search?

It means that AI content may rank on Google… for now.

But it will eventually take its rightful place in the kingdom of Search:

Telling us, “what are the 5 ingredients in a 5-ingredient pasta?” without needing to scour a 10,000-word article.

It will never replace the true reason 90% of people use Google…

To search things like “what are the best restaurants in Austin?” or “Delicious homestyle pasta recipe,” or “what to do after a breakup.”

In other words, to ask questions that can only be answered by another human being…

... who has actually experienced human reality.  

In the meantime, many SEOs and content creators will get distracted by AI and take their eyes off the ball.

They will throw themselves at ChatGPT like a teenage girl at a Harry Styles concert.

Some will have big short-term wins.

Others will do irreparable damage to their websites and brands.

But most still cannot see the forest for the trees.

Which begs an important question:

Part 7 — Who will be the true winners of the next era of Search?

Those who open their eyes to a simple truth:

We live in a time when content is abundant.

For our ancestors, finding information was like finding water in the desert.

Today, finding information is like finding water in the ocean.

In an age of information saturation, our struggle is finding the RIGHT information.

And with ChatGPT letting any yokel with a MacBook produce content, we are destined to descend further into mass information overload.

So it’s true — AI does allow people to spin up dozens of SEO articles in mere hours.

But therein lies the problem:

As we now know, having too much information can be just as useless and paralyzing as not having any information at all.

And what does this mean for a platform like Google, whose survival is based on its ability to help users sift through the bad information to find the good?

On its ability to provide actually helpful information to solve its users' problems?

It means that AI content—and, in many cases, human content so robotic it might as well be AI— will be deprioritized.

And in its place will rise the only type of content people can actually trust in an era of mass-produced AI content:

Video.