Polish businesses have watched Allegro quietly dominate one product category after another in Google.pl search. But the bigger disruption isn't marketplace competition - it's AI. Today AI generates content from human-authored sources. At the current pace, it will soon be generating content from previously AI-generated content. The share of genuine human writing in the training pool will become negligibly small. What does that lead to?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, colleagues!
Think About It: Google Creates Content and Controls Its Own Search Results Based on That Same Content
Google could essentially close the loop - both creating the content and determining what to show in search results based on what it created. We'd be irrelevant to the process. I think Google's architects understand this and are trying to preserve some degree of human influence on content creation and on what gets ranked. Digital watermarks - which everyone knows about - plus signals of human-authored content are probably being factored into the algorithms. But this is highly debatable and nobody really knows how it should work.
When I search for something complex, I can tell the answer was assembled from multiple sources - still human-created ones - and the answer is actually pretty good. But in a year or two, when there are millions of AI-generated variations and plenty of junk, what guarantees the answer won't be pulled from garbage? And Google itself killed the incentive to create that source content - humans stopped getting the traffic.
Let's Think This Through: How Will AI Change Content Quality? What Happens to Search Results?
Two future problems I want to discuss:
- What quality of search answers will we get in the future, and what will they be based on?
- Why should small and medium businesses create informational content if the chances of getting traffic are so low?
How Will Search Engines Determine Content Quality If AI Generates Everything?
Today we know the key criteria - behavioral signals, domain authority, author credibility.
Behavioral signals - the fact that many users view certain content doesn't mean it's high quality. Today, the best behavioral signals for commercial queries belong to the biggest players - marketplaces and classified ad platforms. And the content quality there is often terrible: non-unique, auto-generated product descriptions.
Domain authority - also doesn't guarantee that new content on a recently created page is quality content.
Author credibility - as we now understand, the author will be AI itself. Maybe Google will just make itself the author ).
So how do you determine which content is more useful and higher quality for building a search answer?
The SEO Traffic Problem for Small and Medium Businesses. Where Does This All Lead?
The rich get richer? All the traffic concentrates in the major platforms, with only scraps left for regular websites. Why should small and medium businesses create informational pages if they can't get indexed fast enough before Zero-click search captures the traffic?
In Poland, Allegro dominates commercial search across virtually every product category. Small businesses competing for those queries face a nearly impossible challenge. Now add Zero-click capturing informational queries, and the picture is complete - organic traffic for small Polish businesses is shrinking from every direction.
For commercial pages - product and service pages - there's still some logic to creating content for organic search. But for informational pages, it barely makes sense anymore. Informational traffic is possible but negligibly small. Commercial traffic is declining too.
We'll End Up With Low-Quality Small and Medium Business Websites
Why would they invest in anything beyond product photos and copy-pasted descriptions if traffic won't come regardless? Build a masterpiece for users - still no traffic.
My prediction: a rapid decline in overall content quality. Websites will serve only a commercial function - to facilitate a purchase. That's it. What do you think the outcome will be?
The Bottom Line on Google's Changes for Small and Medium Business
For Polish businesses, the conclusion is stark. Allegro has already monopolized commercial search across most product categories. Zero-click is claiming informational queries. The AI content cycle will only accelerate both trends. Small Polish businesses will pivot to Google Ads and Allegro advertising, abandoning the pretense of organic SEO. Websites survive as transaction infrastructure, nothing more. Only large Polish brands - with Allegro itself as the paradoxical winner - have the scale to justify quality SEO investment. Google becomes a marketplace and advertising platform. In Poland, with Allegro's dominance as a reference point, that transition is already well underway.
What AI Itself Says About the Future of Websites
I ran this query in Google and will break down the response.
Google AI response: People won't stop building websites because their goal isn't just to collect search traffic - it's to establish trust, own their content, and provide security for their business.
My take: Partly agree. Security matters for running operations - but that mostly applies to large players. Trust and content ownership primarily matters for established brands. Small businesses will be satisfied with free or subscription-based solutions like Wix, Webflow, or Google Sites, and content quality simply won't be a priority.
Google AI response: As neural networks (AI agents) develop, the internet is transforming - but websites remain relevant for several critical reasons: True ownership and independence: Your social media accounts or marketplace listings can be shut down at any moment. A website is your independent digital property.
My take: No. A domain and hosting are rented services, just like everything else. Storing content locally guarantees true ownership. But fear of losing content isn't really the reason people build websites.
Google AI response: Direct audience connection: Brands and experts build websites to develop deep trust relationships (through blogs, email newsletters) that a faceless AI answer can't replace. Specialized functionality: Websites are needed for interactive services, online stores, booking systems, corporate portals, and much more.
My take: Yes, where business functionality is required, a website plays a critical role. But that doesn't mean the content quality needs to be high. Text and photos can be copied - why spend resources on unique content creation? Good enough for the customer to understand the offer and complete the transaction is sufficient.
Google AI response: Demonstrating expertise (E-E-A-T): In an era of massive AI content, search algorithms value real human experience and verified authors.
My take: Consider this: I write an excellent expert article, invest serious resources - and get minimal traffic because users get all their answers without clicking through. So why create the content? What's the point of my expertise if I'm essentially just feeding AI my work and getting nothing back?
This only matters for commercial content aimed at selling products or services. Commercial pages still see decent click-through because Google hasn't yet built viable solutions for purchasing without visiting the merchant's site.
So only commercial content still has real development potential - that's where it still makes sense to invest in quality.
What happens to informational content? Will it stop evolving, leaving only Wikipedia-style services for this type of knowledge, while everything else stagnates?
Frequently Asked Questions
How does AI search impact content strategy for small businesses in Poland?
Significantly. Zero-click results now capture informational queries on the search page itself. In Poland, where Allegro dominates commercial search, small businesses lose organic traffic from both directions - AI captures informational queries, Allegro captures commercial ones.
Is Zero-click killing organic traffic for Polish small business websites?
For informational content - yes, effectively. The traffic that used to come from blog posts and informational articles is being intercepted by AI-generated answers before users click through. For commercial content there's still value, but the window is narrowing.
What will happen to search quality when AI trains on AI content?
Search quality risks deteriorating. When the share of human-authored content becomes negligibly small, AI answers will be based on AI interpretations of AI interpretations - each generation moves further from the original source.
What's the future of website SEO for Polish small businesses?
Most likely a pivot to Google Ads and Allegro advertising, abandoning organic SEO for informational content. Websites survive as commercial transaction platforms, but quality investment drops to the minimum viable level.
Will Allegro completely dominate Polish commercial search in the AI era?
It's already nearly there. Allegro's dominance in Polish commercial queries leaves very little room for small businesses. The AI era will likely accelerate this concentration - only large players with scale can compete for broad commercial terms.
