Ukrainian SEO specialists have watched this shift up close. Rozetka, OLX.ua, and Price.ua have absorbed commercial search on Google.com.ua; AI is absorbing informational search. And the deeper problem is still unfolding: today AI builds answers from human-created content, but at the current pace of AI content production it will soon be building answers from previously AI-generated content. The share of original human writing 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 Ukraine, Rozetka, OLX.ua, and Price.ua have essentially monopolized commercial search on Google.com.ua. Small businesses are left competing for niche queries - but Zero-click is absorbing even those. Why invest in content that Google's AI will intercept before users ever reach your page?
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 the Ukrainian market, the picture is sharper than most. Rozetka, OLX.ua, and Nova Poshta have the scale to sustain SEO investment - small Ukrainian businesses don't. Zero-click is claiming informational traffic; major platforms have claimed commercial traffic. Ukrainian small businesses will shift to Google Ads and abandon organic SEO for informational content. Websites survive as transaction tools, quality investment drops to the minimum. Only the largest Ukrainian players can justify sustained content investment. Google's role shifts from search engine to advertising platform - and that shift is clearly visible in the Ukrainian market today.
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
Is informational content still worth creating for Ukrainian small businesses?
Barely. Zero-click results capture informational queries on the search page itself. In Ukraine, where Rozetka and OLX.ua already dominate commercial search, small businesses lose organic traffic from both directions - AI captures informational queries, platforms capture commercial ones.
What happens to search quality when AI trains on AI-generated content?
Search quality risks deteriorating. When the share of human-authored content in training data becomes negligibly small, AI answers will be based on AI interpretations of AI interpretations. Each generation of content moves further from the original source.
How will Google rank AI-generated content vs human-written content in Ukraine?
This is the core challenge. Current signals - behavioral data, domain authority, E-E-A-T - don't cleanly solve the problem in a world where AI is the author. Google will need new quality signals, but there's no clear solution yet.
What's the future of website SEO for Ukrainian small businesses?
Most likely a pivot to Google Ads and abandonment of organic SEO for informational content. Websites survive as commercial transaction tools, but quality investment drops to the minimum viable level. Only large players can justify sustained SEO spending.
Should Ukrainian small businesses invest in websites or switch to Wix/Google Sites?
For commercial functionality - invest in a proper website. For informational SEO traffic - the case for heavy investment is gone. A low-cost platform is sufficient if the goal is just to support the purchase process.
