American search has changed faster than anywhere else. Google AI Overviews - rolled out first and most aggressively in the US - already intercept a huge share of informational queries before organic results appear. Now layer on this: AI currently builds its 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 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 ranking. Digital watermarks - which everyone knows about - plus some signals of human-authored content are probably being factored into the algorithms. But this is highly debatable and nobody really knows how it's supposed to work.
When I search for something complex, I can tell the answer was assembled from multiple sources - but those sources are still human-created, and the answer is actually pretty good. But in a year or two, when there are millions of AI-generated variations of the same content plus lots of junk, what guarantees that the answer won't be pulled from garbage? And Google itself killed the incentive to create that source content in the first place - humans don't get 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 now if the chances of getting traffic are so low?
How Will Search Engines Determine Content Quality If AI Generates Everything?
Yes, today we know the key ranking criteria - behavioral signals, domain authority, author credibility.
Let's look at 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 on those is terrible: non-unique, slapped-together product descriptions.
Domain authority - also doesn't mean new content on a recently created page is high quality.
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 goes to the major players, with only scraps left for regular websites. Why should small and medium businesses create informational pages if they can't even get indexed fast enough before Zero-click search captures the traffic?
In the US market, this problem is especially stark. Google AI Overviews already intercept a huge share of informational queries before users see any organic results. Amazon, Walmart, and big-box retailers dominate commercial search. Small businesses are being squeezed from both sides - AI answers absorb informational traffic and giants absorb commercial traffic.
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 no matter what they do? 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
In the US market, this scenario is already playing out at scale. Google AI Overviews - launched and most aggressively deployed in America - have already swallowed the informational traffic that used to sustain small business content strategies. Amazon, Walmart, and big-box retailers dominate commercial search the same way Rozetka dominates Ukrainian results. The logical endpoint: US small businesses shift to Google Ads and marketplace advertising, abandoning both informational SEO and custom website investment. This isn't a future prediction - it's already happening. Google's evolution into an advertising platform is furthest along in the US market, and the pace is accelerating.
What AI Itself Says About the Future of Websites
I ran this query in Google and I'll 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. For products and services, security matters for running operations - but that mostly applies to large players. Trust and content ownership also only matters for big brands. Small and medium businesses will be perfectly satisfied with free or subscription-based solutions like Wix, Webflow, or Google Sites, and content quality won't matter much.
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 on your PC - yes, that guarantees you own it. But fear of losing content isn't really a reason to build a website.
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 a business requires functional infrastructure, 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 creating unique content? 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 the answers without clicking through to my page. So why create the content? What's the point of my expertise and content quality if I'm essentially just feeding AI my work and Google won't even say thank you?
All of this only matters for commercial content aimed at selling products or services. For commercial content, click-through rates remain high because Google hasn't yet built serious solutions for purchasing products and services without visiting the 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 humanity with only Wikipedia-type services for this type of knowledge, while everything else stagnates?
Frequently Asked Questions
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. Google is likely aware of this and working on signals to identify human-authored content, but how successful that will be remains to be seen.
Why should US small businesses create informational content in the Zero-click era?
Practically no reason. Google AI Overviews capture informational queries directly on the search results page - users don't click through. Investing resources in informational articles with no traffic upside doesn't make business sense. The remaining opportunity is commercial content - service and product pages where a click-through to complete a purchase is still required.
How will Google determine content quality when everything is AI-generated?
None of the current ranking signals solve this problem cleanly. Behavioral signals can be gamed. Domain authority says nothing about the quality of new pages. E-E-A-T loses meaning in a world where the author is AI itself. Google will likely need entirely new quality signals, but there's no clear solution yet.
What does the AI search era mean for US small and medium businesses?
Most likely a pivot to Google's paid advertising tools and abandonment of organic SEO for informational content. Websites will survive as commercial transaction platforms, but quality will drop to the minimum viable level. Only large players with resources to justify SEO investment will maintain quality.
Will small businesses still need websites in the AI search era?
For selling products and services - yes, a functional website remains necessary. For earning informational SEO traffic - no. Small businesses will likely migrate to low-cost platforms like Wix, Google Sites, or Shopify, dropping the investment in custom hosting and domains.
