Many marketing strategies see Google search as the gateway to success. But given the behemoth’s AI mode proclamation, that can’t continue. Discover a new strategy that will work no matter what happens next.
June 10, 2025
Google’s I/O 2025 conference served as the final notice to publishers and marketers who relied on its 10 blue-links model: AI mode is here.
Another way to say it? “Thanks for all the content. We’ve stolen it and we’re serving it to users dynamically. We don’t need you anymore. Oh, but you should keep creating.”
AI mode hasn’t replaced traditional search yet, but the recent declaration creates a clear trajectory to Google Zero, where agentic search delivers hyperpersonalized, chat-based responses with barely lip service to their origins.
And Google still wants you to feed this engine with content even without any of the old incentives — traffic, advertising dollars, visibility on the search engine results page, etc.
Should you continue creating your best content for Google?
And what happens to publishing, content marketing, and online creativity when the open internet dies?
Consider this your wake-up clarion for a new digital marketing and brand strategy.
SEO and content marketing have different incentives now. That means different goals and different processes. This is good because, in many ways, as a pair, they made each other worse.
While Google remains a primary source of referral traffic on the internet, people discover information in other ways. The rise of newsletters and small social communities says to me that people desire human-curated experiences.
AI search generates a lot of common noise
Despina Gavoyannis writes that LLMs don’t reward originality; they flatten it. I agree with her. She writes, “LLMs don’t attribute. They don’t trace knowledge back to its origin. They just summarize what’s already been said, again and again.
“That’s what flattening does:
It rounds off originality.
It plateaus discoverability.
It makes innovation invisible.
“That isn’t a data issue. It’s a pattern issue that skews toward consensus for most queries, even those where consensus makes no-sensus.”
No longer a channel for content discovery, Google is a channel for aggregated noise. Its AI features deliver answers to direct questions with probability as the determining factor, not insight, originality, or accuracy.
LLM-based search doesn't reward content that’s first, shares new ideas, or demonstrates real passion. Google’s LLM is an invitation to dilution. It will scrape and remix your hard work, robbing it of source and context to deliver it in digestible snippets to users who won’t click.
Move Google off your marketing pedestal
Now, I’m not advising that you close down your website or stop posting high-value content. However, you don’t need to be a prisoner to a channel that steals from you. Treat Google as a distribution channel, not the Holy Grail.
Andrew Holland, director of SEO at JBH, proposes an excellent framework for brand success with today’s search engines, including Google and other LLMs. He recommends public relations and information delivery. Ensure your business is featured on high authority and relevant websites related to the information you want to be associated with. Also, publish your relevant business activity wherever you can: forums, industry events, blogs, reviews, etc. — places LLMs are likely to search.
Meanwhile, content for search will need to be engineered for usefulness and information delivery at a granular level.
Michael King of iPullRank focuses on relevance engineering, a combined-discipline approach to engineering multi-platform visibility and LLM information retrieval. AI mode seems to prioritize perspective less and information architecture more. It seeks to answer hyper-specific queries in concise, helpful ways. The information-retrieval experience will overshadow the reader experience.
In my opinion, this means that flat, focused, information-first, and often low-funnel content will be the new normal in search. Nuance and perspective will live elsewhere.
However, even though Google and other LLMs won’t reward it, your website still needs perspective-fueled, reader-focused content. If you get distribution right, your audience will reward it. That requires shifting away from algorithmic obsession and toward core marketing principles. Remember those?
Designing a multichannel brand strategy, inclusive of Google and LLMs, that surfaces your content where and when users need it is the path to the future.
Hide your best content from Google
To stand out, protection must be a part of your content strategy. Your best content? Hold it back. Gate it. Put it in newsletters. Keep it inside exclusive communities.
Repurpose and tease portions on public channels to attract audiences that matter to your brand and to whom your company matters.
In a recent livestream, iPullRank’s Garrett Sussman and Michael King recapped the Google I/O conference. Close to the end, I asked Michael a question about holding back the highest-value content or releasing it to get a lot of references.
He replied, “I don’t think it should be blanket in either direction. But I think from the perspective of competition, especially as we’re thinking about other channels like ChatGPT … I think it does make sense to hold back certain components of it.”
If your content has a truly unique value proposition, treat it like an asset.
Will Google still find a way to get at your content anyway? Nick Leroy thinks so. But you can’t control that. Keep doing what you’re doing and providing value directly to people.
I specialize in gated e-books. To convince people to part with their information, I treat the content as a product, not a means to an end. Being useful to the audience is my first goal. That’s my gold standard: real value for real individuals and revenue for clients.
It’s the kind of content that attracts audiences who let you into their inboxes and communities. This content is too valuable for Google, but it still needs distribution.
Master the new content playbook
Crafting a content playbook today requires a content professional who understands the audience, narrative principles, distribution, and impact.
Alex Lieberman, co-founder of Morning Brew and storyarb, offers a simple but effective playbook for always-on content.
His recommendations align with many of my views.
When leading the e-book program at Search Engine Journal, I embraced four core principles in the high-value content:
Crystal-clear audience objectives: Set aside your brand’s objectives for the content. Build content that first serves the objective of a reader in your audience. Move them down the path to their dreams as they relate to your offering.
Expertise: Involve people who know their shit. If that isn’t you, use your relationships with people who are. Guide them based on your understanding of the first principle.
Narrative: Stories build connections. Stories are about people. You don’t necessarily need to tell a story. I often built e-book narratives around the problems the reader was facing. A journey through worries, problems, reassurances, and advice is a kind of story.
Curation: Build trust with your audience and the experts you collaborate with by displaying good taste. LLMs don’t curate. They aggregate. Don’t flatten your work with as much information as possible. Carefully select the most relevant people and words.
At Search Engine Journal, my most successful e-book was the annual SEO trends title, a collection of handpicked experts responding to carefully guided questions about issues that worried the audience. I arranged the responses to build a coherent narrative and tone, which informed the design and channel messaging.
Using multichannel distribution creates independence
Build content experiences that meaningfully impact a reader’s day. You create them by adopting a multichannel distribution channel strategy. Keep your high-value content assets out of Google’s grubby hands but use its distribution to your advantage.
Repurpose your great content into chunks and spin it out across every channel. Use:
Newsletters to engage your subscriber base
PR and reporting to acquire links and mentions
Web pages to build authority and relevance on key topics
Social media posts to provide immediate snippets of value
Videos in short and long form for multiple channels
Podcasts relevant to your industry or topics to build brand authority, mentions, and interest
Communities where you get invaluable direct feedback
If you create your high-value asset with repurposing in mind, you can execute much of this quickly. Add compelling offers and opportunities to convert in this content ecosystem.
Curbing your obsession with ranking content can only benefit you. Let the snake devour itself. In the meantime, your audience needs you.
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