This contribution by Riccardo Terzi, Head of News Partnerships at Google, stands as one of the clearest and most direct public statements on the sweeping change underway in the world of search and online visibility. Here is what he says and why it deserves to be taken seriously.
We are now fully immersed in a radical transformation in the way users discover and consume information online. For decades, the dominant paradigm was the “classic” search engine: type keywords, click through an ordered list of links, and navigate across websites to find the desired answer. It is no coincidence that one of the hidden metrics I have always found most telling is the phenomenon of pogo sticking — the situation in which a user clicks on a search result, lands on a site, fails to find what they were looking for, and immediately bounces back using the browser’s back button to search for more complete answers elsewhere. Google has always attached great importance to this user behavior, and the reason is not hard to understand: Google considers itself first and foremost an answer engine, before it is a search engine. If users do not find satisfactory answers, something in the system or in the content on offer is not working correctly. Today, this model is rapidly evolving thanks to the increasingly pervasive integration of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google SGE. These tools no longer simply display results as a list of links; they deliver precise answers directly, summarize complex content, and guide users through sophisticated conversational interfaces — functioning as genuinely intelligent, omnipresent assistants embedded across countless digital products and platforms.
In this landscape, AI plays a decisive role as an information gatekeeper, determining what is shown to the user and how it is shown. Users no longer need to click on links or visit external sources: answers are generated and delivered directly within the AI environment itself, radically altering the traditional dynamics of search and content consumption.
The immediate consequence of this transformation is the progressive decline of web traffic as the primary KPI for publishers and marketers. In the old SEO model, traffic was everything: more visitors meant more advertising revenue. Now that users increasingly receive comprehensive answers directly from platforms without ever clicking through to a site, organic traffic as a primary metric is losing its central role.
This has given rise to the need for a new strategy known as GEO, short for Generative Engine Optimization. The objective of GEO is no longer simply to climb the traditional ranking, but to ensure that content is actively selected and used by generative algorithms to deliver direct answers to users. To achieve this, content must display a high editorial quality, a strong semantic depth, and offer original, authoritative insights that make it indispensable to AI systems.
I addressed this earlier in: From Brand to Source
To thrive in this new environment, content must become “AI-friendly” — readily understood and usable by artificial intelligence. It is essential to use structured data and advanced semantic markup to facilitate automated interpretation, and to continuously monitor one’s visibility and presence within AI-generated answers from the leading digital assistants.
In parallel, specific tools are emerging to support this transition. One example is Relixir, a Y Combinator-backed startup that offers dedicated analytics for visibility in generative results. New technical standards such as NLWeb and MCP, promoted by industry leaders including Microsoft and Anthropic, are also being developed to facilitate direct interaction between intelligent agents and digital content.
Finally, as traffic in its traditional form declines, new monetization approaches and business models are coming to the fore: licensing agreements for content used by AI algorithms, micro-transactions, premium content distributed via API or dedicated endpoints, and loyalty strategies that build direct relationships with users through communities, newsletters, and exclusive services.
I discussed this here: Toward a sustainable digital publishing model
Riccardo Terzi’s contribution therefore represents not only confirmation of a clear warning signal, but a major strategic opportunity for those who want to anticipate and capitalize on change rather than be overtaken by it. The shift from SEO to GEO is not simply a technical one; it represents a profound cultural and operational paradigm change. The real question today is not whether to adapt, but how to do so as effectively as possible.
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