Google Affirms AI Is Not Replacing Search – Search Central Live NYC via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google’s John Mueller discussed the impact of AI on SEO at Search Central Live NYC, explaining what it means for SEO and reassuring the audience that search is not going away anytime soon, echoing the words of VP of Search Liz Reid who said something similar.

AI Is Not Replacing Search

John Mueller was talking about AI and search in the larger context of how search works, a discussion that touched on crawling, indexing, and ranking, why Google does tests in the search results and the reasons why Google does core updates.

Mueller assured the audience that AI is not going to replace search.

According to my notes, here is a paraphrase of what he said:

“And one of the things that has come up in the last couple of years, a popular question, is ‘how about AI? I heard AI is going to replace all of search.’ And how I look at this is I think for the most part AI is super fascinating but basically my point for all of you is that AI is not going to replace search.”

This is similar to what the VP of Google Search, Liz Reid, recently said:

“Reid predicts that the traditional Google search bar will become less prominent over time. Voice queries will continue to rise, she says, and Google is planning for expanded use of visual search, too.

But she also said that the search bar isn’t going away:

“The search bar isn’t going away anytime soon, Reid says, but the company is moving toward a future in which Google is always hovering in the background. ‘The world will just expand,’ she says. ‘It’s as if you can ask Google as easily as you could ask a friend, only the friend is all-knowing, right?’”

John Mueller Speaking At Search Central Live NYC

SEO Is Still Necessary

The next point he made is that SEO is still necessary. He didn’t talk about link building or optimizing content but he did say that all of the parts of search are still there which means that optimizing for search to make sure it happens smoothly is still important.

This is a paraphrase from my notes of what he said:

“Basically, a lot of the foundational parts of search… You can think about it as like all the crawling, all of the indexing part of search, that’s something that has to happen… And that means all of the work that you all have been putting in to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content, all of that will remain relevant.

It’s not that suddenly some new chatbot comes out and it’s like, ‘oh, well, I guess I won’t see Google search, it’s irrelevant now and I have to find a different job because the AI will automatically know exactly what to do.

But actually all of these foundational things will continue to play a role.”

Mueller Acknowledges AI Is Changing Things

Mueller didn’t pretend that everything is staying the same. But he did acknowledge that SEOs and publishers will have to adjust to changes, which is the history of SEO as I have experienced it for the past 25 years. And though it’s hard to think of it today that twenty years ago some SEOs dropped out because they couldn’t adapt to Google’s new algorithms in 2005, it’s basically the same thing. The only difference between the past algorithms and today’s changes with AI is that we’re dealing with a new paradigm altogether. Many SEOs have good ideas and Google Search Liaison shared advice for how to adapt to AI-powered search, all worth reading.

This is approximately what John Mueller said:

“So I’m glad you’re here, and I’m glad you’re not already looking for a new job in this AI world. But it is a big change, I think, and it does affect some things. It definitely affects how users interact. So I guess where I’m kind of headed here is that there are lots of things happening around the whole ecosystem, which means that we also kind of have to adjust and react to some of that.”

Takeaways

AI will not replace search, but it is reshaping how users interact with it
Core SEO fundamentals (like crawling and indexing) still matter
Google anticipates a more ambient, omnipresent search experience
Search professionals must adapt to ongoing paradigm shifts
The role of SEO is evolving, not disappearing

Search isn’t going anywhere, but it isn’t standing still either. It’s increasingly clear that AI is changing how people search, but it’s not affecting whether they search. Search maketing professionals and online businesses need to keep on top of all of the changes introduced by AI in order to continue to surface content where users expect to find it.