Spent my Sunday morning watching Sundar Pichai on Lex Fridman 🎤 and broke it down through an SEO lens for you 🧠🔎 What I saw wasn’t just another CEO interview. It was confirmation: Google is rewriting everything we knew about search. Here's what's coming... 🔧 1. 𝐀𝐈 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞 = 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞’𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐚𝐛 Dual-Track Rollout: AI Mode lives in its own tab. Only features that perform migrate into the main SERP. Time Lag: Expect 6–18 months between AI Mode debut and SERP-wide rollout. “Fan-Out” Under the Hood: One query now triggers multiple latent searches. Ranking signals still matter, but in a less visible cascade. 🌍 2. 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 & 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 Multilingual by Design: Gemini uses English pages to answer queries in any language. Complex Queries Are the Norm: LLMs are changing how (and what) people ask, especially non-English users. Semantic SEO > Keywords: Topic coverage, structure, and clarity are more important than ever. 📉 3. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜 & 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 Links remain: Gemini includes sources and links, sometimes. My take: It's unlikely that Google will train users to click when it matters since their ad model is dependent on that behavior. Referral Quality > Volume: AI Overviews bring fewer, but higher-intent clicks. SEOs must optimize for what happens after the click. 🌐 4. 𝐃𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐞𝐛 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 Human vs Agentic UX: You now need pages that work for both humans and machines. Structure, speed, and clarity are non-negotiable. Structured Data Is Table Stakes: Schema and entity markup are becoming the new standard. 💰 5. 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐬 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧 Ads in AI Overviews: Already happening. Expect “sponsored summaries” and native-style ads in AI Mode. Search-as-Subscription: Google is toying with fewer ads behind a paywall 💸 Ad Relevance = Higher Bar: AI will explain why it showed a result. Sloppy targeting and shallow content will get exposed. ✍️ 6. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐬 LLM as Researcher: Google is asking new, complex questions. Make your content answer-worthy with expert commentary, comparisons, and deep takes. Human Storytelling = Differentiator: Trust, tone, and brand-led narrative may be your last real moat vs. AI parity. ⚠️ 7. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐔𝐧𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬 Legal Uncertainty: Publisher lawsuits may impact how AI can quote or summarize content. 🧭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐋;𝐃𝐑 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐄𝐎𝐬: Write for both humans and LLM passage-level retrieval. Your content needs to be structured, semantically rich, hierarchically clean, and deeply insightful—not just optimized for keywords, but optimized for synthesis. AI Mode is Google’s future, and your revenue depends on it. Please support this post with a like! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stevetothjr_seo-ainotebook-activity-7337460740439666688-C4CX