If you want to know what's really going on with organic traffic from Google, it pays to filter out the noise and listen to the person who oversees Google Search herself, Liz Reid, and get the facts directly from her.
In a recent interview with the WSJ, she explained what Google sees as the future of search in a world of AI, and it's an article worth reading. And if you
don't have time to read it, here’s what you need to know:|
(Oh, and this is my personal commentary, based on my 20 years of experience as a dentist and as the owner of a dental marketing agency).
1. Google’s Approach to AI Search and the Decrease in Organic Traffic
Reid made it clear that, from Google’s perspective, AI is about making information more accessible and guiding people to dig deeper into a topic. She said Google wants to combine the quick results from AI with relevant human sources to provide a comprehensive experience. She also noted that Google understands people still want to hear from people — they don’t want to delegate all decision-making to machines. At this point, Google wants to use AI to help people get started with their search — not finish it.
Lesson: AI can help people get quick answers, which leads them to ask more in-depth, focused questions. So while traffic from top-level queries may decrease, deeper queries should increase to balance things out.
2. Google’s Ad Revenue Is Stable
She said that Google’s ad revenue remains stable, which reinforces the idea that websites aren’t going anywhere. AI might help you choose among different coffee beans, but ultimately you, the user, will still need to click and make the purchase. So the fearmongering about AI “killing search” is just that — fearmongering. Not all queries have ads, and when people get answers, they often ask additional questions, which leads to more growth.
3. Where People Are Consuming Content
Reid said younger searchers especially are turning to places other than traditional search to get answers — forums, short videos, audio, and podcasts. She also noted that people are clicking on more complex content in AI-generated results so they can read further. AI can handle the surface-level summary, but people still click to dig deeper.
She used the example of a wedding dress: in the past you could ask Google about wedding dresses, but now AI can understand specifics — features, materials, preferences — helping users refine their goals.
“We do have to respond to who users want to hear from. We are in the business of both giving them high-quality information and information that they seek out. And so we have over time adjusted our ranking to surface more of this content in response to what we've heard from users.”
Lesson: People aren’t relying solely on Google Search to find information. And as many of you know, this is something I (and others) have been saying for years. The web isn’t going anywhere, but adding a few videos to YouTube and other platforms can help bolster your presence.
4. Bounce Rates and Inline Links
I predicted this a long time ago, and we’re now seeing it: Google is actively looking at bounce rates to help determine relevance. A “bounce” is when a user clicks a result, immediately realizes it wasn’t what they wanted, and navigates back.
A high bounce rate means your content likely isn’t meeting users’ needs.
A low bounce rate signals that your content is helpful and relevant — and this can improve your positioning in AI search results.
Lesson: Nothing has changed in terms of how we approach content. Your content should be error-free, proofread, authoritative, and helpful. In my opinion, AI-generated content will not rank — but AI-generated outlines are perfectly fine as scaffolding.
5. The Dead Internet Theory
The Dead Internet Theory suggests the web will become a landfill of AI-generated junk. Google is aware of this and continues to emphasize that human-generated content is still paramount.
Lesson: Humans are still needed to help other humans get answers and solve problems.
TL;DR
I’ll be commenting more about these topics in the future, but I hope this overview provides some perspective on where we are with AI search and what it means for your practice. If you do nothing else:
1. Make sure your website content is proofread, accurate, and grammatically correct. Sloppy content limits your opportunities to rank.
2. Own your website and your content. Brand and trust are more important than ever, so you need to be able to take your website with you if you change vendors.
3, Check the bounce rates on the most important pages on your website (homepage, top service pages).
4. Understand that for dentists, search is local. Search is about competition — the more competition you have, the more work you’ll need to do to appear. The good news: the work is largely the same work we've always done for traditional SEO. There’s no special tag you can place on your website to be “AI approved.”