Search Engine Land

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-800x450.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-600x338.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-200x113.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-150x84.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-550x310.jpg 550w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Google will pull information about promotions and products from merchants' existing marketing materials to display across Search and beyond.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-800x450.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-600x338.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-200x113.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-150x84.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1-550x310.jpg 550w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2020/10/google-smart-shopping-handout-1.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>Google today rolled out a new feature that automatically uses businesses&#8217; marketing content to enhance their visibility across Google products.</p>



<p>All merchants will be automatically enrolled in the marketing content usage program. You can opt out at any time through Merchant Center settings.</p>



<p><strong>How it works</strong>. Google will extract marketing information in two ways:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Automatic signup to businesses&#8217; marketing communications.</li>



<li>Direct submission when merchants add Google&#8217;s dedicated email address (<a href="mailto:marketingemailtogoog@gmail.com">marketingemailtogoog@gmail.com</a>) to their marketing lists.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Why we care.</strong> Google can now extract and display information about your promotions, new products, and social media profiles across Search, Shopping, and Maps without any additional effort. This means increased visibility for your brand and products, as Google leverages existing marketing materials they&#8217;ve already created.</p>



<p>However, this increased visibility could raise brand protection concerns that may just drive extra impressions but not any extra traffic/revenue to your site. Will Google stop showing the ad if they see low engagement on the extra ads they are showing? That is unknown.</p>



<p><strong>By the numbers</strong>. While Google hasn&#8217;t shared specific performance metrics yet, the company positions the program as a time-saving tool that leverages existing marketing materials to boost merchant visibility.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="1322" height="1500" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-18.37.54.png" alt="" class="wp-image-453916" style="width:558px;height:auto" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-18.37.54.png 1322w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-18.37.54-298x338.png 298w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-18.37.54-529x600.png 529w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-18.37.54-100x113.png 100w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-03-at-18.37.54-768x871.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1322px) 100vw, 1322px" /></figure></div>


<p><strong>Between the lines</strong>. Google will extract and showcase:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Links to primary social media channels.</li>



<li>Highlighted social media content.</li>



<li>Current and upcoming sales/promotions.</li>



<li>Brand images and videos.</li>



<li>Brand voice and values.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>The fine print</strong>. The extracted content will be treated as &#8220;Content&#8221; under Merchant Center terms. No additional terms will apply to the usage of marketing materials within Merchant Center.</p>



<p><strong>What&#8217;s next</strong>. Merchants concerned about the <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/15760498?hl=en">automatic enrollment</a> can review their settings in Merchant Center to opt out if desired.</p>


Google today rolled out a new feature that automatically uses businesses’ marketing content to enhance their visibility across Google products.
All merchants will be automatically enrolled in the marketing content usage program. You can opt out at any time through Merchant Center settings.
How it works. Google will extract marketing information in two ways:
Automatic signup to businesses’ marketing communications.
Direct submission when merchants add Google’s dedicated email address (marketingemailtogoog@gmail.com) to their marketing lists.
Why we care. Google can now extract and display information about your promotions, new products, and social media profiles across Search, Shopping, and Maps without any additional effort. This means increased visibility for your brand and products, as Google leverages existing marketing materials they’ve already created.
However, this increased visibility could raise brand protection concerns that may just drive extra impressions but not any extra traffic/revenue to your site. Will Google stop showing the ad if they see low engagement on the extra ads they are showing? That is unknown.
By the numbers. While Google hasn’t shared specific performance metrics yet, the company positions the program as a time-saving tool that leverages existing marketing materials to boost merchant visibility.

Between the lines. Google will extract and showcase:
Links to primary social media channels.
Highlighted social media content.
Current and upcoming sales/promotions.
Brand images and videos.
Brand voice and values.
The fine print. The extracted content will be treated as “Content” under Merchant Center terms. No additional terms will apply to the usage of marketing materials within Merchant Center.
What’s next. Merchants concerned about the automatic enrollment can review their settings in Merchant Center to opt out if desired.

Google will pull information about promotions and products from merchants' existing marketing materials to display across Search and beyond.

Google launches automatic marketing content extraction

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Generative AI is changing search. Goodbye blue links, hello AI answers. Learn what this shift means for the future of SEO and traffic.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/generative-information-retrieval.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p><em>Search is dead, long live search!</em></p>



<p>Search isn’t what it used to be.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Search engines no longer simply match keywords or phrases in user queries with webpages. We are moving well beyond the world of lexical search, which is simply text-based with no understanding of the semantic connections between not only things but multimedia representations of things/concepts.</p>



<p>Today, AI can understand, contextualize, and generate information in response to user intent largely utilizing probabilistic prediction and pattern matching.</p>



<p>This transformation is being driven by generative information retrieval.</p>



<p>Generative information retrieval is a fundamental shift in how systems surface and present information.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Marc Najork, a distinguished scientist at Google DeepMind, laid out how large language models (LLMs) are changing search and information retrieval during a keynote at SIGIR 2023 that&#8217;s worth revisiting. His presentation also explored how we have reached this position via iterative change from lexical to semantic, hybrid, and generative approaches over time.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-retrieval-to-generation">From retrieval to generation</h2>



<p>For decades, search engines have responded to user queries by pointing to documents that might contain the answer.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" width="1846" height="588" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/classic-web-retrieval.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-453911" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/classic-web-retrieval.jpg 1846w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/classic-web-retrieval-600x191.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/classic-web-retrieval-800x255.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/classic-web-retrieval-200x64.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/classic-web-retrieval-768x245.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/classic-web-retrieval-1536x489.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1846px) 100vw, 1846px" /></figure>



<p>But that model is evolving. We’re now in the early days of generative information retrieval.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The system doesn’t just find content; it generates answers based on what it retrieves in an increasingly multimodal manner, pulling together everything that an under-specified query might possibly represent, synthesizing in one view.</p>



<p>Najork described this shift as moving from traditional retrieval-based systems, which return a ranked list of documents, to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In a RAG setup, a model retrieves relevant documents from a corpus and then uses them as grounding knowledge and context to generate a direct, natural-language response.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" width="1852" height="950" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/retrieval-augmented-gqa-system.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-453912" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/retrieval-augmented-gqa-system.jpg 1852w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/retrieval-augmented-gqa-system-600x308.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/retrieval-augmented-gqa-system-800x410.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/retrieval-augmented-gqa-system-200x103.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/retrieval-augmented-gqa-system-768x394.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/retrieval-augmented-gqa-system-1536x788.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1852px) 100vw, 1852px" /></figure>



<p>Put simply, searchers aren’t presented with a list of links to webpages. They’re getting synthesized, direct answers, often in the tone and style of a helpful assistant.</p>



<p>This new approach is powered by LLMs trained on vast amounts of data and can reason across retrieved content.&nbsp;</p>



<p>These systems are imperfect. We know they hallucinate and get facts wrong.</p>



<p>We can see for ourselves the many ways in which search engines and other technology companies utilizing AI and large language models, for example, to summarize news headlines and summaries, are struggling to control the hallucinatory nature of LLMs and generative AI.</p>



<p>The problem?&nbsp;</p>



<p>Generative AI is built upon patterns of probability rather than facts.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Google is researching the fundamental reasons why news headlines and summaries are generated incorrectly and has developed an evaluation framework called <a href="https://marc.najork.org/papers/www2023-exhalder.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ExHalder</a>. Another example is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/business/media/bloomberg-ai-summaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a> (subscription required), which has had to issue multiple corrections to summaries generated by AI and LLMs only this past week or so.</p>



<p>Regardless of the weaknesses of using LLMs in search (and they are not without controversy in the world of information retrieval, as Najork alludes to in his 2023 SIGIR presentation) generative AI / generative information retrieval is out of the gate and now represents a fundamental shift in how information is accessed and delivered.</p>



<p>This also has major implications for <a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo">SEO</a>. Optimizing content to rank in “10 blue links” is different from optimizing for inclusion in an AI-generated summary.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-traffic-referral-challenges">Traffic referral challenges</h2>



<p>One big question raised in the presentation is what happens to referral traffic when language models generate answers.</p>



<p>We’ve been seeing this question play out in the form of lawsuits, such <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-sued-by-chegg-over-ai-overviews-hurting-traffic-and-revenue-452518">Chegg suing Google over AI Overviews</a>. We’ve also heard about many websites of all sizes seeing organic search traffic fall since the launch of AI Overviews, especially for informational queries.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In the “classic” search model, users clicked on links to get information, driving traffic to the websites of brands, creators, and businesses. However, with generative systems, users may get what they need directly from an AI answer without needing to visit a website.</p>



<p>This has been a big source of contention. If AI is trained on <a href="https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-web-content-freeware-443775">“public” content</a> and uses that content to generate responses, how do the original sources get credit or, more importantly, get traffic they can monetize?&nbsp;</p>



<p>This unresolved issue has significant implications for anyone who relies on organic search visibility to drive business results. And as we found out recently, Google seemed to internally view <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-traffic-publishers-necessary-evil-453562">giving traffic to publishers a “necessary evil.”</a></p>



<p>Najork’s presentation didn’t offer a solution, but this seems to hint at a bleak future for some content creators who can&#8217;t adapt to this shift. As Najork put it:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>The pessimistic view: </strong>Direct answers reduce referrals to content providers, hurting their ability to monetize.</li>



<li><strong>The optimistic view:</strong> Attribution in direct answers will lead to higher-quality referrals that in aggregate are more valuable.&nbsp;</li>



<li><strong>The realistic view:</strong> Expect diversified business models and revenue streams.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<p>However, we should note that content creation is largely driven by the incentive of search engine-driven traffic, and even a &#8220;necessary evil&#8221; is &#8220;necessary,&#8221; so it is more of a challenge to adapt to the new landscape rather than abandon SEO.</p>



<p>Najork also mentioned the important term coined only in 2023 of &#8220;delphic costs&#8221; by Andre Broder, a distinguished engineer at Google, who also created the well-known <a href="https://sigir.org/files/forum/F2002/broder.pdf">A Taxonomy of Web Search</a>. The argument around delphic costs is that the cost to the searcher is greatly reduced by generating answers directly in search results rather than sending the searcher to other resources, and this should be a key objective of search engines.&nbsp;</p>



<p>How will this be achieved and play out? That remains to be seen. </p>



<p>However, we could see as recently as Google&#8217;s Search Central event in New York lots of delphic cost savings for searchers in the future-focused presentations.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Expect delphic costs (or similar talk around reducing friction for searchers) and the cost-saving elements of search for users to increasingly influence the communications between Google and SEOs.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-seo-vs-geo">SEO vs. GEO</h2>



<p>There has been some ongoing and recent debate over semantics among SEO influencers and experts on LinkedIn and elsewhere about whether <a href="https://searchengineland.com/what-is-generative-engine-optimization-geo-444418">generative engine optimization (GEO)</a> is simply a new buzzword (and also, how dare we rename SEO!).&nbsp;</p>



<p>I saw a lot of this recently after Christina Adame’s article, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/integrate-geo-seo-453351">How to integrate GEO with SEO</a>, published here on Search Engine Land.</p>



<p>OK. Nobody is renaming SEO.&nbsp;</p>



<p>SEO isn’t GEO.&nbsp;</p>



<p>GEO isn’t SEO. In fact, there is <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.09735">a research paper all about GEO</a>.</p>



<p>Generative (answer) engines aren’t search engines. As <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannygoodwin/recent-activity/reactions/">Fred Laurent put it to succinctly on LinkedIn</a>:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>“AI Interprets, Search Engines Rank”</li>
</ul>



<p>This is a key difference to understand. Citations/mentions in AI-generated search are not traditional rankings.</p>



<p>Also, a car isn’t a truck, but both automobiles have engines that can help you get where you want to go.</p>



<p>2023 may be known as the dawn of generative information retrieval, but that doesn&#8217;t mean information retrieval is gone. It simply has another facet. This is the way, too, with SEO.&nbsp;</p>



<p>We are in a period of unprecedented change.</p>



<p>Generative information retrieval underlies the new reality of search, but it is still search and information retrieval, but with additional nuance.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In the same way in information retrieval there are those who specialize in recommender systems, indexing, ranking, learning to rank, and natural language processing (NLP) or the front door areas around how search engine users interact with search interfaces, this change in SEO also creates another nuanced area where some will focus and some will generalize.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The core fundamentals of helping users find the right information at the right time remain the same, regardless of the naming convention.</p>



<p>Bottom line: SEO is evolving (again).&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you’re clinging to old SEO playbooks, you could go the way of the dinosaur in the very near future, as Google continues to shift further away from classic search to AI answers.</p>



<p><em>Note: You can </em><a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19lAeVzPkh20Ly855tKDkz1uv-1pHV_9GxfntiTJPUug/edit?slide=id.g22efd0a58a4_2_0#slide=id.g22efd0a58a4_2_0" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>see Najork’s deck</em></a><em> on Google Slides. Hat tip to </em><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/msdawnanderson/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Dawn Anderson</em></a><em> for sharing and reviewing this article for accuracy.</em></p>


Search is dead, long live search!
Search isn’t what it used to be. 
Search engines no longer simply match keywords or phrases in user queries with webpages. We are moving well beyond the world of lexical search, which is simply text-based with no understanding of the semantic connections between not only things but multimedia representations of things/concepts.
Today, AI can understand, contextualize, and generate information in response to user intent largely utilizing probabilistic prediction and pattern matching.
This transformation is being driven by generative information retrieval.
Generative information retrieval is a fundamental shift in how systems surface and present information. 
Marc Najork, a distinguished scientist at Google DeepMind, laid out how large language models (LLMs) are changing search and information retrieval during a keynote at SIGIR 2023 that’s worth revisiting. His presentation also explored how we have reached this position via iterative change from lexical to semantic, hybrid, and generative approaches over time.
From retrieval to generation
For decades, search engines have responded to user queries by pointing to documents that might contain the answer. 




But that model is evolving. We’re now in the early days of generative information retrieval. 
The system doesn’t just find content; it generates answers based on what it retrieves in an increasingly multimodal manner, pulling together everything that an under-specified query might possibly represent, synthesizing in one view.
Najork described this shift as moving from traditional retrieval-based systems, which return a ranked list of documents, to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems. 
In a RAG setup, a model retrieves relevant documents from a corpus and then uses them as grounding knowledge and context to generate a direct, natural-language response. 




Put simply, searchers aren’t presented with a list of links to webpages. They’re getting synthesized, direct answers, often in the tone and style of a helpful assistant.
This new approach is powered by LLMs trained on vast amounts of data and can reason across retrieved content. 
These systems are imperfect. We know they hallucinate and get facts wrong.
We can see for ourselves the many ways in which search engines and other technology companies utilizing AI and large language models, for example, to summarize news headlines and summaries, are struggling to control the hallucinatory nature of LLMs and generative AI.
The problem? 
Generative AI is built upon patterns of probability rather than facts. 
Google is researching the fundamental reasons why news headlines and summaries are generated incorrectly and has developed an evaluation framework called ExHalder. Another example is Bloomberg (subscription required), which has had to issue multiple corrections to summaries generated by AI and LLMs only this past week or so.
Regardless of the weaknesses of using LLMs in search (and they are not without controversy in the world of information retrieval, as Najork alludes to in his 2023 SIGIR presentation) generative AI / generative information retrieval is out of the gate and now represents a fundamental shift in how information is accessed and delivered.
This also has major implications for SEO. Optimizing content to rank in “10 blue links” is different from optimizing for inclusion in an AI-generated summary.
Traffic referral challenges
One big question raised in the presentation is what happens to referral traffic when language models generate answers.
We’ve been seeing this question play out in the form of lawsuits, such Chegg suing Google over AI Overviews. We’ve also heard about many websites of all sizes seeing organic search traffic fall since the launch of AI Overviews, especially for informational queries. 
In the “classic” search model, users clicked on links to get information, driving traffic to the websites of brands, creators, and businesses. However, with generative systems, users may get what they need directly from an AI answer without needing to visit a website.
This has been a big source of contention. If AI is trained on “public” content and uses that content to generate responses, how do the original sources get credit or, more importantly, get traffic they can monetize? 
This unresolved issue has significant implications for anyone who relies on organic search visibility to drive business results. And as we found out recently, Google seemed to internally view giving traffic to publishers a “necessary evil.”
Najork’s presentation didn’t offer a solution, but this seems to hint at a bleak future for some content creators who can’t adapt to this shift. As Najork put it:
The pessimistic view: Direct answers reduce referrals to content providers, hurting their ability to monetize.
The optimistic view: Attribution in direct answers will lead to higher-quality referrals that in aggregate are more valuable. 
The realistic view: Expect diversified business models and revenue streams. 
However, we should note that content creation is largely driven by the incentive of search engine-driven traffic, and even a “necessary evil” is “necessary,” so it is more of a challenge to adapt to the new landscape rather than abandon SEO.
Najork also mentioned the important term coined only in 2023 of “delphic costs” by Andre Broder, a distinguished engineer at Google, who also created the well-known A Taxonomy of Web Search. The argument around delphic costs is that the cost to the searcher is greatly reduced by generating answers directly in search results rather than sending the searcher to other resources, and this should be a key objective of search engines. 
How will this be achieved and play out? That remains to be seen. 
However, we could see as recently as Google’s Search Central event in New York lots of delphic cost savings for searchers in the future-focused presentations. 
Expect delphic costs (or similar talk around reducing friction for searchers) and the cost-saving elements of search for users to increasingly influence the communications between Google and SEOs.
SEO vs. GEO
There has been some ongoing and recent debate over semantics among SEO influencers and experts on LinkedIn and elsewhere about whether generative engine optimization (GEO) is simply a new buzzword (and also, how dare we rename SEO!). 
I saw a lot of this recently after Christina Adame’s article, How to integrate GEO with SEO, published here on Search Engine Land.
OK. Nobody is renaming SEO. 
SEO isn’t GEO. 
GEO isn’t SEO. In fact, there is a research paper all about GEO.
Generative (answer) engines aren’t search engines. As Fred Laurent put it to succinctly on LinkedIn:
“AI Interprets, Search Engines Rank”
This is a key difference to understand. Citations/mentions in AI-generated search are not traditional rankings.
Also, a car isn’t a truck, but both automobiles have engines that can help you get where you want to go.
2023 may be known as the dawn of generative information retrieval, but that doesn’t mean information retrieval is gone. It simply has another facet. This is the way, too, with SEO. 
We are in a period of unprecedented change.
Generative information retrieval underlies the new reality of search, but it is still search and information retrieval, but with additional nuance. 
In the same way in information retrieval there are those who specialize in recommender systems, indexing, ranking, learning to rank, and natural language processing (NLP) or the front door areas around how search engine users interact with search interfaces, this change in SEO also creates another nuanced area where some will focus and some will generalize. 
The core fundamentals of helping users find the right information at the right time remain the same, regardless of the naming convention.
Bottom line: SEO is evolving (again). 
If you’re clinging to old SEO playbooks, you could go the way of the dinosaur in the very near future, as Google continues to shift further away from classic search to AI answers.
Note: You can see Najork’s deck on Google Slides. Hat tip to Dawn Anderson for sharing and reviewing this article for accuracy.

Generative AI is changing search. Goodbye blue links, hello AI answers. Learn what this shift means for the future of SEO and traffic.

How generative information retrieval is reshaping search

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Do exact match domains have value in 2025?" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Search engines favor authority and branding over keywords alone. Find out how to make your domain work for you.


<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Do exact match domains have value in 2025?" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Do-exact-match-domains-have-value-in-2025.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>In the early days of <a href="https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo">SEO</a>, owning an exact match domain (EMD) was like holding a cheat code.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If someone searched for “siamese kittens,” you could bet that siamesekittens.com would be sitting pretty at or near the top of the search results.</p>



<p>The algorithm heavily weighted the presence of keywords in the domain, and for a while, that simple trick delivered serious ROI.</p>



<p>But it’s 2025 now.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://searchengineland.com/ai-marketing-beginners-guide-446116">AI</a> has reshaped search, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-guide-large-language-models-413227">large language models</a> (LLMs) are rewriting how answers are generated and delivered, and the rules of the game have changed.</p>



<p>So, what role – if any – do exact match domains still play?</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-emd-of-yesteryear-keyword-first-brand-second">The EMD of yesteryear: Keyword first, brand second</h2>



<p>In the early 2010s, EMDs were so powerful that entrepreneurs snapped up keyword domains like real estate.&nbsp;</p>



<p>It didn’t matter if the domain was awkward or forgettable –<em> </em>cheapcarinsurancequotes.com was printing traffic, and that’s what mattered.</p>



<p>But that short-term success came at a long-term cost: most EMDs weren’t built as brands.&nbsp;</p>



<p>They were designed to match a keyword string, not to build trust or recognition.</p>



<p>Then came the backlash.</p>



<p>Google’s <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-emd-update-research-and-thoughts-137340">2012 EMD update</a> specifically targeted low-quality sites using EMDs to rank without offering real value.&nbsp;</p>



<p>It didn’t kill EMDs outright but ended the gravy train for those relying on the domain name alone.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And since then, the emphasis on quality, content, and brand authority has only grown stronger.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-2025-lens-exact-match-still-matters-but-not-like-it-used-to">The 2025 lens: Exact match still matters – but not like it used to</h2>



<p>Fast forward to now, and it’s clear: exact match domains can still carry value, but that value has shifted.</p>



<p>If you’re launching a site today and manage to get a clean, keyword-rich domain that also feels brandable and trustworthy – great.&nbsp;</p>



<p>You’ve got a leg up in memorability and signaling relevance.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But if you&#8217;re chasing keyword matches for their own sake, the return may not justify the effort.</p>



<p>Here’s the shift: EMDs used to work because they matched the query.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Today, they work if they support a strong brand identity.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: </em></strong><a href="https://searchengineland.com/choose-seo-friendly-domain-name-447840"><strong><em>How to choose an SEO-friendly domain name</em></strong></a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brand-recognition-is-the-new-exact-match">Brand recognition is the new exact match</h2>



<p>Search engines, especially those powered by LLMs, increasingly prioritize brand recognition and authority over simple keyword matches.&nbsp;</p>



<p>LLMs don’t just look for words – they synthesize intent, context, and known entities.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That means the domain mentioned across high-authority content, link profiles, and user conversations is more likely to surface – not because it matches a keyword but because it matches a recognized brand.</p>



<p>Brandable domains have a huge advantage here. They’re easier to build equity into, easier to remember, and easier to grow.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If your domain <strong>sounds</strong> like a real brand, people will treat it like one – and so will search engines.</p>



<p>In other words, the domain you’ve been building up as a brand is what ranks now, not just because of the words in the URL but also because of the reputation behind them.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: </em></strong><a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-imperative-brand-building-453277"><strong><em>The new SEO imperative: Building your brand</em></strong></a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brandable-beats-literal">Brandable beats literal</h2>



<p>In today’s ecosystem, what’s often more valuable than a literal match is a domain that’s:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Memorable.</li>



<li>Spellable (especially over voice or radio).</li>



<li>Brandable (flexible enough to evolve).</li>



<li>Unique (so you can dominate search results for it).</li>
</ul>



<p>Just a tip from someone who’s seen a few things. If your domain doesn’t pass the radio test – if people can’t easily spell it or remember it after hearing it – you’ll lose traffic.&nbsp;</p>



<p>You know how nothing ruins a good joke like the need to explain it?&nbsp;</p>



<p>The same applies to domain name spellings. And that’s not something even great SEO can fix.</p>



<p>Voice search, AI assistants, and podcast shoutouts all require clarity and ease of recognition.&nbsp;</p>



<p>We’re not just building for search engines anymore but for humans who engage with content across audio, video, and conversational interfaces.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-exact-match-still-has-an-edge">When exact match still has an edge</h2>



<p>Let’s not throw the EMD baby out with the bathwater.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are still scenarios where an exact match or partial match domain can be a smart move.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-affiliate-and-review-sites">Affiliate and review sites</h3>



<p>Especially in highly specific niches, a well-chosen EMD can signal relevance and drive clicks – if paired with quality content.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-local-seo">Local SEO</h3>



<p>A domain like napervilleplumber.com still carries weight, especially for small businesses with limited branding budgets.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorausch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Dorausch</a> of Chiropractic Domains said:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>“In my experience, exact match domains haven’t lost value – especially geo-based ones. Domains like [city][keyword].com or [keyword][city].com are still popular and continue to sell for a premium. Just this week, pawnbroker.com was expected to go for over $20K at auction.”</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-early-stage-validation">Early-stage validation</h3>



<p>If you&#8217;re spinning up a quick MVP and want to test a niche, grabbing an EMD can help you validate demand before committing to a full brand buildout.</p>



<p>That said, Google’s understanding of domains has matured.</p>



<p>It’s less about the characters in the domain and more about the signals the domain has accumulated over time.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhartzer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Hartzer</a>, SEO and domain name consultant, shared:&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>“If you build a brand around your exact match domain – using it as your business name – you’ll naturally start earning links where the anchor text matches the domain. That can absolutely boost rankings, especially once Google starts to recognize it as a brand query, not just a keyword.”</li>



<li>“Bobbleheads.com is a great example – it’s both a generic term and a brand, and it took time (plus news mentions and authoritative links) before Google consistently treated it as a branded entity.”</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-this-means-for-seo-strategy">What this means for SEO strategy</h2>



<p>So, should you still buy an exact match domain in 2025?&nbsp;</p>



<p>Maybe – but only if it fits into a broader, brand-led strategy.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The domain alone won’t save you.&nbsp;</p>



<p>You need content, authority, consistency, and recognition across channels.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A great domain might open the door but won’t carry the conversation.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That’s where your brand comes in.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: </em></strong><a href="https://searchengineland.com/establish-brand-entity-for-seo-guide-427717"><strong><em>How to establish your brand entity for SEO: A 5-step guide</em></strong></a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-domain-gold-rush-is-over-but-it-s-not-dead">The domain gold rush is over – but it’s not dead</h2>



<p>We’re past the era where people flipped keyword domains like real estate.&nbsp;</p>



<p>But domains <strong>still</strong> matter.&nbsp;</p>



<p>We’re entering a more nuanced era in which the right domain – one that aligns with your brand and helps humans and AI find and trust you – has more long-term value than ever.</p>



<p>There’s freedom in that.&nbsp;</p>



<p>You’re no longer boxed into chasing the last available .com for your keyword. </p>



<p>You can get creative. </p>



<p>Find something that evokes the right emotion.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Build something people remember. Make it yours.</p>



<p>And make sure people can spell it.</p>



<p>Exact match domains might open doors, but brandable domains build relationships.</p>

In the early days of SEO, owning an exact match domain (EMD) was like holding a cheat code. 
If someone searched for “siamese kittens,” you could bet that siamesekittens.com would be sitting pretty at or near the top of the search results.
The algorithm heavily weighted the presence of keywords in the domain, and for a while, that simple trick delivered serious ROI.
But it’s 2025 now. 
AI has reshaped search, large language models (LLMs) are rewriting how answers are generated and delivered, and the rules of the game have changed.
So, what role – if any – do exact match domains still play?
The EMD of yesteryear: Keyword first, brand second
In the early 2010s, EMDs were so powerful that entrepreneurs snapped up keyword domains like real estate. 
It didn’t matter if the domain was awkward or forgettable – cheapcarinsurancequotes.com was printing traffic, and that’s what mattered.
But that short-term success came at a long-term cost: most EMDs weren’t built as brands. 
They were designed to match a keyword string, not to build trust or recognition.
Then came the backlash.
Google’s 2012 EMD update specifically targeted low-quality sites using EMDs to rank without offering real value. 
It didn’t kill EMDs outright but ended the gravy train for those relying on the domain name alone. 
And since then, the emphasis on quality, content, and brand authority has only grown stronger.
The 2025 lens: Exact match still matters – but not like it used to
Fast forward to now, and it’s clear: exact match domains can still carry value, but that value has shifted.
If you’re launching a site today and manage to get a clean, keyword-rich domain that also feels brandable and trustworthy – great. 
You’ve got a leg up in memorability and signaling relevance. 
But if you’re chasing keyword matches for their own sake, the return may not justify the effort.
Here’s the shift: EMDs used to work because they matched the query. 
Today, they work if they support a strong brand identity.
Dig deeper: How to choose an SEO-friendly domain name
Brand recognition is the new exact match
Search engines, especially those powered by LLMs, increasingly prioritize brand recognition and authority over simple keyword matches. 
LLMs don’t just look for words – they synthesize intent, context, and known entities. 
That means the domain mentioned across high-authority content, link profiles, and user conversations is more likely to surface – not because it matches a keyword but because it matches a recognized brand.
Brandable domains have a huge advantage here. They’re easier to build equity into, easier to remember, and easier to grow. 
If your domain sounds like a real brand, people will treat it like one – and so will search engines.
In other words, the domain you’ve been building up as a brand is what ranks now, not just because of the words in the URL but also because of the reputation behind them.
Dig deeper: The new SEO imperative: Building your brand
Brandable beats literal
In today’s ecosystem, what’s often more valuable than a literal match is a domain that’s:
Memorable.
Spellable (especially over voice or radio).
Brandable (flexible enough to evolve).
Unique (so you can dominate search results for it).
Just a tip from someone who’s seen a few things. If your domain doesn’t pass the radio test – if people can’t easily spell it or remember it after hearing it – you’ll lose traffic. 
You know how nothing ruins a good joke like the need to explain it? 
The same applies to domain name spellings. And that’s not something even great SEO can fix.
Voice search, AI assistants, and podcast shoutouts all require clarity and ease of recognition. 
We’re not just building for search engines anymore but for humans who engage with content across audio, video, and conversational interfaces.

					
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See terms.
When exact match still has an edge
Let’s not throw the EMD baby out with the bathwater. 
There are still scenarios where an exact match or partial match domain can be a smart move.
Affiliate and review sites
Especially in highly specific niches, a well-chosen EMD can signal relevance and drive clicks – if paired with quality content.
Local SEO
A domain like napervilleplumber.com still carries weight, especially for small businesses with limited branding budgets.
Michael Dorausch of Chiropractic Domains said:
“In my experience, exact match domains haven’t lost value – especially geo-based ones. Domains like [city][keyword].com or [keyword][city].com are still popular and continue to sell for a premium. Just this week, pawnbroker.com was expected to go for over $20K at auction.”
Early-stage validation
If you’re spinning up a quick MVP and want to test a niche, grabbing an EMD can help you validate demand before committing to a full brand buildout.
That said, Google’s understanding of domains has matured.
It’s less about the characters in the domain and more about the signals the domain has accumulated over time.
Bill Hartzer, SEO and domain name consultant, shared: 
“If you build a brand around your exact match domain – using it as your business name – you’ll naturally start earning links where the anchor text matches the domain. That can absolutely boost rankings, especially once Google starts to recognize it as a brand query, not just a keyword.”
“Bobbleheads.com is a great example – it’s both a generic term and a brand, and it took time (plus news mentions and authoritative links) before Google consistently treated it as a branded entity.”
What this means for SEO strategy
So, should you still buy an exact match domain in 2025? 
Maybe – but only if it fits into a broader, brand-led strategy. 
The domain alone won’t save you. 
You need content, authority, consistency, and recognition across channels. 
A great domain might open the door but won’t carry the conversation. 
That’s where your brand comes in.
Dig deeper: How to establish your brand entity for SEO: A 5-step guide
The domain gold rush is over – but it’s not dead
We’re past the era where people flipped keyword domains like real estate. 
But domains still matter. 
We’re entering a more nuanced era in which the right domain – one that aligns with your brand and helps humans and AI find and trust you – has more long-term value than ever.
There’s freedom in that. 
You’re no longer boxed into chasing the last available .com for your keyword. 
You can get creative. 
Find something that evokes the right emotion. 
Build something people remember. Make it yours.
And make sure people can spell it.
Exact match domains might open doors, but brandable domains build relationships.

Search engines favor authority and branding over keywords alone. Find out how to make your domain work for you.

Do exact match domains have value in 2025?

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Why your site got deindexed from Google and what to do about it" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Deindexing isn’t always a penalty. Learn how technical SEO mistakes, crawl issues, and content quality affect Google indexing.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Why your site got deindexed from Google and what to do about it" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Why-your-site-got-deindexed-from-Google-and-what-to-do-about-it.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>If your website suddenly disappears from Google search results, it can be a stressful experience.</p>



<p>A significant drop in traffic with no clear explanation and the absence of a penalty usually means your site, in the eyes of Google, has fallen out of favor and potentially below the quality threshold.</p>



<p>This article explains why sites get deindexed, what to check first, and how to recover if it happens to you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-does-deindexed-mean">What does ‘deindexed’ mean?</h2>



<p>When a page or a whole website is deindexed, it means Google has removed it from its search index.&nbsp;</p>



<p>As a result, your site won&#8217;t appear in search results for any keywords, not even when you search your domain name.</p>



<p>Sometimes, you may be partially deindexed, in which some pages may still be indexed and served by Google, but the vast majority of specific subfolders are removed from both serving and <a href="https://searchengineland.com/content-indexing-seo-google-bing-453748">indexing</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-google-might-deindex-a-site">Why Google might deindex a site</h2>



<p>Whether it&#8217;s a technical mistake, a manual action, or a broader trust issue, understanding the root cause is the first step to getting your site back on track.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Below are some common reasons why Google might deindex a site and what to look for in each case.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rogue-noindex-directive">Rogue noindex directive</h3>



<p>If your pages have a &lt;meta name=&#8221;robots&#8221; content=&#8221;noindex&#8221;> tag or an X-Robots-Tag: noindex HTTP header, Google will remove them from the index after crawling them.</p>



<p>From experience, this is most likely to occur when:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A developer has misapplied a noindex sitewide when it was meant for specific pages.</li>



<li>The noindex directive from staging is pushed to production during a deployment.</li>



<li>Issues with CMS plugins setting noindex on large portions of the content.</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-robots-txt-blocking-crawling">Robots.txt blocking crawling</h3>



<p>The <a href="https://searchengineland.com/robots-txt-seo-453779">robots.txt </a>file tells Googlebot which subfolder it is allowed to crawl.</p>



<p>If it blocks important areas of the site, such as <code>/blog/</code> or <code>/products/</code>, Google may be unable to access, process, and index your content.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This doesn&#8217;t directly cause deindexing, but it can lead to compounding issues such as:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Inability to access pages.</li>



<li>There is no way for Google to confirm if noindex or other directives have changed.</li>



<li>Gradual drop in visibility if your pages are considered stale or inaccessible.</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-server-issues">Server issues</h3>



<p>A <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-fix-server-error-5xx-error-453084">5xx server error</a> appears when your server is unavailable while Googlebot attempts to crawl your site.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Google could alter its crawling strategy if it detects multiple server errors from your site.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Crawl your site less often.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Temporarily remove inaccessible pages from the index.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<p>This won&#8217;t cause immediate deindexing, but it can get worse over time.</p>



<p>Googlebot may reduce its crawl rate if your server struggles to handle its requests and regular user traffic. </p>



<p>This can slow the discovery of new or updated content.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-web-application-firewall-waf-issues">Web application firewall (WAF) issues</h3>



<p>Firewalls, DDoS protection systems (like Cloudflare), or server security rules can accidentally block Googlebot.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This is becoming more prevalent as CDNs respond to AI platforms&#8217; increased crawl activities.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The desire to block Google Gemini has caused the accidental blocking of Googlebot.</p>



<p>You must make sure to allow Googlebot&#8217;s IP ranges, user-agent, and any other <a href="https://searchengineland.com/web-crawlers-guide-452505">search engine crawlers</a> that drive valuable traffic to your site.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dns-issues">DNS issues</h3>



<p>When Googlebot tries to crawl your site, it first resolves your domain name to an IP address using DNS.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If your DNS server is misconfigured, slow, or unavailable, Googlebot can&#8217;t find your site.</p>



<p>If your domain isn&#8217;t correctly pointing to your web server (e.g., wrong A record or CNAME), Googlebot might crawl the wrong server or receive 404/5xx errors, which affects indexing.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-javascript-rendering-issues">JavaScript rendering issues</h3>



<p>Search engines might have trouble rendering if your website is built with JavaScript frameworks like React or Vue.&nbsp;</p>



<p>When this happens, Google may crawl your site but not find any content, leading to a drop in indexing.</p>



<p>It’s common for ecommerce websites to be shown in <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-seo-guide-443942">Google Search Console</a>, as Google overrides the canonical and points to a random page or product page.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/diagnosing-common-javascript-seo-issues-guide-429178">A guide to diagnosing common JavaScript SEO issues</a></em></strong></p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-recovering-after-deindexing">Recovering after deindexing</h2>



<p>Recovering from de-indexing varies by issue since restoring your site&#8217;s status might require an extended and complex process.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Addressing technical problems at the initial stage enables quicker recovery than fixing site quality or user experience problems.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-review-and-improve-your-content">Review and improve your content</h2>



<p>Take a close look at your site&#8217;s content. </p>



<p>Identify any pages that are: </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Low in quality.</li>



<li>Duplicated from other websites.</li>



<li>Auto-generated.</li>



<li>Packed with keywords.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<p>Google wants <a href="https://searchengineland.com/what-is-helpful-content-google-387360">helpful, original content</a> that serves users, not pages created to game the system.</p>



<p>If most of your content falls short of this standard, you must rewrite or remove the affected pages.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Focus on building valuable, user-friendly content that answers fundamental questions or solves problems.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-content-optimization-guide-445084">The complete guide to optimizing content for SEO (with checklist)</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-resolve-any-technical-seo-issues">Resolve any technical SEO issues</h2>



<p>Technical errors are a common cause of unintentional deindexing.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Beyond the <a href="https://searchengineland.com/what-is-technical-seo-434963">technical SEO</a> basics of blockers in your robots.txt file or accidental noindex being pushed, other technical issues can go undetected by essential technical auditing tools that can cause mass deindexing.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-after-fixing-the-issues">After fixing the issues</h2>



<p>Once you&#8217;ve fixed the issues, you can submit a reconsideration request through Google Search Console if manual action was applied.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Be honest and specific about what you&#8217;ve done to resolve the problem. It can take a few weeks to hear back.</p>



<p>If your site was deindexed due to a technical error and not a penalty, you won&#8217;t need a reconsideration request.</p>



<p>In that case, re-submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and wait for Google to crawl your site.</p>



<p>While you wait for your pages to be re-indexed, you can still <a href="https://searchengineland.com/diversify-traffic-sources-450247">drive traffic from other sources</a>, such as social media or email.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This won&#8217;t replace search traffic in the long term but can help keep things moving.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-staying-indexed-in-the-future">Staying indexed in the future</h2>



<p>After recovering, you must maintain vigilant oversight of your website&#8217;s performance. Keep your content updated and valuable.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Monitor your index status and backlinks regularly.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Steer clear of easy fixes, such as purchasing backlinks or duplicating other people&#8217;s content.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Google needs to ensure full access to all published JavaScript-intensive site content.</p>



<p>Deindexing doesn&#8217;t always come with a warning.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Signs of trouble emerge gradually through a drop in impressions and pages that vanish from search results without notice.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Detecting these issues is possible through API monitoring and ongoing technical health checks of your website.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-final-thoughts-nbsp">Final thoughts&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Experiencing deindexing from Google might seem like a significant problem, but recovery is possible.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Your site will regain presence in search results if you identify the root cause, adequately address the situation, and conduct follow-up actions with Google.</p>



<p>You should respond swiftly while focusing on sustained quality instead of temporary solutions. </p>



<p>After re-indexing your pages, you will be better positioned to handle future issues.</p>

If your website suddenly disappears from Google search results, it can be a stressful experience.
A significant drop in traffic with no clear explanation and the absence of a penalty usually means your site, in the eyes of Google, has fallen out of favor and potentially below the quality threshold.
This article explains why sites get deindexed, what to check first, and how to recover if it happens to you.
What does ‘deindexed’ mean?
When a page or a whole website is deindexed, it means Google has removed it from its search index. 
As a result, your site won’t appear in search results for any keywords, not even when you search your domain name.
Sometimes, you may be partially deindexed, in which some pages may still be indexed and served by Google, but the vast majority of specific subfolders are removed from both serving and indexing.
Why Google might deindex a site
Whether it’s a technical mistake, a manual action, or a broader trust issue, understanding the root cause is the first step to getting your site back on track. 
Below are some common reasons why Google might deindex a site and what to look for in each case.
Rogue noindex directive
If your pages have a <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> tag or an X-Robots-Tag: noindex HTTP header, Google will remove them from the index after crawling them.
From experience, this is most likely to occur when:
A developer has misapplied a noindex sitewide when it was meant for specific pages.
The noindex directive from staging is pushed to production during a deployment.
Issues with CMS plugins setting noindex on large portions of the content.
Robots.txt blocking crawling
The robots.txt file tells Googlebot which subfolder it is allowed to crawl.
If it blocks important areas of the site, such as /blog/ or /products/, Google may be unable to access, process, and index your content. 
This doesn’t directly cause deindexing, but it can lead to compounding issues such as:
Inability to access pages.
There is no way for Google to confirm if noindex or other directives have changed.
Gradual drop in visibility if your pages are considered stale or inaccessible.
Server issues
A 5xx server error appears when your server is unavailable while Googlebot attempts to crawl your site. 
Google could alter its crawling strategy if it detects multiple server errors from your site.
Crawl your site less often. 
Temporarily remove inaccessible pages from the index. 
This won’t cause immediate deindexing, but it can get worse over time.
Googlebot may reduce its crawl rate if your server struggles to handle its requests and regular user traffic. 
This can slow the discovery of new or updated content.
Web application firewall (WAF) issues
Firewalls, DDoS protection systems (like Cloudflare), or server security rules can accidentally block Googlebot. 
This is becoming more prevalent as CDNs respond to AI platforms’ increased crawl activities. 
The desire to block Google Gemini has caused the accidental blocking of Googlebot.
You must make sure to allow Googlebot’s IP ranges, user-agent, and any other search engine crawlers that drive valuable traffic to your site.
DNS issues
When Googlebot tries to crawl your site, it first resolves your domain name to an IP address using DNS. 
If your DNS server is misconfigured, slow, or unavailable, Googlebot can’t find your site.
If your domain isn’t correctly pointing to your web server (e.g., wrong A record or CNAME), Googlebot might crawl the wrong server or receive 404/5xx errors, which affects indexing.
JavaScript rendering issues
Search engines might have trouble rendering if your website is built with JavaScript frameworks like React or Vue. 
When this happens, Google may crawl your site but not find any content, leading to a drop in indexing.
It’s common for ecommerce websites to be shown in Google Search Console, as Google overrides the canonical and points to a random page or product page.
Dig deeper: A guide to diagnosing common JavaScript SEO issues

					
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See terms.
Recovering after deindexing
Recovering from de-indexing varies by issue since restoring your site’s status might require an extended and complex process. 
Addressing technical problems at the initial stage enables quicker recovery than fixing site quality or user experience problems.
Review and improve your content
Take a close look at your site’s content. 
Identify any pages that are: 
Low in quality.
Duplicated from other websites.
Auto-generated.
Packed with keywords. 
Google wants helpful, original content that serves users, not pages created to game the system.
If most of your content falls short of this standard, you must rewrite or remove the affected pages. 
Focus on building valuable, user-friendly content that answers fundamental questions or solves problems.
Dig deeper: The complete guide to optimizing content for SEO (with checklist)
Resolve any technical SEO issues
Technical errors are a common cause of unintentional deindexing. 
Beyond the technical SEO basics of blockers in your robots.txt file or accidental noindex being pushed, other technical issues can go undetected by essential technical auditing tools that can cause mass deindexing.
After fixing the issues
Once you’ve fixed the issues, you can submit a reconsideration request through Google Search Console if manual action was applied. 
Be honest and specific about what you’ve done to resolve the problem. It can take a few weeks to hear back.
If your site was deindexed due to a technical error and not a penalty, you won’t need a reconsideration request.
In that case, re-submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and wait for Google to crawl your site.
While you wait for your pages to be re-indexed, you can still drive traffic from other sources, such as social media or email. 
This won’t replace search traffic in the long term but can help keep things moving.
Staying indexed in the future
After recovering, you must maintain vigilant oversight of your website’s performance. Keep your content updated and valuable. 
Monitor your index status and backlinks regularly. 
Steer clear of easy fixes, such as purchasing backlinks or duplicating other people’s content. 
Google needs to ensure full access to all published JavaScript-intensive site content.
Deindexing doesn’t always come with a warning. 
Signs of trouble emerge gradually through a drop in impressions and pages that vanish from search results without notice. 
Detecting these issues is possible through API monitoring and ongoing technical health checks of your website.
Final thoughts 
Experiencing deindexing from Google might seem like a significant problem, but recovery is possible. 
Your site will regain presence in search results if you identify the root cause, adequately address the situation, and conduct follow-up actions with Google.
You should respond swiftly while focusing on sustained quality instead of temporary solutions. 
After re-indexing your pages, you will be better positioned to handle future issues.

Deindexing isn’t always a penalty. Learn how technical SEO mistakes, crawl issues, and content quality affect Google indexing.

Why your site got deindexed from Google and what to do about it

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Discover how AI-powered search is reshaping SEO and what your brand needs to do to thrive.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-800x450.png" alt="" class="wp-image-446552" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2024/09/Join-our-webinar-save-your-seat.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></figure>



<p>AI-powered search is changing fast. Are you ready?</p>



<p>Join our expert panelists for <a href="https://www.bigmarker.com/third-door-media/the-impact-of-chatgpt-and-generative-ai-on-search-insights-from-industry-experts?utm_bmcr_source=sitepost"><strong>The Impact of ChatGPT and Generative AI on Search: Insights from Industry Experts</strong></a> where they will dive deep into the evolving landscape of AI and search marketing. In this insightful session you&#8217;ll discover:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>How AI search is reshaping SEO and what it means for your strategy.</li>



<li>Practical tips to optimize your content for AI tools</li>



<li>Why brand awareness and authoritative content are crucial for success in AI-powered search.</li>
</ul>



<p>Whether you&#8217;re an SEO professional, marketer, or business leader, this webinar offers the strategic insights you need to stay competitive in an AI-driven digital world. <strong><a href="https://www.bigmarker.com/third-door-media/the-impact-of-chatgpt-and-generative-ai-on-search-insights-from-industry-experts?utm_bmcr_source=sitepost">Save your spot today!</a></strong></p>



<p></p>


AI-powered search is changing fast. Are you ready?
Join our expert panelists for The Impact of ChatGPT and Generative AI on Search: Insights from Industry Experts where they will dive deep into the evolving landscape of AI and search marketing. In this insightful session you’ll discover:
How AI search is reshaping SEO and what it means for your strategy.
Practical tips to optimize your content for AI tools
Why brand awareness and authoritative content are crucial for success in AI-powered search.
Whether you’re an SEO professional, marketer, or business leader, this webinar offers the strategic insights you need to stay competitive in an AI-driven digital world. Save your spot today!

Discover how AI-powered search is reshaping SEO and what your brand needs to do to thrive.

The impact of ChatGPT and generative AI on search by Edna Chavira

<div><img width="800" height="534" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-800x534.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-800x534.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-507x338.jpg 507w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-169x113.jpg 169w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-768x512.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-150x100.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Advertisers have been complaining all day about being unable to manage their LSAs.

<div><img width="800" height="534" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-800x534.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-800x534.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-507x338.jpg 507w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-169x113.jpg 169w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-768x512.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920-150x100.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2022/07/google-broken-1920.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>Google has confirmed issues with the Local Service Ads advertiser console and said they are &#8220;investigating and working to resolve this with high priority.&#8221;</p>



<p>Since this morning, advertisers trying to access the Google Local Service Ads advertiser console have been hit by timeouts, 500 status codes and other errors preventing them from manage LSAs.</p>



<p><strong>Confirmation.</strong> Ginny Marvin, Google&#8217;s Ads Liaison, confirmed the issue on X just minutes ago:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The team is investigating and working to resolve this with high priority.</p>&mdash; AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) <a href="https://twitter.com/adsliaison/status/1907507226711044248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p><strong>The issue. </strong>There are a number of complaints on social media about LSAs not being accessible. Here are some of those complaints, some starting around 8 am ET this morning: </p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Was wrong! It is down, you cant log into anything and or create a new profile. I keep getting the gemini logo LOL or the broken robot logo.</p>&mdash; Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyHigman/status/1907484719400231420?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">thats affirmative &#8211; supposedly an ICS issue</p>&mdash; Chris Barnard (@CPBarnard) <a href="https://twitter.com/CPBarnard/status/1907488653057863826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s almost always glitchy but today is worse. I’ve been getting the 500 for hours.</p>&mdash; Cody (@cojack90) <a href="https://twitter.com/cojack90/status/1907469873942598024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>Google has yet to post about this issue on the <a href="https://ads.google.com/status/publisher/">Google Ads status console</a>.</p>



<p><strong>Why we care. </strong>If you have been having issues managing your Google Local Service Ads, you should know you are not alone.  Many advertisers have been having issues all day long. And while LSAs often have issues in the console, these issues today seem a lot worse.</p>



<p>So hang tight, Google is working on addressing the issues.</p>



<p><strong>Update. </strong>At around 6pm ET, this was resolved:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Glad to hear it, Anthony. Confirming this has been resolved. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience.</p>&mdash; AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) <a href="https://twitter.com/adsliaison/status/1907553797364437377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>


Google has confirmed issues with the Local Service Ads advertiser console and said they are “investigating and working to resolve this with high priority.”
Since this morning, advertisers trying to access the Google Local Service Ads advertiser console have been hit by timeouts, 500 status codes and other errors preventing them from manage LSAs.
Confirmation. Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, confirmed the issue on X just minutes ago:


The team is investigating and working to resolve this with high priority.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) April 2, 2025





The issue. There are a number of complaints on social media about LSAs not being accessible. Here are some of those complaints, some starting around 8 am ET this morning: 


Was wrong! It is down, you cant log into anything and or create a new profile. I keep getting the gemini logo LOL or the broken robot logo.
— Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) April 2, 2025






thats affirmative – supposedly an ICS issue
— Chris Barnard (@CPBarnard) April 2, 2025






It’s almost always glitchy but today is worse. I’ve been getting the 500 for hours.
— Cody (@cojack90) April 2, 2025





Google has yet to post about this issue on the Google Ads status console.
Why we care. If you have been having issues managing your Google Local Service Ads, you should know you are not alone.  Many advertisers have been having issues all day long. And while LSAs often have issues in the console, these issues today seem a lot worse.
So hang tight, Google is working on addressing the issues.
Update. At around 6pm ET, this was resolved:


Glad to hear it, Anthony. Confirming this has been resolved. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) April 2, 2025

Advertisers have been complaining all day about being unable to manage their LSAs.

Google working on restoring Local Service Ads advertiser console

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-800x450.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="TikTok" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-800x450.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-600x338.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-200x113.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-768x432.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-150x84.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Amazon's last-minute TikTok bid comes days before the video app faces a potential U.S. shutdown, though the offer isn't being taken seriously.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-800x450.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="TikTok" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-800x450.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-600x338.jpg 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-200x113.jpg 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-768x432.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon-150x84.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/07/tiktok-amazon.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>Amazon unexpectedly entered the race to acquire TikTok just days before the video app faces a potential U.S. shutdown, dramatically reshaping the competitive landscape for one of social media&#8217;s most valuable properties.</p>



<p><strong>Driving the news</strong>. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14564177/Amazon-bid-buy-tik-tok-ban.html">Amazon has sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance</a> and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressing last-minute interest in acquiring TikTok in its entirety, according the New York Times.</p>



<p><strong>Between the lines</strong>. Administration officials are reportedly not taking Amazon&#8217;s bid seriously at this stage, viewing it as a last-ditch effort that may complicate an already chaotic situation.</p>



<p><strong>Details. </strong>TikTok hosts approximately 170 million U.S. users, counting as nearly half of the American population. The platform has evolved into a major ecommerce channel, generating millions in daily sales</p>



<p><strong>The big picture</strong>. <a href="https://searchengineland.com/us-house-passes-bill-tiktok-bytedance-sell-ban-438392">TikTok faces an April deadline to sever ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance</a> or cease U.S. operations, following legislation signed by former President Biden in April 2024.</p>



<p><strong>State of play.</strong> Multiple tech giants have expressed interest in acquiring the platform:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Oracle, Walmart, and Microsoft are reportedly in discussions.</li>



<li>Even popular content creator Mr. Beast is rumored to be involved in acquisition talks.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>The intrigue</strong>. Despite initially pushing for a TikTok ban during his first term, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/tiktok-ban-faces-uncertain-future-under-trumps-return-448074">President Trump has reversed course</a> and fought to keep the platform operational in the U.S., defying bipartisan legislation and court rulings.</p>



<p><strong>Flashback</strong>. <a href="https://searchengineland.com/tiktok-restores-us-service-trump-450932">TikTok briefly went dark</a> Jan. 19 after ByteDance failed to secure a U.S. buyer, but was reinstated hours later following intervention from the Trump administration.</p>



<p><strong>What to watch</strong>. With the deadline approaching this Saturday, TikTok&#8217;s fate hangs in balance as potential buyers jockey for position and political forces continue to shape the outcome</p>


Amazon unexpectedly entered the race to acquire TikTok just days before the video app faces a potential U.S. shutdown, dramatically reshaping the competitive landscape for one of social media’s most valuable properties.
Driving the news. Amazon has sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressing last-minute interest in acquiring TikTok in its entirety, according the New York Times.
Between the lines. Administration officials are reportedly not taking Amazon’s bid seriously at this stage, viewing it as a last-ditch effort that may complicate an already chaotic situation.
Details. TikTok hosts approximately 170 million U.S. users, counting as nearly half of the American population. The platform has evolved into a major ecommerce channel, generating millions in daily sales
The big picture. TikTok faces an April deadline to sever ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance or cease U.S. operations, following legislation signed by former President Biden in April 2024.
State of play. Multiple tech giants have expressed interest in acquiring the platform:
Oracle, Walmart, and Microsoft are reportedly in discussions.
Even popular content creator Mr. Beast is rumored to be involved in acquisition talks.
The intrigue. Despite initially pushing for a TikTok ban during his first term, President Trump has reversed course and fought to keep the platform operational in the U.S., defying bipartisan legislation and court rulings.
Flashback. TikTok briefly went dark Jan. 19 after ByteDance failed to secure a U.S. buyer, but was reinstated hours later following intervention from the Trump administration.
What to watch. With the deadline approaching this Saturday, TikTok’s fate hangs in balance as potential buyers jockey for position and political forces continue to shape the outcome

Amazon's last-minute TikTok bid comes days before the video app faces a potential U.S. shutdown, though the offer isn't being taken seriously.

Amazon makes surprise bid for TikTok ahead of U.S. ban deadline

<div><img width="800" height="457" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-800x457.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-800x457.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-592x338.jpg 592w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-198x113.jpg 198w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-768x439.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-1536x878.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-150x86.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>More queries in the entertainment, restaurants, and travel industries are triggering Google's AI Overviews since the core update.

<div><img width="800" height="457" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-800x457.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-800x457.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-592x338.jpg 592w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-198x113.jpg 198w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-768x439.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-1536x878.jpg 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920-150x86.jpg 150w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2023/09/google-core-update-1920.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>Google&#8217;s <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-everything-you-need-to-know-449399">AI Overviews</a> expanded greatly in three sectors – entertainment, restaurants, and travel – during the March 2025 core update.</p>



<p><strong>By the numbers.</strong> Between March 13 and 27, according to data shared with Search Engine Land by enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge, the presence of AI Overviews grew by:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>528%</strong> for entertainment queries (e.g., [Julia Roberts movies], [Movies filmed in Chicago]).</li>



<li><strong>387%</strong> for restaurant queries (e.g., [date night restaurants], [Thai restaurant near me], [downtown restaurants]).</li>



<li><strong>381% </strong>for travel queries (e.g., [things to do in Santa Fe], [things to do in Hawaii], [things to do in Las Vegas]).</li>
</ul>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update.jpg"><img decoding="async" width="1844" height="1054" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-453843" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update.jpg 1844w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update-591x338.jpg 591w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update-800x457.jpg 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update-198x113.jpg 198w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update-768x439.jpg 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/google-ai-overviews-spike-core-update-1536x878.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1844px) 100vw, 1844px" /></a></figure></div>


<p><strong>But.</strong> Part of the reason for these high percentage increases is because these three industries historically have triggered AI Overviews less often when compared to categories like healthcare and education.</p>



<p><strong>Why we care.</strong> If you do SEO for brands or businesses in the entertainment, restaurant, or travel industries, you should check whether AI Overviews are now appearing in Google SERPs on any mission-critical keywords, as this could alter your traffic and click-through rates from search. Even if your rankings haven&#8217;t changed, your traffic could be impacted by the arrival of AI Overviews.</p>



<p><strong>What to do?</strong> Here are three areas to focus on, according to Jim Yu, founder and executive chair of BrightEdge:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Create content that supports decision-making, including activities and ideas for things to do.</li>



<li>Track and refresh content that matches shifting seasonal interest.</li>



<li>Optimize for entity-driven searches, especially in entertainment or around prominent people in your organization</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>The core update.</strong> <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2025-core-update-rolling-out-now-453253">Google&#8217;s March 2025 core update</a> started rolling out March 13 and <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-march-2025-core-update-rollout-is-now-complete-453364">completed March 27</a>. Barry Schwartz dug into the impact in <a href="https://searchengineland.com/data-providers-google-march-2025-core-update-had-similar-volatility-to-the-previous-update-453778">Data providers: Google March 2025 core update had similar volatility to the previous update.</a></p>



<p></p>


Google’s AI Overviews expanded greatly in three sectors – entertainment, restaurants, and travel – during the March 2025 core update.
By the numbers. Between March 13 and 27, according to data shared with Search Engine Land by enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge, the presence of AI Overviews grew by:
528% for entertainment queries (e.g., [Julia Roberts movies], [Movies filmed in Chicago]).
387% for restaurant queries (e.g., [date night restaurants], [Thai restaurant near me], [downtown restaurants]).
381% for travel queries (e.g., [things to do in Santa Fe], [things to do in Hawaii], [things to do in Las Vegas]).

But. Part of the reason for these high percentage increases is because these three industries historically have triggered AI Overviews less often when compared to categories like healthcare and education.
Why we care. If you do SEO for brands or businesses in the entertainment, restaurant, or travel industries, you should check whether AI Overviews are now appearing in Google SERPs on any mission-critical keywords, as this could alter your traffic and click-through rates from search. Even if your rankings haven’t changed, your traffic could be impacted by the arrival of AI Overviews.
What to do? Here are three areas to focus on, according to Jim Yu, founder and executive chair of BrightEdge:
Create content that supports decision-making, including activities and ideas for things to do.
Track and refresh content that matches shifting seasonal interest.
Optimize for entity-driven searches, especially in entertainment or around prominent people in your organization
The core update. Google’s March 2025 core update started rolling out March 13 and completed March 27. Barry Schwartz dug into the impact in Data providers: Google March 2025 core update had similar volatility to the previous update.

More queries in the entertainment, restaurants, and travel industries are triggering Google's AI Overviews since the core update.

Google AI Overviews spiked during March 2025 core update

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>Learn how Google matches your display keywords, how they function for content and audience targeting, and best practices.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Week-13-landscape-cover.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div><div style="padding: 177.78% 0 0 0; position: relative;"><iframe style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" title="Google Ads Display Keywords: A Quick Guide" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1071493766?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>
<p><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script></p>


<p></p>



<p>Did you know that display keywords in Google Ads act as both content and audience targeting? </p>



<p>This seemingly straightforward Google Ads feature has some surprising nuances, which is why we’re diving in today.</p>



<p>This article will cover:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>What are display keywords in Google Ads?</li>



<li>How Google matches your display keywords to websites and videos</li>



<li>How Google turns your display keywords into audience targeting</li>



<li>Best practices for using display keywords</li>



<li>The role of negative display keywords</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-are-display-keywords-in-google-ads">What are display keywords in Google Ads?</h2>



<p>Display keywords are one of the three content targeting options available for display and video campaigns in Google Ads. Those other options, by the way, are topics and placements.</p>



<p>You might assume that by adding keywords to your display or video campaign means your ads will only show on pages/video containing those exact keywords, but that&#8217;s not the case.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-google-matches-your-display-keywords-to-websites-and-videos">How Google matches your display keywords to websites and videos</h2>



<p>The Google Display Network is vast, spanning over 3 million websites and apps (including YouTube), with new URLs popping up all the time. </p>



<p>Google analyzes each one to understand its theme, language, and structure. </p>



<p>I like to think of this like how the dynamic ad targeting algorithm analyzes pages for search ads. But that’s a “Jyll explanation,” not an insinuation that these technologies are related.</p>



<p>Anyway, this analysis helps Google determine the keywords that should be associated with a page, app or video. So, when you use keywords in your display or video campaign, Google matches them to the website or video&#8217;s content or central theme. </p>



<p>For example, if you&#8217;re using &#8220;AdWords&#8221; as a keyword, your ad might show on a video that mentions Google Ads, even if it doesn&#8217;t specifically say &#8220;AdWords.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-google-turns-your-display-keywords-into-audience-targeting">How Google turns your display keywords into audience targeting</h2>



<p>Here&#8217;s where it gets even more interesting: display keywords function as both content and audience targeting.</p>



<p>Your ads can appear on websites, apps, or videos that don&#8217;t even include your keyword, as long as Google knows the <em>user</em> is interested in that topic, according to Google.</p>



<p>Because of this, display keywords are a much broader type of ad targeting than you might initially think.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-best-practices-for-using-display-keywords">Best practices for using display keywords</h2>



<p>To make the most of your display keyword targeting, aim for 5 to 15 keywords per ad group. </p>



<p>I also recommend using keywords with at least two words to ensure they&#8217;re specific enough. For instance, use &#8220;Google Ads&#8221; instead of just &#8220;ads&#8221; or &#8220;Google&#8221;.</p>



<p>Branded keywords can also be effective for showing ads where your brand is mentioned or related topics are discussed. Yup, “Branded Display” can be a thing! But remember, your ads could also show to users who are interested in your brand, not just on pages or videos that mention your brand.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-role-of-negative-display-keywords">The role of negative display keywords</h2>



<p>Just like with search campaigns, you can also use negative display keywords. These function similarly to topic exclusions. </p>



<p>So, if you exclude &#8220;Google Ads&#8221; as a keyword, your ads won&#8217;t show on websites, apps, or videos related to Google Ads, even if they don&#8217;t use that exact phrase.</p>



<p>While I often prefer audience targeting solutions like custom segments or custom search terms, keywords can be a valuable tool to test in your display and video campaigns.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>This article is part of our ongoing weekly Search Engine Land series, Everything you need to know about Google Ads in less than 3 minutes. Every Wednesday, Jyll highlights a different Google Ads feature, and what you need to know to get the best results from it – all in a quick 3-minute read.</em></p>


Did you know that display keywords in Google Ads act as both content and audience targeting? 
This seemingly straightforward Google Ads feature has some surprising nuances, which is why we’re diving in today.
This article will cover:
What are display keywords in Google Ads?
How Google matches your display keywords to websites and videos
How Google turns your display keywords into audience targeting
Best practices for using display keywords
The role of negative display keywords
What are display keywords in Google Ads?
Display keywords are one of the three content targeting options available for display and video campaigns in Google Ads. Those other options, by the way, are topics and placements.
You might assume that by adding keywords to your display or video campaign means your ads will only show on pages/video containing those exact keywords, but that’s not the case.
How Google matches your display keywords to websites and videos
The Google Display Network is vast, spanning over 3 million websites and apps (including YouTube), with new URLs popping up all the time. 
Google analyzes each one to understand its theme, language, and structure. 
I like to think of this like how the dynamic ad targeting algorithm analyzes pages for search ads. But that’s a “Jyll explanation,” not an insinuation that these technologies are related.
Anyway, this analysis helps Google determine the keywords that should be associated with a page, app or video. So, when you use keywords in your display or video campaign, Google matches them to the website or video’s content or central theme. 
For example, if you’re using “AdWords” as a keyword, your ad might show on a video that mentions Google Ads, even if it doesn’t specifically say “AdWords.”
How Google turns your display keywords into audience targeting
Here’s where it gets even more interesting: display keywords function as both content and audience targeting.
Your ads can appear on websites, apps, or videos that don’t even include your keyword, as long as Google knows the user is interested in that topic, according to Google.
Because of this, display keywords are a much broader type of ad targeting than you might initially think.
Best practices for using display keywords
To make the most of your display keyword targeting, aim for 5 to 15 keywords per ad group. 
I also recommend using keywords with at least two words to ensure they’re specific enough. For instance, use “Google Ads” instead of just “ads” or “Google”.
Branded keywords can also be effective for showing ads where your brand is mentioned or related topics are discussed. Yup, “Branded Display” can be a thing! But remember, your ads could also show to users who are interested in your brand, not just on pages or videos that mention your brand.
The role of negative display keywords
Just like with search campaigns, you can also use negative display keywords. These function similarly to topic exclusions. 
So, if you exclude “Google Ads” as a keyword, your ads won’t show on websites, apps, or videos related to Google Ads, even if they don’t use that exact phrase.
While I often prefer audience targeting solutions like custom segments or custom search terms, keywords can be a valuable tool to test in your display and video campaigns. 
This article is part of our ongoing weekly Search Engine Land series, Everything you need to know about Google Ads in less than 3 minutes. Every Wednesday, Jyll highlights a different Google Ads feature, and what you need to know to get the best results from it – all in a quick 3-minute read.

Learn how Google matches your display keywords, how they function for content and audience targeting, and best practices.

Google Ads Display Keywords: Everything you need to know

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="LLMs are driving referral traffic – but what about engagement?" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>AI-driven referrals are surging, but user behavior is shifting. Learn what this means for website traffic and brand visibility.

<div><img width="800" height="450" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-800x450.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="LLMs are driving referral traffic – but what about engagement?" style="margin-bottom: 15px;" decoding="async" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-800x450.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-600x338.png 600w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-200x113.png 200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-768x432.png 768w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement-1536x864.png 1536w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/LLMs-are-driving-referral-traffic-–-but-what-about-engagement.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></div>
<p>From answering complex queries to generating creative content, <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-guide-large-language-models-413227">large language models</a> (LLMs) like <a href="https://searchengineland.com/what-is-chatgpt-and-why-seos-should-care-392165">ChatGPT</a>, Gemini, and others are becoming integral to how users seek and consume information online. </p>



<p>This technology presents a paradox for brands and website owners: the potential for new avenues of traffic generation alongside the growing challenge of <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-search-zero-click-study-2024-443869">zero-click results</a>.</p>



<p>The initial excitement surrounding LLMs often focuses on their ability to simplify workflows and provide instant answers.</p>



<p>However, for businesses that rely on website traffic for leads, sales, and brand visibility, the implications are far more nuanced.</p>



<p>While LLMs can act as powerful referral engines, directing users to relevant websites, they also have the capacity to satisfy <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-guide-user-intent-429687">user intent</a> directly within their interface.</p>



<p>This could potentially diminish the need for a website visit altogether and, thus, challenge a brand&#8217;s traditional presence online.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-promise-of-referral-traffic-a-new-discovery-channel">The promise of referral traffic: A new discovery channel</h2>



<p>Many LLMs are designed to provide comprehensive and accurate responses. </p>



<p>They also cite their sources, offering users the chance to explore topics further.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This presents a significant opportunity for brands to be discovered by users who might not have found them through traditional search engine results.</p>



<p>Imagine a user asking an LLM for recommendations on the best sustainable coffee brands.</p>



<p>After processing vast amounts of information, the LLM might list several brands and provide links to their websites.</p>



<p>This allows the user to explore the brands&#8217; offerings, read reviews, and make a purchase – all in one place.</p>



<p>This method replaces the traditional experience of clicking through several links to compare options.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Similarly, a user researching a medical condition might receive a summary from an LLM and links to reputable healthcare websites for more detailed information.</p>



<p>The key difference here lies in the user&#8217;s intent.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Unlike traditional search, where users actively type in keywords, LLMs respond to more natural language queries.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This enables LLMs to uncover brands and resources that might be less visible in standard search results.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This can be especially beneficial for niche businesses or those offering highly specific products.</p>



<p>As LLMs become more integrated into various platforms and applications, the potential for referral traffic could expand significantly.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For example, imagine an LLM embedded within a social media platform recommending products based on user conversations or a virtual assistant suggesting relevant services based on calendar entries.&nbsp;</p>



<p>These scenarios highlight the potential for LLMs to act as a new and dynamic discovery channel for brands.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/llms-are-disrupting-search-is-your-brand-ready-451031">LLMs are disrupting search – is your brand ready?</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-referral-traffic-growth-and-market-shifts">Tracking referral traffic growth and market shifts</h2>



<p>After analyzing the referring traffic over the past 12 months, I found steady growth in LLM-driven traffic.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Indexed against the average from the previous year (1 = average), referral traffic from LLMs has increased eightfold since March 2024.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This surge is largely due to the growing use of LLM tools and the continued inclusion of links, both as citations and direct links.&nbsp;</p>



<p>However, the data revealed an unexpected dip in December, contradicting expectations for strong holiday retail traffic growth.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="1200" height="742" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Indexed-LLM-referral-traffic.png" alt="Indexed LLM referral traffic" class="wp-image-453799" title="Chart" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Indexed-LLM-referral-traffic.png 1200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Indexed-LLM-referral-traffic-547x338.png 547w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Indexed-LLM-referral-traffic-800x495.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Indexed-LLM-referral-traffic-183x113.png 183w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Indexed-LLM-referral-traffic-768x475.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></figure></div>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shifts-in-llm-market-share-and-traffic-insights">Shifts in LLM market share and traffic insights</h3>



<p>Looking at the mix of LLMs driving traffic, there are a few notable takeaways:&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>ChatGPT has dominated referrals since August. Prior to that, referral traffic wasn’t smaller – it was due to different referral URLs from OpenAI and Microsoft, eventually shifting to ChatGPT (chatgpt.com vs. chat.openai.com). This migration shows the complicated relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft, which runs Bing.</li>



<li>While Perplexity’s referral traffic appears smaller, it has doubled over the past year. However, ChatGPT’s growth has been much faster, and it now has a larger market share.</li>



<li>Referral links from Meta are nearly nonexistent. The data shows only one month with double-digit referring traffic numbers. While Meta has significant volume due to LLaMA being integrated across its apps, there hasn’t been much referral traffic from its platforms.</li>
</ul>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" width="1200" height="742" src="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Referring-sources-by-LLM-traffic.png" alt="Referring sources by LLM traffic" class="wp-image-453800" title="Chart" srcset="https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Referring-sources-by-LLM-traffic.png 1200w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Referring-sources-by-LLM-traffic-547x338.png 547w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Referring-sources-by-LLM-traffic-800x495.png 800w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Referring-sources-by-LLM-traffic-183x113.png 183w, https://searchengineland.com/wp-content/seloads/2025/04/Referring-sources-by-LLM-traffic-768x475.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></figure></div>


<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/adapt-seo-strategy-stronger-ai-visibility-453641">6 easy ways to adapt your SEO strategy for stronger AI visibility</a></em></strong></p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-zero-click-conundrum-satisfying-intent-within-the-llm">The zero-click conundrum: Satisfying intent within the LLM</h2>



<p>While all this referring traffic is critical to understand, there’s another side to this: the rise of zero-click results.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This has been the goal of LLMs for some time and has long existed in traditional search through Google’s answer boxes, featured snippets, or Knowledge panels. </p>



<p>However, with LLMs, the impact is even more pronounced.</p>



<p>LLMs are designed to provide comprehensive answers directly within their interface.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If a user asks for the capital of France, the LLM will likely respond with “Paris” without linking to a website.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Similarly, if a user requests a summary of a recent news article, the LLM can generate a concise overview, negating the need to visit the original source.</p>



<p>This capability, while incredibly convenient for users, poses a significant challenge for websites that rely on traffic for revenue, lead generation, or brand building.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If the LLM can effectively answer a user&#8217;s question or fulfill their request without requiring a click, the website misses out on a potential visitor.</p>



<p>This is why you must develop a new approach beyond click-through traffic.&nbsp;</p>



<p>LLMs are designed to get to an answer and not take users away from the chat interface.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That makes visibility within these models even more critical in the decision-making process, even if there’s no direct attribution.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-defense-declining-organic-traffic-452569">Why SEO is your best defense against declining organic traffic</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-navigating-the-new-landscape-how-your-brand-can-adapt">Navigating the new landscape: How your brand can adapt</h2>



<p>As LLMs change how users discover content, refining your approach is key to staying competitive. Here’s how to adapt.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-focus-on-expertise-and-original-research">Focus on expertise and original research</h3>



<p>While LLMs can synthesize information, they often rely on existing content.&nbsp;</p>



<p>When you offer unique insights, original research, and deep expertise in your niche, you’ll likely be cited as a source and potentially earn referral traffic.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-optimize-for-natural-language-queries">Optimize for natural language queries</h3>



<p>Understanding how users phrase questions in natural language is crucial for content creation.</p>



<p>Optimizing content to answer these types of queries directly could increase the likelihood of an LLM citing your website.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-build-brand-authority">Build brand authority</h3>



<p>A strong brand reputation can increase the chances of an LLM recommending your website as a trusted source.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Focus on building credibility and thought leadership within your industry.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-explore-new-forms-of-engagement">Explore new forms of engagement</h3>



<p>As LLMs evolve, new ways to interact with them may emerge.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This could include developing specialized content formats or leveraging APIs to provide information directly to LLMs.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-monitor-llm-performance-and-attribution">Monitor LLM performance and attribution</h3>



<p>Actively track how LLMs reference your content and try to understand the attribution of any traffic you receive from these sources.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This will help refine strategies over time.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper:&nbsp;</em></strong><a href="https://searchengineland.com/segment-llm-traffic-ga4-449127"><strong><em>How to segment traffic from LLMs in GA4</em></strong></a></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-consider-the-user-experience">Consider the user experience</h3>



<p>Ultimately, the goal is to provide value to the user.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Even if a user doesn’t immediately click through to your website, the information provided by the LLM may lead them to consider your brand or seek out your products or services later.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That interaction can still be valuable.</p>



<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href="https://searchengineland.com/evolve-organic-approach-answer-engines-447352">How to evolve your organic approach for the rise of answer engines</a></em></strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-embracing-the-evolution">Embracing the evolution</h2>



<p>LLMs are fundamentally changing how users find and consume information.&nbsp;</p>



<p>While referral traffic is rising, zero-click results challenge traditional website engagement.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Brands that create authoritative content, optimize for natural language queries, and monitor attribution will be best positioned to remain visible – even when clicks aren’t guaranteed.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Adapting to this shift isn’t optional – it’s essential for long-term digital success.</p>

From answering complex queries to generating creative content, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others are becoming integral to how users seek and consume information online. 
This technology presents a paradox for brands and website owners: the potential for new avenues of traffic generation alongside the growing challenge of zero-click results.
The initial excitement surrounding LLMs often focuses on their ability to simplify workflows and provide instant answers.
However, for businesses that rely on website traffic for leads, sales, and brand visibility, the implications are far more nuanced.
While LLMs can act as powerful referral engines, directing users to relevant websites, they also have the capacity to satisfy user intent directly within their interface.
This could potentially diminish the need for a website visit altogether and, thus, challenge a brand’s traditional presence online.
The promise of referral traffic: A new discovery channel
Many LLMs are designed to provide comprehensive and accurate responses. 
They also cite their sources, offering users the chance to explore topics further. 
This presents a significant opportunity for brands to be discovered by users who might not have found them through traditional search engine results.
Imagine a user asking an LLM for recommendations on the best sustainable coffee brands.
After processing vast amounts of information, the LLM might list several brands and provide links to their websites.
This allows the user to explore the brands’ offerings, read reviews, and make a purchase – all in one place.
This method replaces the traditional experience of clicking through several links to compare options. 
Similarly, a user researching a medical condition might receive a summary from an LLM and links to reputable healthcare websites for more detailed information.
The key difference here lies in the user’s intent. 
Unlike traditional search, where users actively type in keywords, LLMs respond to more natural language queries. 
This enables LLMs to uncover brands and resources that might be less visible in standard search results. 
This can be especially beneficial for niche businesses or those offering highly specific products.
As LLMs become more integrated into various platforms and applications, the potential for referral traffic could expand significantly. 
For example, imagine an LLM embedded within a social media platform recommending products based on user conversations or a virtual assistant suggesting relevant services based on calendar entries. 
These scenarios highlight the potential for LLMs to act as a new and dynamic discovery channel for brands.
Dig deeper: LLMs are disrupting search – is your brand ready?
Tracking referral traffic growth and market shifts
After analyzing the referring traffic over the past 12 months, I found steady growth in LLM-driven traffic. 
Indexed against the average from the previous year (1 = average), referral traffic from LLMs has increased eightfold since March 2024. 
This surge is largely due to the growing use of LLM tools and the continued inclusion of links, both as citations and direct links. 
However, the data revealed an unexpected dip in December, contradicting expectations for strong holiday retail traffic growth.

Shifts in LLM market share and traffic insights
Looking at the mix of LLMs driving traffic, there are a few notable takeaways: 
ChatGPT has dominated referrals since August. Prior to that, referral traffic wasn’t smaller – it was due to different referral URLs from OpenAI and Microsoft, eventually shifting to ChatGPT (chatgpt.com vs. chat.openai.com). This migration shows the complicated relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft, which runs Bing.
While Perplexity’s referral traffic appears smaller, it has doubled over the past year. However, ChatGPT’s growth has been much faster, and it now has a larger market share.
Referral links from Meta are nearly nonexistent. The data shows only one month with double-digit referring traffic numbers. While Meta has significant volume due to LLaMA being integrated across its apps, there hasn’t been much referral traffic from its platforms.

Dig deeper: 6 easy ways to adapt your SEO strategy for stronger AI visibility

					
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See terms.
The zero-click conundrum: Satisfying intent within the LLM
While all this referring traffic is critical to understand, there’s another side to this: the rise of zero-click results. 
This has been the goal of LLMs for some time and has long existed in traditional search through Google’s answer boxes, featured snippets, or Knowledge panels. 
However, with LLMs, the impact is even more pronounced.
LLMs are designed to provide comprehensive answers directly within their interface. 
If a user asks for the capital of France, the LLM will likely respond with “Paris” without linking to a website. 
Similarly, if a user requests a summary of a recent news article, the LLM can generate a concise overview, negating the need to visit the original source.
This capability, while incredibly convenient for users, poses a significant challenge for websites that rely on traffic for revenue, lead generation, or brand building. 
If the LLM can effectively answer a user’s question or fulfill their request without requiring a click, the website misses out on a potential visitor.
This is why you must develop a new approach beyond click-through traffic. 
LLMs are designed to get to an answer and not take users away from the chat interface. 
That makes visibility within these models even more critical in the decision-making process, even if there’s no direct attribution.
Dig deeper: Why SEO is your best defense against declining organic traffic
Navigating the new landscape: How your brand can adapt
As LLMs change how users discover content, refining your approach is key to staying competitive. Here’s how to adapt.
Focus on expertise and original research
While LLMs can synthesize information, they often rely on existing content. 
When you offer unique insights, original research, and deep expertise in your niche, you’ll likely be cited as a source and potentially earn referral traffic.
Optimize for natural language queries
Understanding how users phrase questions in natural language is crucial for content creation.
Optimizing content to answer these types of queries directly could increase the likelihood of an LLM citing your website.
Build brand authority
A strong brand reputation can increase the chances of an LLM recommending your website as a trusted source. 
Focus on building credibility and thought leadership within your industry.
Explore new forms of engagement
As LLMs evolve, new ways to interact with them may emerge. 
This could include developing specialized content formats or leveraging APIs to provide information directly to LLMs.
Monitor LLM performance and attribution
Actively track how LLMs reference your content and try to understand the attribution of any traffic you receive from these sources. 
This will help refine strategies over time.
Dig deeper: How to segment traffic from LLMs in GA4
Consider the user experience
Ultimately, the goal is to provide value to the user. 
Even if a user doesn’t immediately click through to your website, the information provided by the LLM may lead them to consider your brand or seek out your products or services later. 
That interaction can still be valuable.
Dig deeper: How to evolve your organic approach for the rise of answer engines
Embracing the evolution
LLMs are fundamentally changing how users find and consume information. 
While referral traffic is rising, zero-click results challenge traditional website engagement. 
Brands that create authoritative content, optimize for natural language queries, and monitor attribution will be best positioned to remain visible – even when clicks aren’t guaranteed. 
Adapting to this shift isn’t optional – it’s essential for long-term digital success.

AI-driven referrals are surging, but user behavior is shifting. Learn what this means for website traffic and brand visibility.

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Read the Latest Trends and Headlines in Digital Marketing.

Here are some of the latest headlines on digital marketing insights, search, and ecommerce:

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