Welcome back to the all new digital rage. I am Jeff the producer here at Byer Company.
In this episode we explore how Google's AI powered features like SGE and featured snippets
are keeping users on search pages, cutting into your traffic, leads and authority.
Traditional SEO is losing its edge and B2B markers must adapt fast. Let's dive into what this
means and what to do next. So for years the internet kind of operated on this
unspoken deal right. Businesses put out good valuable content, Google found it,
indexed it and this is the key part. Google sent people searching for that stuff to
those websites or GANX search was huge. Especially if you were B2B it was like
the main way to get leads. But that deal, it's starting to fall apart. Welcome to the
deep dive. Today we're digging into something a listener flagged for us based on some sources
they sent over. It's being called the great decoupling and our job today is well to figure
this out. What is this great decoupling? How's it actually playing out right now? What
does it mean for your business, your web traffic and look most importantly what can you
actually do about it? The great decoupling. It's basically a way to describe Google's
big strategic change. What they're doing is answering more and more user questions directly
on the search results page itself. The SERP. Because they do that people don't need to
click through to other websites as much. It's fundamentally unhooking getting the information
from actually visiting the website that has it.
Okay so it's not just helping you find the link anymore. It's giving you the answer right
then and there without you having to leave Google. Exactly. That feels like a pretty
fundamental shift. What are we seeing? What features actually do this?
Oh you've definitely seen the featured snippets that sometimes call position zero where Google
just lifts an answer and puts it right at the top. Knowledge panels too. The boxes with
quick facts. People also ask the PAA sections. Yeah the drop down. So ones where you click
one then another and suddenly you're still on Google 10 minutes later. That's the one.
Then there's local packs, the map results, obviously shopping ads and results. And increasingly
these whole separate answer engines within Google like Google flights, Google hotels,
recipes, they handle specific types of searches entirely.
Okay so those are already kind of keeping people on Google but the source has mentioned
something else, something accelerating this decoupling even faster. The big one.
Right. That would be search generative experience. SGE. That's the real game changer here.
SGE. Break that down. What is it?
Sure. SGE is Google's new AI stuff. It scans multiple websites, pulls info together and
then writes its own summary answer. It gives you this like comprehensive response right there
on the results page instantly. Yeah. You might have something pretty complex and get a
whole paragraph or more answering it. No click needed. Wow. Okay. And the big picture for
Google in doing all this, the snippets SGE keeping people from clicking. What's their
end game? Well it seems pretty clear. Their goal is to keep users inside the Google
ecosystem for longer. More time on Google pages means more chances to show ads, more engagement
data for them and the direct casualty and all this for publishers, for businesses like yours.
It's the organic click through rate. It's going down fewer people are clicking the links
to your site. Simple as that. Fewer clicks. That really hits out. So let's talk about B2B
because B2B marketing has relied so heavily on organic search leads. What does this decoupling
actually mean for you know day to day SEO work, the old rank high, get clicks model sounds.
It is fundamentally most obvious thing is what some call the vanishing click. You can rank
number one do everything right, but it's just no guarantee of traffic anymore. Google might
just grab your answer, put it in a snippet or an SGE summary and boom the user got what
they needed. They never visit your page. We're seeing these zero click search numbers climb
really high often over 50 maybe even 60% for lots of searches. Think about that more than
half the people searching might never leave Google. Wow. It's like setting up a perfect shop window,
but Google builds a kiosk right in front of your door giving away samples of your product.
That's pretty analogy. Yeah. And for B2B a lot of our content is educational,
top of funnel stuff. What happens to that? Well that leads to the next point. D-valued informational
content. B2B thrives on those guides that what is X articles, the pieces, explaining problems.
But if Google just gives the basic answer what is CRM or how does this tech work right on the SRP,
then the reason to click your detailed article shrinks dramatically. Your expertise,
your thought leadership, it kind of just becomes source material for Google's AI.
Okay, so fewer clicks overall and the content we create to attract clicks is being used against us
in a way. And I assume the competition for the clicks that are left is getting worse. Exactly.
That's the increased competition for fewer clicks. Look at a search results page now.
You've got ads at the top, maybe an SGE box, then featured snippets, people also ask, videos,
images, the traditional blue links, the organic results. They just get pushed further and further down.
You're fighting harder for a much smaller piece of the attention. And tracking becomes a nightmare,
right? If someone sees an SGE answer gets the gist then maybe remembers your brand and comes
directly later. How do you even know SEO played a role? It feels like an attribution black hole.
That's a perfect term for it. The journey is obscured. That initial touch point, the value SEO provided,
it gets lost. Makes proving ROI way harder. You don't know what's really driving things downstream.
Okay, this is sounding pretty bleak for B2B web traffic. Let's talk bottom line. What are the direct
business consequences here? They're significant and they hit hard. First, lead generation erosion.
It's straightforward. Organic traffic fuels the B2B pipeline. Fewer clicks mean fewer people
signing up for newsletters, downloading guides, requesting demos. That directly hits your sales
opportunities. Less fuel, less pipeline, less revenue. Second, inevitably higher customer acquisition
costs. Your cat goes up. As that free organic traffic dries up, you have to replace it somehow.
That usually means spending more on paid channels. And ironically, often that means more money to
Google ads or LinkedIn ads or other paid platforms. So it costs you more to get each customer.
And what about the actual value B2B offers? Our solutions are often complex. They need explaining.
Google's quick answers can't possibly cover that depth. Can they? No, they offer can't. And that
leads to a sort of commoditization of expertise. Your deep nuanced explanations are what build trust
and show value. But Google's surface level answer might satisfy that initial curiosity.
So the user never gets to your site to see the real depth, the context they need to actually understand
your solution. And finally, there's the long-term brand building suffers aspect. Organic search isn't
just about immediate leads. It's how you build visibility, authority, brand recognition over time.
Less visibility, fewer site visits. That we can do brand's position in the long run.
Okay, so the landscape is definitely changing. And it sounds like just doing the same old SEO
isn't going to cut it. This isn't just a tweak. It's a whole new game. So where do we go from here?
How do businesses, especially D2B, adapt? It really requires a pretty radical rethink adaptation is key.
The first thing is that SEO tactics will fundamentally shift. It's not just about Google anymore.
SEO needs to become more like search experience optimization. And that experience happens across
many platforms. Think YouTube, think LinkedIn, niche industry communities, maybe even TikTok,
depending on your B2B space. Beyond Google. That sounds daunting. Google's been the center of the
universe for so long. It is a shift. And it also means doubling down on channels you own, your email
list, any community you run, those become critical. And within search itself, you need to target intent
beyond the query. Just ranking for keywords. That's becoming obsolete. You have to understand the
deeper user journey. What complex problems are they trying to solve the Google can't just answer
in a paragraph. Things like detailed product comparisons, implementation guides, ROI calculators,
content that requires real engagement on your site. So focus on the complex stuff. Google can't
easily summarize. But what about optimizing for Google summaries themselves? Can you influence SGE?
Yeah, that's the idea behind answer optimization for SGE. It's about structuring your content.
So it's easily digestible by the AI. The goal isn't necessarily to click anymore, but getting your
information, maybe your brand name, sighted within that SGE answer. Think of it like trying to get
prominent placement on a digital shelf inside Google's answer box. Even without the click, there's visibility
value there. And underpinning all of this, owned audiences are paramount building that direct line
through email through a community, a podcast that lets you bypass Google's gatekeeping.
Okay, so tactics shift. What about the traffic itself? You mentioned fewer clicks overall. Does the
traffic that does get through change in value? That's a really crucial point. BDB traffic value
will polarize. It'll be two extremes. On one hand, the traffic that does navigate past the SGE,
past the snippets and actually clicks through to your site, that traffic is likely much more qualified.
Much more valuable. These are people whose needs weren't met by the quick answer. They have deeper
questions, stronger intent. But on the other hand, the overall volume of organic traffic is likely to
keep falling for many BDB sites, which as we said, pushes your customer acquisition cost up.
So converting the high intent traffic you do get, that becomes absolutely critical. Efficiency is key.
It feels like this whole shift really changes the relationship businesses have with Google. The trust
seems like it's eroding. The source material was quite strong on this point, wasn't it? Talking about
extraction, not just evolution. It was very strong. It frames this as trust in Google, as a neutral
search provider will continue to erode. One phrase used was the monopoly tax. The argument is basically
that Google, because it's so dominant, can exploit its position. They use the content everyone else
creates to train their AI, to populate their results pages. And then they've changed the system to
keep the audience and the revenue for themselves. The source argues it's leveraging monopoly power to
capture value that others create it. It sounds a bit like Google invited everyone to bring dishes to
a potluck, then built a fence around the food and started charging admission. Is that reading too
much into it? Well, that's certainly the sentiment expressed in the source material. SGE is seen as
the ultimate walled garden. Google stops being the gateway to information and becomes the destination.
The source put it bluntly. They aren't just answering queries. They are actively stealing clicks and
monetizing attention that previously flowed to the creators. The potential conflict of interest
is pretty stark. And if users and businesses get frustrated enough, does that open the door for
other search engines or information tools? It could. The source suggests this frustration might fuel
more experimentation with alternative search tools, especially for more sophisticated users,
maybe in research heavy B2B fields. You might see more use of things like perplexity, maybe find,
specialized B2B search tools, even LinkedIn's own search becoming more important for professional
queries. And the ongoing Department of Justice, Antitrust case, against Google, that certainly adds
weight to these concerns about market dominance and anti-competitive behavior.
Okay, so pulling all these threads together, the vanishing click, the devalued content, the rising
costs, the trust issues, what's the big overarching message here for our listener?
I think the core message is this. The great decoupling shows Google is prioritizing its own platform
growth, its own revenue, its own shareholder value. And that priority seems to be coming,
perhaps, at the expense of the open web ecosystem and the businesses that build it.
For B2B marketers specifically, just sticking to the old SEO playbook, hoping for those organic
clicks like before, that strategy looks increasingly unsustainable. The source was quite direct.
Google is no longer a reliable partner, it's a dominant platform extracting value from your content.
Wow, okay, so for everyone listening, running their business, planning their marketing,
what's the actionable takeaway? What do you do now?
It really boils down to needing radical adaptation. There's no single magic bullet,
but it involves several things, done consistently. You have to diversify your traffic sources,
almost obsessively, don't rely solely on Google organic. You need to build those own audiences,
fiercely email, communities, whatever connects you directly. You have to create content that's
so uniquely valuable, so deep, so context rich, that even Google's AI can't just summarize its
core utility away. And finally, you need to optimize ruthlessly for converting the high-intensity
traffic that does manage to get through Google's SRP gauntlet. Make every click count.
Okay, let me leave you with a final thought on this, something to chew on.
The era of easy, abundant, free Google traffic. It looks like it's closing, we're entering a new era.
An era where you're fighting for the remaining scraps inside Google's wall garden, yes,
but maybe more importantly, you're building your own fortresses outside those walls.
We're lying on Google's goodwill. That seems like a luxury B2B marketer is just
can't afford anymore. Reach out to us at jbyer.com for comments and questions.
Follow us @byercompany on social media, and if you'd be so kind,
please rate and review us in your podcast app.