Gary Illyes, senior analyst at Google, publicly acknowledges that the traditional search model is disappearing. Even historical industry professionals are struggling to adapt to this radical transformation.

The observation is unequivocal: users no longer browse through lists of results. They engage in conversations with search engines, ask complex questions, and form opinions before even clicking on a website.

This statement officially marks a fundamental shift in how Google measures content value. The era of the click as the ultimate metric is over. Relevance and authority signals are now built well before the visit.

• Conversational search is becoming the norm, not the exception
• SEO is not dead, but must fundamentally evolve
• Clicks are no longer the main objective to optimize
• Brands must influence before the visit, not just after
• A new generation of users is imposing new search behaviors

This statement confirms what we've been observing for 18 months: Google is massively investing in generative AI and direct answers. SGE (Search Generative Experience) is not a temporary experiment; it's the strategic direction of the search engine.

However, we need to nuance: not all sectors are equal in facing this transformation. Transactional and commercial queries still largely maintain their traditional format. Product listings, comparators, and local pages still generate qualified traffic through classic clicks.

The real disruption concerns informational and educational content. If your strategy relies solely on blog articles generating clicks, you do indeed need to rethink your approach. Google can now answer questions directly without sending traffic.

• Optimize for citations and mentions: your content must be cited by AIs as an authoritative source, even without a click
• Structure your content for extraction: extensively use semantic markup (schema.org, FAQ, HowTo) to facilitate understanding by models
• Develop your E-E-A-T: expertise, authority, and trustworthiness become crucial to be referenced as a source by AI
• Create conversational content: write by anticipating natural questions, not just technical keywords
• Diversify your KPIs: measure impressions, brand mentions, position zero, not just clicks
• Invest in brand building: your reputation directly influences your citation by generative AIs
• Don't neglect the fundamentals: speed, mobile, user experience remain essential for post-visit conversions
• Test enriched formats: videos, podcasts, multimedia content are gaining importance in the conversational ecosystem

These profound transformations in search require a complete strategic overhaul of your SEO approach. Between optimizing for generative AIs, semantic restructuring of content, and maintaining traditional performance, the workload can quickly become overwhelming.

If you find that orchestrating these multiple projects exceeds your internal resources, support from an SEO agency specialized in this transition can prove decisive. An expert external perspective often helps identify priorities and avoid costly mistakes during this pivotal period.