The Verge: Google’s AI search broke publishing’s traffic bargain

The Verge’s Emma Roth reports that Google’s 2024 rollout of AI Overviews, paired with search-ranking changes, dismantled the reciprocal relationship where publishers fed Google’s index in exchange for click-through traffic.

Why it matters. Publishers lose the guaranteed click-through that once justified SEO investment, forcing them to find audience and revenue paths that don’t depend on Google surfacing a link.

Signal from theverge.com · Emma Roth · read the original.

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