Google SEO

Search engine optimization for Google is the practice of making websites discoverable, understandable, and trustworthy to the world's most widely used search engine. For years that meant crawlability, relevant content, quality links, and fast, mobile-friendly pages. Those fundamentals still matter, but the ground beneath them is moving quickly.

Why it matters now

Generative AI is reshaping how people find information. AI-generated summaries now appear above traditional results for many queries, including searches for brand names. That changes whether users click through to websites at all. AI chatbots and answer engines also cite sources in ways that often echo Google's own rankings, so visibility in classic search can ripple outward.

Google continues to roll out core and spam updates, with recent attention on low-quality, mass-produced AI content. New vocabulary has emerged alongside these shifts, including answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO), and new tools promise ways to win in AI search. Google, for its part, maintains that good SEO remains the foundation.

What you'll find here

This hub tracks developments across the field, including:

• Algorithm and spam updates and their effects on rankings and traffic
• AI Overviews and AI-powered search features, and what they mean for clicks and brand visibility
• Official guidance from Google, including its positions on emerging conventions like llms.txt
• AI search and citations, covering how chatbots and answer engines choose their sources
• The tools and strategies market, from established SEO platforms to new AEO and GEO products
• Publisher economics, including how content is valued, licensed, and compensated as search becomes AI-driven