What Google’s Latest Search Event Tells Us About SEO in the AI Era

Search is changing fast and at the 2025 Search Central Live Deep Dive in Bangkok, Google made it clear: if you’re still relying on the same SEO tactics from five years ago, you’re falling behind.

Crawling, indexing, and serving remain the backbone of how Google Search functions and as outlined in Google’s official event recap, this year’s event opened with a sharp focus on the first stage: crawling.

But this wasn’t just a technical deep dive. It was a clear wake-up call for SEOs and publishers trying to stay visible in a search landscape increasingly driven by AI, voice and image searches, and new user habits.

Search Is Changing Fast

Google’s own leadership isn’t mincing words.

Mike Jittivanich, Director of Marketing for South East Asia and South Asia Frontier, opened the conference by laying out three major forces reshaping search:

1. AI innovation at the core  

AI is now a foundational part of how search works comparable in impact to the rise of mobile or social media.

2. Changing user behavior  

People expect instant, conversational, visual answers not just long lists of links.

3. Gen Z’s unique habits  

Younger users interact with search in entirely new ways, often skipping the traditional search bar. Together, these shifts mean the old playbook isn’t enough anymore. Ranking on Google is still important but being selected by AI features like Overviews or Lens is the new goal.

Human Content Still Ranks Best

Across multiple sessions, Google’s speakers reinforced one core principle:

Google’s ranking algorithms learn from human-created content not AI-generated text.

According to Gary Illyes, Google’s ranking models are trained only on the highest-quality content in the index, and that’s clearly the content made by real people, not machines.

What this means:

  1. Keep building human‑focused content. Google’s models favor natural, expert writing above all.

  2. Optimize for multiple modalities. Make sure images have descriptive alt text, videos have transcripts, and voice search is supported by conversational language.

  3. Monitor crawl budget. Fix 5XX errors promptly and streamline your site’s structure to guide Googlebot efficiently.

  4. Use Search Console recommendations. Non‑expert site owners can benefit from the guided suggestions feature to improve usability and performance.

  5. Stay flexible. Long‑held traffic trends may shift as AI features grow. Past success does not equal future success.

How Gen Z Searches Differently

One of the most surprising data points came from a session on generational trends: Gen Z is now the fastest-growing search demographic.

Here’s how their behavior is different:

  • 65% YoY growth in Google Lens usage
  • Over 100 billion Lens searches so far in 2025
  • 1 in 5 Lens searches have commercial intent
  • Around 10% of Gen Z search journeys begin with Circle to Search or another AI tool, not a typed query

For SEOs, this means your strategy can’t focus only on keyword targeting and blue links. You need to optimize for images, voice, and multimodal queries.

That includes:

  • Adding descriptive alt text to every image
  • Making sure video transcripts are available
  • Using conversational phrasing to support voice-based search

How AI Is Changing the Crawling Process

Crawling might seem like a technical backend issue but it’s now being reshaped by AI too. Two sessions offered new details:

1. AI is increasing crawl rates  

Googlebot is adapting to new AI-powered features, which can lead to more frequent crawls. But higher crawl rate does not mean better ranking.

2. Crawl budget still matters  

Your crawl budget is determined by two things:

  • Crawl rate limit: How quickly Googlebot is allowed to crawl your site
  • Crawl demand: How much Googlebot wants to crawl your pages

If your site has a lot of broken links or returns frequent server errors, Google will deprioritize your pages even if they’re important.

Fix these issues to maintain crawl efficiency:

  • Resolve all 5XX errors (they consume crawl budget)
  • 4XX errors don’t hurt crawl budget, but can affect crawl scheduling
  • Clean up broken links and improve server response time
  • Submit a clean, updated sitemap

AI Features Use the Same Search Systems

It’s easy to think that AI Mode and AI Overviews are completely separate products but they’re not.

AI features run on the same crawl → index → serve pipeline that SEOs already optimize for.

Here’s how the process works for every page, whether it ends up in blue links or in an AI Overview:

  • Googlebot crawls the page
  • HTML is parsed and rendered
  • Statistical models like BERT, RankBrain, and MUM analyze the content
  • Spam filters and deduplication systems run
  • Final ranking and result formatting happen during serving

So if you’re already building strong content that ranks in traditional search, you’re in a good place. AI answers just represent a new format, not a new system.

LLMs.txt Is Not Something Google Uses

There’s been some buzz around LLMs.txt, a proposed new standard to help site owners control how AI models crawl their content. At the conference, Gary Illyes and Amir Taboul clarified Google’s stance:

Google does not support LLMs.txt

Robots.txt remains the official method to control access.

If you want to block AI-specific crawlers, you can add rules to your robots.txt file. But keep in mind not all crawlers will honor these rules.

Google Search Is Evolving in Two Directions

Throughout the event, Google made it clear that Search is expanding in both input and output.

1. The kinds of questions users ask  

  • Queries are becoming longer and more conversational
  • 5+ word queries are growing 1.5X faster than shorter ones
  • Users now regularly use images, voice, and AI tools as entry points

2. The types of answers Google delivers  

  • AI Overviews: Provide balanced summaries when there’s no one right answer
  • AI Mode: Offers fully generated experiences for things like travel planning, shopping, or recipes
  • DeepMind’s reasoning models are being used to blend text, images, and step-by-step instructions

To rank across all formats, your content should be structured, concise, and optimized for action just like traditional SEO, but adapted for new display formats.

Search Console Insights for AI Search and Crawling

Daniel Waisberg wrapped up the day with a deep dive into how to use Search Console effectively in this new AI-driven landscape.

Here are some of the top points:

1. Understand data timing  

  • Finalized data is usually two days old, based on Pacific Time
  • Partial data can appear earlier but might change

2. Feature lifecycle  

New Search Console features follow a predictable path:

  • User need → data availability → design → testing → launch

This helps explain why some AI-related performance data may lag.

3. Recommendations tab  

If you’re not an SEO expert, this tool suggests actionable improvements without needing deep technical knowledge.

For example, it might recommend improving mobile usability or fixing slow-loading pages both of which can affect eligibility for AI Mode display.

Search Is Getting Smarter But So Can You

If Search Central Live 2025 had a single theme, it was this: The core principles of SEO still matter, but the way users interact with Search is changing fast.

  • Stay human-first
  • Stay technically sound
  • Stay flexible as new formats emerge

Whether it’s fixing crawl issues, structuring content better, or tracking AI features in Search Console, the opportunities are there but only if you’re adapting with them.

Is Your Monetization Setup Ready for AI-Driven Traffic?

AI Overviews, voice, and visual search are changing how users land on your site and that affects how your ads perform. MagicBid helps publishers adapt with full-stack monetization across Web, App, and CTV. If your CPMs are dipping or traffic is shifting, Reach out to us at support@magicbi.ai

Fill Rate

If you’re not making the most of your ad space, you’re leaving money on the table.

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