The Great Decoupling: Google's Impact on B2B Organic Traffic
Season: 2 | Episode: 35
Published: September 22, 2025
By: Byer Co
The provided text, "The Great Decoupling: How Google is Severing the Link Between Search & Your B2B Website," explains **Google's strategic shift** to directly answer user queries on its own search results pages, reducing the need for users to click through to external websites. This **"Great Decoupling"** is facilitated by features like Featured Snippets, Knowledge Panels, and particularly, Search Generative Experience (SGE), which uses AI to provide immediate summaries. The article outlines how this shift **undermines traditional SEO by reducing organic click-through rates** and making "informational" content less valuable for driving traffic to B2B websites. The author argues that this will lead to **eroded lead generation, increased customer acquisition costs**, and a **commoditization of expertise** for B2B companies. Ultimately, the source suggests that **B2B marketers must adapt** by diversifying traffic sources, building owned audiences, and creating uniquely valuable content to combat Google's increasing control and extraction of value from published information.
Link: The Great Decoupling: Google's Impact on B2B Organic Traffic
Keywords: Google,Search,SEO,b2b,sge,digital marketing
Episode Transcript
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Welcome back to the all new digital rage. I am Jeff the producer here at Byer Company.
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In this episode we explore how Google's AI powered features like SGE and featured snippets
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are keeping users on search pages, cutting into your traffic, leads and authority.
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Traditional SEO is losing its edge and B2B markers must adapt fast. Let's dive into what this
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means and what to do next. So for years the internet kind of operated on this
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unspoken deal right. Businesses put out good valuable content, Google found it,
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indexed it and this is the key part. Google sent people searching for that stuff to
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those websites or GANX search was huge. Especially if you were B2B it was like
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the main way to get leads. But that deal, it's starting to fall apart. Welcome to the
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deep dive. Today we're digging into something a listener flagged for us based on some sources
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they sent over. It's being called the great decoupling and our job today is well to figure
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this out. What is this great decoupling? How's it actually playing out right now? What
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does it mean for your business, your web traffic and look most importantly what can you
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actually do about it? The great decoupling. It's basically a way to describe Google's
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big strategic change. What they're doing is answering more and more user questions directly
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on the search results page itself. The SERP. Because they do that people don't need to
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click through to other websites as much. It's fundamentally unhooking getting the information
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from actually visiting the website that has it.
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Okay so it's not just helping you find the link anymore. It's giving you the answer right
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then and there without you having to leave Google. Exactly. That feels like a pretty
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fundamental shift. What are we seeing? What features actually do this?
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Oh you've definitely seen the featured snippets that sometimes call position zero where Google
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just lifts an answer and puts it right at the top. Knowledge panels too. The boxes with
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quick facts. People also ask the PAA sections. Yeah the drop down. So ones where you click
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one then another and suddenly you're still on Google 10 minutes later. That's the one.
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Then there's local packs, the map results, obviously shopping ads and results. And increasingly
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these whole separate answer engines within Google like Google flights, Google hotels,
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recipes, they handle specific types of searches entirely.
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Okay so those are already kind of keeping people on Google but the source has mentioned
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something else, something accelerating this decoupling even faster. The big one.
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Right. That would be search generative experience. SGE. That's the real game changer here.
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SGE. Break that down. What is it?
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Sure. SGE is Google's new AI stuff. It scans multiple websites, pulls info together and
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then writes its own summary answer. It gives you this like comprehensive response right there
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on the results page instantly. Yeah. You might have something pretty complex and get a
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whole paragraph or more answering it. No click needed. Wow. Okay. And the big picture for
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Google in doing all this, the snippets SGE keeping people from clicking. What's their
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end game? Well it seems pretty clear. Their goal is to keep users inside the Google
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ecosystem for longer. More time on Google pages means more chances to show ads, more engagement
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data for them and the direct casualty and all this for publishers, for businesses like yours.
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It's the organic click through rate. It's going down fewer people are clicking the links
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to your site. Simple as that. Fewer clicks. That really hits out. So let's talk about B2B
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because B2B marketing has relied so heavily on organic search leads. What does this decoupling
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actually mean for you know day to day SEO work, the old rank high, get clicks model sounds.
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It is fundamentally most obvious thing is what some call the vanishing click. You can rank
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number one do everything right, but it's just no guarantee of traffic anymore. Google might
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just grab your answer, put it in a snippet or an SGE summary and boom the user got what
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they needed. They never visit your page. We're seeing these zero click search numbers climb
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really high often over 50 maybe even 60% for lots of searches. Think about that more than
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half the people searching might never leave Google. Wow. It's like setting up a perfect shop window,
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but Google builds a kiosk right in front of your door giving away samples of your product.
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That's pretty analogy. Yeah. And for B2B a lot of our content is educational,
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top of funnel stuff. What happens to that? Well that leads to the next point. D-valued informational
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content. B2B thrives on those guides that what is X articles, the pieces, explaining problems.
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But if Google just gives the basic answer what is CRM or how does this tech work right on the SRP,
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then the reason to click your detailed article shrinks dramatically. Your expertise,
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your thought leadership, it kind of just becomes source material for Google's AI.
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Okay, so fewer clicks overall and the content we create to attract clicks is being used against us
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in a way. And I assume the competition for the clicks that are left is getting worse. Exactly.
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That's the increased competition for fewer clicks. Look at a search results page now.
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You've got ads at the top, maybe an SGE box, then featured snippets, people also ask, videos,
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images, the traditional blue links, the organic results. They just get pushed further and further down.
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You're fighting harder for a much smaller piece of the attention. And tracking becomes a nightmare,
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right? If someone sees an SGE answer gets the gist then maybe remembers your brand and comes
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directly later. How do you even know SEO played a role? It feels like an attribution black hole.
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That's a perfect term for it. The journey is obscured. That initial touch point, the value SEO provided,
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it gets lost. Makes proving ROI way harder. You don't know what's really driving things downstream.
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Okay, this is sounding pretty bleak for B2B web traffic. Let's talk bottom line. What are the direct
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business consequences here? They're significant and they hit hard. First, lead generation erosion.
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It's straightforward. Organic traffic fuels the B2B pipeline. Fewer clicks mean fewer people
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signing up for newsletters, downloading guides, requesting demos. That directly hits your sales
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opportunities. Less fuel, less pipeline, less revenue. Second, inevitably higher customer acquisition
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costs. Your cat goes up. As that free organic traffic dries up, you have to replace it somehow.
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That usually means spending more on paid channels. And ironically, often that means more money to
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Google ads or LinkedIn ads or other paid platforms. So it costs you more to get each customer.
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And what about the actual value B2B offers? Our solutions are often complex. They need explaining.
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Google's quick answers can't possibly cover that depth. Can they? No, they offer can't. And that
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leads to a sort of commoditization of expertise. Your deep nuanced explanations are what build trust
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and show value. But Google's surface level answer might satisfy that initial curiosity.
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So the user never gets to your site to see the real depth, the context they need to actually understand
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your solution. And finally, there's the long-term brand building suffers aspect. Organic search isn't
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just about immediate leads. It's how you build visibility, authority, brand recognition over time.
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Less visibility, fewer site visits. That we can do brand's position in the long run.
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Okay, so the landscape is definitely changing. And it sounds like just doing the same old SEO
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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?
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How do businesses, especially D2B, adapt? It really requires a pretty radical rethink adaptation is key.
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The first thing is that SEO tactics will fundamentally shift. It's not just about Google anymore.
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SEO needs to become more like search experience optimization. And that experience happens across
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many platforms. Think YouTube, think LinkedIn, niche industry communities, maybe even TikTok,
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depending on your B2B space. Beyond Google. That sounds daunting. Google's been the center of the
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universe for so long. It is a shift. And it also means doubling down on channels you own, your email
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list, any community you run, those become critical. And within search itself, you need to target intent
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beyond the query. Just ranking for keywords. That's becoming obsolete. You have to understand the
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deeper user journey. What complex problems are they trying to solve the Google can't just answer
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in a paragraph. Things like detailed product comparisons, implementation guides, ROI calculators,
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content that requires real engagement on your site. So focus on the complex stuff. Google can't
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easily summarize. But what about optimizing for Google summaries themselves? Can you influence SGE?
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Yeah, that's the idea behind answer optimization for SGE. It's about structuring your content.
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So it's easily digestible by the AI. The goal isn't necessarily to click anymore, but getting your
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information, maybe your brand name, sighted within that SGE answer. Think of it like trying to get
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prominent placement on a digital shelf inside Google's answer box. Even without the click, there's visibility
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value there. And underpinning all of this, owned audiences are paramount building that direct line
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through email through a community, a podcast that lets you bypass Google's gatekeeping.
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Okay, so tactics shift. What about the traffic itself? You mentioned fewer clicks overall. Does the
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traffic that does get through change in value? That's a really crucial point. BDB traffic value
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will polarize. It'll be two extremes. On one hand, the traffic that does navigate past the SGE,
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past the snippets and actually clicks through to your site, that traffic is likely much more qualified.
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Much more valuable. These are people whose needs weren't met by the quick answer. They have deeper
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questions, stronger intent. But on the other hand, the overall volume of organic traffic is likely to
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keep falling for many BDB sites, which as we said, pushes your customer acquisition cost up.
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So converting the high intent traffic you do get, that becomes absolutely critical. Efficiency is key.
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It feels like this whole shift really changes the relationship businesses have with Google. The trust
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seems like it's eroding. The source material was quite strong on this point, wasn't it? Talking about
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extraction, not just evolution. It was very strong. It frames this as trust in Google, as a neutral
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search provider will continue to erode. One phrase used was the monopoly tax. The argument is basically
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that Google, because it's so dominant, can exploit its position. They use the content everyone else
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creates to train their AI, to populate their results pages. And then they've changed the system to
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keep the audience and the revenue for themselves. The source argues it's leveraging monopoly power to
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capture value that others create it. It sounds a bit like Google invited everyone to bring dishes to
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a potluck, then built a fence around the food and started charging admission. Is that reading too
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much into it? Well, that's certainly the sentiment expressed in the source material. SGE is seen as
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the ultimate walled garden. Google stops being the gateway to information and becomes the destination.
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The source put it bluntly. They aren't just answering queries. They are actively stealing clicks and
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monetizing attention that previously flowed to the creators. The potential conflict of interest
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is pretty stark. And if users and businesses get frustrated enough, does that open the door for
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other search engines or information tools? It could. The source suggests this frustration might fuel
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more experimentation with alternative search tools, especially for more sophisticated users,
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maybe in research heavy B2B fields. You might see more use of things like perplexity, maybe find,
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specialized B2B search tools, even LinkedIn's own search becoming more important for professional
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queries. And the ongoing Department of Justice, Antitrust case, against Google, that certainly adds
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weight to these concerns about market dominance and anti-competitive behavior.
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Okay, so pulling all these threads together, the vanishing click, the devalued content, the rising
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costs, the trust issues, what's the big overarching message here for our listener?
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I think the core message is this. The great decoupling shows Google is prioritizing its own platform
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growth, its own revenue, its own shareholder value. And that priority seems to be coming,
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perhaps, at the expense of the open web ecosystem and the businesses that build it.
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For B2B marketers specifically, just sticking to the old SEO playbook, hoping for those organic
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clicks like before, that strategy looks increasingly unsustainable. The source was quite direct.
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Google is no longer a reliable partner, it's a dominant platform extracting value from your content.
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Wow, okay, so for everyone listening, running their business, planning their marketing,
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what's the actionable takeaway? What do you do now?
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It really boils down to needing radical adaptation. There's no single magic bullet,
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but it involves several things, done consistently. You have to diversify your traffic sources,
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almost obsessively, don't rely solely on Google organic. You need to build those own audiences,
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fiercely email, communities, whatever connects you directly. You have to create content that's
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so uniquely valuable, so deep, so context rich, that even Google's AI can't just summarize its
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core utility away. And finally, you need to optimize ruthlessly for converting the high-intensity
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traffic that does manage to get through Google's SRP gauntlet. Make every click count.
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Okay, let me leave you with a final thought on this, something to chew on.
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The era of easy, abundant, free Google traffic. It looks like it's closing, we're entering a new era.
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An era where you're fighting for the remaining scraps inside Google's wall garden, yes,
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but maybe more importantly, you're building your own fortresses outside those walls.
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We're lying on Google's goodwill. That seems like a luxury B2B marketer is just
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can't afford anymore. Reach out to us at jbyer.com for comments and questions.
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Follow us @byercompany on social media, and if you'd be so kind,
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please rate and review us in your podcast app.