James Reynolds, Founder and CEO of SEO Sherpa/Image: Supply
Search situations have undergone the most dramatic changes in decades. For years, Google has dominated the main gateway to information, but the rise of AI-powered assistants, Tiktok, Instagram, and other discovery platforms is reshaping the way people are looking for answers, products and services. This fragmentation is especially pronounced among younger generations increasingly bypassing traditional search engines that support social media and conversational AI.
For brands, its meaning is profound. Search engine optimizations can no longer be limited to rankings on Google. Now, a multi-channel strategy is needed that takes into account new behavior and platforms. In this exclusive interview, James Reynolds, founder and CEO of SEO Sherpa, unlocks the evolution of search, ZZ habits reveal about the future, and how to adapt your business to be visible in an era where search is ubiquitous.
AI tools like ChatGpt are increasingly being used as search engines. How do you think this shift is reshaping the way people discover information online?
Those that reconstruct discoveries are not alternatives. It is the stratification of research behavior. People use AI tools in a different way than traditional searches.
People in particular use AI as a starting point for complex topics, go to traditional searches for specific solutions, and often become social or community platforms for peer validation. For example, someone could ask CHATGPT to explain cryptocurrency before Googleing “best crypto exchanges” or read the Reddit community thread about the real user experience.
Brands need to be able to discover at every layer of this journey, so they need to completely rethink their content strategy.
The brands we work on understand this. They create comprehensive resources whether someone finds them through Google, summarises them by AI, or discovers them through social platforms.
Google’s search market share shows signs of decline. What is this trend and how should businesses prepare?
The search itself has not declined. It’s exploding on every platform you can imagine. Google alone has increased its search volume by 21.6% in 2024, processing 5 trillion queries per year. We did 14 billion searches per day and 189,000 searches per second. Recent Sparktoro’s research Despite predictions for AI cannibalism, Google has confirmed that it handles 373 times more searches than ChatGPT.
But here is an important change. While the total search volume has skyrocketed, the entire platform is fragmenting faster than ever. The main driver is intergenerational behavioral change. Gen Z has a fundamentally different approach to information discovery. 51% prefer to use Tiktok to search Google completely.
They are not going to go to Google to find a restaurant – they are checking out Tiktok. They’re not Google’s product reviews – they’re watching YouTube and scrolling through Instagram. Amazon owns product searches for most categories. LinkedIn is becoming a reliable source of B2B research.
Even the relatively low 0.25% market share of CHATGPT represents an interaction like daily search, a new operating layer that did not exist three years ago.
This is not a decline in Google, but a massive expansion of search. For businesses, this means that opportunities are actually greater than before, but diversification is no longer an option. If 90% of discoverability comes from Google, then the explosive growth that’s happening everywhere is lacking.
The thriving brand has embraced what we call it.Search for optimizations everywhere. ‘They’re not just ranking on Google. They are discoverable on LinkedIn, optimized for Tiktok’s algorithms, and build permissions across the search ecosystem.
The search volume is the highest ever. It should look like the place your audience is actually searching for.
Gen-Z is turning to Tiktok and Instagram for search. How should brands adapt their strategies to meet this change in behavior?
The basic difference is that Gen Z searches for experience and reliability rather than information dumps. They want to see the age where they use their products to visit their destinations and solve problems in real time.
Instead of reading a blog post about “best budget travel destinations,” Gen Z is looking at Tiktok Vlogs of real people who documented their experiences. They want to see the atmosphere, not just read the facts. This represents the transition from information consumption to sampling experience.
Data enhances this dramatic change: 64% of Gen Z usage, according to Adobe Tiktok for searchcompared to 49% of millennials. A Forbes study shows that Google’s use between Gen Z is reduced by 25% compared to Gen X.
Tiktok has had a major impact on purchasing decisions, Morning consultation It turns out that 72% of Gen Z have bought the product after seeing it on Tiktok.
Brands should accept “social search optimization” Tiktok So and Instagram SEOto explain them. This means treating these social platforms as search engines and optimizing accordingly. Use descriptive captions in natural language that suit the way people ask questions. A query that creates searchable content around “How To”, “Best”, and “Vs.”
Content markup is also important. These platforms are currently search engines, so we treat them that way. Create content around people’s questions. “How to get glass skin in winter” performs better than “Winter Skin Care Tips.” Use descriptive captions, location tags, and trend audio to include target keywords in the speaking words, video titles, and descriptions.
The platform is facing criticism for “stealing” publisher content, affecting website traffic. What is your perspective on this, and how can publishers protect their values?
The data is calm – AI Search Engine Like ChatGpt and Perplexity, there is less traffic to publisher sites than traditional Google searches, with a referral rate of 0.37%. In context, it means that less than four people visit your site for every 1,000 times that your content is used to answer a query.
However, here’s what the traffic volume data doesn’t convey: Visitors clicking from AI searches will be converted with qualifications at a much higher rate.
Traditional Google searches often offer casual browsers that bounce quickly, but AI search users arrive with clear intentions. We have already received a summary, but we need deeper information. This creates an attractive paradox. There will be fewer visitors, but each one is more valuable.
Research from semrush fThe average AI search visitor (tracks to non-Google search sources like ChatGPT) is worth 4.4 times the average visit from traditional organic search based on conversion rates. Similarly, ahrefs Recently, AI search visitors have revealed that they converted at a rate 23 times higher than traditional organic search visitors.
I think publishers have more power than they realize. The key is to move from a purely defensive approach to a strategic offensive approach. First, publishers should embrace bot management technology and consider the monetization layer that AI companies pay for content access.
Second, thriving publishers have embraced and adapted to this reality. Instead of purely relying on discovery traffic, they have a direct relationship with their audience.
We create experiences that cannot be summed up, including live events, member communities, interactive tools, and exclusive data. It also leverages the rise in authorities resulting from frequent citement by AI tools to enhance brand positioning and attract high-value partnerships.
The real protection is building an audience that comes directly to you, not only tripping over your content through search.
AI-generated content provides speed and efficiency, but raises ethical concerns. How can a brand use AI responsibly without compromising trust?
The ethical use of AI in content creation is perhaps currently a critical challenge for the media and marketing industries. The temptation is enormous. AI can generate content at unprecedented speed and scale.
The pressure to expand content production is immeasurable, especially for startups that operate on limited budgets. However, publishing general AI content is a major risk to brand trust and reliability.
Artificial intelligence tools are the starting point for content research and early drafting, but magic occurs when human expertise intervene. AI can identify trends and compile statistics, but it cannot and will never provide real-world experience. What readers really want to know is how this will affect them specifically. A real human expert is needed to explain what these patterns mean and provide practical guidance.
What works best is to use AI to enhance human abilities rather than replace human judgment.
How do you think the balance between traditional SEO, social search and AI-driven discovery will evolve over the next five years?
The future is not about choosing traditional SEO, social search, or AI discovery. It’s about balancing all three.
Traditional SEO hasn’t disappeared, but it has evolved. Google remains a dominant force, with search market share almost 90%, with 14 billion searches daily, up 21% from last year. 373x ChatGpt search. However, the nature of searches has changed. You are moving towards zero click search. Here, users will receive their responses directly on the results page. AI Overview It is becoming more prominent.
Success in SEO will increasingly depend on creating content that will serve as source material for these AI-generated summaries, while providing enough value to drive click-through.
Social search continues to grow, especially among younger demographics. By 2030, social platforms predict that they will handle 20-25% of all search modal behavior, particularly for local discoveries, product research and lifestyle content.
This requires the brand to develop “social SEO” features. This means you can understand how content is discovered and consumed on each platform.
If you’re advising businesses today starting from scratch, will your top priority be to build a future content marketing strategy?
First: Create a pillar content piece that is 10 times better than anything else. Beast once said, “I would rather be the best than spending 100 hours on one video and 10 hours on an OK video.” The truly amazing content isn’t just a bit better. It performs better in more orders of magnitude than “good” content.
They can also split into assets that function anywhere. This is not about reusing 800 word blog posts for social media captions. It’s about creating structured epics that act as short-form videos, emails, or social posts so that AI can properly understand and quote them.
Second: builds true authority, not false authority. Too many brands still play stuffing with old keywords Buy backlinks game. We introduce real people with real knowledge. Always provide unique insights that your audience can’t find anywhere else. And if you can offer them in a unique angle or approach, you will rule.
Third: Use real-time information. Quarterly content calendar is dead. Winning brands are brands that monitor social trends, track what’s going on in search results, watch creator performances, and adapt their strategies every day, sometimes every day.
This is not about chasing any virus trend, but having a system that helps you find opportunities quickly enough to take action.
A thriving business understands that content marketing in 2025 is not about creating more content. This is creating smarter content that builds authentic relationships with increasingly complex discovery paths.
