What could possibly stand in the way of Google? That seems a crazy question to ask when in 2025 they still controlled a staggering 90% of searches carried out worldwide. But something is changing, and Google is having to be fleet of foot to answer the pressures coming it’s way.

What this will mean for those in the SEO industry and businesses advertising on Google remains to be seen, but change is in the air.

Google’s stranglehold on the Pay Per Click advertising model is massive. There’s no changing that yet, but if the new challengers gain more traction, that may change.

Paid For Search Tools

The first challenger is paid for search engines such as Kagi. These tools have enjoyed a rapid rise offering a very enticing ad-free experience. And this offering has been enough to carve out a dedicated core of passionate users with high quality results without the noise of advertising.

No paid-for shopping suggestions that bear no resemblance to your enquiry, no clutter, no spurious results from PPC clients, just clean results relating directly to your search.

But what kind of impact are they really having. Kagi, for example, has around 68,000 users, but that’s a drop in ocean to the worldwide total of search engine users. Even combined with the other competitors in this field the numbers are, in reality, low.

But What About AI?

So here’s the bigger threat. This is a significant threat right now to Google’s dominance. Many people just won’t pay for ad-free search engines such as Kagi, but many are more than happy getting their free results from the AI options out there.

This is why Google hit the ground running with Gemini, placed right at the top of the results, how could you miss it. However, this also show this isn’t a perfect answer from Google as it significantly lowers click through rates—like, on-the-floor click through rates.

Many once popular websites, especially news sites, have notice 50-80% drop offs in click through. That will harm advertising rates for Google, so they’re a bit stuck between offering the AI results and seriously hurting their PPC clients. In fact 60% of searches resulted in no clicks (Source: Google Gemini. Ah, the irony).

There is an age-skew to this, with predominantly 18-34 year olds using this option for research. But that’s worrying for Google, the future isn’t so bright with stats like that. It currently skews slightly to male, but not by much, so it’s pretty obvious where the trend is. The only ‘out’ for Google may be if the big AI providers can’t properly monetise what they do, without which they may feel the need to cut back on some free services (see what OpenAI did with their Sora video app for example).

Around 34% of Gen Z use AI as their search tool of choice. Nearly half (47%) found new brands or products via AI searches. So, we have a new front door to the internet that will do nothing but grow. 

Google tools aren’t quite there yet for PPC clients looking at AI optimisation, but it looks like this new area will grow and it needs to be on your radar (it’s called Generative Engine Optimisation – GEO). The stats being thrown around are a potential £558B of consumer spending by 2028 being affected. 

Time to Look Again…

It’s happening now and things will be changing, but the changes are rapid and won’t settle into a comfortable pattern for a while. Unprepared brands may experience a significant drop in traffic unless they stay bang up-to-date. Like all shifts though, there’s risk, but also–potentially–great reward. 

It’s time to discuss with your SEO expert how they are tackling this new shift, don’t get left behind if SEO is important for your brand and website traffic.

Jeff

Caffeine Creative are an experienced team based in the Cardiff area. We help with graphic design, web development, company values, social media, branding, video production, drone shoots, and more. To know more please contact us.