Keeping up with the world of AI and how it impacts the way people search in 2026 is hard work. Even for a whipsnap marketer.
In this episode of Raising The Bar, Mel and Mon break down what’s actually happening with AI, Google and search. What’s changed, what hasn’t, and what business owners are getting wrong.
They unpack the shift from traditional search to AI-driven answers, why website traffic is dropping, and how the customer journey has become harder to track and even harder to influence. This is not the death of SEO. It’s a reset on how visibility and trust are built.
If you are still thinking in keywords and clicks alone, this episode will help you recalibrate.
Takeaways:
- Google is not dead. User behaviour is hard to change, and most people still start with search.
- The interface has changed. AI Overviews and AI mode are reducing the need to click through to websites.
- Website traffic is dropping. More answers are being served directly in search or AI tools.
- The customer journey is messier. Research is happening in tools like ChatGPT and Claude before Google is even used.
- Attribution is getting harder. Google is often just the final step, not the full journey.
- Broad keywords are harder to win. Niche expertise is becoming more valuable.
- Answer real customer questions. The content that gets surfaced is the content that is genuinely useful.
- Brand trust matters more. Reviews and reputation across multiple platforms influence visibility.
- Google is favouring its own ecosystem. YouTube and Maps are playing a bigger role in what gets shown.
- AI is not replacing search. It is changing how decisions are made and where influence happens.
Raising The Bar is a fortnightly podcast hosted by Mel Strutt that offers blunt, experience-backed marketing advice for Australian business owners. Joined by Monique Jecks, they tackle what matters, call out what doesn’t, and raise the standard of what marketing should deliver.
