The founder of SEO Garden walks us through the epochal shift toward a more semantic, less predictive SEO, where the challenge is getting cited, not just ranking
Today we launch a new column dedicated to the most authoritative voices in our industry: SEO Confidential.
We will be meeting SEO experts, commentators, analysts and pioneers of Artificial Intelligence applied to search engines.
The goal?
To understand, through their points of view – sometimes converging, sometimes diverging – the various approaches and considerations at a time of deep and rapid transformation.
With the rise of AI- and LLM-powered search (and answer) engines, the fundamental question is: how is SEO changing, and how will it change?
This series will try to provide answers and perspectives on the matter.
As our first guest – we could not have started any better – I have the pleasure of hosting my friend Francesco Margherita, a leading figure and authoritative voice in the Italian SEO scene since way back in 2007.
Francesco has established himself as a highly experienced SEO Specialist consultant, becoming the soul behind SEO Garden, his well-known blog, where for years he has been sharing in-depth analyses, effective strategies for optimization and organic ranking, and sharp reflections on the future of search. Author of the “Manuale di SEO Garden”, regarded as an essential reference text by thousands of professionals and aspiring ones, and founder of “Fatti di SEO”, the largest and most active Italian Facebook community dedicated to the industry, Francesco combines solid, proven technical expertise with a rare and much-appreciated talent for making things clear.
After this due introduction, let’s hear what Francesco told us in his own words. So, without further ado: here is the interview I did with him.
Don’t miss it, because you’ll find plenty of food for thought (but, as Francesco is keen to point out, no predictions about the future, promise!)
“Welcome to the era of ‘coatto’ entertainment (as in trashy): forget keyword research!”
AI Overviews (AIOs) are reducing organic traffic, especially informational traffic (or at least so it would seem).
Is this the beginning of a zero-click era, or is reality more nuanced?
I am afraid we will indeed see fewer visits to blogs, magazines and newspapers, but I cannot help thinking of all the times someone shows up in the Fatti di SEO group posting that by now people only use ChatGPT and no longer Google. Certain exaggerations should be kept in check, because those very users often run a search on ChatGPT and then go to Google to find the site that confirms the answer they already got. It is very hard to quantify the loss of visits caused by AI Overviews, but in general I can say – or at least hope – that visits will “convert” better than before. But let’s talk about it again in a year or so, it’s still early.
Google claims that AIOs bring quality clicks, but studies point to a drop in CTR and conversions. Who is right, and why isn’t Google transparent about AIO data in Search Console?
Well, when has Google ever been transparent about anything… jokes aside, I believe clicks will indeed be of better quality, because you will need to be more motivated than before to visit a website. Less traffic, then, but better traffic.
If being present in AIOs is essential, how can it be monetized without direct clicks? What concrete, measurable strategies can be used to turn AIO mentions into leads or sales?
That is the question that almost sparked a brawl at the latest Sistrix meetup in Milan, last May 15. While it is true that we can see AI referrals and measure the direct conversions coming from this channel, unfortunately there is no way to measure the leads that arrive “indirectly” from AIOs, as from any other generative AI. And considering that web search is by now not just multichannel but fully multimodal, it will be increasingly difficult to grasp the shifts, the ways and the timing behind the transition from user to customer.
Will Google, with AI Mode, become a chatbot that replaces AIOs, or will the two systems coexist? Does Google intend to turn into a chatbot, despite the denials?
Google cannot give up the old – however ever-changing – SERP, because the bulk of its revenue is there, so for now we will see this AI Mode, which will echo Gemini, gradually gaining ads and other integrations, until it becomes… a sort of SERP. Seriously, don’t make me predict the future any more than I am already forced to every single day. What a lousy world!
For its answers, AI Overviews takes information from the web without paying anything to those who created it – citing them, of course, but effectively diverting traffic away from websites. Should some kind of financial agreement be reached for the use of this content?
It is not a given that AI Overviews takes information directly from websites. That used to happen with featured snippets, which actually quoted pieces of text present on the page, whereas AI Overviews reworks stuff it has found elsewhere, even producing original output; luckily they cite the source every now and then, bless them. And anyway yes, Google should pay the websites it takes information from. Everyone should, but if that happened, the internet would shut down tomorrow morning.
Why should a blog owner keep creating content for Google? At least before, they had ads and traffic. Now they risk working for free for Big G. Won’t this impoverish the web of original, critical voices?
The traditional blogger, the one who has monetized so far with ads on text content, must become a digital creator, otherwise they are done for. We have known this for a while now. Those who are afraid to put their face out there, those who do not feel the urgency of working on formats, anyone who stays anchored to the old way of blogging will unfortunately be forced to change jobs. But mind you, I am not predicting the future here.
If content creators are no longer incentivized to produce content, where will AIs and LLMs get their information? Don’t we risk, this way, getting increasingly outdated information?
As I said before, traditional bloggers will have to evolve into content creators across multiple platforms and at scale in order to monetize. And since it is precisely this evolution that will allow them to keep existing, AI companies will always have fresh material to use to train LLMs or to update them. It just will no longer be only stuff written on blog pages, that’s all.
How do you win the attention of AIs and appear authoritative in their eyes? Is the famous E-E-A-T still valid? Has SEO really changed that much?
It is still about producing value for users. It used to mean writing the best content; today it means writing the content, creating the most-followed podcast, making the most timely videos, running a community… at a stretch, even knowing how to dance well and tell jokes. We live in the era of ‘coatto’ entertainment, where ‘coatto’ does not stand for forced, but literally for trashy. We are holding a pervasive, intoxicating trap – especially for the youngest – and a paradoxically totalitarian one, because maximum freedom of expression coincides with the impossibility of making yourself understood. In this scenario, knowing a thing or two about communication means opening up the chance to blow up even very quickly, which is why I believe the game today is often played on utterly extraordinary innate gifts or, at the opposite extreme, on deep knowledge of neuro-linguistic programming.
What do you say, we’ve come a long way since the days of keyword research, haven’t we?
AI Overviews: the bittersweet revolution, according to Francesco Margherita
Ever wondered what on earth is happening to SEO?
Don’t worry, you are not alone.
And to get this new editorial adventure off on the right foot, we had a chat with someone who really knows his stuff: Francesco Margherita.
No fluff, no end-of-the-world alarmism. Francesco laid reality out for us as it is, with his usual clarity and pragmatism. And you know what his take on Google’s AI Overviews is?
A revolution. Bittersweet.
On one side? Fewer organic clicks. It’s physiological, he says. But on the other? More quality. Fewer digital tourists, more users who truly want what you have to say. And here comes the point: want good traffic? Then get yourself cited.
The heart of the new SEO? Semantics, not popularity
Francesco was crystal clear: in a world where the Overview takes center stage, the real challenge is becoming an authoritative source. And not because you have a prestigious domain or millions of links: because your content says something that was missing.
So no, you don’t need to chase keywords as if it were 2012.
You need to find your opening. That angle still barely covered. That missing answer. That piece of the puzzle Google is still looking for. Only then can you get on the radar. Only then can you stay in the game.
SEO Confidential: a column made of real voices (and very little small talk)
This conversation with Francesco is only the first stop. In every episode we will listen to voices that matter. No fake gurus or generic talk. Only real experts, who live inside the change and tell you how to actually face it.
Because, let’s face it, we are going through a historic moment: the rules are being rewritten live. And those who do this job, or simply love it, cannot just stand and watch.
So: stay with us. Listen. Compare notes. Ask yourself questions (and find the right answers, the ones that really matter).
Because if it is true that the future of search has already begun… then it’s time to play it well.
Thanks to Francesco for his time and for lighting the fuse. See you in the next episode of SEO Confidential.
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