The future of SEO when searches don't happen on Google

For decades, SEO has been defined by a single premise: showing up on Google. This giant didn’t just organize the internet—it defined it.

But search habits are starting to fracture, and while Google remains dominant, it’s no longer the only path to content. In fact, for certain generations and contexts, it’s not even the primary one.

Today, when someone wants to learn how to fix something, they turn to YouTube. When looking for a product review, they check TikTok or Reddit. For shopping, the journey often starts on Amazon. For a direct answer, users consult ChatGPT or their phone’s assistant. The act of “searching” is no longer confined to a white box with a colorful logo.

This shift raises a crucial question: how should SEO adapt in a world where searches happen outside of Google? The answer isn’t about switching search engines, but about changing the entire mindset. It’s no longer just about optimizing for algorithms, but about designing discovery, response, and relevance experiences across multiple digital environments.

>> How do you audit your business’s SEO? <<

The silent decline of the search monopoly

Google is still the most used search engine worldwide, but its hegemony is showing cracks. A 2023 Adobe study revealed that over 40% of Generation Z prefers to search for products on TikTok or Instagram rather than Google. For transactional queries or visual inspiration, social media offers a more direct, personalized, and visual experience.

Additionally, users increasingly turn to specialized platforms for contextual searches. Amazon has overtaken Google for product searches. YouTube concentrates most how-to or educational content searches. Reddit, Quora, and Stack Overflow have become engines for community knowledge. And AI chatbots are now handling queries that used to be resolved by Google’s “position zero.”

Even the rise of voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant has altered the nature of search: it’s now conversational, contextual, and often screenless. In these scenarios, only a single answer matters—the first one, or the one considered most useful by the system. There are no longer 10 blue links to compete for.

For decades, SEO has been defined by a single premise: showing up on Google. This giant didn’t just organize the internet—it defined it. But search habits are starting to fracture, and while Google remains dominant, it’s no longer the only path to content. In fact, for certain generations and contexts, it’s not even the primary one.

Today, when someone wants to learn how to fix something, they turn to YouTube. When looking for a product review, they check TikTok or Reddit. For shopping, the journey often starts on Amazon. For a direct answer, users consult ChatGPT or their phone’s assistant. The act of “searching” is no longer confined to a white box with a colorful logo.

This shift raises a crucial question: how should SEO adapt in a world where searches happen outside of Google? The answer isn’t about switching search engines, but about changing the entire mindset. It’s no longer just about optimizing for algorithms, but about designing discovery, response, and relevance experiences across multiple digital environments.

>> How do you audit your business’s SEO? <<

SEO in closed ecosystems: Amazon, YouTube, TikTok

Digital search no longer takes place in just one location or under a single format. Today’s users no longer follow a linear path; they navigate platforms based on their intent, context, and their level of trust with each environment. Instead of using a general search engine, they turn to specific channels where they expect faster, more visual, or more actionable answers. This behavior has created a new category of environments: closed search ecosystems.

These spaces—such as Amazon for products, YouTube for tutorials, or TikTok for inspiration—are not designed to send traffic elsewhere. They are self-contained universes, each with their own algorithms, rules, and internal content formats. In these ecosystems, traditional SEO tactics based on links, metadata, and web structure are no longer sufficient.

Ranking in these environments requires understanding how each algorithm works, what signals they prioritize, and how relevance is expressed in their interfaces. It’s a challenge that forces brands to unlearn legacy formulas and embrace new skills: in-platform behavioral analysis, native content design, and channel-, audience-, and moment-adapted positioning strategies.

Optimizing for these ecosystems is not an extension of classic SEO—it is a discipline with its own identity. Brands that understand this evolution and strategically integrate into these spaces will be the ones that master the new forms of digital discovery.

Amazon: The SEO of Commerce

Amazon has evolved from a simple e-commerce platform into a search engine focused exclusively on purchase intent. According to multiple studies, over 60% of U.S. consumers begin their product search directly on Amazon, bypassing Google altogether. This behavior positions Amazon as the dominant starting point for exploring purchase alternatives.

Its internal search engine, known as A9 (and more recently, A10), is designed for a singular purpose: to display the products most likely to generate a conversion. Unlike Google, which balances multiple intent types (informational, transactional, navigational), Amazon ranks exclusively based on the commercial performance of products. In this ecosystem, visibility isn’t earned through backlinks or editorial content, but through sales metrics and reputation.

The most influential factors in its algorithm include:

- Conversion rate (click-to-purchase ratio)

- Quantity and quality of reviews

- Historical product performance

- Title and bullet optimization with keywords

- High-resolution images and adherence to visual standards

- Delivery speed, competitive pricing, and fulfillment (FBA) compliance

That’s why SEO on Amazon demands a more operational than technical mindset. It requires mastery of persuasive writing, inventory management, customer service, and logistical excellence. It is a discipline where marketing, sales, and supply chain must work in harmony to achieve both visibility and profitability.

YouTube: building visibility with audiovisual authority

YouTube has established itself as the world’s second most-used search engine, only behind Google. Yet its discovery and ranking logic operates on entirely different dynamics, with a focus on audiovisual experience and audience retention. Rather than simply providing answers, YouTube is designed to maximize the user’s total viewing time within its own platform. That’s why its algorithm—internally known as the YouTube Recommendation System—is not just built to find content, but to keep users engaged and browsing.

This system processes thousands of real-time signals to determine what appears in search results, suggested videos, and the homepage. The most important factors include:

- Total watch time per session

- Video retention rate (how much of the video is watched)

- Click-through rate (CTR) on thumbnails and titles

- Engagement (comments, likes, shares, subscriptions)

- Semantics of titles, descriptions, and tags

YouTube also benefits from a strategic advantage: deep integration with Google. Well-ranked videos may appear both on the platform and in traditional search results, exponentially increasing their organic reach.

SEO on YouTube calls for creating content that educates, entertains, or inspires, while mastering elements like storytelling, editing, thumbnail design, and real-time performance analytics. Here, authority is not earned through links, but through watch time and user satisfaction.

TikTok: The New Inspirational Search

TikTok represents a radical transformation in how users discover content. Far from being simply an entertainment-focused social network, it has become a platform for visual and emotional search—especially for younger generations who value authenticity, speed, and instant connection with content. Recent studies show that over 40% of users aged 18 to 24 use TikTok as their main search engine for recipes, travel tips, product recommendations, and reviews.

Powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, TikTok’s algorithm hyper-personalizes each user’s feed, analyzing from the very first second what type of content captures their attention. Unlike Google, where you enter a query and browse results, TikTok removes explicit intent and replaces active search with a hyper-relevant, passive discovery model.

Key signals TikTok uses to distribute content include:

- Engagement in the first few seconds (likes, comments, shares)

- Total and average audience retention per video

- Hashtags used and content in the description

- User interaction speed with the video

- Use of sounds, effects, and trending elements in context

Here, SEO doesn’t revolve around keywords, but around viral moments, visual language, and emotional resonance. Content can achieve high visibility without even being sought out—simply due to its ability to build immediate connection with the ideal audience.

For brands, this means a genuine shift in mindset: it’s not enough to just show up on TikTok. Building native presence, understanding the cultural codes, and creating pieces that don’t resemble advertisements—but instead flow naturally within the platform—are essential. Here, optimization isn’t technical—it’s narrative.

Conversational search and generative AI

We are witnessing a radical evolution in how people interact with information. Conversational search, driven by generative artificial intelligence, is displacing the traditional search engine logic. Instead of presenting links for users to explore, these platforms deliver direct, comprehensive, and contextually relevant answers. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude are redefining the concept of “search”—it’s no longer about browsing, but about dialoguing.

In this new environment, queries are no longer made with keywords, but with full questions formulated in natural language. User expectations have shifted dramatically: people now expect synthesized, personalized, and useful responses without needing to jump from page to page. This shift alters the core of SEO. Search engines no longer prioritize authority based on backlinks or domain age, but on semantic clarity, content structure, and perceived usefulness of information.

ChatGPT, for example, has become the first stop for millions of users seeking information, ideas, or decision-making support. Even without being constantly connected to the web, its ability to generate coherent answers from its trained language model has created a more efficient and appealing consultation experience than traditional browsing. In this context, digital content should not be created solely for search engines, but also to be understood and reused by these models as sources of knowledge. This requires writing with precision, structuring content logically, and ensuring the reliability of every published piece.

Platforms like Perplexity or Gemini take things even further by combining natural language generation with real-time access to sources and original links. These tools cite content, link to documents, and provide a hybrid experience between automated answers and assisted navigation. Here, visibility depends less on being on the “first page” and more on becoming a valid and frequently cited source for AI. Traditional optimization is no longer enough; now we must consider how AI engines select, interpret, and synthesize information.

For brands and content creators, this change is both an opportunity and a challenge. SEO now goes beyond driving clicks; it’s about influencing the answers. The strategic question is no longer just about reaching the user, but about being woven into the narrative that AI constructs around a topic. Adapting to this new dynamic involves mastering structure, semantics, and relevance, with a systemic, knowledge-centered approach—not just visibility.

The search experience has moved beyond text alone. We are in an era where users navigate the digital landscape using a variety of input channels: voice, images, visual scanning, and even contextual signals like location or device. This new paradigm, referred to as multimodal search, breaks with traditional SEO logic focused exclusively on written keywords. Today, content discovery doesn’t always begin with a keyboard—it can start with a camera, a voice command, or a contextual action.

One of the main drivers of this transformation has been voice search, made possible by assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. Unlike typed queries, spoken searches tend to be more conversational, natural, and specific. Instead of using brief phrases like “best Mexican restaurant,” users ask full questions such as “What’s the best Mexican restaurant near me that’s open Sunday nights?” This demands digital content that adapts to natural language, delivers direct answers, and is structured clearly for systems that prioritize usefulness over keyword density.

Simultaneously, visual search is rapidly advancing, particularly in industries like fashion, tourism, food, and design. Tools such as Google Lens and Pinterest Lens allow users to search without needing to know how to describe what they see—just point a camera or upload an image, and the system recognizes objects, styles, locations, or related products. In this context, images gain strategic importance as more than just visuals—they become doorways to discovery. The quality, originality, and the way images are tagged and contextualized are all pivotal for ensuring visibility in visual results.

Lastly, context itself has become a new axis for search positioning. Search engines now factor in geographic location, device type, browsing history, and even time of day to personalize results. Two individuals searching exactly the same phrase can see completely different outcomes depending on these variables. This means SEO must move beyond a static approach and become adaptive, capable of responding to multiple scenarios while maintaining coherence and relevance.

Multimodality compels brands to design a digital presence that’s accessible, interpretable, and useful from all possible angles. It is no longer enough to write optimized text; brands must also consider informative images, concise voice answers, clear semantic structures, and a web experience suited to every context of use. The future of SEO is integrative, not exclusive—it’s a discipline that connects formats, interprets signals, and anticipates needs before the user even consciously expresses them.

Decentralized SEO Strategy: How to Prepare

The fragmentation of the search ecosystem has created an urgent need to build SEO strategies that do not rely exclusively on Google. In a world where users search across multiple platforms, formats, and devices, effective search positioning can no longer be approached as an isolated tactic. What’s needed is a decentralized SEO strategy—one that can adapt to different environments, algorithms, and user expectations across every channel.

The first step is accepting that SEO is no longer a destination, but a system. It’s no longer just about optimizing for a single platform, but about orchestrating a coherent and strategic presence across multiple points of discovery. This means abandoning a technical vision focused solely on traditional organic ranking, and embracing a more holistic logic where every touchpoint with the user—whether it’s a voice search, a TikTok video, an Amazon product listing, or an article cited by AI—forms part of the overall SEO ecosystem.

A decentralized strategy begins by redefining what it means to be visible. Visibility is no longer about securing a spot in a list of results, but about being discoverable in the right context and format. This requires mapping all relevant channels for your brand’s audience and understanding what content is consumed, how it’s searched for, and what logic drives the algorithms that surface that content. Rather than duplicating content, it’s about adapting it intelligently.

At the same time, it’s critical to implement a semantic content architecture, where information is not only useful to users, but also interpretable by AI systems, virtual assistants, predictive engines, and indexed platforms. Each piece should answer questions, anticipate intent, and remain aligned with attributes like trustworthiness, expertise, and authority. Here, content becomes infrastructure—not just a message, but a strategic asset that can be reused, linked, cited, or understood across multiple contexts.

An effective strategy also acknowledges that every platform has its own rules of the game. What works on YouTube may be irrelevant on Amazon. What’s optimized for visual search won’t have the same effect on voice search. Decentralizing SEO, therefore, also means decentralizing expertise—integrating technical, creative, analytical, and operational profiles to treat each channel as a unique environment with its own logic and success metrics.

Finally, decentralization demands a culture of continuous measurement and adaptation. Instead of focusing only on traditional organic traffic metrics, broaden your perspective to include indicators such as brand discovery on social platforms, mentions in AI-generated responses, voice search appearances, or the completion rate of strategic videos. Modern SEO doesn’t live on a single dashboard; it lives across multiple signals which—when interpreted correctly—reveal your brand’s capacity to be found, considered, and preferred.

In summary, preparing for today’s SEO—not just that of the future—means thinking in ecosystems, not positions. It means designing an intelligent presence that’s not dependent on any single algorithm, but rather on your brand’s ability to be in the right place, with the right content, at the moment the user needs it—even if the user doesn’t know how to articulate the search.

Conclusion: The new SEO isn’t just optimized. It’s orchestrated

SEO has moved beyond a technical contest confined to traditional search engines. Today, it is expansive, adaptable, and deeply interconnected with the way people discover, interpret, and value information in an increasingly distributed digital world. We’ve moved from a logic centered on rank in a results list, to a strategy that seeks presence, relevance, and answers in multiple formats and platforms.

In this new paradigm, optimization alone isn’t enough. What’s required is orchestrating an integral digital presence, capable of moving seamlessly in conversational, visual, predictive, and contextual environments. Brands that embrace this shift and prepare to build structured, adaptable, and semantically rich content will not only be visible—they’ll be relevant in the user’s key decision moments.

The future of SEO won’t be defined by Google’s algorithm, but by an organization’s ability to anticipate how, where, and why users seek answers. Searches may no longer always begin with a click or end on a website. Some start with a photo, others with a voice, many with a question posed to an AI assistant. In this landscape, content should not focus solely on attracting traffic, but on being useful, interpretable, and trustworthy across multiple channels and intelligent engines.

That’s why the real challenge is not to beat an algorithm, but to achieve systemic relevance. It’s time to let go of SEO as a tactical exercise and embrace a strategic vision where every interaction is an opportunity for discovery. Those who lead this transition will not only be seen—they’ll be influential. Because in the new digital ecosystem, the winner isn’t the one who appears first, but the one who answers best.