At the core of search engine optimisation (SEO) is the user, and every update that Google has implemented has professedly been with the intention of improving user experience. Over the years, SEO has evolved alongside advances in technology. In the 2010s, the focus shifted from individual keywords to semantic search and latent semantic indexing (LSI). This change transformed how search engines interpret queries, moving away from simple keyword matching toward a stronger emphasis on user intent. Around the same time, Google made changes to its Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) by introducing the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) framework to assess content credibility. his framework established the fundamental guidelines for Google to evaluate how trustworthy how trustworthy a URL is, and this is what Google employed until the introduction of ChatGPT on 30 November 2022 changed the world of SEO practically overnight. In fact, Google released more than 33 confirmed algorithm updates between 2022 and early 2026, an unprecedented quantity that transformed ranking factors. While AI tools made it easier to produce large amounts of content quickly, they also increased concerns around misinformation, generic writing, and low-quality articles created without genuine understanding of a subject matter, in some cases causing damage to how brands and people were perceived.
Counting for experience
After the launch of ChatGPT, Google placed even greater emphasis on content trust and authenticity by expanding its E-A-T guidelines to E-E-A-T, with the additional ‘E’ representing Experience. This change allowed content quality to be evaluated not only on expertise and authority, but also on the creator’s first-hand knowledge and real-world involvement in a subject. The update reflected Google’s response to the rapid rise of AI-generated content, reinforcing the importance of trustworthy, authentic, and experience-based information within search rankings. The evolving ways in which Google evaluates the usefulness of a URL for users raises important questions about how search engines will continue to distinguish trustworthy, human-created content from mass-produced, AI-generated material as AI continues to learn, improve, and produce increasingly human-like content.
Google distinguishes between content that aligns with its quality guidelines and content that has been mass produced using AI tools by evaluating a range of trust and credibility signals when assessing webpages. These include clearly attributed author bylines supported by verifiable credentials and professional profiles, as well as first-hand insights backed by research and case studies that demonstrate genuine experience in a subject matter and are difficult for AI systems like ChatGPT to replicate. Search engines also consider transparent sourcing and citations from authoritative references, alongside broader brand signals such as press mentions and industry recognition. In addition, structured data, such as schema markup – which is a semantic vocabulary of code added to a website’s HTML to help search engines understand the context of a piece of content, rather than just reading the text – helps communicate important information about authors, organisations, and content types in a readable format. This allows search engines to better understand and evaluate the reliability and trustworthiness of a webpage.
User behaviour
Alongside impacting how Google’s algorithm interprets trust, AI has also changed what the user trusts when using search engines. The introduction of Google’s AI Overview in 2023 has caused the biggest shift in how users interact with search engines. Instead of seeing the most trusted and authoritative links at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), users began to see an overview of the content these links contained, displayed prominently at the top of the screen. Data shows that 58-60% of searches end without a click – a phenomenon simply named a ‘zero-click search’. Not only is Google’s AI Overview changing how users interact with a search page upon landing, but it is also affecting the way in which they search. From January 2025 to June 2025, short queries of one or two keywords dropped from 42% to just 31%, with around 70% of search queries now being made using long-tail keywords. Studies have shown that sites which previously ranked first in Google’s SERPs lost around 79% of traffic when results showed up below AI Overviews. This caused a massive shift in how publishers optimised their websites: the importance of being on the first page of Google became less significant and the new aim of publishers was to be featured as a citation in the AI Overview. To achieve this, publishers must be even more aligned with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines as the AI Overview rewards brands with descriptive, professional answers to queries rather than answers that hit the keywords of the user’s search.
Google is taking action to combat the significant decline in click-through rate (CTR) and organic traffic caused by the rise of AI-generated search experiences. In its May 2026 update, Google introduced five new features designed to make AI Overviews more interactive and publisher friendly, including relevant article suggestions, direct links within AI-generated responses, website previews, and ‘personal perspectives’ from creators and real users. Updates like this place further emphasis on the importance of meeting Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, as publishers are now being directly rewarded for being a trusted source. These changes reflect Google’s growing concern over the impact AI Overviews have had on publisher visibility and website traffic. As users increasingly receive complete answers directly within search results, fewer people are clicking through to external websites. This has forced Google to reconsider how it balances user convenience with the need to sustain the wider web ecosystem that its search engine depends on.
A framework for the future?
In conclusion, the evolution of SEO demonstrates how closely search engines adapt to changes in both technology and user behaviour. From the transition to semantic search in the 2010s to the rapid integration of AI into modern search experiences, Google’s primary objective has consistently been delivering the most trustworthy information to users. However, the rise of AI-generated content has created new challenges for search engines, publishers, and users alike. As AI tools become more capable of producing human-like content, Google has been forced to shift its focus away from traditional ranking signals and place greater emphasis on trust and real-world experience through its E-E-A-T guidelines.
The introduction of AI Overviews and Google’s continued algorithm updates highlight a significant transformation in the relationship between users and search engines. While the material ranking first on a SERP is still key to online reputation, so is the content being recognised as a credible source worthy of citation within AI-generated responses. This places greater importance on brand authority, first-hand expertise, transparent sourcing, and unique insights that cannot easily be replicated through automated content generation. Ultimately, the future of SEO will depend less on optimising for keywords and more on demonstrating genuine value, credibility, and user trust. In this new era of search, trust has become the most valuable ranking factor of all.
Digitalis
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email webrequests@digitalis.com
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to webrequests@digitalis.com