Google's AI-driven Search Overhaul Redefines SEO Priorities

Google’s core ranking process—crawling, indexing and ranking—remains unchanged, but the metrics that gauge user experience have been tightened. The Core Web Vitals suite now replaces First Input Delay with Interaction to Next Paint (INP), measuring every user interaction on a page and flagging a 200 ms threshold as good, 200‑500 ms as moderate and over 500 ms as poor.

At the same time, user behavior is shifting from traditional SERP clicks to direct answers from AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. Site owners are urged to become trusted AI sources—referred to as GEO and AEO—so that their content is selected for AI‑generated responses, rather than merely aiming for the top organic listing.