Google's John Mueller was interviewed by David Iwanow, where he shared information on AI-generated content, the future of SEO, technical SEO, the crawl stats report, redirect chains, ecommerce product data and much more. John was asked about tactics, such as listicles, being used to rank well in AI Search, and he said that eventually the systems will catch up, so don't use those cheap, easy, and fast tactics.
Here is the video:
John Mueller said in the videos that listicles aren't inherently spam, but relying on thousands of them as an entire content strategy is risky. Tactics that work initially can eventually be recognized and discounted by search systems if/when they become a spam tactic. Publishers should build a solid foundation that search engines and AI systems will want to surface over the long term, not just take shortcuts.
John said that people will eventually use "it in a particularly bad way and then at some point the systems catch" and all that effort will be thrown out. "But I think you really need to focus on that end goal of having something that search engines and AI systems will want to show to people in the long run," he added.
He added that the AI-scaled content stuff and other tactics, "none of this is new." He said, "people always find some trick and then they write about it and then everyone goes off and does that and then it's like at some point the systems are like huh this this is easy to recognize but it's hurting actual businesses."
Mueller compares mass-producing AI content to older tactics such as keyword stuffing and white text on a white background. These techniques may work temporarily but can eventually fail. He advises questioning consultants who promise extraordinary results and understanding what they are actually doing.
In short, just because it works today, it might not work tomorrow.
Here are other points in the video:
- Crawl Stats is an underused Search Console report: Mueller identifies the Crawl Stats report as a feature more site owners should check periodically. Watch for unusual crawl activity or a sudden increase in the time Google takes to crawl pages. Catching problems early may prevent Google from significantly reducing crawling, which can take time to recover from.
- Long redirect chains aren't automatically an SEO problem: Mueller says he hasn't encountered sites experiencing problems simply because they have long redirect chains. Google can often learn the current destination and crawl those URLs directly. Investigate redirects when diagnosing a real issue, such as canonicalization problems, rather than assuming a particular number of hops triggers a penalty.
- The URL Parameters tool is gone for good: Asked whether the URL Parameters tool might return to Search Console, Mueller says he is pretty sure it is gone. It was complicated to use, and Google has worked on understanding URL parameters automatically instead. He hopes Google can automate more tasks that previously required manual configuration.
- Use official product attributes, but speak the customer's language: For ecommerce product variants, Mueller recommends using official product attributes and values when available. These help Google's systems understand products. At the same time, product names must be understandable to consumers: someone searching for a red shirt might not recognize a retailer's internal label, such as "crimson."
- SEO isn't dead - technical SEO will remain relevant: Mueller expects AI systems to continue building on SEO, especially technical SEO. AI systems may crawl websites for different purposes, including model training and retrieving fresh information, but he views these differences as another aspect of technical SEO rather than its replacement.
- Use support forums and communities to diagnose problems: Mueller recommends Google Search Central's support forums because product experts can recognize patterns and escalate issues to Google employees. He also praises private SEO communities on Slack, specifically the SEO community, where people can share specific URLs and troubleshoot problems without the hostility often found on public social media.
There were also mentions of mobile-first, AI-specific versions of a website, future Search Central events and would John eat AI-generated cheese.
Forum discussion at Bluesky.
