Checking In: Where Are We With The Google Lawsuits? via @sejournal, @Kevin_Indig

We’ve been focused on the impact of AI on Search and how to still make gains in this competitive and volatile SEO world.

It’s easy to forget that two big lawsuits are deciding potential remedies against Google soon, which could affect organic traffic and the search landscape.

I know most of you don’t spend your free time reading up on antitrust law – I certainly don’t.

But the truth is, the rulings in these Google cases could impact your website’s traffic – which is a big deal for any business trying to grow online.

On one hand, a weakened Google could open the door for AI chatbots and other new players to shake up the landscape.

On the other, a strengthened Google would solidify its position as the gatekeeper of customer acquisition.

Image Credit: Lyna ™

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Context

There are many lawsuits against Google, some of which come with the territory of being one of the biggest companies in the world.

However, two prominent cases stand out because they have the power to transform the company:

1. “Search Monopoly Lawsuit: United States v. Google LLC (2020)”

1. The claim: Google unlawfully maintains monopolies in the search and search advertising markets by using exclusive agreements (e.g., with Apple) and paying device manufacturers to make Google the default search engine.
2. Demanded remedies: Google should divest Chrome and Android (or remove mandatory Google services from Android), terminate exclusive agreements, add choice screens, and share data with competitors. Important: the judgment would last 10 years from its effective date, with the potential for early termination under certain circumstances.¹
3. Expected judgment: August 2025.

2. “Digital Advertising Lawsuit: United States v. Google LLC (2023)”

1. The claim: Google has unlawfully monopolized key digital advertising technologies and markets, including ad exchanges and publisher ad servers. Google engages in exclusionary practices that stifle competition, such as acquiring competitors, manipulating auctions, and restricting publishers from using rival technology platforms.
2. Demanded remedies: Google should sell Google Ad Exchange and Ad Publisher Server, allow advertisers and publishers to pick other services, and make auctions more transparent.
3. Expected judgment: Early to mid-2025.

Each case will significantly change Google’s position if the remedies (consequences) come into rule. They already attract other lawsuits.

As I mentioned in my article, the Chegg lawsuit might have been strategically filed to build on top of these two DoJ lawsuits.

Two reasons: Trump and AI.

1. Administration

The Trump administration has cut the already dull teeth of many antitrust government bodies and runs a mafia/kleptocracy, which introduces a significant wildcard into both lawsuits.

• Even though the first Google lawsuit started in Trump’s first term, Google understands that there is a chance the Trump administration will stop the DoJ lawsuit or weaken remedies and will do everything in its power to lobby for the outcome. Google tried to persuade Trump with a one-million-dollar gift from Sundar PichAI and complied with an executive Trump order to remove DEI programs and hiring goals for federal contractors.
• Trump has spoken out against a break-up at an event in Chicago in October: “If you do that, are you going to destroy the company? What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it’s more fair.”²
• Trump appointed Republican Andrew Ferguson as the new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), making it more likely to steer the outcome in his favor. However, in March, the DoJ reaffirmed its position on divesting Chrome despite pulling back its ask for Google to divest its investments in AI (e.g., Anthropic).³

2. Competition From AI

AI hasn’t just threatened Google Search but also leveled the playing field.

Many products, from meta AI to ChatGPT & Co to Copilot, can answer questions now and are basically a search engine, which means Google’s monopoly position could be questioned.

• Judge Mehta, who rules in the Search Monopoly case, addressed this point: “AI cannot replace the fundamental building blocks of search, including web crawling, indexing, and ranking.”
• However, he could change his mind based on the rapid growth of many AI chatbots and the fact that so many new ones pop up left and right.

Conclusion: A Small Chance For The Open Web

Google is doing well: Search revenue has grown to almost $200 billion in 2024, up from $175 billion the year before.

Search ads still make up over 50% of Alphabet’s revenue, YouTube is stable, and Cloud offsets the dropping Network revenue.

Alphabet still makes over 50% of revenue from Search ads (Image Credit: Kevin Indig)

• Is Google doing well because people use it more or because advertisers have no alternative? Probably both: Sparktoro found that Google searches grew by 20% YoY in 2024. At the same time, “42% said Google and search engines are becoming less useful.” Maybe the explanation of the paradox is that more searches result from users not finding what they want.
• Google is still the biggest source of traffic by a big margin, even if AI would mean 20-30% less referral traffic.

The lawsuit matters because if it goes through, it could accelerate or decelerate traffic from Google.

How the search ecosystem would change if the remedies went through as proposed:

• Google will lose a significant data advantage from Chrome and competitors will benefit big time from Google’s data. I reported how Ecosia and QWANT are building their own search index to become independent of Google and Bing. Enforced data sharing would support this process and inspire competitors like DuckDuckGo.
• Google would encounter a big hit in mobile traffic from Apple devices, similar to how it already sees a weakened market share in the EU (see the above article as well). Device manufacturers could pre-install different search engines, adding to the pain.
• Google might make search better to compete harder, benefitting users. But it could also push Google to be even more aggressive about AI and send even less traffic to websites.

I concluded that one scenario is most likely to happen in my last post on the Search Monopoly case Monopoly:

Google must end its exclusivity deals immediately. Apple needs to let users choose a default search engine when setting up their devices. Google could get hefty fines for every year they keep the contract with Apple going.

Realistically, that still seems to be the most likely outcome. But for the web economy, it would be best if the judges in both lawsuits ruled against Google.

¹ Source

² Trump expected to shift course on antitrust, stop Google breakup

³ Trump’s Justice Department still wants to break up Google

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Brand Visibility Is the New SEO

Brand visibility is becoming critical for AI search because consumers increasingly use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others for product and company recommendations.

As early as July 2023, a Capgemini study of consumers in 13 advanced economies (PDF) found that “generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are becoming the new go-to for 70% of consumers when it comes to seeking product or service recommendations, replacing traditional methods such as search.”

In other words, consumers’ use of genAI to discover brands and products is skyrocketing. Yet those platforms must be aware of your business or products to recommend them.

That’s where brand search comes into play. Search engines drive brand discovery for genAI platforms and research for humans.

In August 2024, SparkToro cited studies revealing that 99% of genAI users continued to use traditional search engines for details, such as specs, prices, and reviews. Hence consumers likely discover brands and products on genAI and go to Google, Bing, and others to learn more.

This trend will surely grow. The number and type of brand searches are now essential search metrics.

So what can we track and how?

Brand search volume

The easiest way to monitor brand visibility is via search engine data, tracking the number of queries on your company’s name and products.

There are a few options.

Search Console

Search Console’s Performance section reports brand queries. Click Search results > Add filter > Query. Then enter your brand name for the number of impressions and clicks from searchers.

Search Console reports impressions and clicks on any term, including a brand name. Click image to enlarge.

Google Trends

Unlike Search Console, Google Trends tracks competitors’ brands, too. Type your brand name or a competitor’s for trends.

Google Trends tracks any term — yours and a competitor’s. This example shows “ahrefs.” Click image to enlarge.

Google Trends will also report rising related queries that include a brand name. Glimpse, a freemium Chrome extension, overlays Google Trends data on important search metrics such as volume and long-tail queries containing your brand name and competitors’.

Google Trends reports rising queries that include a brand name, such as “ahrefs.” Click image to enlarge.

Semrush

Semrush includes search volume for any keyword (versus a group of keywords in Google Ads reports) over time.

Use the “Keyword overview” tool in Semrush’s dashboard and select months and years in the dropdown menu.

Select months and years in Semrush’s “Keyword Overview” tool. Click image to enlarge.

Brand search impressions

Fewer queries in search engines result in clicks. Thus the number of brand impressions — searchers who view your organic brand listings — is now all-important.

Use Search Console’s “Query” filter to track those impressions.

Track brand-name impressions in Search Console. Click image to enlarge.

How to Beat Amazon at SEO

Ted Kubaitis once managed organic search for a retailer with 25,000 SKUs and 500 categories. He feared competing against Amazon for rankings until he realized most of its product pages had zero external links. Then an epiphany hit.

“All it took was 25 backlinks,” he told me.

Ted is now the founder of SEO Tool Lab, a prominent agency and software provider, and the host of “SEO Fight Club,” a YouTube show.

He and I spoke last month at a conference. I asked him about today’s SERPs, keyword priorities, content marketing, and, yes, competing against ecommerce giants.

The entire audio of that conversation is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Schwartzman:  Search engine result pages have changed dramatically over the last few months.

Ted Kubaitis: Right. There are keywords now where the first organic result is below the fold — effectively page two. Those keywords aren’t worth targeting anymore.

The Google search result page is now a universal search. It’s multiple blended result sets — ads,  products, “People also ask,” local packs, all kinds of things are now above organic listings.

Search engine optimizers must consider two things: Where do I rank organically, and where does the listing appear among all those options?

Schwartzman: What are the best keywords to target for an online store?

Kubaitis: It’s an important question because if the targeting is wrong, the SEO is wrong. It requires a lot of time and effort to figure out. I would start with the names of products and categories. Names are so impactful.

Look at the links in SERPs; many are the actual search terms. A merchant might have a “Gifts and Delights” category, but how many people search for “gifts and delights”? What the heck is a delight? I guarantee “gifts and delights” is a zero-volume keyword.

So even if you rank number one, you’ve won nothing. But if you change the name to “Unique Gift Ideas,” you will now have a search term worth winning. Go through all of your categories and product names. Make sure they’re all named something that has search volume.

Google Trends can help identify those high-volume names. Look at the trending cluster topics for ideas. Consider, too, adding a widget or word cloud to a product page with keyword variants and even typos.

Merchants with multiple SKUs of a single item could name each with a top keyword variant.

Schwartzman: How did you learn ecommerce SEO?

Kubaitis: I was a web developer for a large online retailer. They saw that I was good with SEO, so I took it over as a primary responsibility. I ended up doing SEO for that retailer for almost 20 years. I helped them grow from $5 million in annual revenue to $65 million with a $40 average cart size. So a lot of carts. High volume, low margin. We had 25,000 SKUs across 500 product categories.

We competed against Amazon and all the big marketplaces. A lot of sellers think they can’t compete against those sites, but Amazon’s product pages often have zero external backlinks. You can beat them with 25 backlinks. I spent years being afraid to compete with Amazon. I finally mustered up the courage; all it took was 25 backlinks.

Don’t make my mistake.

Schwartzman: Let’s switch to content marketing. Ecommerce stores often launch blogs to attract traffic for products. What are your thoughts about that?

Kubaitis: Blogs can help, but executing the strategy is often flawed and ends up causing more harm. Most online retailers have a problem with keyword cannibalization between their home page, categories, and product pages. Then they publish blog posts that overlap with the same keywords.

A better ecommerce strategy involves multiple websites. For example, a seller of high-end poker tables could launch a blog site about poker rules, professional tournaments, and related — and then advertise the tables there. The seller would have multiple marketing assets and free advertising. The seller can test keywords that the store couldn’t otherwise target. And since they’re on different domains, they’re not cannibalizing each other.

I tell retailers a blog is helpful on a different domain, but four out of five have a problem when it’s on their ecommerce sites.

Schwartzman: Tell us about your company, SEO Tool Lab.

Kubaitis: Our primary tool is called Cora. It uses statistical analysis to determine which elements on your website and your competitors’ impact rankings for a keyword. Cora reduces the possibilities from thousands to a few dozen to focus on.

Plus, we host a weekly YouTube show called SEO Fight Club. It’s an open debate and peer review of SEO tactics, tools, and trends.