• Google is moving away from its traditional search model and more into the world of AI

• Competitors like ChatGPT and Claude have taken a bite out of Google’s market share for the first time in years

• The way customers find you using AI tools is different than a traditional Google search

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Every year, Google hosts a large conference where they show off their new products called Google I/O. This year, one of the biggest announcements to marketers like myself was Google’s continued shift away from traditional Google Search. The company is increasingly pushing users toward its AI-powered search mode.

Google now has AI Overviews at the top of more and more of their searches. This essentially answers your questions without ever having to go to a website. Google has decided to go all in on this concept.

This pivot is coming as they have seen real competition for search for the first time in years from AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and many more.

We are now moving into an era where people interact with a chat bot for multiple queries before potentially visiting your website. The question is, are these chat bots recommending your business or service?

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Since Google took over the internet years ago, an industry called SEO (Search Engine Optimization) emerged. It is the act of optimizing your business’s website so it’s a top result on Google when people search for products and services like yours.

For instance, if someone in Manahawkin, NJ searches for “pipe burst plumbing emergency,” we work to ensure our client HMG Plumbing appears as the first Google result so they can win that business.

With the advent of chat bots such as ChatGPT, Claude and others, we are entering a new era of search known as AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Both refer to the practice of optimizing your online presence so your business is more likely to be found when people use AI chat bots to find a product or service.

This fundamental change in behavior is happening fast. Google boasts 1 billion users of their AI mode this year. OpenAi’s ChatGPT has gone from 100 million weekly users in 2023 to almost 900 million users a week today.

And Anthropic’s Claude has about 18.9 million users, but is focusing heavily on enterprise and business clients instead of the general population.

What’s more, as people use these AI tools, website traffic is starting to decline. But companies' revenue is potentially increasing with this change. Marketer Neil Patel has claimed that traffic from ChatGPT is worth 4.4x more than traffic from Google. He argues that when someone interacts with a chatbot over multiple queries and your business is recommended, they’ve often already made up their mind to work with you by the time they reach your website.

The Main Takeaway

The way people interact with the internet is fundamentally changing. Is your business ready?

• People are watching YouTube on their TV’s more than other streaming services like Netflix and Disney+

• YouTube advertising is more flexible and targeted than traditional TV advertising

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When my wife and I first moved in together, she was surprised to learn that YouTube was my streaming service of choice. Instead of watching shows on cable or Netflix, I watched my favorite channels on YouTube. And instead of watching YouTube on my phone or laptop, I watched it on our TV.

The reason being is YouTube offers shows that feel customized to me. Instead of watching a national sports talk show on ESPN, I’m able to watch shows that focus exclusively on Ohio State football at a very nuanced level. And instead of watching a general business show on CNBC or Fox Business, I can watch shows that talk about marketing, SEO, and web design specifically.

No matter your hobby or interest is, YouTube has several dozen (or hundred) creators people making videos about it.

And people are taking notice. In 2025, more people watched YouTube on their TV’s than Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, Paramount+, or Peacock.

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According to Nielsen, YouTube accounted for 12.7% of all TV viewing in December 2025. By comparison. Netflix captured 9%, Disney+ 4.7%, and Amazon Prime Video 4.3%. It’s clear that YouTube is the early and unexpected winner of the streaming wars.

YouTube also generated over 40 Billion dollars in ad revenue in 2025. The ads you see on YouTube or no longer low budget ads shot on cell phones for sketchy supplements. They are now the same exact ads you see on cable TV. Major brands like State Farm, Unilever, and Wal-Mart are all joining the crowd and spending big bucks on YouTube Ad Spend.

How does this help your small business?

The beauty of YouTube ads is you can heavily target the right people for your business. Traditional cable advertising focuses on networks, shows, and broad geographic areas. YouTube allows you to hone in on viewers based on age, demographics, location, interests, the channels they watch, and even whether if they’re actively looking for a product like yours. And unlike traditional TV, viewers can call your business or click directly to your website right from the ad.

The Main Takeaway

YouTube may feel new but it’s bigger than many other streaming services we’re familiar with, and offers small businesses the chance to advertise effectively on a budget.

• More and more businesses are relying on untrained marketers and designers to do marketing tasks in-house

• While it does save a few dollars in the short term, it cheapens your brand in the long term

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There’s a meme going around on Instagram these days about “Millennial Midlife Crises” activities. These are big endeavors such as training for a marathon, experimenting with sobriety, and going on impulse trips to places like Japan. At 36, my millennial midlife crisis is pickleball. But that’s not the story.

At the pickleball gym I go to, there are TV’s with ads everywhere. Many of them are national ads with high quality video, making the products seem impressive. However, many of the local businesses that advertise have opted to make their ads in-house, often with people who probably don’t know what they’re doing. The end result looks something like this:

This graphic technically gets the job done, but does it build trust? Does it make you say, “Damn, I need to work with these guys!” Or does it make you think that this lawyer, whose services might cost thousands of dollars if not more, is cutting corners and looks cheap as hell?

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For years graphic design was done in Adobe’s Photoshop. Photoshop is VERY hard to use out of the box, and it is almost exclusively geared towards real graphic designers.

In the last few years, a company called Canva has become the go to app for a large portion of the market. Canva is awesome, and I use it everyday. It makes designing easy for just about everyone, allowing those with little to no graphic design experience to create their first ad in minutes.

The problem is that is allows people who have never created a graphic or ad before to produce their first ad in minutes.

Just because we CAN do something doesn’t mean the end result is good. It took me a few years before I finally understood the basics of design and started making ads that actually made people say “wow”. It turns out there’s a reason why people go to school for graphic design – there are rules and guidelines for making something that’s visually appealing and makes people want to work with your brand.

I understand small businesses are often strapped for resources and people wear many hats. It’s easy to say to your receptionist, “Hey can you make a social media post about our upcoming sale?” They open up Canva, make an ad, post it to socials, and the job is done without speaking to a designer or hiring anyone from the outside.

But that ad isn’t going to look good. It will look like an intern hastily threw something together. Even if people don’t say, “they didn’t set up their font hierarchy correctly, there’s no contrast in the colors, or there’s no negative space,”, they’re going to feel like what they’re seeing is low quality.

What saves you time and a little bit of money in the short term, is going to cheapen your company to everyone who scrolls past the post on Facebook.

The Main Takeaway

It makes sense to do graphics and posts in house when you first get started. But once you have the budget, consider grabbing an outsider to make your brand look better to your customers.

• A smaller, more focused website almost always beats a massive site stuffed with low quality information.

• It pays off to pour your effort into a handful of key services rather than trying to vaguely cover everything under the sun.

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One of my clients had been paying another agency good money to build their website and then paid them a monthly retainer to manage their SEO.

Despite paying thousands of dollars on their web marketing, they were getting little to no online traction. Something wasn’t right.

They asked me to take a look at the data reports their former agency was providing them. Their website had almost zero traffic and they were receiving zero calls from Google and other online outlets.

It’s unfortunately common for hard-working business owners to lose thousands by trusting their marketing budget to “professionals” who often take advantage of their clients lack of knowledge.

And let’s face it, you don’t know what you don’t know.

This client decided to cancel their contract with the previous agency and Avanti Creative took over in collaboration with Monique Demopoulos of Little Indie Management & Get Real Brands.

When I finally got under the hood, I found the previous agency had created a site with over 120 different web pages. That is an unnecessarily massive website for a local service business.

We created a new website that only had 12 pages, by comparison and focused on quality over quantity. It started with a bit of a rebrand to emphasize our client’s target audience and their most distinct service offerings.

We built a website around those offerings, featuring high-quality photos, a smooth user experience, local SEO signals, and clear, compelling messaging by Monique that not only draws in the appropriate traffic, but directs visitors seamlessly to the contact form.

The result? Profitability within 3-4 months. The business saw a significant increase in calls from Google, its new website, and the social media content we created.

We signed a six month contract and the business recouped the full cost of the marketing campaign and then some by month 4. Marketing went from a cost to a revenue driver in just over 1 quarter.

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So, what do we mean when we say the first website was unnecessarily huge?

The previous web design agency was doing something called doorway pages. This is when a designer creates dozens or even hundreds of pages to trick the Google algorithm to feature a service mixed with dozens of local locations.

In practice, this looks like:

Page 1: Tree Stump Removal in Manahawkin

Page 2: Tree Stump Removal in Barnegat

Page 3: Tree Stump Removal in Ocean Acres

Page 4: Tree Stump Removal in Ship Bottom

And so on.

While this sounds smart in theory, Google figured out this strategy years ago and actually penalizes websites for doing it. Consequently, creating doorway pages can quickly get your site flagged as spam or low-effort content, and Google will stop showing you to potential customers.

Even if Google doesn’t flag you, you’ve still created a red-flag experience for viewers. When your customers navigate to your website, the pages will look and feel generic and spammy.

No marketing agency can create 100+ web pages for a local business without using AI and copy-paste templates. You end up creating a website for Google and AI robots instead of your customers.

The Main Takeaway

Quality over quantity, every time, especially when it comes to your website.