Nội dung
- Google’s search growth remains strong, but signs of slowing have appeared
- Publishers consider leaving Google: a warning about the value of indexing
- AI is creating more work for marketers, not just saving time
- Agentic commerce: AI may choose the product, but the brand still has to be remembered by people
- Marketing OS 2.0: SEO will increasingly depend on operating systems, not just tools
- The search community picture: volatility, AI clicks and legal pressure are all rising at once
- Users still prefer streaming ads: a signal for a multi-touch strategy
- Google Merchant Center adds AI: e-commerce SEO will become even more tied to product data
- Bing tests fading related searches: search interfaces keep being refined to hold engagement
- Google Ads expands AI Max for Shopping: SEO and paid search must work together more closely
- A perspective for the Vietnamese market
- References
This week’s SEO news shows how quickly search is changing: Google is still growing revenue, but at a slower pace; at the same time, publishers are increasingly asking whether they should keep sending traffic to Google. For Vietnamese marketers, this is not just a story about the search industry, but a signal about budget allocation, content optimization, and preparing for the AI era in search.
- Key points:
- Google Search revenue continued to grow 17% year over year, but the pace has cooled compared with the previous quarter.
- Many international publishers are considering blocking Google over concerns that the value they receive from being indexed is declining.
- Google, Microsoft and other platforms are continuously testing AI, search interfaces and e-commerce in a more automated direction.
- This forces marketers to view SEO more holistically: brand presence, data, content and experience, not just rankings.
Google’s search growth remains strong, but signs of slowing have appeared
According to Alphabet’s Q2/2026 earnings results, revenue from Google Search & other reached $63.27 billion, up 17% from the same period last year. However, this was a slower increase than in Q1/2026, showing that momentum has eased after four consecutive quarters of growth. On the investor call, CEO Sundar Pichai said popular AI features are driving search query growth, while Alphabet also raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $195–205 billion. Source
For SEO professionals, this signal has two layers of meaning. On one hand, Search remains a massive revenue engine and has not lost its central role. On the other hand, AI is becoming part of that growth, meaning the way users search and the way Google distributes queries are changing. Useful, in-depth content tied to real user needs will have an advantage over SEO tactics based only on keywords.
Publishers consider leaving Google: a warning about the value of indexing
In the same context, many major publishers are said to be considering blocking Google Search entirely. The core reason is not only declining traffic or algorithm volatility, but also the feeling of “giving away more value than receiving back” as content is consumed first by AI and SERP features before users are sent to the website. This is an issue that has been mentioned more and more in the international digital publishing community. Source
For marketers, this is a reminder that SEO cannot be measured only by impressions or the number of indexed pages. If your content does not generate quality traffic, does not help build the brand, or does not convert, the real value received may be far lower than the effort invested. The new mindset should be: how does this article help users, help the business, and help the brand’s position on the open web?
AI is creating more work for marketers, not just saving time
An Optimizely survey of more than 2,000 B2B marketers found that nearly half have integrated AI into their daily work. However, most are spending many hours each week fixing AI output, moving data between disconnected tools, and handling legal and compliance review steps. Only 4% said AI actually saves time across the entire content creation process. Source
This is an important warning for SEO and content teams. AI can speed up production, but if quality control does not keep pace, the time saved at the input stage will be swallowed by editing, fact-checking and optimization. Instead of asking “How much can AI write?”, a more practical question is “Is AI making our content value chain faster or slower?”
Agentic commerce: AI may choose the product, but the brand still has to be remembered by people
A MarTech article highlights a major risk of AI-mediated commerce: a brand bought by an agent on behalf of a customer is not necessarily the brand the customer truly loves. When AI sits between discovery and selection, a brand may be “well understood by machines” but still feel invisible to humans. Source
This is a direct intersection of SEO, brand content and customer experience. If a business only optimizes for machine readability and ignores human recall, it may win in recommendation lists but lose in long-term brand recognition. Modern SEO therefore needs to combine structured data, clear explanatory content and consistent brand messaging.
Marketing OS 2.0: SEO will increasingly depend on operating systems, not just tools
MarTech describes seven layers of an AI-ready marketing operating system, where the focus is no longer on isolated campaigns but on coordinating the entire process from intake, strategy, creation, approval, deployment to measurement and learning. In other words, automation only performs a task; orchestration is what connects the whole system. Source
For SEO, this is especially true as content, technical SEO, data, digital PR and CRM become increasingly interconnected. A good strategy cannot exist if the content team, technical SEO team and analytics team do not share the same goals, the same metrics and the same feedback process. Businesses that build a clear “marketing operating system” will respond faster to changes from Google and AI.
The search community picture: volatility, AI clicks and legal pressure are all rising at once
A roundup from Search Engine Roundtable shows that last week the SEO community continued to discuss ranking volatility, Google’s claim that AI Search is sending billions of clicks each week, and pressure from lawsuits and fines in Europe. In addition, Google updated its crawl budget documentation and sent new notices related to unpublished review content. Source
The notable point is that the legal and technical context are no longer separate. The way Google crawls, indexes and displays content is now influenced by both data quality and the competitive-legal environment. SEO professionals need to track policy changes just as closely as SERP volatility, because a small edit in documentation or display mechanics can directly affect traffic.
Users still prefer streaming ads: a signal for a multi-touch strategy
Marketing Dive reports that consumers are gradually becoming more open to ads on streaming platforms. While the article is not directly about SEO, the trend shows that brand discovery behavior is becoming more fragmented across multiple touchpoints, from search and video to content platforms and digital shopping. Source
This matters for SEO because search is no longer the only starting point in the customer journey. Content needs to be designed to stay consistent across multiple channels: blog posts, short videos, search results, landing page and display ads. When users encounter a brand in many places, SEO does more than drive clicks — it also reinforces trust.
Google Merchant Center adds AI: e-commerce SEO will become even more tied to product data
Search Engine Roundtable noted that Google Merchant Center is being expanded with more AI features. While implementation details may vary by market, the overall trend is that Google is giving AI a larger role in processing product data, recommendations and e-commerce display optimization. Source
For e-commerce websites, now is the time to tighten feed quality, structured data, product attributes and descriptive content. As AI becomes part of the commerce ecosystem, cleaner input data leads to better visibility and matching. SEO for e-commerce is therefore becoming more of an operational data problem than just writing very long product descriptions.
Bing tests fading related searches: search interfaces keep being refined to hold engagement
Microsoft is testing a way to fade out related searches on Bing when users hover over them. The hovered item stands out while the other options become less visible, in order to guide attention in a more streamlined way. Source
Even though it is a small change, this test shows that search interfaces are still being optimized to extend engagement within the SERP. For SEO, that is a reminder that users may interact more within the results page and click out less often. Businesses need to optimize titles, descriptions, schema and standout content directly in the snippet to increase their chances of being chosen.
Google Ads expands AI Max for Shopping: SEO and paid search must work together more closely
Google Ads continues to expand AI Max for Shopping campaigns. This reflects the broader trend in the commerce search ecosystem: AI is intervening more deeply in demand matching, ad delivery and campaign performance optimization. Source
For Vietnamese marketers, SEO and search advertising are no longer two separate areas. Paid search conversion data can help identify real demand, while strong SEO content supports landing page quality and brand trust. Businesses that closely align organic and paid efforts will have a major advantage as AI increasingly automates much of traffic distribution.
A perspective for the Vietnamese market
From a Vietnamese perspective, these developments show that SEO is entering a phase that is “less certain but full of more opportunities.” The opportunity lies in the fact that AI, data and the new search ecosystem are opening up more brand visibility points. But the risks are also greater: if you only chase rankings without building useful content, your brand may gradually lose value as AI summarizes and SERPs keep users on the page longer.
For Vietnamese businesses, the practical priorities over the next 6–12 months should be: standardize website and product data; build content with real experience, a point of view and value for readers; align SEO with paid search and social to nurture awareness; and closely monitor changes from Google and Bing. In short, SEO is not dead, but old SEO methods will become increasingly ineffective.
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This article focuses on SEO news with a perspective for the Vietnamese market.
References
- Search Growth Slows, Publishers Weigh Leaving Google – SEO Pulse
- HubSpot’s June 2026 updates: Agents get more access, Revenue Hub starts connecting the dots
- Time saved by using AI is being spent on managing its output
- The real risk in agentic commerce
- The 7 layers of an AI-ready marketing operating system
- Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Sends Billions Of Clicks From AI Search, Publisher To Block Google, $120 Billion Quarter, EU’s $1 Billion Fine & More
- Consumers warm up to streaming ads: Here’s what the numbers say
- Google Merchant Center Gains More AI Features
- Bing Tests Fading Out Related Searches On Hover
- Google Ads AI Max For Shopping Campaigns Expands
