Breaking from Google Search Central APAC 2025 – Day 1 reveals massive generational shift reshaping search behavior
Past SEO Success No Longer Guarantees Results as Generation Z Transforms Search. In a stunning declaration that sent shockwaves through the SEO community, Google executives announced that traditional search success metrics are becoming obsolete as Generation Z fundamentally transforms how the world searches for information.
🚨 The Death of SEO Certainty
Mike Jittivanich, Google’s Director of Marketing for South East Asia, delivered the conference’s most jarring message: “Past success no longer guarantees future success in search.” 
This bombshell statement, supported by Liz Reid, VP of Search at Google, who reminded attendees that “Search is never a solved problem,” signals the end of predictable SEO strategies that have dominated the industry for over two decades.
📊 Gen Z’s Search Takeover: The Numbers That Matter
The most shocking revelation came from Google’s internal data showing Gen Z (aged 18-24) is now the fastest-growing search demographic, fundamentally changing how search works:
Visual Search Explosion:
- Google Lens usage skyrocketed 65% year-on-year
- Over 100 billion Lens searches recorded in 2025
- 1 in 5 Lens searches now carry commercial intent
The 10% Rule:
Roughly 10% of Gen Z search journeys now begin with Circle to Search or AI-powered experiences rather than traditional typing – a seismic shift that’s forcing Google to rethink its entire search infrastructure.
🤖 AI Content Bombshell: Google’s Training Revelation
In perhaps the most significant technical disclosure, Gary Illyes revealed that Google’s algorithms train exclusively on human-created content, effectively confirming a two-tier system in Google’s index.
“Our algorithms train on the highest-quality content in the index, which is clearly human-created,” Illyes stated, revealing that AI-generated text occupies its own separate space and doesn’t influence Google’s core ranking systems.
Translation for content creators: Human expertise still reigns supreme in Google’s ranking algorithms.
⚡ The Crawl Budget Reality Check
Google engineers dropped several technical bombshells about crawling:
- Sites are experiencing increased crawl rates due to AI-powered features
- Only server errors (5XX) consume crawl budget – 1XX and 4XX codes don’t affect it
- Higher crawl rates don’t automatically boost rankings
Cherry Prommawin’s formula: Crawl budget = crawl rate limit (speed) × crawl demand (Google’s interest)
🔍 Search Is Splitting in Two Directions
Google revealed search is evolving along two critical axes:
1. Query Evolution:
- Searches of 5+ words growing 1.5X faster than shorter queries
- Conversational search becoming the norm
- Multimodal queries (voice, image, text) now standard
2. Result Evolution:
- AI Overviews generating balanced summaries for complex topics
- AI Mode providing end-to-end generative experiences
- DeepMind’s reasoning models powering nuanced, action-oriented results
📝 LLMs.txt Gets the Death Blow
In a decisive move, Google officially dismissed the proposed LLMs.txt standard, with engineers comparing it to the defunct meta keywords approach.
Google’s position: Robots.txt remains the only voluntary standard for controlling crawlers, effectively killing industry speculation about LLMs.txt adoption.
🛠️ The Infrastructure Truth
Perhaps most reassuring for SEO professionals, Google confirmed that AI Overviews and AI Mode run on the exact same infrastructure as traditional search:
- Same crawling and indexing systems
- Same ranking signals (RankBrain, MUM, BERT)
- Same quality algorithms
Key insight: AI features are simply new front-end displays of the same foundational search technology SEOs have been optimizing for years.
📊 Search Console Evolution
Daniel Waisberg revealed critical Search Console insights:
- Data is consistently 2 days old (Pacific timezone)
- New recommendations feature targets non-expert users
- Search Console serves as the bridge between Google’s infrastructure and your site
💡 Immediate Action Items for SEO Professionals
Based on Day 1 revelations, here’s what to prioritize:
✅ Do This Now:
- Focus on human-centered content with natural expert writing
- Optimize for multiple modalities (alt text, transcripts, conversational language)
- Monitor and fix 5XX errors immediately
- Embrace longer, conversational content formats
❌ Stop Doing This:
- Chasing separate “AI SEO” strategies
- Implementing LLMs.txt files
- Ignoring visual and voice search optimization
- Assuming past traffic patterns will continue
🔮 What This Means for the Industry
The Day 1 announcements signal three major industry shifts:
- Traditional SEO metrics becoming obsolete
- Visual and conversational search taking over
- Human expertise becoming more valuable, not less
🎯 Bottom Line
While Google’s message might seem alarming, the core takeaway is clear: Traditional SEO excellence remains the foundation, but practitioners must adapt to rapidly evolving user behaviors driven by Gen Z’s search preferences.
The winning strategy: Master SEO fundamentals while embracing multimodal optimization – there’s no separate playbook for AI features.
This report covers Day 1 of Google Search Central APAC 2025. Stay tuned for Day 2 and Day 3 coverage as Google continues to reshape the search landscape in real-time.
