Search News You Can Use - SEO Podcast with Marie Haynes

In this episode of the "Real People Using AI" series, host Marie Haynes sits down with SEO content strategist and AI transition consultant Liz Micik to discuss the massive shift from a chat-based internet to the "Agentic Web." They break down Google's latest developer protocols—including MCP, A2A, UCP, and AP2—and translate what these highly technical concepts mean for everyday business owners and marketers. If you are wondering how AI agents will discover, consume, and negotiate with your website in the future, and what actionable steps you can take right now to prepare your brand (like cleaning up your schema and structured data), this conversation is your roadmap.Google’s blog posts on the agentic protocols:https://developers.googleblog.com/developers-guide-to-ai-agent-protocols/Reach Liz Micik:https://lizmicik.com/Reach Marie:https://mariehaynes.com/contactThe Search Bar:https://mariehaynes/comBecome a member of Marie’s paid community:https://community.mariehaynes.com/collections/10503740:00 – Welcome to the Agentic Web: Moving beyond chat interfaces and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to prepare for AI agents.2:16 – The Evolution of the Web: Why the current shift mirrors the early days of e-commerce and how bots are consuming websites (discussing Cloudflare's markdown feature).11:00 – The 3 C's of AI Readiness: Why your website must be clear, complete, and consistent for AI agents to trust it.13:50 – What is MCP & WebMCP?: Exploring the Model Context Protocol and how AI applications connect to external systems and tools.25:20 – Agent to Agent Protocol (A2A): How agents discover and communicate with one another using JSON Agent Cards.27:50 – Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): The future of AI shopping, building carts across multiple sites, and protecting your business's "moat."38:00 – Agent Payments (AP2) & MPP: How agents will handle transactions, negotiate payments, and the security hurdles of an agentic economy.46:15 – Actionable Advice for Businesses Today: Why Schema and Structured Data are the most important tools you can implement right now.52:00 – Agent to User Interface (A2UI): The potential for AI to generate unique web pages, UIs, and interactive tabs on the fly.56:50 – Summary & Rapid Fire Questions: A quick recap of all the protocols, plus Liz's advice on learning AI, financial planning with Claude, and the importance of reading analog books to kids.

Join Marie Haynes and Tom Capper as they dive into Google's evolving algorithms, focusing on AI-driven changes like WebMCP and the role of agents in search. Discover how brand signals and user satisfaction are reshaping SEO, and why traditional tactics may no longer suffice.Links mentioned in this call:Google site quality score: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9031929B1/enThe helpful content update was not what you think. Tom Capper. https://moz.com/blog/helpful-content-update-not-what-you-thinkMoz: https://moz.com/products/pro/pricing Stat: https://getstat.com/ 00:00 Introduction to SEO and Algorithm Changes02:42 The Evolution of Search Algorithms05:10 User Satisfaction Signals and AI07:49 The Importance of Brand Authority10:28 Understanding EEAT and Its Implications13:13 The Impact of Helpful Content Updates15:49 Navigating Core Updates and Brand Trust18:11 The Future of SEO in an AI-Driven World26:44 The Evolution of Search and AI's Role36:58 Impact of AI Overviews on Businesses43:08 The Future of Search with AI Agents and WebMCP

Did you know Google "re-ranks" search results using AI that is trained on user data and quality rater scores? In this video, I break down revelations from the DOJ trial, including the "Glue" system, RankEmbed BERT, and why user satisfaction is now the most critical factor for SEO.

00:00 - Intro: Why user satisfaction is the most important ranking factor.
00:49 - Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines & Helpful Content documentation.
01:36 - Marie’s Theory: Traditional algorithms vs. AI re-ranking systems.
02:35 - Why Google says "Don’t chunk your content" (Danny Sullivan).
03:00 - Vector Search & Embeddings: How AI retrieval actually works.
05:40 - The DOJ vs. Google Trial: Leaks on user-side data.
07:44 - The "Glue" System (NavBoost): How Google tracks clicks & hovers.
09:03 - "Instant Glue": How search adapts to new intent (Nice vs. nice).
10:20 - RankEmbed BERT: The deep learning model Google hid.
12:21 - How AI re-ranks the top search results.
13:03 - BERT Training: Wikipedia, Books Corpus... and romance novels?
15:18 - The 3 Deep Learning Models: RankBrain, DeepRank, RankEmbed.
17:40 - RankBrain: Why it only re-ranks the top 20-30 results.
18:47 - The Helpful Content System: A machine learning classifier.
21:18 - March 2024 Core Update: The evolution of helpfulness signals.
23:00 - Frozen vs. Retrained Google: How algorithms are tested.
26:01 - Why Google runs 17,000+ live traffic experiments.
27:16 - Does Google use Chrome data for rankings? (DOJ evidence).
28:32 - The "AI Mountain": Why AI-generated traffic often crashes.
29:30 - How to optimize for user satisfaction (beyond keywords).
31:00 - Liz Reid on AI Overviews: Why users click for depth.

In this episode, Marie Haynes discusses Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and its transformative potential for online shopping. UCP allows consumers to purchase products directly from search results and AI interactions, streamlining the shopping experience. Haynes explains how this protocol works alongside Google's Business Agent, which enables businesses to interact with customers through AI agents trained on their specific information. She emphasizes the importance of having accurate data in the Google Merchant Center to ensure effective communication and sales through these new AI interfaces.

00:00 Introduction to Google's Universal Commerce Protocol
01:30 Understanding Business Agents and Their Role
05:50 How UCP Works for E-Commerce
12:01 The Future of AI in Shopping
15:50 Addressing Viewer Questions on UCP
22:04 Current Implementations of UCP
27:04 Potential Downsides and Considerations for Businesses
30:09 Looking Ahead: AI and the Future of Shopping

The future of search isn't search; it's agents. Dr. Marie Haynes tackles the biggest shift facing the web: agentic AI. This episode explores the new wave of agentic browsers like OpenAI's Atlas and Perplexity, the massive implications of Walmart partnering with OpenAI, and the legal battles already beginning. Dr. Haynes maps out a near future where home robots order products without ever seeing a website. What does an SEO or business owner do when the user interface is gone? This is a must-listen for anyone building a career on the web.

And OH YEAH, this episode was edited by an app that I created in AI Studio's build feature. It actually worked!

Comment here in Marie's community: https://community.mariehaynes.com/posts/drafts/the-future-of-seo-agentic-ai-new-podcast-episode