Google launched its May core update alongside a significant redesign of Search around AI features announced at I/O. The timing is notable: a core update and an AI-first redesign landing at the same time creates a compound effect on how content is evaluated and displayed. SEO professionals are still working through what the combined changes mean for rankings and traffic.

The AI Search Overhaul

The I/O announcements confirmed what had been expected: Google is building AI answers more deeply into the Search experience. The AI Mode feature, which was first tested earlier in 2026, is now being rolled out more broadly. Early data from Google shows usage patterns that the company is calling positive, though the specific metrics have not been disclosed in detail. The message from Google is that users are engaging with AI-generated answers in Search, which gives the company room to expand the feature set.

The signal about llms.txt is more complicated. Google has sent mixed messages about whether site owners should create llms.txt files to control how AI systems access their content. The confusion matters because llms.txt is a proposed standard for managing AI bot access to web content, similar to robots.txt but specifically for AI systems. If Google is ambiguous about whether it respects llms.txt, site owners have no clear guidance on whether to implement it.

What the Core Update Does

Google's core updates are broad algorithm changes that affect rankings across many queries and sites. The May update appears to be continuing the direction established in previous updates: prioritizing content that demonstrates genuine expertise and penalizing content that appears to be generated primarily for search engine consumption rather than for human readers.

The connection to AI-generated content is direct. Google's quality systems have gotten better at detecting content that is optimized for search engines without adding value for readers. AI-generated content that follows the same pattern as low-quality human-written content will be treated the same way, which means AI is not a shortcut to ranking success unless the content is genuinely useful.

The interaction with the AI Search redesign adds another layer. When Google displays AI-generated answers in Search results, it pulls from content that its systems consider authoritative. Sites that rank well for informational queries may see changes in traffic as Google answers more queries directly in the results page. This is not new, but the scale of AI answers in the new Search experience is larger than previous implementations.

The SEO Community Response

The SEO pulse from Search Engine Journal captures the range of reactions from the professional community. Some are cautiously optimistic that the core update has not been as disruptive as feared. Others are reporting significant traffic changes in specific niches and are trying to understand what triggered them. The common thread is uncertainty: the algorithms are complex enough that the effects of any given update are rarely immediately clear.

The practical advice from experienced SEO professionals is consistent: focus on content quality, avoid patterns that look like optimization for search engines rather than readers, and monitor your rankings and traffic closely in the weeks following a core update. The sites that are most likely to be affected negatively are the ones that have been building content primarily to rank rather than to serve an audience.

What Site Owners Should Do

If you run a site that depends on Search traffic, the immediate action items are monitor your rankings, avoid making significant changes in response to early fluctuations, and wait for the full effects of the core update to become clear before reacting. Core updates take time to fully propagate, and early results are often misleading. If your traffic is stable after the update, the update probably did not affect you significantly. If you see meaningful changes, the next step is to look at which pages and queries were affected and look for quality signals that might explain the movement.

The AI Search redesign is a separate but related issue. The long-term effect on organic traffic depends on how Google balances showing AI answers against driving users to external websites. Early signs suggest Google is still committed to driving traffic to external sites for many query types, but the trend toward more AI-generated answers in Search results is real and is accelerating. Site owners who rely on informational queries that AI Mode can answer well should expect some traffic displacement and should be building direct relationships with their audience through email and other channels that do not depend on search.

The llms.txt issue deserves its own attention. Site owners who are concerned about how AI systems use their content have a legitimate interest in controlling that access. The proposed llms.txt standard was designed to give sites a way to specify which AI systems can access their content and under what conditions. Google has been noncommittal about whether it will respect the standard, which means implementing it is a leap of faith. The practical alternative is to focus on the quality signals that Google has always valued and accept that AI systems will use your content in whatever way their licensing and technical capabilities allow.

The core update and the AI Search redesign happening simultaneously is not coincidental. Google is making a transition from a search engine that sends traffic to external sites to a destination that provides answers directly. The core update ensures the content it draws from for those answers is as high quality as possible. The AI Search redesign puts those answers more prominently in front of users. Taken together, the message to site owners is clear: the value of your content in Google's ecosystem depends on how irreplaceable it is. Content that can be replicated by an AI answer is at risk of losing traffic. Content that offers genuine expertise, unique insight, or perspective that AI cannot replicate is more resilient.

Sources

For more insights on search marketing and AI in SEO, visit XerAds Blog.