The Empire Strikes Back: Google, Apple, and the Myth of SEO’s Demise
It’s giving “Empire Strikes Back” energy as Google & Apple team up in the deal of the decade leaving OpenAI out in the cold.
TL;DR: If you've been doing SEO properly, this news isn't scary. It's stabilizing. Gemini powering Siri means Google's influence stays mainstream—most users won't even notice.
There was a small but significant announcement yesterday that went largely unnoticed.
Google and Apple just formalized a multi-year partnership. Google's Gemini AI will become the foundation for Apple's next generation of intelligence features across all devices. The AI behind your iPhone, iPad, and Mac will be Google's.
That's a meaningful, if not seismic shift.
The Google x Apple deal
From Google’s blog:
“Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.” - The Keyword
Apple evaluated the field—including OpenAI—and chose Google. At scale, Google's infrastructure won.
Worth noting: Last week, Google's market cap briefly eclipsed Apple's for the first time since 2019, following its strongest year since 2009. The timing matters.
What this means for SEO
Siri will effectively be Gemini under the hood.
The narrative that OpenAI was about to dethrone Google as the default information gateway just became a lot less plausible. Google absorbed the threat. Empire-strikes-back energy, if you will.
From an SEO perspective, this means something reassuring, if not a tad boring (but in a good way).
Despite rumors to the contrary, SEO is now more critical than ever
If your SEO strategy is built on fundamentals—technical hygiene, clear information architecture, substantive content, genuine authority—you're not suddenly obsolete because of AI search.
Google still controls 91.6% to 93% of the global search market, processing 14 billion searches per day.
Yes, ChatGPT is the most serious competitive threat Google has faced in over two decades, capturing an estimated ~17% of certain query types. But this Apple deal puts Gemini into the mainstream by default, without users having to download anything or consciously change their behavior.
Most people won't know they're "using Gemini." They'll just ask Siri.
What changes (and what doesn't)
1. Traditional SEO still matters (if it's done right)
If your approach already prioritizes clear user intent, helpful, structured content, strong brand signals, and crawlable sites, then any AI optimization you do will compound your existing domain value. You don't need to reinvent the wheel for ChatGPT, Perplexity, or whatever comes next. Stick with best practices, layer in the AI considerations, and your SEO improves organically, like it always has.
2. AI visibility isn’t a separate strategy anymore
Optimizing for LLMs used to feel like a parallel track: "SEO for Google" here, "AI SEO" there. This deal collapses that distinction. As Gemini embeds across Apple's ecosystem, Google's ranking systems, content understanding, and AI synthesis converge into a single framework. Other LLMs—ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the rest—will increasingly need to align with the Empire's (sorry, Google's) standards if they want to remain relevant in the mainstream.
What that means in practice: brand authority matters more, not less. Original insights beat generic AI-generated content, and entities, consistency, and trust signals compound across both search and AI answers.
3. You don't need to start over—but you do need to refine your approach.
If your strategy has been to publish thin content, chase irrelevant keywords that don't align with your revenue objectives or buyer intent, or rely on ‘grey hat’ SEO tricks rather than clarity, AI will expose it faster.
But if you've been building a credible brand with a unique voice, answering real questions clearly, and aligning content to actual decision-making journeys, this shift works in your favor.
Why SEO isn’t dead (again)
If, like me, you're tired of the "SEO is dead" LinkedIn posts, this Apple–Google deal confirms something many of us suspected: Google isn't being replaced by AI. It's being embedded deeper into how people interact with technology—invisibly.
SEO isn't disappearing. It's maturing.
The winners won't be the ones chasing every new acronym (AEO, GEO, etc.). They'll be the ones who understand how search, content, AI, brand, and trust converge.
Business as usual? Not exactly. But if you've been doing SEO properly all along, this isn't a disruption. It's a validation.
*Image credit: ChatGPT 5.2, who was quite happy to personify itself as a sad, nerdy tech bro.
