THE SECOND PAGE OF GOOGLE WAS A PLACE WEBSITES WENT TO DIE. NOW THEY DIE ON THE FIRST

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

Search is growing even as the click disappears. Google Search revenue rose 17% to $63.3 billion last quarter, while revenue from the ads it places on publishers' sites fell. The remaining traffic has moved from news, health, and cooking sites to sites that sell products. How-to content no longer pays because the answer strips out the brand, but a buying question can't be answered without naming a product. That makes detailed product documentation the content worth publishing and paywalled expertise the content worth selling.