As the search engine results pages (SERPs) changes and organ­ic results are increas­ing­ly replaced by paid con­tent, search mar­keters are fac­ing addi­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion from Google itself. That’s because, in its quest to pro­vide a bet­ter user expe­ri­ence, Google is build­ing tools and con­tent that are over­shad­ow­ing con­tent from brands and mar­keters.

While there was a time when a Google search result­ed in 10 blue links that were all organ­ic, now spon­sored con­tent like ads, Shop­ping results, Fea­tured Snip­pets, and Knowl­edge Cards are more or less can­ni­bal­iz­ing organ­ic results, accord­ing to Pete Mey­ers, mar­ket­ing sci­en­tist at Moz.

Some of these changes are being dri­ven by mobile – with small­er screens and high­er demand for con­cise answers – but they’re also being spurred by voice search, which has the poten­tial to dis­rupt Google’s entire ad mod­el, Mey­ers said recent­ly at Moz­con.

The chal­lenge with voice search and devices like Ama­zon Echo is that the SERP is gone, which is wor­ri­some to Google, Mey­ers said. To wit: a sports fan can sim­ply ask for a score and hear the answer rather than use or need curat­ed con­tent from Google.

Sim­ply put: mar­keters are fac­ing a lot more com­pe­ti­tion from Google itself as a result.

“Google is no longer a con­tent cura­tor, it is a con­tent cre­ator,” Mey­ers said.

In oth­er words, con­sumers search for a ques­tion, like, “When is Nation­al Taco Day?” and Google deliv­ers an answer in the Quick Answers Box. Because con­sumers trust Google, that’s as far as they go.

Mey­ers also point­ed to music and sports, where Google itself is dom­i­nat­ing its own results in pro­vid­ing mega-video con­tent and pop­u­lat­ing the Knowl­edge Pan­el with its own infor­ma­tion, as well as by pro­vid­ing scores, sched­ules, and videos for games.

“They’re build­ing tools and con­tent for a bet­ter expe­ri­ence and they’re dis­rupt­ing your con­tent,” Mey­ers said.

Not only that, in a search for “best movies of 1985” on a mobile device, Mey­ers points out that the col­ored box­es under the movies actu­al­ly coor­di­nate with each poster.

“It’s not just results, they are rich­er and more inter­est­ing and more dis­rup­tive and less organ­ic,” Mey­ers said.

Anoth­er exam­ple of Google as con­tent cre­ator is in its cus­tom med­ical Knowl­edge Pan­els. That’s fresh con­tent Google cre­at­ed of its own voli­tion.

“They did it once. They’ll do it again,” Mey­ers said. “This is incred­i­bly dis­rup­tive.”

Google is also, in a num­ber of instances, allow­ing con­sumers to per­form actions direct­ly from the Knowl­edge Pan­el, such as book­ing hotel rooms, as well as pay­ing to watch movies, lis­ten to music, or read books.

“Google has trained us to look at [the Knowl­edge Pan­el] as unbi­ased infor­ma­tion and we’re start­ing to see paid infor­ma­tion pop up in there, which is incred­i­bly dis­rup­tive,” Mey­ers said.

App packs, too, are muscling in on organ­ic results, such as in search­es for jobs that result in apps from LinkedIn and Sna­ga­job. In fact, app packs can replace up to six organ­ic spots.

“That’s mas­sive­ly dis­rup­tive and all of it is part of Google’s paid ecosys­tem,” Mey­ers said.

In fact, Mey­ers points to a future in which we could poten­tial­ly see no organ­ic results what­so­ev­er, such as a hypo­thet­i­cal search for “Juras­sic World” that brings up Shop­ping results, movie show times, and the abil­i­ty to watch the orig­i­nal Juras­sic Park via Google Play.

“What’s inter­est­ing to me about this con­cept is that even though this is fake, every sin­gle one of these pieces exists today,” Mey­ers said. “The oth­er thing that’s inter­est­ing is that there are no AdWords, but it’s entire­ly paid, but it’s also a good user expe­ri­ence.”

So what’s a search mar­keter to do?

Here are Mey­ers’ best tips for remain­ing com­pet­i­tive.

1. Embrace A Dual Mentality

For the time being, mar­keters and SEOs have to more or less strad­dle two worlds and embrace a dual men­tal­i­ty in which they know what’s com­ing, but also that the SERP still mat­ters for now.

A good exam­ple of this is Mar­vel Stu­dios, which announced its Phase 3 plan last year, includ­ing the titles and release dates for every movie through 2019.

“What is their tac­ti­cal SEO plan in 2019? No one knows what will hap­pen, but they’re build­ing links, they’re build­ing social, they’re build­ing men­tions and they’re get­ting arti­cles four years in advance of the prod­uct even exist­ing,” Mey­ers said. “This is how I want you to think.”

2. Provide The Best Answer

Since Google’s moti­va­tion remains to pro­vide the best user expe­ri­ence pos­si­ble, there’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty for brands and mar­keters to increase rank on a giv­en SERP thanks to fea­tures like Google’s Quick Answers Box, Mey­ers said. That sim­ply means pro­vid­ing what Google deems the best answer to a giv­en query in order to be fea­tured on that top­ic.

“You can rewrite your con­tent to take over the box,” Mey­ers said. “If you’re ranked 5th in a query and want to be 1st, you can jump past 1st [into the Quick Answers Box] just by answer­ing the ques­tion bet­ter.”

3. Up Your Game: Add Value & Insight

Mar­keters can also fight back by build­ing deep con­tent that is updat­ed often and is “hard to replace with a lit­tle box,” Mey­ers said.

Brands should seek to add val­ue and insight, like Cred­it Kar­ma, which shows what a cred­it score is based on and what is action­able, which also makes Cred­it Kar­ma con­tent hard­er for Google to put in a box and replace, Mey­ers said.

Final­ly, Mey­ers rec­om­mends bring­ing your “A” game with rich, inter­ac­tive con­tent that, again, can’t eas­i­ly be replaced by a box.

What’s your take on changes in search and increased com­pe­ti­tion from Google itself?