Imagine a web where a machine fills out your lead forms, buys your products, and negotiates with your backend. While many SEOs are currently arguing over whether to block AI search bots, whether to call ourselves SEOs or GEOs, or optimizing to get mentioned in ChatGPT, the reality of the web is moving far past simple crawlers. With Google’s new WebMCP and Google-Agent bot, the agentic web is already here.
The Web Is Becoming Agentic
The web as we know it (where humans click links and scroll pages) is radically ending. What replaces it is the agentic web.
This week, Google announced a new user agent just for agents. When an agent using Google infrastructure browses your site (like Project Mariner), it will use this new tag.
This is just the beginning. Agents will do much more than browse the web like a human.
Liz Reid Describes A Web Where Agents Do Much Of The Browsing
In a recent interview, Head of Search Liz Reid noted she believes people will still want to hear from other people, but she said, “I do think that probably means there’s a world in which a lot of agents are talking with each other.”
Google’s latest blog post outlines several AI protocols we all must understand immediately:
| Protocol | What It Stands For | The Business Impact |
|---|---|---|
| MCP | Model Context Protocol | Lets agents securely access your backend data. |
| A2A | Agent2Agent | Enables bot-to-bot communication and transactions. |
| UCP | Universal Commerce Protocol | Lets a machine buy your product directly from the SERPs. |
| A2UI | Agent to User Interface | Automatically composes new visual layouts for users. |
| AG-UI | Agent User Interaction | A middleware for streaming real-time AI data. |
I had a great chat with Search Bar member Liz Micik discussing this:
WebMCP Will Let Agents Use Your Website Natively
Standard browser agents are slow because they look at pixels like humans do. In the agentic web, machines will talk directly with the tools and functionality available on our website.
The improvement here is WebMCP. I think every SEO should be heavily paying attention to this. WebMCP lets agents use the functionality of your website in real time, natively.
What does this look like?
The obvious use case is an agent automatically filling out lead forms perfectly. But I think we will see much more interesting use cases as we publish our own agents. Let’s say I’ve made agents for SEO. (I have! I just haven’t shared them with others yet.) I could share those with you via a SaaS model, perhaps – where you pay a monthly fee for access. Or, what I think will be most likely is that you will be able to have your agent access my agents via WebMCP. My agents will negotiate with your agents on pricing and possibly even help each other improve as well.
Search Is Turning Into AI Search
Google’s Nick Fox recently stated, “Search is becoming AI Search, and the Gemini app is your personal assistant.” He also said that Google is increasingly thinking of AI Mode and AI Overviews as one in the same.
I keep looking back at this NYT article from three years ago.
They framed it as Google panicking over ChatGPT. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that Google had much bigger things in mind. The agentic web is not an afterthought! It has been in planning for many years now.
I personally believe that from 1998 until now, those of us who create content have been giving it to Google to train AI. In return, we got human traffic and ad revenue. I think that partnership no longer exists in its traditional form.
Why This Is The Most Exciting Time To Be In SEO
This transition from a human-first web to an agent-first web might sound terrifying if you rely solely on traditional keyword rankings. In reality, it is the biggest opportunity we have seen since the invention of the search engine itself. WebMCP and UCP mean we are no longer just optimizing for clicks; we are optimizing for direct action, frictionless commerce, and automated lead generation. The creators who understand how these agents interact with backend systems are going to see a level of efficiency and reach that human browsing could never achieve. The partnership between creators and Google has definitively changed, but the future of what we can build on top of this agentic web is incredibly bright.
My Advice
It’s hard to know how to act right now because no one, not even Google, knows exactly how the agentic web will unfold. Here’s what I’d recommend:
- Familiarize yourself with WebMCP and understand how it works.
- If you are ecommerce, learn all you can on UCP.
- Start learning to vibe code using tools like Claude Code, Google’s AI Studio, or my favourite, Antigravity. (If you are a member of my paid community, I just published a full guide on using Antigravity in the Learning Hub.)
- Focus on the exciting things you can do with AI rather than letting media and social media steer you away! No one knows what’s in store for the future, but I’m positive that those who press in and learn how to use AI for good will have great success.
More Resources:
Read Marie’s newsletter, AI News You Can Use. Subscribe now.
Featured Image: HST6/Shutterstock
