You keep hearing that "Google is not your friend," and usually when you hear that, it's referring to privacy issues. But Google isn't any business owner's friend, either.
Here are two searches I just ran:
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What's different about these searches compared to the Google of 5-10 years ago?
Well, the first one is more graphical, and the second more closely resembles questions you might have about the subject matter you searched for, but look at the answers.
You don't need to click off the page to get your answers, do you?
Think about that. And if you think that isn't deliberate you're out of your mind. How companies "win" in Google search rankings today is to publish material that Google can pull from (and take credit for in terms of traffic), to provide answers on their SERP that are so comprehensive that the searcher has no reason to click on the source and visit that company's page. Google actually gives preferential treatment to companies who make this easier for them, and downranks content that you have to click into to find your answers.
It's not just Google, either. Facebook does the exact same thing with their ads. They'd much prefer you create ads that don't give users a reason to leave the Facebook platform; ads that do this less perform better.
Remember "don't be evil"? What a fucking joke that turned out to be.