What Now? Google’s New AI Search Experience (SGE) For SEO’s

Google’s new ai search experience, Search Generative Experience (SGE), was rolled out for testing several weeks ago. Since then, I’ve seen mixed reactions across the digital marketing industry, with some search experts pointing out its many expected flaws while others don’t seem all that worried. Others are predicting the end of SEO (it must be Tuesday). Either way, ai is here to stay, so let’s dive into some of the highlights and observations about this new way of searching on Google.

Value vs. Cool Factor

Ai allows consumers to benefit from both traditional search results paired with results generated from ai. With the popularity and hype of ChatGPT, Google has created an intelligent solution, but not a more useful one just yet. While a seemingly cool feature, SGE has a way to go before providing value beyond what it already provides in its current search experience.

Experiencing the Launch Phase

For most websites and businesses, these changes push their sites below the fold, decreasing the likelihood that anyone will even see the links, much less click on them. For local search results, the experience seems much the same. Google pulls local results with good ratings and search terms that closely match the query. But for transactional, informational, and even commercial results, Google seems to have made the search experience more difficult for consumers to find what they’re looking for or take action in the intended way.

Part of the appeal of ai in public conversation is that you can do something with the technology. In contrast, with Google’s experience, you cannot do much beyond selecting a follow-up query that might show you another search result you might not necessarily need.

For now, search marketers should continue doing what they’ve always done:

• Build fast websites.
• Create helpful content.
• Add value.
• Be creative.
• Build topical authority.
• Optimize schema markup across entities.

SGE as a search experience will come together with time. For now, let Google use the initial launch period to learn how to create better consumer experiences.

And if you’re lucky enough to have access now, use the current SGE results flow to map out any content gaps in your strategy where competitors’ results are proving more visible than yours.

If you want to learn more about SGE, message me on LinkedIn or @ me on Threads @crystalellaortiz. I’m happy to look up a search for your business and provide some feedback on what you can do now to maximize the SGE experience.

#seo #experience #google #content