Google SGE the future of search and SEO?

Have you heard about Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) yet? If you haven’t yet, you will soon, and it’s likely to be creeping into your Google Search results window whether you like it or not. SGE is still under development, but it has the potential to revolutionise the way we search for information.

What is Google SGE?

Google SGE is a new AI-powered search experience that should help Google search users find information faster and more naturally. It uses generative AI to understand your intent and generate more comprehensive and informative results, even for complex or open-ended questions.

For example, instead of just providing a list of links, SGE can generate summaries of key information, provide step-by-step instructions, or even write creative content like poems or code.

How do I access Google SGE?

SGE is currently available in the Google app for Android and iOS and in Chrome desktop in the United States. To access SGE, you need to sign up for Search Labs, which is Google’s experimental platform for new search features.

To sign up for Search Labs, open the Google app or Chrome desktop and tap the Labs icon (three dots in a circle). Alternatively, go to the Search Labs home page. Then, tap the “SGE” card and turn on the experiment.

Note: Search labs and as a result, SGE are not available for all accounts. Currently, Search Labs is available to a limited number of people in the US, India, and Japan. It’s only available in English, Hindi, and Japanese, so you may see a message such as “Search Labs isn’t available for your account right now”.

What does SGE mean for SEO?

SGE is still under development, so it’s too early to say exactly what it will mean for SEO in the long term. However, it’s clear that SGE is going to change the way people search for information.

In the past, SEO professionals focused on optimising their content for specific keywords. However, with SGE, it’s even more important to focus on creating great content that is informative, comprehensive, and engaging.

SEO professionals should also be aware that SGE is able to generate creative content like poems and code. This means that it’s possible for SGE to generate content that ranks for keywords that you’re not even targeting.  So this could be a game changer for SEO, but will degrade opportunistic SEOs using Black Hat SEO techniques even further, which can only be a good thing!

The future of search and SEO

SGE is just one example of how generative AI is changing the way we interact with the web. In the future, generative AI is likely to play an even bigger role in search and SEO. We see more AI content in our search results already today and AI-driven tools and extensions are on the rise at an astonishing pace.

For example, in the future generative AI could be used to generate personalised search results, create new types of interactive content, and even generate entire websites as content is being searched for.

SEO professionals and website creators need to be prepared for the future of search and SEO, which will be increasingly driven by generative AI. Here are a few tips:

• Focus on creating informative, comprehensive, and engaging content.
• Keep up with the latest developments in generative AI.
• Experiment with new ways to use generative AI in your SEO strategy.

Here are some specific examples of how Google SGE is being used today:

• Generating summaries of key information: SGE can generate summaries of key information from multiple web pages, which can be helpful for finding information on complex topics. For example, if you search for “How to build a website,” SGE could generate a summary of the steps involved, as well as links to relevant tutorials and resources.
• Providing step-by-step instructions: SGE can provide step-by-step instructions for tasks like cooking a recipe, changing a tire, or troubleshooting a technical problem. For example, if you search for “How to change a tire,” SGE could generate a list of steps involved, as well as images or videos to help you understand the process.
• Writing creative content: SGE can write creative content like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, letters, etc. For example, if you search for “Write a poem about a cat,” SGE could generate a short poem about cats.

Is SGE available in my language?

SGE is currently only available in English, Hindi, and Japanese. However, Google is working to expand support for other languages in the future.

Is SGE free to use?

Yes, SGE is free to use.

Is SGE safe?

Google has said that it is committed to developing SGE in a safe and responsible manner. SGE uses a variety of safeguards to prevent it from generating harmful or offensive content.

Will SGE replace traditional search results?

No, SGE is not intended to replace traditional search results. Instead, it is intended to supplement traditional search results by providing more comprehensive and informative results for certain types of queries. The likelihood is, as with ads, and local search information from Google Business, that the SGE results will be presented first, as they will be seen as the most relevant, and most likely to answer your search query, with the standard search results presented further down the page.

Don’t panic!

Google SGE is a new AI-powered search experience that has the potential to revolutionise the way we search for information. SGE is still under development, but it’s already clear that it’s going to change the way we interact with the web.

Website developers and SEO professionals need to be prepared for the future of search and SEO, which will be increasingly driven by generative AI, by focusing on creating informative, comprehensive, great, useful and engaging content, and keeping up with the latest developments in generative AI, as it continues to develop.