AI is Changing the Way We Search (and the Search Engine)

Por Jordi Bordes, Social Media Paid Specialist & SEO Expert

In recent months, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the world of marketing, and SEO is no exception. It is said that AI will change the way we search, but what it will really transform is the search engine itself. Although AI has been a crucial part of the evolution of search for years, its impact has grown exponentially recently.

Evolution of AI in SEO

With the advent of Large Language Models (LLM), SEO experienced a significant shift. Initially, AI was used to create content, then for the mass creation of content, and later for the generation of numerous websites. But today we will focus on how AI will change the search engine itself and not just what ranks or appears on it.

What is SGE?

Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) is Google’s generative search experience. This experimental version of the search engine uses AI to generate contextual responses to complex questions. Launched in 120 countries on November 8, 2023, SGE is expected to become an integral part of the digital experience, modifying the search engine results page and, with it, search behavior.

How Does SGE Work?

Although in Spain Google has gradually incorporated some of these features into the search engine, it is currently not accessible from our country, and we cannot test it. However, it is accessible in Google Labs as long as you connect via VPN.

And that’s what we’ve been doing for the past few months, conducting searches with Google’s generative AI to see how these changes will affect the search engine, the search experience, and, of course, our clients’ websites, e-commerce, map listings, etc.

Unlike the traditional search engine, which relies on retrieving relevant web pages, SGE uses artificial intelligence to offer a more comprehensive and informative search experience.

How Does It Do It?

Better Understanding of User Intentions:

SGE goes beyond keywords, analyzing the context of the search to understand what the user really wants to know.

Generates More Dynamic Response Formats:

Instead of simply showing links to websites, SGE can offer topic summaries, comparisons, data visualizations, and even generate different creative text formats, such as poems or code.

Provides a More Personalized Experience:

SGE takes into account the user’s search history and preferences to offer more relevant and individualized results.

Integrates with Other Google Tools:

SGE can interact with other Google tools, such as Gmail or Calendar, to offer a more seamless and contextualized search experience.

Online Shopping:

Provides a list of features and more product details in commercial/transactional searches.

How Does It Affect SEO?

According to Google, with SGE, traditional ranking factors such as keyword density and backlinks will remain important, but so will creating high-quality content that addresses user needs clearly and concisely. Essentially, the same as before, supposedly…

The Importance of Search Intent

But in reality, it depends greatly on the user’s search intent. Depending on this, the experience obtained in the results will vary significantly, from almost identical results to those currently to ones that are entirely different.

Informative Searches:

These types of keywords could be used in a content SEO strategy, blog, etc. They are apparently the ones that will undergo the most change, possibly generating AI responses in most cases, leading to a greater decrease in organic clicks and impressions. SGE is expected to generate more relevant and high-quality responses but can also go beyond its own response and traditional results to suggest additional resources, such as related articles, videos, or podcasts, that complement the search.

Navigational Keywords:

When users search for a specific page. An example of this type of search is brand searches, product+brand, media outlet, specific information source, etc. In such cases, the SEO impact would be minimal, as the user wants to access a specific website and what SGE will do is provide faster access by quickly identifying the websites the user frequently visits, anticipating needs, making suggestions, and improving navigation between devices.

Commercial Searches:

Keywords that look for a specific service/product. These types of keywords could be used in an SEO strategy for an e-commerce category page. SGE can offer users more complete and informative summaries of product categories, including features, comparisons with other products, and user reviews. This could reduce the need for users to visit multiple pages to find the information they seek and even enter e-commerce sites less unless they are already ready to make a purchase. It could eventually decrease impressions and/or clicks, but not necessarily sales if you have pages that provide quality information to generate these results and allow your products to stand out above competitors and/or substitutes.

Transactional Searches:

Searches oriented towards making a purchase. SGE will offer more personalized shopping experiences: it can provide personalized product recommendations based on search history, user preferences, and search context, simplified product comparisons, and even facilitate the purchase process by integrating functions such as voice search or augmented reality.

It remains a mystery what the actual CTR will be for the different positions in the various SGE result carousels and the role ads will play (Google’s real revenue source). Still, there are models, experiments, and speculations for all tastes, more or less optimistic or pessimistic, but it is clear that the coming change will be significant, especially for informational searches.

Note: This article was not written by AI, it just helped a bit, but it could have been.

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