How To Rank in the Google Search Generative Experience

How To Rank in the Google Search Generative Experience

Aug 12, 2024

Reading Time: 3 minutes

How To Rank in the Google Search Generative Experience

With the rise of AI-driven content creation and the rapid evolution of search engines, Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is transforming how users find information. Unlike traditional search, SGE taps into the power of generative AI to craft more comprehensive, conversational responses, making it essential for website owners, content creators, and digital marketers to adapt their strategies in order to stay competitive.

What Is the Google Search Generative Experience (SGE)?

You may have noticed that at the top of some Google SERPs, there is now a section at the top where generative AI can provide an answer to the search before the ranked web pages. Users can ask additional questions with the generative AI without leaving the SERP. While the SGE offers searchers a more conversational search experience, for those trying to rank for the top spots on the SERP, it means that the top spot now means less as it’s been pushed further down the page.

This doesn’t mean that SEO is now useless. It is, however, a good opportunity to take a look at your SEO strategies and make sure that they’re taking the SGE into account.

#1: Prioritize High-Quality, Factual Content

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: EEAT is possibly the most important factor in modern SEO. Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are the qualities that Google is looking for in content that is eligible to rank highly. If your content doesn’t follow the EEAT guidelines, then it’s unlikely to rank on the first page of the search results at all, let alone in the top spot or in the SGE.

#2: Optimize for Conversational and Long-Tail Queries

Generative AI is designed to interact in a conversational way with users. This means that keywords should be framed in a conversational way. Long tail keywords, which are longer key phrases instead of individual words, are good examples of this. In many cases, users are asking questions, so wording a key phrase as a question can be a good way to keep your SEO more competitive in the generative AI landscape.

#3: Don’t Rely Only on Written Content

The AI powering SGE is not limited to text. It considers multimedia content like videos, podcasts, and images. Including diverse content formats will give your brand more opportunities to be featured. YouTube videos in particular can rank very highly in the SGE. YouTube is owned by Google and is a search engine in its own right, which means that YouTube videos have two opportunities to rank: first on YouTube and then again on the Google SERP. YouTube videos can be very valuable additions to any SEO strategy because videos don’t rank below the SGE, they rank within it at the top of the page.

#4: User Experience Still Matters

If a user isn’t getting the answers they’re looking for in the SGE, they may scroll down until they do. This means that user experience, which drives the metrics Google is using to rank pages, such as click-through rate, bounce rate, and dwell time, still matter. As the SERP landscape adjusts, it’s important to make sure that no matter how the Google search results shake out you’re still providing users with a good experience on your site in addition to good content because this ultimately is in line with Google’s own goal of providing a good user experience and the content that best answers their question.

Creating your content users in mind over the search engines can have the added benefit of helping to future-proof your SEO as much as possible, even in a search engine landscape that is constantly changing.

How Generative AI Is Impacting SEO in 2024

How Generative AI Is Impacting SEO in 2024

Jul 15, 2024

Reading Time: 3 minutes
How Generative AI Is Impacting SEO in 2024

You may have noticed that when you search for something on Google, you get a response from generative AI at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). This is Google Search Generative Experience, or Google SGE, and it’s been gradually changing the landscape of the SERP and thus, of SEO, as it is rolled out across more and more search queries. But what, exactly, does this mean for SEO?

How Does Google Search Generative Experience Affect the Search Engine Results Page?

The primary effect is that the number 1 search result, a highly prized ranking, is much further down on the SERP. The top of the screen is taken up by sponsored ads, generative AI, and YouTube videos. Users have to scroll down to see even the first result on many SERPs, let alone those lower ranked. This makes that top spot much less valuable because generative AI may have already answered the user’s question, reducing the likelihood that they will scroll down to see the web pages that have ranked for that query.

via GIPHY

What Can We Do To Compete With Generative AI?

In many ways, we can’t compete with generative AI. However, that doesn’t mean that we’re out of the SEO game. Even as SEO is changing to reflect the presence of generative AI, there are strategies we can focus on to help users find our content.

1. Improve Your Local SEO

Local SEO is going to be increasingly important as generative AI takes over more of the regular SERPs. If a user searches for a keyword in a specific location (for example, “Detroit coffee shop” or “Mexican restaurant near me”), then Google provides a Google map result with the Google Business Profile entries for local businesses that fit the search criteria. If you have a physical location for your business, then filling out this profile in full can help people to find you.

2. Get Into the YouTube Game

YouTube is a search engine in its own right and many people are turning to videos over written content. This presents an opportunity for ranking within YouTube as well as ranking at the top of the Google SERP, which does, depending on the query, include relevant YouTube videos in the generative AI section of the SERP. This represents an opportunity to appear at the top of the SERP, above the top search result in addition to within YouTube’s own search algorithm, providing two places to rank with one video.

3. Focus on Expertise and Experience

Google has long recommended following the EEAT (formerly EAT) guidelines to produce high-quality content: expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness. Generative AI may be useful for many things, but it cannot replicate human experience. Focusing on your expertise and experience within your field can provide insights that no generative AI can offer. This type of content could attract users who are looking for something more than the more generic responses that AI could provide.

4. Keep Humans Involved

Perhaps the most important thing is to remember that, despite the involvement of AI, Google’s aim is predominantly to connect people with the best possible answers. AI cannot understand people the way people do, so people should therefore be involved in every step of your content creation process, even if you use generative AI yourself. This is because AI can make errors or may misunderstand human emotions and experiences. Having everything at a minimum reviewed by a human maintains a personal touch and increases accuracy. On top of that, it provides something that AI can’t, which is what can compete with AI online.

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How Do Google Core Updates Affect SEO?

How Do Google Core Updates Affect SEO?

Dec 18, 2023

Reading Time: 3 minutes
woman working in front of a computer

Google often releases core updates to its algorithm in order to either address a problem or to improve the relevance and quality of search results for users. With Google changing how its search algorithm works so frequently, there can be some disruptions to SEO. But how, exactly, do core updates affect SEO and what can you do about it?

Do Core Updates Change SERP Rankings?

The short answer is that yes, an update can impact your rankings. It doesn’t always; in many cases, rankings may stay the same if your content still meets Google’s requirements for high quality. However, because the core update may reassess what Google considers to be top quality, rankings may decrease or even increase, depending on how your content matches up with the new qualifications.

What Does It Mean If Your Rankings Decrease After a Core Update?

Each core update just means that Google is adjusting how it ranks content in order to better match users with the best possible search results. In some cases, you may have ranked higher on a keyword that didn’t quite match your content as well and now you rank better for other, more suitable keywords. In other cases, you may need to revisit your content quality and update accordingly to meet Google’s standards.

What Can You Do If Your Rankings Drop After a Core Update?

Whether there’s something you can do or not will depend on the core update. If there’s a specific action you can take to restore your rankings to what they were before the update, Google will let you know. For example, when it switched to mobile-first indexing, optimizing for mobile devices first was something Google announced that you could do to improve your rankings. Sometimes, however, there’s nothing specific and Google will announce that along with the core update.

What Should You Do If There’s Nothing To Fix After a Core Update?

If Google has announced that there’s nothing to fix after a core update, then you should focus on improving the quality of your content and your website. This can mean focusing on EAT principles in your written content as well as improving the technical SEO on your website for things like loading speed.

Do Google Core Updates Cause Ranking Volatility?

It’s possible that a core update could cause volatility in the search rankings as the algorithm adjusts to the new criteria. Rankings may not stay static and may change multiple times during the weeks that the update is being rolled out. If in the immediate aftermath of an update, your rankings aren’t what you’d expect, don’t panic. It may take some time for the rankings to settle after the gradual rollout of the update.

Can You Anticipate a Core Update’s Ranking Changes?

There’s no real way to anticipate the changes that Google will make ahead of time. However, there are things you can do to future-proof your SEO. Focus on producing quality content that will benefit and engage your users. If users find your content genuinely useful and keep coming back to it, then your rankings may more easily recover or may not be affected at all by an update. You should also regularly revisit your technical SEO to make sure that your site is keeping up with current expectations for load speed.

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How Putting Users First Can Boost Your SEO

How Putting Users First Can Boost Your SEO

Jun 1, 2023

Reading Time: 3 minutes
mobile users

User experience plays a huge role in your search rankings. It may be one of the most important factors when it comes to SEO. After all, it doesn’t really matter how well-optimized your content is if users have such a poor experience on your site that they leave. Google tracks user experience and uses it as a factor in determining SERP rankings.

How Does Google Quantify User Experience?

User experience is a qualitative feature, so how can a search engine quantify it to influence SERP rankings? Google looks at more quantitative factors that can indicate user experience. For example, bounce rate and dwell time are both linked to user experience. A high bounce rate means users aren’t staying on your site. Whether that’s because the user experience is poor or because the site just isn’t what they’re looking for doesn’t matter; both are signs that the site isn’t meeting user needs and therefore shouldn’t be ranked as highly. A high dwell time, by contrast, indicates a good experience because users won’t stay for long on a site that isn’t meeting their needs and expectations.

How Can You Optimize for User Experience?

There’s no optimization shortcut for user experience. The only way to optimize for this essential SEO factor is to provide a good user experience. This means offering high-quality content written for users first rather than for search engines. Your SEO strategy should be for your audience, not to game search engines into ranking you higher than you should be.

What Is High-Quality Content?

Google uses the following criteria to determine whether content is high-quality:

  • Experience
  • Expertise
  • Authoritativeness
  • Trustworthiness

To have high-quality content that Google will rank at the top of the SERP, your content will need to embody all of those traits. This will involve well-written, informative content and demonstrating that you are an authority in your industry so that others will want to link to your content as a source.

Can You Use ChatGPT Content?

ChatGPT has taken the Internet by storm. The predictive text AI program already caused a lot of speculation on how it can change the way we work in many industries. There are rumors that companies may start to replace humans with ChatGPT for things like content production. However, this is not a good idea if you want to rank well, even after Google has stated it won’t punish AI-written content just for being written by an AI.

Is ChatGPT Content High-Quality?

The problem is that AI-written content just isn’t very good. There are some major limitations to what an AI can do. It looks good, but it tends to be more style than substance and substance is what Google is looking for with its EEAT criteria. That’s not even taking into account the factual errors, lack of ability to understand humans, and the fact that AI can really only work off of input that it gets from real humans

Are Keywords Important for User Experience?

While keywords are still important to an SEO strategy, it’s important to use them sparingly. Gone are the days of keyword stuffing actually improving your rankings. You’ll need to balance your keyword strategy with making sure that the content is readable. Write your content for your users, not for search engines, and that will help you to create high-quality content.

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ChatGPT 4: The Future of AI ChatBots

ChatGPT 4: The Future of AI ChatBots

May 15, 2023

Reading Time: 3 minutes
ChatGPT 4 The Future of AI ChatBots

ChatGPT is taking the world by storm. Ever since Open AI’s chatbot was released, the internet has been buzzing with reactions ranging from excitement for the new possibilities to concern about the impact it may have on many industries. In addition, the version of ChatGPT that is available for free isn’t even the latest model.

ChatGPT’s GPT-4 model has already been released for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, even though it most likely won’t be available to free users until the next version after 4 is released to Plus subscribers. While it’s exciting to look forward to what GPT-4 will offer, it’s also important to remain aware of its limitations.

 

What Does ChatGPT-4 Do Better Than ChatGPT-3.5?

There are many ways in which GPT-4 has improved upon its predecessor. These range from simply improving upon existing capabilities to brand-new features. Continue reading to find out more.

 

ChatGPT 4 Can Interact With and Analyze Images

While GPT-4 won’t be able to generate AI images (that’s the job of Open AI’s other AI, called DALL-E), this version of ChatGPT will be able to interpret and analyze images. This means that you can give ChatGPT an image and ask it questions regarding that image and it will be able to respond. This means that instead of requiring text in order to initiate an interaction between ChatGPT and the user, images can be incorporated.

 

ChatGPT 4 Will Understand and Process Language Better

Another improvement over the currently released version of ChatGPT is ChatGPT 4’s increased language capabilities. There are limitations to ChatGPT’s current language skills. GPT-4’s improved language model means that this new version of the AI can not only sound more naturally human but can also understand and produce responses in specific dialects of a language rather than just the most standard version.

 

ChatGPT 4 Will Be More Creative and Collaborative

This newer model of ChatGPT will be both more creative and more collaborative. This means that it can better gather information from multiple sources at once and then combine them to formulate a better answer. ChatGPT 4 can also collaborate with users in order to increase creativity in producing written content, even writing in different styles from technical writing to screenplays.

 

ChatGPT 4 Is More Accurate Than ChatGPT 3.5

Another benefit of GPT-4 is its increased accuracy. While no AI chatbot is currently immune to inaccuracies and biases, ChatGPT 4 will greatly improve upon the previous version’s accuracy by about 40%.

 

What Are the Limitations of ChatGPT 4?

ChatGPT 4 may improve upon ChatGPT 3.5, but it still carries certain limitations. These range from accuracy issues to an inability to truly understand humans.

 

ChatGPT 4 Can’t Address Current Events

ChatGPT 4 shares the same limitation as the current version of the AI in that it was trained on content only from 2021 or earlier. This limits its ability to discuss current events. ChatGPT 4 also isn’t able to speculate on future events.

 

ChatGPT 4 Can Be Incorrect

Even though GPT-4 is among the best of the AI chatbots out there, it is still often incorrect. It can produce biased or even just flat-out wrong answers. It also can suffer from what is referred to as “hallucination” in the AI world. This means that the AI can’t tell the difference between something that is true and something that isn’t and gives a response that is based on incorrect information.

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How Does Google Evaluate Experience?

How Does Google Evaluate Experience?

Dec 4, 2022

Reading Time: 3 minutes
How Does Google Evaluate Experience
Google has been evaluating content based on EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) for years now. These three characteristics have guided Google’s algorithm in how it measures the quality of content. Lately, Google has added a fourth characteristic: Experience.

Why Is Google Adding Experience?

The intention behind adding Experience to its content quality evaluation is to help provide the best possible content for users. If someone is searching for reviews on a pair of shoes, for example, that information is better coming from someone who’s purchased them and worn them rather than someone who hasn’t.

When Is Experience Applicable?

Experience applies to all kinds of content. A demonstration is best performed by someone who’s done it before. A museum is best reviewed by someone who’s actually been there. A restaurant is best described by someone who has been there or who works there.

Why Is Experience So Important?

Experience ties into Trust, the final characteristic of the EEAT acronym. Google considers Trust to be the most important of those qualities, with the others there to support it. The idea is that users will trust someone more who has first-hand, personal experience with the content they’re providing, not just knowledge about it.

How Does EEAT Help Your Search Rankings?

EEAT is Google’s content quality assurance program. It’s how you demonstrate not just to Google but to your audience that you know what you’re talking about and can be trusted to provide accurate, helpful, and trustworthy content. You’re demonstrating that you’re an authority in that topic that they should trust to give them information they need and want.

How Does Google Measure EEAT?

Google ranks web pages on its SERPs using an algorithm, so how can it measure something subjective like experience or trustworthiness? The short answer is that it can’t. The long answer is that Google measures users’ behavior regarding your content and translates that into its guidelines for what makes content high-quality (the EEAT guidelines). Google may also analyze the keywords in your content, looking for not just the ones you’re trying to rank for but also other words you’d expect to find in quality content about that topic (for example, bamboo, conservation, and China in content about giant pandas).

What User Behavior Does Google Measure?

Google takes into account user behavior when it ranks pages. This behavior includes how quickly they return to the SERP after clicking on a result, how many different web pages on a particular site they visit, and how they interact with a site. If a user clicks on a link and then almost immediately navigates back to the SERP, that’s a sign that that page wasn’t what the user was looking for and therefore should be lower down in the search results. By contrast, a site where the user stays for a long time, views multiple pages, watches videos, makes a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, etc. is one that is more likely to rank higher for that keyword.

How Do You Demonstrate Experience?

So you have first-hand experience with the topic you’re producing content about. But how do you demonstrate that first-hand experience in a way that Google will understand? Primarily, you should focus on demonstrating your experience to the user. Users are more likely to trust someone with personal experience and will therefore be more engaged with that content, which will translate into the positive user behavior that Google rewards.

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