Google’s SGE Delivers Flawed Results but Opportunities for Brands

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) rolled out in May 2023, and now thanks to the keyword tracking platform STAT we have an idea of what its impact is. STAT published a study of SGE search results in late September, and the data confirms what we have found and been communicating to our clients: In short, the SGE experience is poor (not helpful or useful), but SGE also creates opportunities for brands need to prepare for AI-assisted search. 

What Is SGE? A Quick Recap 

(SGE) is a Google feature that uses AI to generate answers to questions. SGE answers are typically displayed in a conversational format, and they can include text, images, videos, and other multimedia content. Google hopes that by using AI, SGE will provide more comprehensive and naturally engaging answers to queries than Google Search does with its algorithms. Brands care about SGE because its adoption could affect how they create and share content for AI-assisted searches.  

How Is SGE Performing? 

So, how has SGE performing since May?  

STAT's data found: 

• Google is showing SGEs by default less than 33 percent of the time. Most SGE answers still need to be triggered by clicking the "generate" button. 
• In over 40 percent of SGE results, there was no (zero) overlap between the 3 source links displayed in the top right and the organic top 10. In fact, STAT found that source links from their test were pulled from the top 10 organic links 13% of the time. 
• SGEs are most frequently constructed from raw text or features already available on the search engine results page (SERP). Our own tests support this. Most SGE results repeat text found in featured snippets or duplicate the Map Pack. For local SERPs, SGEs had Map Packs displaying directly underneath 35 percent of the time. That is a lot of wasted real estate in the SERPs. 
• It takes on average 5-10 seconds for an answer to generate. When pages are supposed to load in 3 seconds or less, this feels like an eternity. Will searchers have patience for this? 
• 70 percent of SGE searches contain no paid ads in the SERP. And when ads were displayed, they were typically shown under the SGE result. This could have dramatic impact on click-through rates for ads and organic results. Due to the poor experience delivered currently, it will be interesting to see how future iterations of SGE function. 

What Brands Should Do 

So, how should brands react, given these findings? This is difficult to answer as the display of SGEs has rapidly evolved since their launch. Originally, Google had not displayed any links to the sites sourced to answer a query. But beginning in August, Google started injecting click-to-expand links that credited sites that were used to construct the answer. This experience varies wildly; so, expect Google to continue make changes to how SGE answers are displayed based on how searchers interact with them. 

We do see some opportunities regardless of what Google decides to do with the display of SGEs: 

• If your site is not taking advantage of Schema.org structured data, do so now. Not only is this markup an opportunity to provide Google with greater context around your content, we know it is valuable for earning featured snippets. With the overlap of content found between these results and SGE results, it is a no-brainer for broadening the types of results your pages can show up for. Even with FAQ snippets being removed from the SERPs, this is a very valuable opportunity. 
• Make sure your content is well structured with header tags, bulleted and/or numbered lists, and other visual assets that deliver more helpful answers. Google loves structure because it provides the algorithm with contextual clues Google can use to find relevant answers. This is easy to research; do a search for your most valuable keywords your site is under-performing for and evaluate your competitors’ content. In a lot of cases, it is easy to identify opportunities to improve upon your content structure and depth to make your pages more competitive. 
• Explore how your site answers SGE’s follow up questions. One of SGE’s goals is to make search more conversational; so, it is pushing more long-tail search queries on searchers. Clicking on a follow-up question takes the searcher out of the search and into a “conversation” where SGE peppers the searcher with a barrage of related questions it uses to determine the specific intent of the searcher. These follow-up questions can make for good opportunities for adding content to existing pages or for creating new ones. 
• Keep a close eye on how other AI tools are evolving. SGE was a reaction to Bing’s AI experience that leverages OpenAI’s ChatGPT generative AI tool. OpenAI announced in September that the company is rolling out new voice and image capabilities in ChatGPT, and the examples we have seen are wild! One example showed a picture of a bicycle with the searcher asking: “how do I raise the seat?” ChatGPT not only answered this correctly, but was able to explain what specific tools were required using other images submitted by the searcher. No doubt Google will be aiming to deliver a similar experience. 

One thing is clear: Google’s SERPs are going to continue to evolve. SEO professionals should avoid getting too attached to traditional features like PAA Boxes, Knowledge Graphs and other common result types. If we learned anything from FAQs, nothing lasts forever. Instead, your brand’s aim should be to deliver a helpful experience across an array of content types -- text, images, video, and audio – that reflect your brand and resonate with your customers. That’s not just good for SEO, but for site experiences delivered across all of your marketing channels. Click here to learn more about our SEO capabilities.