What is Search Generative Experience (SGE)?

SGE Is the New SEO?

“Ever changing technology needs ample attention”

In May 2023, Google made an announcement that they are testing an AI-powered search experience known as Search Generative Experience (SGE).

What’s the difference?

Apart from understanding the complex queries, SGE uses AI to generate answers in SERPs.

This turned out to be a revolutionary move because now users don’t even need to click on the links to get the info. SGE automatically generates content from the search results and brings the users the best suited information.

But what is Search Generative Experience?

In this blog we will learn exactly what Google search generative experience is and how it works.

What is Search Generative Experience (SGE)?

Search generative experience is created by Google to enhance user experience and make search easier for the general public.

It infuses generative AI into search which tries to understand what the user is looking for and filters out the information according to the query.

So, for example; if a user types in a query like “What is search generative experience”, at the top of all search results they will get the generative response which will be created after filtering out the most relevant content.

Google uses their own generative AI technology to generate these responses. Artificial Intelligence uses content from around the internet and creates a response that seems most relevant according to the query.

The content can be in paragraphs, images, bullet points, or any other media along with the reference to the original article or blog from where the information is sourced.

Users can access the original source by clicking on the ‘v’ icon. At the bottom, users can ask follow-up questions and explore more in detail.

Why is Google Promoting its SGE?

With advancements in technology artificial intelligence has emerged as a threat to Google. Among competitors like ChatGPT, Reddit, Bing, and Amazon, Google introduced SGE to show their competence.

Chat GPT emerged as a threat which had the potential to take over Google's market share. Along the same run Bing started infusing AI into their search results which brought life back to ‘Bing search’.

This was the red alarm for Google to push their Search Generative Experience further.

According to Google, SGE will remain an opt-in experience in Google Labs. If SGE is released as a full-fledged functionality, it would totally reset the understanding of SEO.

Google will have to reconfigure almost everything. From organic traffic to optimization tactics to tracking tools, everything would need adjustments to cope up with the new experiences.

Hence it seems viable for Google to keep search generative experience in search labs.

How to Rank on Top Using SGE?

Well, this was an overview of the search generative experience. But the question “how to rank on top using SGE” must be ticking in your mind.

Don't worry!

We have carried out some experiments and determined some ways that can be used to rank top in search results.

Base Must Be Strong

During our experiments we found that if you already have a top ranking in regular search, it would be very easy for you to rank on SGE.

It means that SGE takes some signals from SEO that has been the main ranking factor for so many years.

Certain things like

• Quality Backlinks
• Good Website Speed
• Good Quality Content
• Strong User Experience

These all are playing their part in ranking your content at top in SGE.

However, depending solely on SEO is not feasible as a lot of times we will see that pages ranking on top have no space in the SGE results.

So, what else?

Match the Question & the Topic Very Closely

During our tests, we concluded that it is much easier to rank in SGE, especially if you are using a carousel format with the page matching the target search term.

Earlier we used to search for terms like ‘which is the best policy for x’. The content creators also created pages like “the ultimate guide to policy” and filled it with all the information they could possibly fit in.

But now times have changed.

Now pages carrying specific information like ‘the best policy for student is’ have much more chances of getting ranked in SGE.

If you use small content but with higher precision using targeted pages, you might even leave behind high authority sources.

This would somehow promote short content blogs on the internet which means a lot of people will target specific search terms and build a short content around it.

This might seem like a loophole, but Google has given no statement regarding this. It might be possible that Google addresses this issue and makes it an unethical practice.

But on the other hand, the main goal of SGE is to give specific results to the users. If google shuts down these pages, then it will be harder for SGE to generate relevant responses.

Create Content with High Readability & Simple Information

When you click on a website provided to you by SGE, you will notice that there is a hash included in the URL.

This is known as Text Fragment, used in the featured Snippets. If you look more closely you will notice that the text highlighted as the result is embedded within the link.

This tells the browser which content needs to be highlighted and which content should be presented as additional information.

SGE seems to prefer short and straightforward sentences which make a single point, rather than long and complex paragraphs.

SGE is created to provide short answers that convey a specific message. If the information is too large, SGE will take a short fragment of the content along with the reference of the website from where it deduced the information.

Create To-the-Point Content

There are some tricks on how you can rank better on SGE and creating to the point content is a prominent way.

The opening paragraph of your content must be a summary of the answer to the topic or the question.

You might think that you will have to create totally new pieces of content to rank on SGE.

However, you can also update the content and rank good.

Infact, you can do an experiment by adding a new paragraph in the beginning that is a short summary of the topic, and then search for the topic.

There are pretty big chances that your content will start coming on top.

Sometimes SGE might get confused between the new content and the older content. So, it might be possible that your content still isn't ranking.

In such a case you can totally update the content with a crisp summary of the blog in the beginning.

Though it is not a sure shot method of getting ranked, it might work for a lot of specific queries.

Conclusion

Does it feel like SGE is the future of search?

Frankly speaking, it does seem that way; however, we cannot ignore the value of a detailed blog or piece of content.

Google SGE also uses content from these blogs and provides a piece of information we are looking for. But at the deeper end, it also needs pre-written content to filter out the best information.

Content with educational or in-depth information can never be replaced by SGE. So, SEO still has a big part to play in your rankings.

Yes, it is true that there will be a shift in the processes and workflows, but that would not hamper the overall structure of Rankings on Google.

Or at least we hope so!

But you don’t need to worry about it. We understand that being up to date with all the technical elements of digital marketing is not possible for every individual.

That is why we are here.

Unify Wizards is always up to date with all the information from the digital world. We will give you the update as soon as Google rolls it out.

Until then you can use the tactics and rank on SGE. You never know if Google decides to let it be the way it is.