What Is Google SEO And Google SGE

Just like the digital world, SEO keeps on evolving to follow the latest technological trend and innovation. With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), information searching has transcended to the next level. More people are relying on AI to deliver information by utilizing AI like Gemini and ChatGPT to search for a query. 

In May 2023, Google announced the integration of AI summarisation into the search engine, called SGE (Search Generative Experience). This tool helps to collect and summarise information from a number of websites to be shown in the result page, which has its own set of benefits and downsides to website owners. In this article, we will dive into what exactly is SGE, what is the difference from SEO, and how it will affect the world of SEO.

What is Google SEO

To first know what SGE is, we will need to know what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is.

SEO, or the full term Search Engine Optimization, essentially refers to the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs) which in this case, refers to Google.

Achieving a high ranking in Google search is crucial as it is one of the best ways to improve online visibility of a website for a long term. This high ranking correlates to the number of traffic the website will receive from the SERPs, which in return will generate more leads, potential customers, and ultimately drive revenue growth.

In short, an improved Google search ranking creates positive results where visibility indirectly translates to a boost in business performance.

How Google SEO Works

Understanding how Google SEO works involves peeking into the complex system and factors that Google’s algorithm considers when ranking a website. While there are more in-depth view of what affect a ranking for Google searches, here’s a simplified breakdown of what is involved in optimizing a website in SEO:

1. Understanding Google’s Latest Algorithms and Ranking Factors:

Google’s algorithms analyze numerous ranking factors to determine the relevance and quality of web pages, which would then define the ranking of each website in SERPs. To keep the results relevant and helpful to the users, Google updated their algorithm several times a year in what is known as Core Updates. While the specifics of the algorithm may change, the key factors for the algorithm remain the same which are:

• Content Relevance: How well did the content match with the user’s search query? 
• Content Quality(E-E-A-T): The accuracy, depth, and usefulness of the content which involves the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
• Website Authority: The credibility and trustworthiness of the website, which can be measured by backlinks from other reputable sites and expertness in a said topic.  
• UI/UX: Factors that affect user’s experience like site speed, mobile-friendliness, and ease of navigation.  
• Technical SEO: The website’s technical structure which includes factors like site architecture, XML sitemaps, and structured data.  

2. Following User’s Search Intent:

Understanding the user’s goal is fundamental to how Google’s search algorithm functions. This means going beyond just matching a user’s inputted keywords to understanding the underlying intention of the search. Google’s search results show what most of the users searching for the specific query are looking for, whether the user is looking for information, products, services, or something else.

By accurately understanding what the user intent is as seen by Google, SEO helps to optimize the website content to meet the user’s search intent.

3. On-Page, Off-page, and Technical SEO:

Effective SEO relies on these three optimization approaches: 

• On-page SEO: Onpage SEO optimizes individual web pages through relevant content and keyword usage. 
• Off-page SEO: Offpage SEO builds website authority via backlinks and GBP optimization. 
• Technical SEO: Technical SEO ensures the site’s structure is sound, focusing on speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawlability. 

Together, these approaches create a comprehensive SEO strategy that maximizes a website’s visibility and ranking potential in SERPs.

What is Google SGE

Now that we’ve had a brief cover of SEO, it’s time to dive into what SGE (or its latest name, AI Overview) is.

Essentially, SGE is Google’s integration of generative AI into its search engine, hence the name Search Generative Experience (SGE). This means that instead of solely providing a list of website links only with their title tag and meta description visible, Google’s AI generates a summary of the answer for the search query which is collected directly from websites within the search results pages.

Essentially, it’s Google’s integration of generative AI into its search engine. This means that instead of solely providing a list of links, Google’s AI generates summaries and answers directly within the search results page. Those answers are taken from the content of the websites within the SERP’s.

How Google SGE Works

Google’s SGE, or AI Overviews, uses an advanced AI technology to generate summaries directly in search results. To see how this is possible, we need to understand how it works:

• Understanding User Queries:

SGE uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to thoroughly understand the intent behind a user’s search query, which allows them to go beyond just simple keyword matching.

• Leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs):

SGE uses a set of powerful LLMs to process information from a large number of web content before outputting it in human-like text. These models are trained on massive datasets, enabling them to understand the user’s input even in conversational form and generate human-like text.

• Generating SGE – AI Overviews:

Based on the user’s query and the information gathered, Google’s SGE generates a comprehensive summaries, or “AI Overviews”, of information collected from a number of websites directly within the search results page.

These summaries provide users with quick answers to their questions, reducing the need to click on multiple links and reading through the content.

How Can I Access Google SGE

Google’s SGE feature is enabled by default for some. If you didn’t get this feature, here’s how you can enable it:

1. Go to Google’s Homepage and click on the Flask logo at the top right corner of the page.

2. Find the AI Overviews card, click on it.

3. Turn the features On. You should start seeing SGE features on your searches.

What Are The Benefits and Downsides of Google SGE

Just like any other technology and features, Google’s SGE (AI Overviews) brings about a number of advantages and disadvantages to both users and website owners. Here’s a table summarizing those points:

Feature	Benefits	Downsides
User Experience	– Provides quick and direct answers.  – Offers a more conversational and less rigid search experience.	– Reliance on AI algorithms, which may be biased. – Accuracy of AI-generated summaries to search query might vary.
SEO Impact	– Opportunities for content to be featured in SGE, which contains more spaces than featured snippets.  – Traffic quality will be higher.	Need to adapt SEO strategies to AI-powered searches.
Information Delivery	– Streamlines information gathering effort.  – Can provide an overview of complex topics. – Allow for more efficient research.

What Are The Differences Between SGE and Traditional Google Searches

While both of them appear on the same search result pages, there are a few fundamentals difference between SGE and traditional searches that is optimized by SEO:

Features	Traditional Google Search	Google SGE (AI Overviews)
Result Format	List of web page links, with emphasis on individual website title tag and meta description.	AI-generated summaries and overviews that show a collection of information from multiple websites.
Information Delivery	Users will need to click on individual links to find answers.	Provides direct answers and summaries within the results.
Information Accuracy	Users will need to dictate the accuracy based on the trustworthiness of the website.	Higher accuracy due to more filters and checks from the AI model.

Will Google SGE Affect SEO? 

Now that we’ve covered both the basics of SEO and SGE, we’ve arrived at the important question; will Google SGE affect SEO effort? In short, yes, it will. Here’s why:

• Shift In User Behaviour: SGE helps to provide direct, comprehensive answers, which leads to fewer searches and different user behaviours compared to searching in the traditional method.  
• Changes In Optimization Strategies: The focus will shift from simply optimizing a website for keyword matching to understanding and optimizing to match a user’s intent. Content with a conversational tone to it will become more important.  
• Increased Importance of Structured Data: Structured data helps Google’s AI to understand the context of website content. This increases the probability of the content being featured in AI Overviews.  
• Higher Quality Clicks: While there might be more “zero-click” searches, the quality of clicks or traffic the website receives would be higher. This happens because the person who decides to click on a website is eager to know more about information beyond what is provided by the SGE.

Conclusion

While there are some disadvantages brought upon by SGE, there is no denying that this is the future of how people would search for information online. To keep your website evergreen, it would be best to start implementing optimization that also caters to SGE into your SEO strategies to avoid falling behind the latest search trend.