What is Google SGE?
Search Generative Experience (SGE) will be a game changer oh the way search on the internet is conducted.
Google has started testing this new feature in March 2023 in the USA (and I was am testing it since then). The test was expanded first to Japan and India and is now (since November 2023) available in 120 countries and 7 languages.
It is expected to go live 2024 with partial roll outs in the first half of the year.
The SGE test has not been accessible from Europe, as stricter data protection regulation are set out here, and it is not clear when it will come, but it is clear that it will come.
Why is Google making the changes to SGE?
Google always makes changes to the search algorithm. Some are announced as core updates or helpful content updates and are seen as major updates. But Google makes far more updates than the one we know of.
So why this big change now and why is everyone getting so excited?
Google is under pressure from platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Amazon and ChatGPT to defend its position as the prime source for search.
Over 60% of users start product searches on Amazon, over 40% of Gen Z are using TikTok and Instagram for search instead of Google. This is Google’s own data.
They have to act and adopt to the change in user behaviour.
What will change with SGE?
SGE or Search Generative Experience will provide and AI answer to searches. This will give a short explanation to the search and show visuals to support the content.
While up to know most searches have shown a featured snippet from one website with a link to this website, the generated answer will take information from multiple sources and generate the answer with AI.
This can mean a significant drop in traffic for your website if you had the featured snippet or where in the top positions.
The new Google search results in SGE
Here are 2 examples first the search result how it is now and then the one how it will be for the search “What is SGE”
For transactional searches (e.g. buy something) the changes will be significant as well, but we deal with that in a later post.
