BrightEdge Generative Parser™ has detected a new set of patterns that reveal where Google is fine-tuning its AI summaries, adding new warnings, and changing key content formats in SGE.
SAN MATEO, Calif., May 09, 2024 — BrightEdge, the global leader in AI-driven organic search, content, and digital marketing automation, has released new data from the BrightEdge Generative Parser™. As Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) is rolled out into regular search results, understanding new patterns and key changes in content formats such as product views, AI warnings, and carousel shopping results is essential for marketers who must keep ahead of its evolving experimentation.
“Google search has undergone massive changes in the past few months to test and perfect SGE, with the goal of providing the best possible search experience,” said BrightEdge founder and executive chair, Jim Yu. “These adjustments bring Google closer to rolling out SGE to the public with the perfect balance of offering intelligent AI responses, engaging user experiences and ample advertising opportunities. For marketers, it is essential to stay in lockstep with these changes in order to adapt to the new ways of optimizing for generative AI search.”
Google still holds a dominant 90.91% share in the search market, and with its I/O event on May 14th, many marketers are starting to speculate about what is coming next. While much of the debate is subjective, BrightEdge research gives objective insights into what is happening in SGE right now and some signals on what may happen in the future:
Search results without SGE have increased significantly from 25 to 65 percent.
- Starting in mid-April, Google has significantly pulled back on the search queries where they are showing SGE results. The drop was at the expense of Opt-In results, which are usually the most common type of result to appear. Collapsed results have been unaffected by this shift.
- If this remains the case, marketers may see less impact when SGE goes live in full. While this could be part of an ongoing test, it validates the fact that experimentation is still very much in motion. This decrease in Search Generative Experience (SGE) results could be due to stress testing for SGE deployment or making way for new formats of SGE in the future.
Apparel carousel results gain in visibility while product viewers shrink.
- Since November 2023, BrightEdge Generative Parser™ has closely tracked Google SGE results and formats. As per the Ultimate Guide to SGE, it has reported on the emergence and removal of various modules as Google finds the right fit that works best for the user experience.
- The product viewer, a wide array of products that search generative experience displays, helps users browse through them. This has been the most common way for SGE to display products. However, at the end of April, BrightEdge Generative Parser™ identified a significant drop in this type. Product Carousels (which occupy less space on the search results page) and Product viewers specific to apparel began to replace product viewers.
SGE vertical space on the page is getting smaller.
- Over the past month, Google SGE results have occupied less space on the search results page. This trend has continued into May with Google experimenting with smaller display sizes. As Google looks towards a broader release, this trend suggests that traditional organic results will continue to play a significant role and remain visible to most users. It might also indicate that SGE is becoming more effective at delivering valuable answers in concise ways.
Warnings that AI is experimental are now being deployed broadly.
- Google SGE has always supplied certain queries with warnings about the nature of the results. These warnings mostly concerned content around medical or financial advice. Warnings are also issued for queries relating to illegal activities or dangerous things. However, a new, universally applied warning emerged in April. Now, Google is actively reminding users that Generative AI is experimental.
According to Albert Gouyet, VP of Operations at BrightEdge, “In over six months of closely monitoring SGE changes, we have seen fluctuations but never such significant and consistent changes on a sustained basis. While there is lots of speculation on what will happen next, all key findings point to Google working to reduce the impact of SGE on organic results. Even with this reduction, having SGE currently included in 35% of responses will be a major shift for marketers, making it crucial for them to stay up to date on the latest shifts.”
Marketers can keep ahead of these changes via BrightEdge’s Ultimate Guide to SGE and their Guide to Perplexity.
About BrightEdge
BrightEdge, the global leader in Enterprise SEO and content performance, empowers digital marketers to transform online opportunities into tangible business results. Its all-in-one platform provides organizations with crucial market insights and intelligent AI-driven solutions. The BrightEdge platform contains the industry’s most unique and extensive data set that connects key search, social, content, and digital media data points. Its deep-learning engine, DataMind, has been powering SEO AI-driven solutions since 2015, allowing marketers to benefit from high-fidelity data-led insights and automated action. Over 57% of Fortune 100 companies and nine of the top ten international agencies trust BrightEdge to help them provide the best performance by becoming an integral part of the digital experience.
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