Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE): A new era for online search

Google recently unveiled its Search Generative Experience (SGE), a revolutionary innovation that promises to radically transform the way we interact with search engines. By integrating artificial intelligence at the heart of its algorithm, Google aims to offer a more intuitive, personalized and enriched search experience.

What is SGE?

SGE, or Search Generative Experience, is a new approach to online search based on generative AI.

Instead of simply providing links to web pages, SGE generates comprehensive, detailed answers by synthesizing information from multiple sources.

Thanks to advanced natural language processing models, the SGE is able to understand the context and intent behind each query, offering more relevant and personalized results.

Main Features

1. AI-Generated Summaries: SGE can create informative summaries by combining data from multiple sources.
   This allows users to receive comprehensive, contextualized answers without having to visit multiple websites.
   
2. Multimodal search: SGE integrates different types of media (text, images, video) into search results, offering a richer, more interactive experience.
   
3. Natural interactions: Users can ask follow-up questions and interact more fluidly with the search engine, mimicking a natural conversation.

A new search experience

Natural language understanding

One of the most remarkable aspects of SGE is its ability to understand natural language.
You can now ask complex questions as you would a human, without having to formulate specific queries.

SGE analyzes the context, nuances and intent behind your words to provide accurate, tailored responses.

Enriched and visual results

The SGE presents search results as rich, visually appealing and interactive answers.

Enhanced voice search

With SGE, voice search becomes more natural and precise. You can simply ask your questions out loud, and Google Voice Assistant will understand your words and provide relevant answers, making hands-free searching more effective than ever.

How does SGE improve the accuracy of search results

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) improves the accuracy of search results in several key ways:

Information synthesis

WMS doesn’t just return links to web pages, it generates comprehensive answers by synthesizing and summarizing information from multiple reliable sources. 

This allows for more comprehensive and contextualized results.

Advanced customization

By leveraging the user’s location data, preferences and search history, SGE can personalize results to better meet their specific needs. 

Constantly updated knowledge

Contrary to traditional search engines, SGE is not limited to a static index. 

It draws its information fromconstantly evolving sources, ensuring that results are always up-to-date and reflect the latest knowledge available.

Impact on SEO and site visibility

SGE could have a significant impact on SEO and website visibility.

Companies will have to adapt to this new reality and optimize their online presence to remain competitive.

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) will have a significant impact on businesses that rely on search engine optimization (SEO) to generate traffic and leads.

Here are the main impacts to consider:

Potential reduction in organic traffic

Several studies indicate that traffic from natural referencing could drop by 18% to 64% on queries affected by SGE. 

This is because SGE provides direct, detailed answers in a banner at the top of the results, reducing the need for users to click on website links.

Increased competition for top results

With SGE, users will tend to settle for the first answers displayed. Visibility at the top of results will therefore become crucial.

Companies will have to redouble their efforts to position themselves in the top 3 sources cited by SGE.

The need for rich, in-depth content

The SGE places greater importance on rich, contextually relevant content. 

Sites that offer detailed, in-depth, quality information on a topic will be at an advantage over those offering thin or generic content.

Adapting keyword strategies

Instead of focusing solely on popular keywords, companies will need to adopt anapproach geared towards search intent and long, specific queries. 

This will align content with the types of questions users ask the SGE.

Optimization for enriched results

With SGE, enriched results (images, extracts, etc.) will become even more important. 

Sites will need to optimize their content and structured data to maximize their visibility in these visual results.

To remain competitive in this new era of SEO, companies will need to thoroughly review their content, optimization and positioning strategies in order to adapt to the conversational search experience offered by SGE

What types of content benefit most from SGE

The types of content that will benefit most from Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) are rich, detailed and in-depth content.

Rich, multimedia content

The SGE places great importance on rich content such as images, videos, excerpts and other multimedia elements. These visual and interactive contents are more likely to be highlighted in AI-generated results.

To take advantage of SGE, it is recommended to associate detailed descriptions with these rich contents, optimize their accessibility (transcriptions, video players, etc.) and integrate them in a relevant way into the textual content.

Detailed, in-depth content

The SGE values content that provides detailed, in-depth information on a subject. 

Comprehensive articles, guides and other resources covering a topic in depth are likely to rank higher than thin or generic content.

The aim is to respond comprehensively to users’ search intentions, providing clear explanations, practical advice and genuine expertise on the subject at hand.

Inspiring and creative content

In sectors such as home and decoration, SGE will promote creative content that inspires and guides consumers in their projects. 

Step-by-step tutorials, ideas, shared experiences and other practical content will get more visibility.

The aim is to captivate the audience with engaging content that helps them turn their desires into reality, while highlighting relevant products and services.

To take full advantage of SGE, companies will need to focus on producing visually rich, detailed, in-depth and inspiring content that is capable of meeting user expectations in a comprehensive and engaging way

Will SGE completely replace traditional search engine results

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) won’t completely replace traditional search results.

While SGE dramatically changes the search experience by offering AI-generated direct answers, it does not replace traditional organic web results, which will continue to be displayed, albeit potentially with reduced visibility.

This is more of a complementary evolution of search engines.

• The SGE will provide AI-generated answers at the top of the results, but classic web links will remain present in the results pages.
• A study cited indicates that 98% of queries generate the same or very similar classic results page, with or without the presence of SGE.
• In 77% of cases, there are common web links between results with and without SGE. Only 2% of cases show a totally different page.
• Although the visibility of the first organic result is degraded by the SGE banner, the number of “classic” web links is not impacted by the presence of the SGE.
• Rich snippets (excerpts, images, etc.) remain present within traditional web results, in addition to SGE-generated content.

What’s the status of SGE implementation? How to access it?

The implementation of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is still in its infancy.

Current deployment

• The SGE is currently only available in the United States for a limited number of users.
• Google has opened a waiting list on Google Search Labs to allow US users to test SGE.
• European deployment has not yet taken place, but is expected soon according to sources.

How to access SGE

To access the beta version of SGE right now, follow these steps:

1. Create a new Google Chrome profile with a Gmail.com address (Google Workspace accounts do not work).
2. Configure English as Chrome’s primary language.
3. Use a VPN to connect to a server in the USA to bypass the geographical restriction.
4. Check that Google locates you in the USA by performing a test search such as “restaurant”.
5. Subscribe to the Google Search Labs waiting list. After a few days, an e-mail will notify you that access has been granted and you can then activate SGE in Chrome.

Although this procedure provides access to the beta version, the full rollout of SGE in Europe is not yet effective. 

We’ll have to wait a little before we can make full use of it in our region.

Research prospects with SGE

Evolution of Search Engines

The SGE represents an important step towards more personalized and intuitive search.

In the future, we could see search engines able to understand our individual preferences and provide hyper-personalized answers, making each search session unique and perfectly tailored to our specific needs.

Challenges and Opportunities for Business

Companies must adapt to these innovations to remain competitive.

This includes the creation of interactive, AI-optimized content.

Companies that successfully integrate these new technologies into their digital marketing strategy will be able to benefit from a significant competitive advantage.