Google’s Search Generative Experience— Perspectives to Inform Your SEO Strategy

Last week, Google announced its Search Generative Experience (SGE), which will bring AI-powered snapshots to search engine results.

Our Current Perspective

Based on today’s available information, here’s how we think this update might affect most SEO strategies. As the landscape unfolds, we aim to update you regularly.

Perspective #1: This AI-powered search experience will create an incremental impact on organic traffic, not a dramatic shift.

For years, Google has pushed clicks away from organic results and toward ads and other Google modules. In a recent LinkedIn post, Ethan Smith (CEO of Graphite) shared examples of how Google lays out information on search engine result pages (SERPs) for different categories:

1. Best Bicycles
2. Wedding Photographers NYC
3. Executive Coaching

We’ve highlighted each section in a different color: ads (red), google modules (blue), and organic results (green).

In these cases, non-organic formats occupy more than 50% of the SERP.?

With Google’s SGE, some clicks will inevitably move to the AI content and away from organic results, but we don’t expect this to dramatically impact traffic.

Perspective #2: Informational content is most vulnerable, but it’s in Google’s best interest to drive traffic to publishers.

In the same LinkedIn post, Luc Levesque (Chief Growth Officer of Shopify) weighed in on the search types that will be most affected.

For top-of-funnel queries, Google AI can surface a straightforward answer without a user needing to click through to a specific piece of content. In theory, this leads to a better initial user experience. But if users want to dig deeper and go to the source, it’s also in Google’s best interest to make that experience seamless.

If results from generative AI fail to drive traffic and revenue to publishers, this forces publishers to take action and hide their content. Publishers might block their user agent, for example.

We think Google will try to preserve their relationship with publishers. In the snapshot they shared during Google I/O, publishers are prominently featured:

Not only are the explicit answers generated in this search experience made up of specific websites, but those websites that make up those answers are also prominently displayed in the answer with a thumbnail image, title, and URL, all that is clickable to the publisher’s website.

From Search Engine Land

Perspective #3: Within informational content, some query categories will be less vulnerable.

While informational queries will likely take a hit, Ethan believes the following categories will be less affected:

• Complex informational queries where the answer needs detail, nuance, and context. With these queries, people will likely still want a more complete answer from a publisher.
• High stakes queries where the information has a high impact on someone’s life. Google uses a framework called Your Money Your Life (YMYL) to classify topics that can impact future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. In these cases, Google will be more careful rolling out an AI generated response. And ultimately, people will likely want an expert to weigh in (versus AI). As SEO expert, Kevin Indig , mentions in a recent memo:

For the first time ever, YMYL topics might have it easier in SEO because they don’t trigger an AI Snapshot (at least not always).

• Personal experience queries where a user places high value on the human experience. In these cases, people will still prefer getting information directly from a human influencer.

Perspective #4: Queries with conversion or purchase intent are less at risk.

Today, transaction still needs to happen on the publisher site. As a result, we expect generative AI to have a lower impact on conversion and revenue queries.

As Luc mentioned in his comment,

Navigational / Transactional keywords will have more longevity to them (for now)

Within transactional queries, companies who meet the following criteria will be most resilient:?

• Differentiated supply, meaning people can only buy this product from your site
• Comprehensive content on product pages because the AI snippet will reference your product pages

In contrast, companies meeting these criteria are at higher risk:

• Selling a product that is available on many sites
• Having product pages with thin content.

Perspective #5: Blended unit economics for SEO might stay the same.

There’s a good chance that AI summaries will lead to less traffic. While you can’t control this, you can counteract the impact by using generative AI to your advantage. With the right guardrails to ensure quality, generative AI makes content production cheaper and more scalable.

If you embrace this shift, there’s a chance the forces at play cancel each other out and the SEO channel unit economics stay the same: AI summaries lead to less traffic, but companies can produce a greater volume of high-quality articles.

Quick Recap

1. The AI-powered search experience will create an incremental impact on organic traffic, not a dramatic shift.
2. Informational content is most vulnerable, but it’s in Google’s best interest to drive traffic to publishers.
3. Some informational queries will be more resistant to shifts in AI, such as complex, high-stakes, and personal experience queries.
4. Queries with conversion or purchase intent are less vulnerable because the transaction will still take place on the publisher’s page.
5. Blended unit economics for SEO might stay the same if you leverage the benefits of generative AI.

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Graphite is a growth agency that builds SEO and content strategies for companies like BetterUp, MasterClass & Robinhood.