How Google’s new Search Generative Experience may impact Yorkshire businesses

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is an early model that aims to transform how artificial intelligence (AI) works with the Google search experience.

The best way to describe the introduction of this new technology from Google is as a Black Swan Event.

Currently, the technology is only being tested in Google’s Search Labs, and in more than 120 countries as Google refines ahead of a global rollout.

SGE aims to push better-targeted responses to queries, serving users in a more advanced way. It will disrupt how users currently research and discover brands and their products/services online.

This can also benefit businesses because users are given a critical link that would otherwise direct them to basic shopping options.

For example, in the new SGE experience if you were to search for “Yorkshire Mafia”, Google creates an AI-generated result using several sources across the internet to give users a snapshot of The Yorkshire Mafia as an entity:

This comes above any classic organic results and the Knowledge Panel. It also encourages users to ask follow-up questions and engage in an AI “chat mode”, taking the user away from the search results altogether.

This can and will lead to users performing more and more zero-click searches a term used to describe when a user performs a search on Google but then doesn’t click on any results and visit a website), and can be impactful in how users validate products and companies by looking for reviews.

How does SGE impact your current organic performance?

You may wonder how SGE may affect your typical SEO practices. There have been growing concerns about the comprehensiveness of the AI-generated snapshot. Will it be detailed enough that users need not click through a business site?

From what we know right now, these concerns aren’t too far from what could become reality. If a user is simply looking for a quick answer, they are less likely to visit your site despite content being tailored to their needs.

How Yorkshire businesses can prepare

Because SGE will likely alter how users discover brands, products, and information, it’s important to start laying some groundwork now to keep up with the changes.

A large focus for every Yorkshire business should be around your current content (and content distribution), and how you build your brand’s entity within Google.

Based on our current findings, having a consistent and strong entity within Google will help its AI generate accurate results for your company.

A good example of this is if we currently search for “Yorkshire Mafia Reviews”, as Google isn’t showing AI for the community, but is blending a result for an IT company in Leeds as well as a book and a chicken restaurant, also in Leeds, as it has been featured by the Yorkshire Mafia in previous articles.

So how can Yorkshire businesses prepare, and be ready for Search Generative Experience?

Scrutinise data, learn your exposure

If you’re working with SEO, data analysis should be second nature to you. However, it will become even more necessary to adapt to the new technologies.

Understanding how Google is forming AI snapshots for the keywords you rely on for brand discovery, and the keywords your customers use before buying or enquiring will be vital.

From there you can quantify the potential impact and start to build SEO strategies to broaden your audience, your traffic sources, and how users discover your brand.

Target next-in-search queries

We mentioned earlier how Google’s SGE will offer next steps to users regarding their query, encouraging further questioning to get the answers they need.?

This means you should also be looking to target “next-in-search” queries as part of your strategies.

This is because not all user journeys are satisfied from a single search, and users will stack queries, refining as they go until they find what they are looking for,

For instance, a user may start by searching "how to bake a cake," then narrow down to "chocolate cake recipe," and further refine to "chocolate cake recipe without eggs," as they gather more information and better understand their needs and preferences.?

Throughout this journey, their ultimate aim of finding an appropriate chocolate cake recipe remains unchanged, but the expressions used in their queries evolve along the way.

If you can develop your site as a source of valuable and true information, you will continue to provide your audience with what they need. If done well, you shouldn’t see a reduction in traffic and revenue.

Nurture your audience

A nurtured audience is a loyal audience, filled with users who will return to your site and seek out what you offer again and again.

Step up your game with what you provide your audience to compete with generative AI. It’s not going away any time soon, so think of it as a new competitor.?

Target more than the average readers and dig deep into what unique insights your audience is looking for. You’ll inevitably enhance your brand reputation and hopefully earn more returning customers.

Build an “entity home”

Building an entity home in the context of entity SEO refers to the practice of creating a central, authoritative digital space for a specific entity, such as a brand, person, or organization.?

This central space, often a website or a main page within a website, serves as the primary source of information about the entity and is structured to be easily understood by search engines.?

In entity SEO, search engines like Google use entities—distinct, identifiable subjects or concepts—as key elements in understanding and organizing online information.

By building an entity home, a business ensures that it has a well-defined, optimally structured online presence that search engines can easily associate with the entity in question.?

This includes using consistent naming, clear descriptions, and linking to and from relevant, authoritative sources.

The aim is to strengthen the entity's presence in search engine results, making it more likely to be recognized and ranked effectively for relevant queries.

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Authors

• Dan Taylor ? - Partner & Head of Technical SEO, SALT.agency
• Hannah Stones - Senior Content Consultant, SALT.agency