Meredith's husband: 0:24

Do you know what we're talking about today? More AI. That's exactly correct. I can read the sign that he just put up. So in the last I think it's a week, maybe two weeks there has been a fairly significant shift in the way Google is displaying results, specifically in the results that are generated by Google's AI. This is called SGE Search Generative Experience Search Generative different. This is called SGE search generative experience Search generative different from SEO SGE. So these are the results.

Meredith's husband: 1:02

When you do a search in Google, some accounts will get a generative response, a response generated by AI. Is that the one that has a paragraph on the top? No, that well, yes, although it could be a paragraph, it could be a bunch of steps. It could be. Yes, yes, it used to be. It used to be the featured snippet Right Used to go into this area. Now that area featured snippets are gone, by the way, the search generative experience has replaced it. What was the snippet? Where did that come from? That just came from other websites. It usually came from the top few ranked websites. The search generative experience is not all that different in what it's doing, but it delivers a whole lot better results. Oh, that's good. Oh, that's good.

Meredith's husband: 1:46

In the last week to two weeks, what has happened is the number of search results that result in an SGE, a search generative response, increased by 65%. Say that again. So far, the search generative experience is not always there. Okay, it's rolled out to mainly the free accounts. Like, you have a Google Suite business account, it's super sweet. Yeah, if we are logged into that account, we will not see those search generative results. Are we protected from them? Yeah, well, we're not. It's kind of like it's in beta and they're rolling it out to the free customers first. So if you were to log into Google with your free Gmail account, you then would see those results, or at least summertime, you would see those results. Summertime At least summertime, you would see those results. Summertime. Now, the percentage of time that those search generative experience results are shown increased by 65%. At like. One point it just was like a light switch and all of a sudden they shot up. Is that merely because they're getting better at it? Well, yes, they are getting better at it. Well, yes, they are getting better at it. But the rumor is that they are about to take it out of beta and they are about to make it official and they are about to announce it at Google's upcoming event, which is when I don't know exactly. It's the annual. It's one of Google's annual. It's called the IO event, so it's expected that they're going to announce that this is coming out of Vega, out of Vega. It's coming out of Vega and rolling out to everyone. That's what Google calls their beta programs. Is Vega, vega? Only we know this. Yeah, they don't know it yet, but that's what they're going to do after hearing this Clearly.

Meredith's husband: 3:33

So this is going to be a big shift, yeah, and in particular, this is going to mean less traffic is going to websites and more people are just going to get the results they need right on Google, so they're not leaving Google, so you're going to get less traffic in general. That doesn't sound good. There are advantages and disadvantages. I'm going to tell you what it means for you as a local business owner and what to do about it, thank you. First, I said there's going to be basically less traffic coming from Google. Now, does this matter to you as a local business owner? Well, yes and no, not, for when people search. Let's say, people do a search for, like, new York City wedding photographers, okay, google is not going to show an AI result there and try to keep people on Google. It's going to be the same. Google is going to send, or at least present, those wedding photographer websites to people. Google is not going to be like.

Meredith's husband: 4:29

Here's the AI response for that. It understands that you're looking for a service, that you're searching for something. Now where it might come into effect is in your blog traffic. So if you're answering questions in your blog, you're giving out information, which I hope you are. You're being a resource. Yes, exactly, you're being a resource. You are probably going to get less traffic to your blog for searches like that because Google is going to try to answer those questions with their AI.

Meredith's husband: 5:02

Now you might ask then well then, why should I continue blogging if I'm not even why should I continue blogging if I'm not-? That's a great question. You're welcome. The answer to that is that Google AI needs to get their information somewhere. They need a source. Your blog can be a source for Google to get this information. It's kind of the same as the featured snippets, but whereas the featured snippets just took they basically cut and pasted some information from one site, google AI is going to take info from, like all the websites and summarize it Now. Meredith has a very puzzled look on her face. Now, meredith has a very puzzled look on her face. What you want your blog to do is you want it to be a source, a trusted source by Google when it is generating those results, right, and even if Google is not sending that traffic to your website, you have become a trusted source for Google. So you see what happens when people do a search for New York City wedding photographers, you are already a trusted source. If I did weddings yes, if you did weddings I would be.

Meredith's husband: 6:05

Remember what Danny Sullivan said? No, months ago, no, he was the one who said hey, big changes are coming. Oh, big changes are coming. Back in like October, november of last year, he said some big things are coming, but if you're doing good stuff, don't worry about it. It's only if you're trying to trick Google that you're going to find yourself in trouble. Was he wrong? No, he was absolutely right. That's what I was waiting for and it turns out. I just wanted to point this out. Put what's happening, what I just told you about the search generative experience, the AI results coming from Google, put it in that context. Okay, remember what he said because it's important, right, okay, because when he said that, now, looking back, looking at the news that has been released, it was right, as they were completing, as Google says, hundreds of thousands of tests to identify and derank AI generated content. So that means it was right, at the end of all those tests, that Danny Sullivan said this, so that means Right.

Meredith's husband: 7:02

So all these websites that are like we'll write your blogs, yes, simple AI, tell us what you want to say, we'll generate it. Well, I mean in some sense like, if you're putting zero effort into that, like it's a one-click solution, yeah, in effect, you're kind of going to get what you pay for, not that you're paying for it, but if you put in zero effort, don't expect a miracle on the other side. Right, no pain, no gain. We've talked about this many times Flashback 80s but it's super important to remember. Yeah, super. That's like the number one rule of SEO is do things for users, don't do things because you think they're good for SEO. And when these tools promise, oh, one-click solution to do your SEO, does that sound like you're doing something for users? No, it's the exact opposite of what Google wants to see you do and what it's going to reward. Right, and we must listen and heed the Google machine.

Meredith's husband: 8:04

To me, this makes SEO easier. Oh, especially with blogging, this kind of makes all of SEO easier, at least in terms of what content I create for my own website. I know exactly I can go, because usually there's a big question what do I create, what do I blog about? If more and more of those types of searches are going to result in Google giving AI results, I can go directly to Google and just do some keyword research and figure out exactly what people are asking, exactly Down to the percentage Keyword research. All that information comes from Google. So if I think of a topic, I just go to Google and I plug in that topic Vegan ice cream, vegan ice cream and I can find out all the questions that people are asking about vegan ice cream. I know exactly what to answer. I know exactly the questions that Google needs to answer and I can provide exactly that information. I don't need to guess about what to write about. Wait a second.

Meredith's husband: 9:05

So let's say you want to know about vegan ice cream, right, and you go to Google. I do keyword research. Okay, so I go to SEMrush, or you can go directly to Google Ads and use their keyword planning tool, but it's not very user-friendly. Okay, but you do keyword research and you just type in vegan ice cream, right, and it's going to give you back. If you're using SEMrush, the tool you want to use is the keyword magic tool. Magic tool and it's going to tell All the related searches around vegan ice cream, including all the questions that people are asking. Oh really, and it's going to give you the volume, so you know how popular, how many times, certain questions are being asked.

Meredith's husband: 9:41

So now your blog about vegan ice cream. You have an outline almost exactly of the questions that you need to answer. Whoa, does that make sense? Yeah, now that makes sense Because, like when I thought, because people are, in general, complaining left and right about oh, google is trying to keep more traffic for themselves and they're going to send less traffic to websites. Yes, but I see this as it's like a. It's like having a crystal ball telling you exactly what you need to blog about. Very clever out, positive, inspiring. That's that's what I would do. That's a great idea. Now, all of a sudden, hopefully, there will be thousands of blogs about vegan ice cream. Yeah, so you do need to learn how to do a little bit of keyword research, right? Do you have a place for people to maybe go to? Yeah, we've done some episodes on that In the show notes. I will put those episodes, yes, and I will put a link to a blog that I have about how to do keyword research. Fabulous, thank you. Okay, stop recording.