Google search results today are almost
“What will happen to Google — and is it still valuable for me to work towards ranking in Google’s search results?” The State of Google Search in 2024 unrecognizable from what it was a few years ago. Gone is the era of 10 blue links, replaced now with dynamic, “enriched” search features, displayed in such a way that, theoretically, makes it easier for a user to gain more and more information right on the results page.
Google SERPs in 2024 In essence, Google is becoming
less of a search engine and more of a portal for users. The biggest step towards that was the launch of the Search Generative Experience (SGE). Though all their documentation and PR say that this phase is an experiment, it’s clear Google is trying to lay a foundational long-term change to the way people search on their platform.
To create this new search experience, SGE
was powered by generative AI, which added another layer of input and output, enabling Google to not only understand more complex questions but answer them and guide users to new ones. But that’s all in theory, and most technology sounds really, really good when it’s just in theory.
But the reality of this shift in search is more
consequential than most people think. Moving towards an AI-powered search experience means reshaping how billions and billions of people find information online — and how Google makes money. What Are AI Overviews Using Google’s AI models, search queries are analyzed, and an answer is formulated. This then provides an AI card with links to publishers beneath the overview section. They differ from featured snippets because they don’t directly show and link relevant content from websites. Instead, content is scraped, analyzed, and mashed together to provide what the AI thinks is the most comprehensive and accurate answer to your query.
If you’ve ever tried to teach yourself something
complicated and reword those algeria phone number library super technical concepts into what you think are layman’s terms, you know this is a difficult task, and one that can easily be done wrong.
And yes, even AI trained on countless datasets
can be wrong. Other articles have covered how bad the results of Google’s AI Overviews are so far, so I won’t even bother. But it’s bad, and not very reassuring to anyone using it. Why it Matters for Websites Ok, so Google’s newest tool isn’t doing great, why should you care? It’s not like Google hasn’t been changing things up in the last decade, and this isn’t the first time its newest products have flopped. It’s not the first time that Google’s decentered organic results, either. But this change won’t just push organic search results further below the fold — it’ll completely change the traditional search journey of a Google user.
By taking steps towards becoming a search
portal, Google enables users to if you need support in website marketing get answers to their questions without ever having to visit a website. And, it’s not unlikely that in the next few years, Google can evolve to allow users to fulfill transactions within the search interface itself. How it Affects Independent Websites Where is AI Overview getting its answers? From us, from SEOs, content creators, and webmasters. Google is doing this to millions and millions of websites — from our websites. It’s unscrupulous, and is zero comfort for those who have already been negatively affected by algorithm updates in the past year.
And Google CEO Sundar Pichai doesn’t seem to
worry about how it affects the very changsha mobile phone number list websites their search engine indexes and uses for profit. In a recent interview with the Verge, Pichai is optimistic that Google AI Overviews and Search will drive more traffic and engagement to websites — but then also does not commit to giving us a way to definitively see that ourselves just yet.