The Search Generative Experience and What it Means for Your SEO Strategy

Have you heard about Google’s new Search Generative Experience (SGE)? It’s still in beta testing but is estimated to launch in 2024 — and we predict it to be the biggest change to SEO in the last 10 years.

In a nutshell, SGE is an AI-powered information snapshot that will appear at the top of a results page and will allow people to get the answers they need without clicking further. It’s great for people, not so much for brands trying to drive website traffic.

So, how can companies adapt to this impending change? Here’s our two-part answer.

First, you’ll need to figure out what people are asking (their whole question, not just simple search terms). This will help you craft and deliver the right answers on your website for Google and other search engines to easily find. If Google sees that you have the answer to a specific question, your information will be more likely to show up in the top SGE spot (with supporting links to your website for those who want to dive deeper, of course).

Secondly, structured data. Structured data is HTML code that, when organized and formatted correctly, makes it easier for humans and search engines to read and understand your content better. Types of structured data that you can code for your website include article, breadcrumb, event, FAQ and more. 

What the SEO industry experts have discovered from beta testing SGE is that websites with applicable and valuable structured data get a spot in the SGE result section more often than sites without structured data (unless it has a very high domain authority, like ESPN). So, it’s a step that’s proving to be worth the effort.

If you have any questions about SGE or what specific steps you need to prepare your website, our team is here to help.