The AI-generated search results Google receives are described in Press Gazette as “potential extinction-level events.”
But at PPA Festival in London on Tuesday, Stuart Forrest, global head of SEO at Bauer Media Group, shared a potential alternative view, saying how many publishers will double down on quality? He suggested that the benefits could be obtained.
Google SGE (Search Generation Experience) began rolling out in the US last year, and trials in the UK began this month.
Publishers are concerned about the arrival of this feature because it answers queries at the top of search results pages that would otherwise result in click-throughs to the publisher's website. This can pose a risk to search referrals, especially for publishers with a small proportion of direct traffic.
The results produced by Google's AI may even have been trained on that publisher's content, with no payment exchanged.
Forrest acknowledged that the emergence of SGE is potentially serious, saying that publishers don't build their business models on answering questions like “How tall is Tom Cruise?” Stated. Google already provides easy answers, but it's monetizing answers to more nuanced questions like “What's the best laptop to buy for a gaming kid under £1,000?” Masu.
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“And SGE is starting to answer some of these questions, which threatens our business model to some degree, which means disrupting the referral model where traffic comes back to our site to be monetized. It is being done.”
He later added: “The top three search results account for 60% of all clicks, so anything that appears above that threatens that and has a huge impact on your business.”
AI search could threaten Google's own advertising business, and it's expensive
But in an attempt to give some “reason to cheer,” he shared some lessons learned from watching SGE's early trials.
“One is, like a lot of LLMs, it's an illusion, right? So Google is actually pretty well-regarded for how they deliver that. When it comes to some content, like medical advice, it's completely ineffective. there is no.
“I am absolutely not involved in highly controversial issues such as the US gun debate or the US election. I would like SGE to tell me if my child's rash could be meningitis. No, and in fact, I don't think Google will tell you either…
Mr Forrest continued: “Secondly, it’s expensive, right? It’s cheaper for Google to serve blue links to publishers in the SERPs. [search engine results page]on the other hand, SGE requires processing power… so I don't think Google would do something like that if it knew it would be more costly to provide the same result to the user in a cheaper way.
“And I think the third point is that Google is clearly in the advertising business. And the advertising model for SGE is not clear. SGE is threatening content click-through rates, but at the same time Google's core It also threatens the advertising business.
“So my slightly more positive view is that Google faces competition from LLMs as a place to go online to find information, a place to go to find answers. A lot of Google’s language in the 6-12 months has been a flight to quality, doubling down on quality.”
Forrest noted that Google values what it calls EEAT: experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. From December 2022 onwards, we have placed particular emphasis on these attributes.
“All of us as publishers need to step up and strengthen the clear signals we send to Google about the quality of our content, the quality of the people who write it, and the trust we have in our brands,” Forrest added.
“And really, my point is that we're entering an era where the types of quality brands represented in this room can potentially thrive in a world where Google is doubling down on quality. It may be.”
PPA Festival includes Forrest's employers, as well as magazines such as Immediate Media (which publishes Radio Times), Condé Nast (Vogue), Mark Allen Group (Farmer's Weekly), Hearst (Good Housekeeping), and Haymarket (Campaign). and specialized publishers will also participate. Bauer (Empire) and his former employer Future (Tom's Guide).
Google claims that SGE “continues to drive valuable traffic to the ecosystem, including by displaying more links.” This includes displaying links to a wide range of sources on results pages to further increase the chances of your content being discovered. ”
But media consultant Ricky Sutton, who writes the Future Media newsletter and is the former head of online at News of the World, gave Venue a more pessimistic view, saying the publisher had no plan B. argued that it was necessary to have
Mr Sutton said: “I strongly believe that this is the beginning of a fundamental change in search. This is what I call no-click search, meaning search results disappear from the first page of search. , I think this is potentially devastating for our industry. ”
He further added: “Honestly, I think you should be prepared for this because SGE is actually a very good product for consumers. You get an answer instantly. That's great. For those of us who create content. , that’s tragic.”
Hear more about Sutton's post-Google life in his recent podcast, Future of Media Explained.
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