In recent months, Google has quietly been rolling out a change to their search results algorithms. Whilst they have implemented it quite subtly, the results can be quite drastic. If you’re worried at all about your site’s rank, you need to be all over this! In this post we’re diving into this latest change to Google organic results.
The Google search engine results page (SERPS), has looked relatively unchanged for the past few years. Depending on your search query, they will start with ads, images, and shopping results, followed by the organic results. If our ranking in any of the top positions, you are likely visible just below the ads, which is how people will find you organically.
However, the latest implementation for google is a game-changer. Google has rolled out ‘Gemini AI’, and handed it around 35% of the page equity.
See this screenshot of how Gemini looks on search results pages.
In the above example, the user is obviously looking to get a decent caffeine fix. However, instead of being presented with the previous top organic search results, they are presented with Gemini’s assessment of who it believes makes the best coffee.
The headline takeaway from this – None of the businesses which feature in the suggestions by Gemini, previously ranked on page 1. That’s great if Gemini AI likes you, not so great if you previously ranked at the top of the SERPS.
So what do you do to benefit from this; Simple, make sure Gemini likes you! At the very least make sure Gemini knows about your business, and make sure the information you provide it, via your website, is matched with the types of queries users will perform.
It’s early days for AI and search results, but we can certainly expect it to appear for more and more searches. This may start to include ecommerce related queries too.
As always Google are holding their cards close to their chest in terms of how you can influence Gemini. However, you or your SEO provider should keep in mind;
Google claims that Gemini is more powerful than ChatGPT. It clearly is faster at refreshing, as results are far more dynamic than those provided by ChatGPT.
Gemini not only uses text to learn about your business, it understands video, voice, and image.
Google are moving away from text queries, and shifting to image search via phones, and voice search. All using Gemini.
The old Google;
Enter a query > run the search > look at the SERP > click on a result.
The new Google;
Enter a query > run the search > get an answer.
We always advise our clients not to have all their eggs in one basket when it comes to website traffic. AI SEO is definitely not to be overlooked.