What is Search Generative Experience (SGE)?

By Laura Holland

The new wave of AI tools has also brought in a new evolution in search optimisation called Generative Engine Optimisation (or GEO for short). But what is it, and how do you start implementing it?

​What is Search Generative Experience?

The big question on everyone’s lips. In simple terms GEO, now termed SGE (Search Generative Experience) is a new framework that will help weed out content that's; a) been wholly generated by AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude and b) content that has been written for search engines. Instead it will focus on delivering results that are relevant, credible and with cited sources.
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This new framework will help users to find content that is most relevant to them by showing Generative AI snippets at the top of their search bars. It does this by searching the web in real-time looking for content that shows authority in the desired topic.

Search Generative Experience aligns perfectly with Google’s E-E-A-T framework

Initially E-A-T, is Google’s search ranking framework and stood for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. 

In 2022 Google updated this search ranking system to include ‘experience’ (updating the acronym to E-E-A-T) this means content should show the creator has some degree of experience about what they are writing about, and in turn is given a higher ranking over content that doesn’t.

That’s why using language that shows first hand experience is key within updated SEO and now SGE systems.

An example of language to include would be: ‘we did..’, ‘we have..’, ‘we know..’ etc
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 The SGE ranking will be looking to push content that is ‘authoritative’ which in simple terms means confident and trustworthy and that you have a very good understanding of the topic you are writing about.

What will Search Generative Experience (SGE) do differently to SEO?

Firstly we want to make it clear that you don’t need to throw out your current SEO strategy, instead SGE will enhance it.

The SGE strategy will help pages that have lower SERPs gain wider visibility by up to 40% according to a recent research paper by researchers from Princeton, Georgia Tech, The Allen Institute of AI and IIT Delhi. 

In particular the study showed that websites that struggled to rank highly on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) but had credible sources cited within their content saw an increase in visibility of 115% in comparison top-ranked websites only saw an increase of around 30%. 

In a nutshell, the SGE framework will level the playing field.

What are the best methods for Search Generative Experience?

The research paper used nine criteria across 10,000 search queries to get to the bottom of the best way to optimise for Generative AI results.

1. Authoritative:Ensuring that your content is considered, confident and shows experience in the topic you are writing about will be key for successful GEO rankings.
2. Keywords: Doing your keyword research is still needed as part of your larger SEO, but make sure they fit within the content, don’t stuff them in there for the sake of it or you will still be down ranked.
3. Statistics: Content is more persuasive with stats, where you can please add these in and don’t forget to..
4. Cite Sources: If you are talking about an update, news piece, or study it’s advised to cite these within your content (just like we did in this article)
5. Quotations: Adding quotations will add credibility around the topic you are writing about.
6. Easy-to-Understand: Make sure that the readability of the website is inline with the public for most countries this is somewhere between 9-14 years. 
7. Fluency Optimisation: Ensuring that the content is fluent and flows in the respective language is key. For English language sites, it’s worth thinking about whether the audience is UK or US.
8. Unique Words: Adding unique words will not only add some style but also shows the system you’re human.
9. Technical Terms: As much as the readability needs to suit a wide audience you should not forfeit the correct terms within your content, make sure these are added, you can explain these within the content if needed.

It is worth noting the above was done within a set of parameters and doesn’t represent the real world, however it is a very good foundation to start optimising your content around, and as with everything in marketing - test things out and see what works!

If you’d like some guidance on Search Generative Experience or utilising AI tools like ChatGPT, please do get in touch. Email: [email protected], or call us on 020 3357 9740