Google SGE a top threat to brand and product terms, study finds
Among the findings: 91.4% of all search queries triggered SGE; Quora was a big winner; and paid search ads appeared 50% of the time.
You should expect to see “some erosion of current traffic levels” from brand-related terms as a result of Google’s Search Generative Experience, according to a new Authoritas analysis.
Why we care. Google just today announced it is rolling out SGE to users who aren’t opted into Search Labs, under the name of AI overviews. We’re still in the dark about how large of an impact the AI-generated answers will have on organic traffic. And, as Authoritas put it in their analysis:
- “These new types of generative results introduce more opportunities for third-party sites and even competitors to rank for your brand terms and related brand and product terms that you care about.”
Google SGE displayed for 91.4% of all search queries. Only 8.6% of keywords in this analysis did not have an AI-generated response.
Quora doing well in SGE. Question-and-answer site Quora finished “in the top 20 performing generative domains in 11 of 15 categories,” according to Authoritas.
Wikipedia was another winner, appearing in the top 20 for every category – including being the top or second-best performing domain in 11 of the categories examined.
SGE links. On average:
- 10.75 links appeared in SGE answers.
- 4.3 unique domains were featured per answer.
- 62% of generative links came from sources outside the top 10 ranking organic domains.
- 20.1% of generative URLs directly matched a page 1 organic URL and 17.9% showed a different URL from the same organic ranking domain.
PPC ads. Just over 50% of keywords had paid search ads. Those ads appear above SGE 51% of the time and beneath 49% of the time, on average. Here’s a chart showing a more nuanced breakdown by industry:
Shopping Ads, meanwhile, appear below SGE 64% of the time, on average.
About the Analysis. It looked at 2,900 keywords for 251 prominent U.S. brands across 15 industry verticals. You can read it here: SGE Research Study – The Impact of Google Search Generative Experience on Brand and Product Terms
Dig deeper:
- Google SGE testing and development is ongoing, growing
- 94% of Google SGE links are different from organic search results, study finds
- Google SGE impact by industry and emerging features
- New Google SGE insights: Content formats, YMYL, product views
- How Search Generative Experience works and why retrieval-augmented generation is our future
- Preparing for Google SGE: Essential guide for marketers
- How Google SGE will impact your traffic – and 3 SGE recovery case studies
- Google patent describes how the Search Generative Experience works
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About the author
Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.