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Google SGE Testing and Notes (Q3 2023)
Last edited 452 days ago by Emily Gertenbach.
Google SGE labs is rolling out to Chrome users. While AI results appear automatically on some NORA (no one right answer) results, you can ask it to generate an AI response on other queries. It may or may not work.
TL;DR: Google’s search AI is essentially like a featured snippet on steroids right now. It delivers chunks of text all in one, like multiple featured snippets stitched together. While we’re not yet able to completely pin down the methodology, it appears that Google is selecting content that would have been the featured snippet anyway and/or meets a series of criteria based on content quality, domain authority, content age, and traffic volume.
Exploring how it generates an answer
Test query: “How much does a CMS cost?”
We know that Upwork ranks #1 for this query with an article published in 2021.
Here’s what the AI produced:
The AI response pulls directly from three sources, listed as tiles to the right. The tiles are presented not in order of SERP rank, but in the order that the AI had to knit together the lifted chunks of text to make sense.
The results are not exactly the same every time. In this second attempt, Hubspot was replaced by Devtechnosys:
Exploring how it chooses its sources
The AI is not directly pulling the top three SERP results and creating an answer. Some of the results are at spot 10 or below in SERPs.
This indicates that it may be using other factors to select its sources for the AI response.
Type of content
Google appears to eliminate any roundups or Q&A sites from its list of potential sources for an AI response. This rules out Capterra (SERP spot #2), Quora (SERP spot #3), and TrustRadius (SERP spot #6).
Content quality
The quality of the content may also be a factor. By looking at the search query in Clearscope, we see that Google selected content with a high quality rating the first time, but did bring in a lower quality piece in its second response:
Domain quality
Domain quality may also be another factor in how Google selects its sources for SGE responses.
Here’s a comparison of how some of the domains in the SERP for this query score in terms of both domain authority (as calculated by Semrush) as well as domain trust and traffic volume (as calculated by SEranking):
Domain
Domain Authority
Domain Trust
Est. monthly traffic
Upwork
74
93
5 million
WPBeginner
61
93
1.2 million
Hubspot
88
91
21.3 million
Devtecnosys
34
65
13,700
Capterra
68
91
3.4 million
Trustradius
61
90
1.9 million
Marketpath
26
71
680
Streamcreative
30
73
5,400
Storyblok
47
88
14,000
There are no rows in this table
Content Age
Google may also be looking at how old a piece of content is. The publication dates for the top SERP results for this query are as follows:
Domain
Pub. date
Upwork
2021
WPBeginner
2023 (update)
Hubspot
2023
Devtecnosys
2019
Capterra
unknown
Trustradius
unknown
Marketpath
dynamic
Streamcreative
unknown
Storyblok
2021
There are no rows in this table
Takeaways
If we take out the Q&A and roundup sites and compare the rest, we’re left with this:
Domain
Content quality score
Domain Authority
Domain Trust
Est. monthly traffic
Pub. date
Upwork
A-
74
93
5 million
2021
WPBeginner
A-
61
93
1.2 million
2023 (update)
Hubspot
B+
88
91
21.3 million
2023
Devtecnosys
C-
34
65
13,700
2019
Marketpath
B-
26
71
680
dynamic
Streamcreative
B-
30
73
5,400
unknown
Storyblok
C-
47
88
14,000
2021
There are no rows in this table
It appears that Google is selecting content based on the following factors:
My initial assessment is that it swaps out the “least desirable” of the three sources on subsequent queries in an attempt to give the user a slightly different response. Based on this, I’d expect to see Upwork and WPBeginner continually appearing as a source for the AI answer, with Hubspot, Devtechnosys, and Storyblok cycling through the third spot.
Important: Content quality appears to still be more important than domain authority or monthly traffic.
Assessed, deemed irrelevant:
Not yet assessed:
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