Google Gemini: AI Search Integration Means a Shorter Marketing Funnel

After the meteoric rise of ChatGPT as the face of the AI future, new players like Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard) are looking to make wider applications of their large language models (LLM) in search engines.

Both Microsoft Edge and Google are planning to roll out programs to integrate AI into search results for a more seamless user experience. But will it actually change anything about rankings? And how would it affect businesses if at all?

Google’s Plans for AI Search Integration

Google’s search algorithm has always been influenced by machine learning, long before Gemini came around, but this more overt integration means they want to turn it into a user facing feature. It was first announced with Search Labs, a testing ground for AI experiments.

Then came their most promising model yet, Gemini back in December 2023. So AI in our searches is coming right around the corner.

They’re adding AI to search results in two ways —

Generative Search Results

Google is testing a program called “Search Generative Experience” (SGE) which uses generative AI to provide more comprehensive answers alongside traditional search results. This might include summaries of relevant web pages or different answer formats, which are displayed above actual searches.

It will encourage users to ask follow up questions, pose actual problems in one search query and explore other topics through this conversational thread. Which brings us to…

Conversational Search

A lot of us are used to googling things with just keywords, all grammar out the window just to get some relevant results. This was because Google was unable to process high context queries which meant that users had to break down their search experience into chunks.

Now, Google wants to reintroduce the ability to search with full sentences with added layers and no drop in results quality.

Conversational searches, which relies on Natural Language Processing and advanced retrieval techniques, can now understand a user’s search intent and answer with the most relevant information from the web. The extra difference now is traditional keyword matching will not be enough since Google has semantic capabilities to sort through content.

Voice Search

Voice search is a rapidly growing feature that reinforces the new strength that AI and language models can bring to the table. Let’s look at some statistics:

Over 4.2 billion people globally use digital voice assistants.

Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri are the most popular, with around 36% of users each. Amazon Alexa holds a solid position at 25%.

Over 1 billion voice searches are conducted every month, and more than 50% of adults worldwide use voice search daily.

A significant portion (around 46%) use voice search to find information on local businesses daily.

That last part means people are using their voice assistant to essentially ask where their nearest bank, clinic or restaurant is in their area. There are no search results— whichever answer Google or Siri thinks is the best is the one your potential customer could hear.

In short, keywords won’t help you here either.

Will It Change How We Search?

So far, the answer is no.

It’s likely that the wider public is not ready for a large-scale change to one of the most invaluable tools we have. Google has said that their “fundamental vision” is for users to explore the vast content available on the web.

So while conversational elements might be added, Gemini will be used to improve Search instead of replacing the traditional search experience we have right now.

How Does Gemini Change the Marketing Funnel

These developments are comparable to when Google rolled out Featured Snippets, which among other things affected search results, rankings and click through rates. Except this might affect an even larger pool of query types across many industries.

With a more robust generative search result system in place, SGE could cut the user journey in half, making for more efficient decisions and less opportunities for exposure.

This example from Exposure Ninja illustrates the role SGE will play when a user asks a query. Their searches, especially informational ones could be easily answered by Gemini, leaving on queries with commercial intent earning a website visit.

Gemini could even shorten the journey further because of its predictive capabilities and provide answers to follow up questions in the same search.

This means “fewer duplicates” and “better-structured answers that logically follow the searcher’s path.” Google doesn’t need to send searchers to your website to find the answer until they’re ready to make a purchase, which brings us to your business.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

Less exposure, a drop in organic traffic, fewer web visits all means that customers will have less exposure to your brand before they make a purchase. Even if users could scroll past the SGE results, what’s the real likelihood that they’ll still click through on your website?

Gemini isn’t going to be the default browsing option, don’t worry. Because of Google’s ad-based model, getting rid of organic traffic entirely isn’t going to do them any favours.

So aside from possible traffic drops, what does your business need to do?

Consider Informational Intent vs. Commercial Intent

Even though informational content is more at risk, that doesn’t mean jumping ship is a good idea. While you might want to target more pages for commercial intent, informational content is still the best way to build topical authority for your website.This means using high quality content to not only build trust with search engines, but also your customers.

Content for Users, Not Search Engines

High quality content written for users will be less affected than content just optimised for high rankings. With semantic search growing more prevalent, exact keyword matching in content is no longer necessary and natural sounding content would perform the best.

Your Brand Comes First

Being known for high quality, reliable content from your customers is still one of the most effective ways to get consistent web traffic. Brand names are keywords with navigational intent that would not be affected by SGE. Invest in the pages that keep users coming back to your website again and again.

How Will SEO Help If It’s Not About Keywords?

For SEOs, Gemini is really just another battleground to compete for rankings, even if they come in weird, new forms.

SEOs study these technologies before their implementation and by the time they roll around, we understand it enough to know what works. It’s likely that SGE ranking will be its own focus, since links can appear in SGE results. And Hypercharge SEO agency will be there to adapt.

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